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City since 1986 and have
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Sacramento, CA.
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Atlanta, GA.
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The Basics
Fantasy Football is an exciting game that allows you to coach or manage your own
football team throughout the NFL season. Best of all, you play against your
friends weekly and can prove your domination in the sport by winning the Fantasy
SuperBowl (week 17 of regular N.F.L. season) at the end of the year.
Basically Fantasy Football is throwing all the players of the N.F.L. into a
pool and redrafting them onto your own new teams. If one of these
players scores then you get points. Therefore, you only draft the players in
the scoring positions (QB, RB, WR, TE, K, DF). Points can also be given on
yards during a game. The games normally happen on Sunday and Monday. After the
Monday night game you get all the players box scores from that week and figure
out the points. Adding up all the points for each player on a team gives you
the total score for that week.
The Biggest Thing You Should Know In Setting Up A League
Setup everything ahead of time. Write the rules and scoring down and make sure everyone has a copy.
If the rules change midstream, this will cause league chaos and your league will end mid season.
If you are betting, collect the money at the draft. They should not be allowed to draft without cash in hand.
There is no incentive for someone to pay in the fourth week when they are 0-4.
Collect a deposit when they say they want in. This
doesn't have to be large, just something. It's always a problem showing up to
the draft two or three teams short.
If a team owner is drafting over the Internet, have a separate person typing
to that person on the computer. It is too much to have one team owner drafting
for himself and typing to another team. Have someone bring their girlfriend/wife
to converse with this team.
How Do I Set Up A Fantasy Football League?
The process is fairly simple and outlined in the following steps:
Step 1: Organize some people. Get between 6 and 16 football fanatics together who are interested in competing to see who can manage the best team.
Step 2: Establish Rules. A copy must be given to everyone in the league to avoid controversy. From year to year this can change, but do not change it during the season unless everyone agrees. This is extremely important because if the rules are not set in stone it will only cause chaos during the season and no one will want to play the next year.
Step 3: Assign a Commissioner.
This is considered
the leader of your league, but don’t always pick the fanatic football fan. Choose the
most honest guy of your group. The Commissioner is the judge of all your
disputes, because there will be some. All complaints and then punishments must
be done by the Commissioner. This person should also take all the trades and
lineups each week, unless you are using a service such as Fantasy City Sports.
If you don’t use a service he will be taking quite a few phone calls.
Therefore that person should be easy to get in touch with. One special note:
make sure he has an answering machine with a time/date stamp on it. Sounds
strange, but sometimes knowing the time something happened is everything.
Step 4: Choose a Scorer and a source. This is the
person that has to do all the work. Find the person without a job or a lot of
time on his hands. Scores are available on the web shortly after the games
end, the paper takes a few days to get them out. Scoring a league can take
several hours, and many times there are errors. If you choose a guy that
slacks on his job it may be weeks before you get your scores. It makes it very
difficult to put in a lineup when you don’t know how the league has done for
the last few weeks. Using a service like Fantasy City Sports ensures that everyone in your
league receives accurate results in a timely manner.
The second question is where are you going to get the scores from? Many
times there are discrepancies between papers or sources. The “USA Today” newspaper
is a good main source.
Step 5: The Draft. The strategy of drafting is
impossible to explain, but easy to conduct. All team owners must be present,
therefore plan this a few weeks in advance. It’s good to have an extra person
to record the draft. Put a time limit on each pick, otherwise you will be
there for days. Most of the time 1 minute is enough. Set aside at least 5
hours for the draft.
What Should A Fantasy Football Service Do For You?
Fantasy Football services take all your lineups each week, handle your
transactions, do all the scoring and send out an organized report about your
league. They take the work out of managing a Fantasy Football league and
provide instantaneous feedback so that you know that your trades and lineups
have been recorded.
The service should offer both Internet access and touch-tone telephone
service so that your options for inputting transactions are as flexible as
possible. Many leagues have a few members who either do not
have Internet access or could use the convenience of telephone
access when they are away on business trips, etc.
Lineups should be able to be entered all the way up until the start of
the first game.
A Scoring system is set up by your league, so you should make sure
that the service has suitable scoring options. You should be able to
customize your league or use a standard scoring system.
Reports should be available in a variety of formats (Internet,
mail, fax) to suit the needs of your team owners. There should also
be premium reports available that can help you manage your team. The most important
thing is to make sure that weekly reports are available no later than Tuesday
morning so that you don't have to wait to find out how you did. These
reports are easy to read and one of the greatest assets of using a service.
