Part One – The Power of Choice
Some people will have you believe they possess absolute control over the performance of their fantasy teams. Well they’re full of crap.
Unless they have an office with a view of a 50-yard line or they go to work with numbers sewn on the back of their shirts, they’re innocent by-standers at best. Believe me, I wish I could get Iman Shumpert to stop taking so many ill-advised jump shots, but that and five bucks gets you a latte at Starbucks these days.
There’s only one person blessed with the ability to truly influence the outcome of a fantasy sports season: the commissioner.
However, I should warn you that there’s nothing glamorous about running a fantasy league. In fact, it flat out sucks most of the time. To say it’s a thankless job is polishing a mighty big turd. I’ve been checking the mail for my Fantasy Commissioner of the Year nomination for quite some time now. I probably have a better chance of getting my period before I see that envelope.
So why do it? Why subject yourself to constant aggravation and unmet expectations? There’s definitely a light at the end of the tunnel, and we’ll get to that eventually. First and foremost, let’s touch on three basic choices you’ll have to make that’ll assert your authority and contest these irritating grievances like an f’n rock star.
1) Carefully choose the sport you want to start a league for.
I knew a guy once that wanted to start a fantasy baseball league with a bunch of his co-workers. He had played Little League and been to a handful of Yankee games, but that was more or less all he knew about baseball. He wound up creating an ten-team, 7 x 6 head-to-head league with 40 roster spots (someone told him that would be more like how the pros do it) and counting holds instead of saves (he thought they were the same thing). When I asked him how his league was going that summer, he lamented how most of the owners had stopped checking their lineups.
That may be an extreme example, but if you want to properly run a league, it helps to have a basic knowledge of the sport and an idea of how it’s played from a fantasy perspective. Some sports have seasons that last longer than others. Some require more maintenance on a daily basis. Some, quite frankly, are just more fun to play. Either way, while this step may seem fairly simple, it’s definitely one you don’t want to overlook and screw up.
2) Carefully choose the scoring system you want to use for your league.
My brother and I co-commission a 14-team head-to-head baseball league that’s grown insanely popular among our friends and family. I mean, we have a waiting list to get in it. It’s THAT big of a deal. A few years ago, we decided to build off of its fame by starting a separate AL-only league for any interested members. While we kept most of the details the same as our main league, we got cute and changed the scoring format to points.
So, for those of you scoring at home, we created an eight-team points league with owners that had never played in a points league before. Epic fail.
Our story is more unfortunate than others; I’ve known people to try points leagues and never go back. Either way, we overlooked how important a scoring format is to a fantasy league. Making your football league a PPR league has a strong impact on the way players are drafted. If your basketball league uses a rotisserie scoring format, you may be more willing to build around certain categories. Whatever you ultimately decide upon, make sure you’re aware of all the pros and cons beforehand in order to limit any surprises that may present themselves as the season goes on.
3) Carefully choose the owners you start a league with.
For better or worse, a fantasy league is like an awesome three-or-four-month long party. And, much like with any awesome party, you want to be very careful who you invite in order to keep it an awesome party. If you invite your college friends, your work friends, your girlfriends’ friends, all your crazy cousins and aunts and uncles, the guy down the street, etc., it’s never going to work out smoothly and has the potential to be a flat-out disaster.
Fantasy leagues work the same way. There’s a ton of things to consider when asking a group of people to engage in a competition that ultimately has only one winner. Is this person going to enjoy themselves and actively participate? Is this person going to get along with the other members of the league? Is this person too conservative for the rest of the members? Is this person too racy for the rest of the members? If we have a live draft, is this person going to attend? Is this person going to be a gigantic pain in the ass with every little detail they don’t agree with or are they pretty laid back? And that’s not even considering if they know how to play fantasy sports!
In the end, I like to look at it as “Is this a person that I’m going to want to interact with on, more a less, a daily basis for the foreseeable future, and is everyone else in the league going to feel the same way?” There’s absolutely no simple answer you can give for that, but unfortunately it’s your job to come up with one.
Is ignorance looking pretty blissful to you right now? If not, you might just have what it takes to be a fantasy commissioner. At least until people stop setting their lineups.
Next on Part Two – Be a Founding Father
Jason J. Consoli is the Director of Business Development for Fantasy 6th Man, an online service that provides low-cost solutions to fantasy leagues needing in-season replacement owners. Check out www.fantasy6thman.com for more details regarding their services and follow them on Twitter at @fantasy6thman for promotions and discounts on products.
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