As the commissioner of your fantasy football league, it’s your job to make sure people play the game fairly and competitively, while having fun doing it. There are a couple of scenarios that really affect me when I do fantasy and can leave me bitter at the end of the season. First of all, I can’t stand people forgetting, or just refusing, to log in every week and set their headlines. Easy wins are easy and for me there is no gratification in that. Another thing that bothers me as a commissioner, mainly because of my heart, is seeing people who really focus, do their research, make great moves on the waiver wire, and come up short on end-of-season pay.
Over the years, I’ve tried to make my leagues as fun as possible for a couple of reasons; to attract new and interested players, and to maintain focus from week to week. I compiled a short list of things I do to help keep people interested, which will ultimately keep them connected week by week.
one. King of the Hill (KoTH) – Side games are a great way to keep focus for the players in your league. KoTH is a fun game where league players choose a single game and then predict the winner of that game. As long as the player has chosen correctly, they will move on. The problem is that each player can only choose one team to win one game during the season. If the Patriots play the Broncos, and I pick the Patriots to win that game, I can’t pick the Patriots again all season.
two. Weekly challenge – This can be a wide range of themes or scenarios, it really depends on your creativity as a commissioner. I like to set up challenges that are simple, but have payouts every week. A challenge idea can be as basic as “Which kicker will get the highest fantasy points this week?” Or narrow it down a bit and make it “Which kicker will kick the most field goals?”
3. pick them – Another idea for a side game is a Pick ’em forum, where players submit their prediction for the outcome of each game throughout the season. Each victory can be worth 1 point and have a cumulative total until the end of the season. He could even choose to do a separate one for the play-offs as well.
Four. Rewards – A great way to keep people focused and having fun is to encourage people to keep track of rewards. A reward is a select set of instances that can pay money or be just for fun. A reward can be “QB with the longest touchdown pass” or “TE with the most touchdowns scored.” This is different from weekly challenges because they run throughout the season, not just for a week.
5. Credits / Debits – This is for the more aggressive fantasy leagues. It’s a method that I like to use in higher paying leagues, to really keep my members’ attention. A credit can be if someone has a great login streak, perhaps adding a point or two to their weekend score, or in my case adding money to payments. A debit will be when someone doesn’t log in for a week and loses points or money for not logging in. In case you were wondering, most websites have a way to log in when people log into their fancy computer. I like to give everyone a starting pot of $ 5, and add or subtract when necessary. This really encourages everyone to pay attention and stay focused!
These are just a few ideas that I like to use, and each can be expanded to fit your league’s style of play. “But Nate, I don’t like soccer and I only play Fantasy Baseball!” That’s okay, I say. You can mold these ideas to fit any other style of fantasy play. For baseball, you can do King of the Mound and maybe pick a series winner each week. For basketball you can do a Hoops Pick ‘Em. The concepts could go on and on.
If you think it may be difficult to get your league members to pay these additional fees, coordinate your league’s entry fee to include money that can go towards separate jackpots for these ideas (i.e. $ 50 entry will include a fee $ 5 Pick ‘Em, $ 5 Weekly Challenge Fee, and $ 40 for League Winners). One thing to keep in mind is that while you were using money as an example, it doesn’t have to be money. Everything I mentioned may look “for fun” and there is no reason to feel obligated to pay to play this incredibly amazing game.