Fantasy City Sports has been in business since 1984 and offers a complete
Fantasy Football service, providing you with all of the above services and
more.
What Is A "Snake Draft"?
A snake draft is a method of drafting that tries to make the quality of the
picks ultimately come out even.
1. Have each team owner pick a number out of a hat. If you
have 8 teams, you will have the numbers 1 through 8 in the hat.
2. During odd-numbered rounds, the team owner who picked number 1
will have the first pick, followed by the owner who picked number 2, etc.,
until the final team owner has had his first pick. In our example,
this is the team owner who drew number 8. Put a time limit on the pick. We suggest 1 minute.
3. During even-numbered rounds, "snake" back down by having
number 8 draw again, followed by 7, 6, 5, etc. until you reach number 1.
4. Follow steps 2 and 3 until you have drafted the number of
players that you need to fill your roster. For example, if your league
wants a roster with 16 players, you will need to do 16 rounds. In a snake method the 1st and last place team will always pick twice in a row during the draft.
| Example of 8 teams: | Round 1: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Round 2: | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Round 3: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Round 4: | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| etc. . . . |
5. Do not redraw numbers at any time. Everyone should stay at the same pick
throughout the draft.
What Is An "Auction Draft"?
An auction draft is a drafting method that would allow for any team owner
to potentially pick up any player because you are not relying on the luck of
the draw to see who picks first.
Typically, each team owner will get a certain number of units to bid on
players. We suggest that each team owner should be given 10 units per
player on the roster. Therefore, if your roster contains 15 players,
then each team owner would start with 150 units. All team owners should
have the same number of units in order to make the process as fair as
possible and ultimately end up with competitive teams.
A minimum unit bid of one unit should
be required for each player. Do not call these dollars which would allow teams to
bet $10.62. Instead, use units and require that every bid must be in whole
units such as 1, 5, 8, 10, 22, etc.
The bidding starts by having any team owner place an NFL player on the
auction block. The team that placed that player on the block has automatically
bid one unit. All of the team owners then have the option of bidding on this
player, who will be awarded to the highest bidder.
A key to the auction is have an auctionier that is not in the league.
An outside person to conduct the bidding and number of units out to each team.
Each N.F.L. Player must go for a minimum of one unit. i.e. if a team has 6 units
left and 6 roster spots open, he can only bid 1 unit per player.
If you use the auction, inform your league at least one week ahead of time. There is
a great deal of thought that goes into an auction.
One misconception about auctions is that they take a lot longer. This is
untrue. With a good auctionier it could be shorter. In a snake round each pick
is one minute apart. In an auction method each pick can be 20 seconds apart.
How Large Should Our Roster Be?
Your roster is made up of all of the players on your team, including both
the lineup and bench players. The entire league should have no more than
180 NFL players. Otherwise the free agent pool is too diluted.
(i.e. 12 teams = 15 players/team, 12x15=180 max). Trading is one of the main parts
of the game that keeps the game exciting and competitive.
What Is My Lineup? What Players Should Be In It?
Your lineup is the players that you play in a week
(also called your starters). A suggestion for your lineup is one of the following:
| 1-Kicker |
|
1-Kicker |
| 1-Quarterback |
|
1-Quarterback |
| 2-Runningbacks |
or |
2-Runningbacks |
| 2-Wide Receivers |
|
3-Receivers(Tightends & Wide Receivers) |
| 1-Tightend |
|
1-Defense |
| 1-Defense |
|
|
What Is My Bench?
The bench is the players you sit that week. You have a bench
to hold onto players so other teams do not take them. You also have a bench for
players that are on bye during a week. Every N.F.L. team has one
week off a season.
What Does "Injured Reserve" Mean In Fantasy Football?
Some leagues use IR so that valuable lineup and bench spots are not taken
by a player that is currently injured. If you use IR its best to put
restrictions on it such as limiting the number of players a team is allowed to have or the number
of times a team can put players on IR. Also decide if a team can put anyone on I.R. or what status they have to be to put them there. (Out, Likely, Probable...)
Why Do I Need To Trade Players?
When a player does not perform up to your expectations, you need to get rid
of him and pick up a player that is performing. Alternatively, you may
also need to trade if you have more high performance runningbacks than you
need and need another player position, such as a wide receiver, in your
lineup.
