Editor’s Note: This is the first in a three-part series from our own Andy Miley. The Dynasty Basics will run this month and explore taking over a new team, roster management issues and trading tactics.
Dynasty is a passion of mine. Dynasty leagues come in many shapes and sizes and with important questions. Many of these things I had to learn the hard way. You may get a chance to take over an orphaned team, but how do you go about that process? When you drafted your initial team or took a team over, how should you manage it?
Feel like challenging yourself by taking over an abandoned team? Do you need more leagues to play in? Are you interested in trying a dynasty league, but you do not know anyone who has a start-up league (a league that is drafting from scratch)? Well, it isn’t for the faint of heart; however, you might want to try taking in an orphaned team on an existing dynasty league. I have done it three times and each time was a unique experience.
Why a takeover?
Dynasty leagues have grown in popularity each year. Unfortunately, some owners leap before they look and get in way over their heads (that was me at one time). A new owner may not understand the rules or the concepts for a dynasty league and draft a horrible team. Sometimes, owners simply can’t say no and end up in too many leagues to manage or enjoy the greatness that is fantasy football. These and other reasons lead owners to drop out of leagues.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Do you like the team you’re thinking about taking over?
This is a very important question. Having a couple of players you like can make a big difference in how much you like or dislike a potential new team.
- Can you make this team a champion?
Most people don’t like coming home to an empty cupboard when they are hungry, so you wouldn’t want to start with a team that had nothing to offer. If you don’t have the players and draft picks to build the team you want, you should reconsider taking over the team. If the team is lacking in star power, are there good young players that will become starters rostered? I always look for big names I can trade away for a lot of young talent, if the potential team is not ready to compete.
- How long will it take you to turn this team around?
If this league has a big league fee, it may not be feasible in your budget to donate for a few years to turn this team around. Make sure the investment is going to be worth the enjoyment! Trust me, I have done that once and I regretted it by week ten. Don’t let that be you!
- Do you like the scoring?
Sometimes we try new things and enjoy them, but if you don’t understand or enjoy the scoring system used, your stay will likely be short. Make sure you are comfortable with the scoring. Check out the stats from the year before to make sure you understand your commitment. As a commissioner it is always frustrating that once people draft, they ask scoring questions. Not all leagues are alike.
- Should I join this league to make someone happy?
Everyone feels pressure to be social; however, joining a league to make a friend or family member happy is not a good idea. Dynasty leagues take time and depending on your league…money. You need to have the passion. The challenge and joy of beating a friend, loved one, or heated rival can be a strong reason to join just to prove you know more about football than they do. In my experience, someone has to LOVE football to get into fantasy football. Don’t expect a causal fan to get the “fantasy fever” once they are in a league.
- Can you handle being the subject of every silly, unbalanced trade offer imaginable?
Seasoned dynasty owners are always trying to take advantage of the new owner, because the owners assume you are unwise in the dynasty format. Thick skin is most often needed when some league mates are testing you. On the flip side, a new owner can come in and be overaggressive in their trading style. Once you make a trade where you get a tremendous advantage, your new league mates will be wary of trading with you (I know one of these guys well and chances are so do you). Instead, I make trades that help both teams; this is invaluable to building relationships within the new league. You show your social side and are willing to make solid trades. This will help raise your league credibility. It has worked for me, not only as the new guy, but also as an existing team welcoming a new team. It’s fine to lose slightly in a trade early as it will drum up more business later. When I have a strong team, I help a disadvantaged team and likewise, when my team is weak or too old, I trade with a powerful team that may not have need for 1-3 year players who are still developing. After doing that in a league where I had a bad initial draft, my initial weak team and his strong team have reversed after two years. I consider it almost a business relationship as we help each other – one wins now and one in the near future.
Before you commit to a take over, ask the commissioner these questions:
- How active is this league?
Many dynasty leagues have owners who are not active or don’t participate in off-season trading. If you are serious about turning your team around, you will need owners willing to talk trade with you. If you are like me, once you take over a team, you want to make changes right away and an inactive league impedes your plans of domination by fall. In my main dynasty league which I am commissioner, I try to trade with every team. I give them a little more so the first email/phone call when they are looking to move someone goes to me.
- How long has the league existed?
Leagues do get stagnant and need new blood. However if you are the new owner in a league with 11 people who have been in the league for many years, no question about it, you will be an outsider. You have the advantage of surprise, but it will also make starting dialogue with owners you don’t know more difficult. I know I can talk to my boy, Joey Bag “O” Donuts, about trades as we have been in many leagues together for many years and built a good relationship. I always start out entering a new league by saying I’m willing to hear trade offers for everyone. This seems to get conversations started.
