Startup Dynasty League

[BA Baracus]

I have been working on getting a Dynasty League started up during the coming offseason. I welcome any suggestions and thoughts, but I have a few specific questions:

 

1. Where should I host it? MFL and RTSports both appear to be fully customizeable, I just find both to be a bit cumbersome. I am looking to make it a salary cap league with salaries set by auction draft and blind bid waivers - basically, there is a budget at the startup draft that is the cap and your cap space is your draft and waiver budget. These two sites are the only ones that I have found that handle this. It's too bad fleaflicker doesn't have a few more options.

 

2. I am leaning towards eliminating the K position. FF is random enough as it is and this is the most random position. I have also thought about eliminating the DEF, but that just doesn't seem right. Thoughts?

 

3. Is there any reason to have separate rookie and veteran drafts? I am thinking that I want to have rosters lock after the season until the draft opens. Then lock again until the first waiver runs which would be during the preseason weeks.

[darin3]

1. I use MFL for all dynasty leagues. It's been fine. There are pros/cons. I am in a league that uses RTSports and I hate it. Hate.

 

2. I can see eliminating the kicker position and DEF if you're not going IDP... and I'd recommend IDP for dynasty. Just do it.

 

3. I could see doing separate rookie/vet drafts or doing just one. I'm on the fence and am interested to see what others have to say.

[Delicious_bass]

The Dynasty league I am in formed a few years ago with mostly owners who had been in the same re-draft for a long time that were looking for a different twist/added challenge. We use MFL and we have had no problems. We did one big, inaugural draft to build the core rosters before the first season and then we have a rookie draft each august since then. We do use IDP (first time for me) and I like it. Definitely adds to the challenge. We start 2DL, 2LB, and 2DB. We still do start a K and we start a ST unit (return yards, TDs) and while they are pretty unpredictable, it adds to the challenge IMO. We assign contract years to players and we do have a cap max and min. There is also obviously a roster max and min. We do have a Practice Squad, too. Only rookies can be put on the PS but they can stay there for a few years without counting against our salary(years) cap. Once promoted, they cant go back down to the PS, though. Its fun and I like the extra thought I have to put into it. Good luck!

Edited December 7, 2013 by Delicious_bass

[Gopher]

MFL > RTSports... By a mile.

 

Meh... Every position is pretty random, but then again, I'm used to having kickers included. I guess I wouldn't be opposed to eliminating them, but it would take a little getting used to.

 

Either way works. If you separate the two drafts, it allows you to have the vet draft pretty much any time, and then have the rookie draft later (right after the NFL draft, for example). If you combine them, it somewhat limits how early you can draft (assuming you want to draft after the NFL draft takes place). For some startup dynasties, this is important because the draft might be 30-40 (or even more) rounds, and they want to get the vet draft out of the way early.

 

Here's something else to consider... If there is quite a bit of variance, in terms of owners' experience with dynasty leagues, you might want to keep the drafts separate (in an effort to avoid having someone gain a significant advantage, or more importantly, be at a severe disadvantage). In other words, all new leagues take some time for owners to figure the in's and out's of what works, what doesn't, what's important, and what's not important. How soon to draft a QB/TE, or even a kicker (if you keep them), become key decisions for everyone involved. If you go IDP, you also have to factor in when to start drafting defensive players, which makes things really interesting.

 

In dynasty leagues, the importance of those decisions is ten-fold. You're drafting players who could potentially be on your roster for several years. If you factor in when to start drafting rookies, it might be overwhelming to some people. And, you're bound to have at least one owner who starts drafting rookies WAY too early. Then, depending on what they could have drafted instead, they're at a disadvantage... For the rest of the draft, or worst case (if they draft several rookies too early), for the rest of the season (or longer).

 

On the other hand, if you have a group that is pretty even, in terms of dynasty knowledge/experience, that might not be something to worry about, and there would be no concerns with adding rookies to the vet draft (and just having one draft). I just think that can be a mistake, if there are some owners who know what they're doing, and others who are more unsure/inexperienced. The hardest part of running a successful dynasty league is getting (and keeping) a solid group of dedicated/involved owners. Getting off on the wrong foot (where some are lost from the onset, while others take advantage of those owners' inexperience) could potentially be hard to recover from, in terms of keeping everyone involved (and avoiding turnover).

 

Just my two cents.

Edited December 7, 2013 by Gopher

[darin3]

Great points by Gopher... and as he mentions above... it's probably better to do the drafts separately. Have your "regular" draft start just after the season's over, if you want. A slow draft for non-rookies (maybe a 24 or even 48-hour clock?) and then do a quicker (12-24 hour) slow draft for rookies-only in the summer.

[BA Baracus]

Thanks guys.

