How to set up a fantasy football league

F irst things first: get some buds together! With fantasy leagues, each member of the league manages his or her own team. Its best to have a base of 8-10 people and keep in mind that scheduling is made a whole lot easier if you have an even number of managers and teams. If you don’t have enough to make up a good sized league, you can always start a public online league where friends-you-haven’t-met-yet can sign up to join your league. Once you have your crew together, agree to an entry fee; you have free range here as to how high or low the buy-in is but keep in mind that these funds accumulated will dictate what the winner takes away at the end of the season! Now, time to name your team. Typically, the funnier the better and if you can get in a few jabs at your mates, you’re doing well. Now you’re ready for your annual fantasy football draft! Beer and snacks aren’t obligatory here but if you’re hosting, I’d strongly suggest a well-stocked fridge… Keep in mind timing for the draft: a weekend or two before the NFL regular season commences will give you plenty of time to get your fantasy ducks in a row. Next order of business is to appoint a commissioner. This is an important and sometimes tricky role: the commissioner is responsible for mediating any disputes between managers. Make sure you appoint someone who will take the job as seriously as your league takes themselves! Once the commissioner is in place, pull together some league rules and agree to them in as democratic a fashion as you can! This will include you setting out things like how you approach trades, waiver wire pick-ups and what your playoffs will look like. Last but not least – decide how you will track results and stats. There are myriad free fantasy football hosting sites available – just do a bit of online research and figure out which platform suits you and your new colleagues best. This is definitely the simplest process for tracking – you can do it yourself but there’s a lot of work involved and will probably wind up with you all abandoning the league. Put me in, coach!