- Why did the other owner leave?
Did they have money problems, were they in too many leagues, or did they just not have a good feel for dynasty are acceptable answers. Stories of personality conflicts and bad blood between owners or lack of trading should raise a red flag. Please take the time to do research and talk to a few owners in the league. I jumped into a league without understanding why one of the teams left. Turns out, it was because he won and hadn’t gotten paid. I was gone the next year..lesson learned.
- What should I know about this league before I join it?
Seems like a simple enough question, but you can get a world of answers. Don’t trade with Old John Town (changed to protect the guilty); Tom and Steve are brothers, etc. Going a into tight group that has been together for awhile can be a difficult situation to overcome. I speak from experience.
- Does this league have rules about teams leaving?
Those who do not learn from the past will be doomed to repeat it. A league built for the long haul will have rules in place to handle owner turnover. A league that doesn’t have them may have issues sooner than later. I am a big fan of having replacement owner drafts if more than one team leaves so the new owners can draft their own team from the teams that were dissolved and free agents. Zealots’ leagues were the forerunners on this front. Being a commissioner, this comes in handy when you need to replace $250 dynasty teams.
It takes a lot of intestinal fortitude to take over a dynasty team in an existing league. You need to ask yourself and the commissioner several questions. Always remember, you don’t need to join this particular league. Let them try to sell you and not the other way around. If they are selling you too much, run, don’t walk away.
Conclusion
Let’s put these lessons to work. Before taking over a team, ask yourself if you have enough talent to make it work? Are there enough people willing to make trades? Ask the commissioner questions to make sure you know what rules are at your disposal. Most of all..have FUN!
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I like the Mike Birbiglia reference. Joey Bag “O” Donuts is a classic.
Great article! Eventually a pool of new replacement owners will run dry and we need to reach out to our leagues best owners to look for help. I will tell perspective owners that this is a year round team for life. Some years will be good and some will be bad! I keep the entry fee around $100 and tell them that it is about pride and a trophy, not money. We play for the love of the game and bragging rights. In hard times, I would even cover the $100 for a good owner. It would be easier than trying to find a good replacement. I have just recently given the boot to a slacker owner. I was lucky to have an owner with previous dynasty experience to replace him with just one phone call.
I think that at $100 for the entry fee, a lot of people would disagree with your statement that it isn’t about the money..
I’m in four leagues that average 250-300 total costs, but for me it is most definitely NOT about the money; FFB is my favorite hobby, although I do look for ways to minimize my costs. When I made it to our championship game, I chopped the 1st & 2nd prize money. The chop guaranteed ALL my costs for the year, and after a few other chops and saves in my various leagues, I end up a few bucks ahead. Even better.
We lost a leaguemate, who was highly respected in the community, to a boating accident on Sunday morning of week 2 this year. To honor our friend, we had a League Championship Trophy made up and named it after our leaguemate’s team. Each year, the winner’s team name is added to the trophy, and he takes it home until draft day (I’ll be returning it this year lol). By paying for the trophy off the top of my prize, every owner is included in its inaugural presentation. This is our way of honoring our 2010 champ–our own “Champion Among Champions”.
A great way to honor a friend.
It’s getting dusty in here.
Great post
I started a dynasty league last year with a bunch a friends that were on the fence about dynasty. They were skeptical about it since they never really tried it. I made the entry fee $30 bucks because I figured everyone could afford that but I knew once they got the taste of dynasty, they’d be hooked. Needless to say our league fees are now $100…. they’re hooked like junkies.
How long the league has existed is HUGE. I took over a team last year and put hours into rebuilding it. Halfway through the season the league manager DELETED THE LEAGUE! Will not do that again in a free league. Wow, I was pissed. I am a very active owner, I think a money league is next for me, but I’m awful wary of a takeover team at this point.
Yeah, that is not very nice. I couldn’t imagine spending so much time building my dynasty team, then have the commish delete the league. I’ve been lucky so far to be in dynasty leagues with an excellent commish. I would encourage anyone who is serious about taking the leap into the dynasty format to get on Twitter, follow the DLF staff, and check out the forums. Lots of great opportunities to find trusted leagues that way.
Myself, I prefer not to take over already pretty good teams, its just more satisfying to build a powerhouse from the ground up.
