How to Make Your Fantasy Football League Better 

Photo by Derek Bulsink

The number one way to enjoy fantasy football more is to be part of a good league. Joining a random league on NFL.com where half the players don’t check their lineup after the draft and the other half are just picking up players from their favourite team is a recipe for a terrible season. Even if you win in a league like that, I’m sure you won’t be getting too much pride out of that. On the flip side, if you’re part of a very active league, but other players are colluding and the commissioner is clearly helping himself out, it is enough to sour yourself on the whole season, if not fantasy football as a whole. So, here are a few ideas on how to make your league better. Some of these ideas are critical, and you should leave any league that goes against them, while others are just good ideas that you can consider. Without further ado, here they are:

1. Collusion is punishable by death – This might be a little extreme, but seriously, any players that you make a side deal for money, future considerations later in the year or next season, or clear manipulation cannot be tolerated. If this happens at all in your league, kick out the players involved in any of these deals. All moves need to be for the best interest of each team involved.
2. Establish a strong set of rules prior to the season beginning – I wanted to have a rule about having a good commissioner, but honestly, if you have a good set of rules before issues come up, the commish really won’t have much power to mess things up. Agree on things prior to the season starting so that you can point back to things when issues come up later, and no one will be accused of doing things for their own advantage.
3. Set up a good way to communicate – Set up a facebook messenger group for your league where everyone can chat about the games and roast the guy who picked up and started Adrian Peterson. People more invested in the league will put in more effort which can only make the league better. It’s also important to be able to chat between players, that way you can discuss trades, which is way better than blindly sending them and hoping they get approved.
4. Remove any limits on the number of moves – Moves and activity make the league more fun. Limiting moves means limiting fun. Don’t be dumb, remove limits.
5. Use a FAAB system for waiver claims – Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB) means every team gets a certain amount (usually $100) at the beginning of the season with which they can bid on free agents. It is a much more fair way to determine who gets free agents than using a priority system, as players can bid on free agents based on the needs of their team. It is also a lot of fun to wake up on Wednesday morning and see who overbid for bad players.
6. Get enough players – There seems to be a sweet spot for the number of players required to have a decent fantasy league. Shoot for twelve people in your league. You can get away with having 10, if you add a few extra starting spots to make things deeper, or 14 players if there’s a lot of demand for your league, but shoot for 12.
7. Eliminate kickers – Kickers are the most random and unpredictable position in fantasy football. Players who build teams that are strong and consistent should be rewarded instead of seeing it all ruined because some random kicker got 3 50 yard field goals that week. If you enjoy the randomness, consider joining a fantasy heads or tails league instead. 
8. Don’t allow vetoing trades This one can be up for debate, based on the quality of your league, but assuming no collusion, trades should always go through. The fact is, no one knows the future, so even if you think a trade is one sided, you don’t know how it will turn out. Injuries, hot streaks, NFL roster moves and coaching changes can drastically swing a players value overnight. If you’re mad that someone bought low on a player that you wanted, just make sure you trade for that player first. At the end of the day, we are all adults who paid the same amount of money to enter the league, so each player should be solely responsible for managing their teams and ensuring they are getting proper value in a trade. This is supposed to be competitive after all – no one is obligated to look out for you.  
9. Establish an incentive to keep all players engaged all season. – It is important for the integrity of the league that all players stay engaged all year, otherwise someone will start 0 – 3 and wont log into the app for the rest of the year. This ruins leagues and makes things less fun for everyone else. You can set up a prize for the highest scoring team every week, or a prize for the winner of the consolation playoff, or set a punishment for the team that finishes last. Be creative, just make sure everyone is engaged.
10. Make divisions .- This is more of an idea to spice up your league if you’ve had the same players for years and you want to spice things up. It is a good way to establish rivalries year after year, and can make the playoff push really exciting as you often need to beat your division rivals in the last few weeks to set the playoff lineup. Divisions can make for a more lopsided league if there are a few weaker players in your league, so I only suggest it in strong leagues.
11. Make the teams deeper. – There are lots of different ways to do this one, between adding another flex spot, having 3 wide receivers, or making your league a superflex. This will help keep things fun, as deeper leagues lead to more variance from week to week, as teams will need to scrape the bottom of the barrel during bye weeks. Extra starting spots will also reward the stronger teams, as depth becomes a huge priority, and no team can get by with a strong running back carrying them through. You can also switch your league up year to year to keep things fresh for everyone and force a new strategy every year.
12. Don’t allow people named Blake in your league. – This is not crucial, just some advice I wish I would’ve listened to a few years ago.