 

The group of managers will come from my various redraft leagues and no one has any dynasty experience. My thinking is the veteran draft (post startup) should be pretty small as it will only consist of bench guys who were cut for cap space. Thats why I figured it could just be combined with the rookie draft.

 

I have thought about IDP, but I honestly dont relish the thought of expanding my research hours to include them. Have any of you been a part of a dynasty that expanded to include IDP after startup?

[Gopher]

Thanks guys.

 

The group of managers will come from my various redraft leagues and no one has any dynasty experience. My thinking is the veteran draft (post startup) should be pretty small as it will only consist of bench guys who were cut for cap space. Thats why I figured it could just be combined with the rookie draft.

 

I have thought about IDP, but I honestly dont relish the thought of expanding my research hours to include them. Have any of you been a part of a dynasty that expanded to include IDP after startup?

 

If you want to do IDP, it's best to do it from the start, I would imagine. "Transitioning" to IDP after the league is already in place seems like a potential nightmare, but I'm sure it could be (and has been) done.

 

I guess I was referring to the initial draft, when I said earlier that it might be best to do the drafts separately. All of the dynasty leagues I'm in don't have annual veteran drafts (just rookie drafts). Any veteran you would acquire (after the startup draft) would be through waivers (or blind bidding).

 

That said, given the lack of dynasty experience across the board, I would strongly suggest doing the initial drafts (vet and rookie) separately... It will make it much easier for everybody to ease their way into a dynasty league, instead of botching the draft (and realizing it over the course of the next couple of years).

 

Also, for what it's worth, if you're not really into IDP, you might be best off starting this league as just offense. Just like it's tough to add IDP after the fact, it's probably likewise just as difficult to take it away, once the league is established. Not every dynasty league needs to be both offense and defense... I run an offense-only dynasty/keeper "hybrid", and it works just fine. If you decide to try IDP at some point, it might be better to just join a league than to try to start one. Not saying you can't, but it doesn't sound like that's terribly interesting to you, at this point, so I'd probably stay away. IDP isn't for the faint of heart (fantasy-wise). In other words, you can be competitive in non-IDP leagues, without putting much thought/time into it, whereas that's not nearly as likely to happen in IDP leagues. At least, that's my experience with them. They do take some extra time/effort, in comparison to non-IDP leagues.

[satelliteoflovegm]

When I started a dynasty a few years back in seemed to me the only fair way was an auction and we did include rookies. Then I used the rookie salaries as a basis for the rookies' salaries in the subsequent years drafts.

 

I think in our $1000 cap space league the highest rookie bid was $110, so now the 1.01 is automatically $110. 1.02 is the next highest and so on. You likely have to tweak some numbers to make sense in later rounds make it a logical digression.

 

We also might do some other stuff that makes this work differently for us.

 

I'd be happy to send you a link to my rules and you can use it all or not a one.

[satelliteoflovegm]

We also added IDP after a couple years (planned from the start) we held another auction with an additional ( I think) $250 for bidding. It worked well but I felt, maybe some owners agree some maybe not, that I needed to trend down a bit typical IDP scoring because I didn't want established RB's making say $75 scoring 8 points a week getting outscored by $4 DE or LB on a consistent basis.

 

Had a rule with the new $250 you couldn't for the first season, spend $50 of it on cheapo IDP and roll the rest into offensive players.

 

Then after a full season and the free market sorting out values how it wanted, all the money was in one big pot.

[BA Baracus]

When I started a dynasty a few years back in seemed to me the only fair way was an auction and we did include rookies. Then I used the rookie salaries as a basis for the rookies' salaries in the subsequent years drafts.

 

I think in our $1000 cap space league the highest rookie bid was $110, so now the 1.01 is automatically $110. 1.02 is the next highest and so on. You likely have to tweak some numbers to make sense in later rounds make it a logical digression.

 

We also might do some other stuff that makes this work differently for us.

 

I'd be happy to send you a link to my rules and you can use it all or not a one.

 

Thanks man. please do send that link.

 

Another question for the forum. Do you guys typically require teams to clear out cap space prior to the rookie draft? Or do you let them bid whatever they want and then force them to get under the cap by some deadline?

 

I am thinking that transactions will be frozen during the offseason and then we will have a slow rookie draft in the summer and a veteran auction near the end of August, then weekly blind bid waivers during the season. Every player acquisition cost will become their salary. Salaries would inflate 5% per year.

 

That being said, I am leaning toward cap alleviation for the rookie draft with a cap deadline prior to the veteran draft. The cap would be alleviated again during the veteran auction with another deadline around labor day that allows for one waiver run before the first game kicks off. All waiver acquisitions would have to happen under the cap.

 

Does this sound solid to you guys? Can you poke holes in it or make some suggestions?

 

Thanks again.