I really enjoy the challenge of taking over a bad team and turning it into a championship contender. I’ve done it a lot. Too bad most dynasty leagues don’t last as the commish usually quits if he’s not winning. I have even had to take over as the commish in a league just to keep it going so my rebuilding plans didn’t go to waste.
My advice before making the choice of taking over a team.
Check the league’s history:
Most sites allow you to view the past history of the league. Some of them let you see each year entirely. Take the time to investigate completely. Don’t just give an unknown league the quick once over before joining. You will be with the league for years and years… so be thorough.
- The history of the team you will taking over will tell a lot. Was it a powerhouse that got old, wasn’t rebuilt, and the Owner quit? Or was the team always bad, due to one bad Owner or a multitude of Owners who could not improve it? A fallen powerhouse or long term poor Owner doesn’t mean anything to you. Yet, if a series of Owners took over the team and could not improve it, it could mean trouble. It might be an indication that the league does not allow the chance for rebuilding, whether this is due to a lack of trading, blacklisting the ‘new guy’ from trades, or offering the ‘new guy’ only poor trades, or a combo of all of these. If three or more Owners could not rebuild the team before you, I would stay away from the league.
- Are the same teams always in the playoffs? Check their trade history and the number of time the losing team’s names have changed over time. In many cases the core group of the league are friends and they only trade fairly with each other, while accepting lopsided trades with the newcomers. Constant turnover of the rest of the league is further proof of this. The core group just keeps adding new Owners as others leave… just to keep the league going.
- Check the trade history of the league. If possible, go to each season and count the number of trades made. Is the number increasing, decreasing, or fluctuating? Are there a lot of trades or very few?
A league where the number of trades are decreasing each year tells me the league is dying. It shows that the Owners have either been burned to often and are starting to not trust the trades, or the powerhouse teams have stopped trading with weaker teams fairly and trades are now being made only between the teams of equal status so not much is gained. It could also be a side effect of to much turn over in the weaker teams and thus the powerhouse teams have been set and they don’t want to mess with their rosters so not much is traded. Stay away from these leagues.
Increases in trading each year is great. It means the Owners are becoming more active each year in trying to better their teams, and it usually coincides with the league having a different champion each season. It also indicates that the other Owners are very fair in the trades and so very few have been burned. A positive for joining.
A fluctuating trade history can be good or bad. Does the trades go up the year when a new owner is introduced and then goes down when the teams stay the same? It means the league has a low trade average and only new blood boosts it’s numbers. Not good. But if the same teams have been around during all the fluctuating trades and there have been different champions for the most part, then I would just say the league is steady. They have the up years and down years. This is OK.
Very few trades each year is bad. Lots of trading is good.
- Check the teams in the division you will be joining. Likely you will be taking over the worse team in that division, so you might want to know what you are facing. Does the top two teams have old or young studs. If their roster is getting old than the chance of you climbing the divisional ladder will be easier in the short run. But if the top guys are sporting the stud-du-jours than it will be a hard road… and you must really look at the team you will be taking over very hard and with a very realistic eye. Realize that if their teams have young studs your rebuilding time will increase drastically.
I have more ideas but I’m running this a bit long so I stop with these…
Nice comments. The psychology of trading is interesting. Some leagues have owners who are enthusiastic about trading. Others seem to have owners who go into hibernation once game 16 ends, and won’t respond to trade offers. I’ve always enjoyed leagues where trades happen more frequently.
The four trading periods of dynasty leagues are; the month of October on thru the season, the week right after the NFL draft, two weeks before the league’s Rookie Draft, and about two weeks after the league’s championship game is played. The rest of the year is pretty dry, and this should not be a problem… it is the amount of trades that keeps a league vital, not the duration of time that trades occur. IMHO.
Where can you find a good dynasty league to join???
Any fantasy football website will have a section in it’s forum/message board for joining Owners with Leagues… even this site has a “Help Wanted” section in the DLF Forum.
Look through the threads and select the leagues that might fit you. Many commissioners will post their webpage URL in their messages so you can see the league itself. Since, most openings fill up quick you will likely not get a spot in any posts that are a few days old… but if a league really looks like your cup of tea, then email that commish and ask to be put on his waiting list.
Most leagues have turnover, and some more than others. The ‘scariest’ part of being a commish is the likeihood of Owners dropping and not being able to find reliable replacements of good Owners. So if you find a league that you would like to join, but it is filled as of now, from experience I can tell you, most commishes would love a short list of Owners-in-waiting to go to.
Thanks for the help