Many leagues have restrictions on when trading may occur, including
starting weeks and ending weeks. Most leagues stop trading before the
playoffs start so that no teams that are in the playoffs can stack their teams
with players from teams who did not make it. We call this combining teams and it
is cheating.
What Is A "Free-Agent Trade"?
A free agent trade is where you drop a player on your team and pick up
another player that no other team currently has.
What Is A "Team Trade"?
A team trade is where you trade a player on your roster for a player on the
roster of another team with their consent.
The majority of league conflict will come here, so make sure you layout solid rules that everyone must follow.
Why Do We Have The League In Divisions?
You can have between 1 to 4 divisions. The purpose of divisions is to structure the playoff schedule.
What Options Do We Have For Playoff Structures?
Fantasy Playoffs are the last two or three weeks of the NFL's regular season. The structure of playoffs must be set in stone before the draft. Take into account lop-sided divisions. For
example, with eight teams and two divisions there are various ways of structuring a two week playoff. There may be four
teams in one division that are better then anyone in the other division. Do these four teams make it or
do two come out of each division. We suggest the division winners - then the next best two teams no matter what division they are in.
Also make sure the matchups for the first week are set and how the matchups go after that.
What Scoring Options Are There For Offensive Positions?
Scoring Options for QB, RB, WR, TE:
| Passing TD |
Rushing TD |
| Receiving TD |
Rushing Yards |
| Passing Yards |
Receiving Yards |
| 2 Point Conversion |
| Minus Points for Interceptions |
Scoring Options for Kickers:
| Field Goals(add points for distance) |
Extra Points |
| Missed Field Goals |
Missed Extra Points |
When setting up your scoring system, try to keep it simple. The box scores are loaded with information, and
you don't need to use all of it. With each option ask yourself - is this going to change
the SuperBowl winner. The answer is probably not. Just using the options above will give you a
good scoring system.
Try to avoid overweighting one position. You may not notice til the season starts that
your runningbacks score abnormally high points. By that time it's too late and whoever has the
best runningbacks is going to win the league.
What Scoring Options Are There For Defense/Special Teams?
Defense/Special Teams are scored together rather than as individual
players. However, if an offensive player scores on a special team,
the league can elect to have either the individual player, the defense, or
both receive the points. Individual defensive players are not carried in
the rosters. Following are some of the scoring options for
defense/special teams:
| Rushing Yards Held |
Passing Yards Held |
| Points Held |
Sacks |
| Interceptions |
Fumbles |
| TD’s |
Safety |
| Shutout |
How To Run A Keeper League
Keeper leagues are those that keep the same roster from year to year.
Every hardcore Fantasy Football Player wants a keeper league.
They are not hard to setup, but they must be done correctly or you will get league chaos.
With keeper leagues, if one team quits the league is done. If his team is really bad, you're not going
to find anybody that wants to join a keeper league with the worst team in the league.
Every team owner in the league must be told at the first draft. You can not decide to have a
keeper league week 17 of the season. If you are in last place in the league for the season, why would
you want to be in the league next year - with the same team.
Decide if you are keeping all the players or a set number of players. One good way is to keep
three players, no more than one at any position. Or maybe you can only hang onto a player for a
certain number of years. This will give that team an incentive for team trades late in the year.
Decide when trading starts and stops. Can someone trade in March? If so, does he get charged for it?
The biggest problem with keeper leagues is that the last place team(s) quit. You can't get anyone
to take their team, because they suck and all the good players are on other rosters. You minimize this by having an
initiation fee for the league. This is separate from any betting. So the first year you have two fees, one for
initiation and one for the years bets. This will give value to every team. If the initiation fee is high enough it can be put into an account and the interest may be enough to pay
for the service to run the league (someone will have to pay taxes on the interest). If a team wants out he can sell his team. If the team is bad, the value will be lower then the initiation fee. If the team
is good, it may be higher in value.
No one person can own two teams.
Set an end year for the league. This gives the option
for teams that want out to get out. The league can continue by redrafting.
If you are new to playing Fantasy Football - do not do a keeper league the first year. You do not have
a set of rules in place and after the first year you may find out you want to change them.
Rules for keeper leagues must be set in stone.
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our customers with the true look and feel of managing a football team.
All games are strictly considered games of skill. Fantasy City
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