Keeping Dynasty Weird: The Kitchen Sink Dynasty League

Ryan McDowell Posted On August 25, 2013

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One of my recent passions when it comes to dynasty fantasy football is educating myself about varying unique league concepts. Some might even call these leagues weird. If that’s true, I want to keep dynasty weird! In this series, I will profile some leagues based on a unique concept. I’ve created some of these leagues and some I have been a part of, but all have something special about them.

It happens every off-season to me and many other dynasty football players. With real game action put on hold, I scratch the fantasy itch by joining new leagues. Early in my fantasy football career, each January I would embark on my journey to find the perfect dynasty league. Most often, this would result in a short-term stay in a league that I could tell was going nowhere fast. Finally, I came to the realization that if I wanted to find the right league for me, the best option was to create the league myself. That is how I became a commissioner.

A few weeks ago, my Twitter friend Russell Clay posed a question to all of his followers. He asked what dynasty feature or format fantasy players enjoyed the most. I observed as answers to his question rolled in as I tried to narrow down my answer. After all, I play in some leagues that use developmental players (often referred to as devys). I had just created the Second Chance Dynasty League and was excited about that new format. Also, thanks to DLF writer Jarrett Behar, I have been more and more involved in auction and contract leagues over the past couple of years and I really enjoy those as well. In the past, I have played in superflex leagues, and appreciate the unique challenge they offer dynasty owners. I also created the HyperActive dynasty league series years ago, which holds two leagues in one and matches two twelve team league champions against each other for the title. In short, I couldn’t decide which one format I enjoyed most.

The thought hit me immediately and I responded to Russell that it would be crazy if there were one dynasty league that incorporated all of the features we had been discussing. His response was positive and there were even others who jumped into the conversation saying they would be up for the challenge of a league like this. Since I was practically dared to attempt to come up with one league that “had it all,” I accepted and immediately began working on a rulebook. I knew this identifying and clearly explaining the rules of this potentially complicated league would be just as challenging as competing in the league itself.

I began with an outline of some of the features I knew I wanted to be a part of this wild league. The features I considered as must-haves were:

Startup Auction
Annual Rookie Auction
Annual Developmental Auction
Taxi Squads
Flexible Lineups, including a Superflex spot
Contracts
Restricted Free Agents/Unrestricted Free Agents/Franchise Players/Transition Players
Doubleheaders
Victory Points
A Free-for-all Playoff System
Toilet Bowl Playoffs
Blind Bidding Waivers
Second Chance Auction

Needless to say, juxtaposing each and every one of these rules into one working league would be a tall task, but that’s what the off-season is for. After I had collected some general thoughts about each of the above rules, I went searching for more information about each of these rules. Luckily, I am involved with and/or monitor some excellent dynasty leagues. I borrowed some rules from my own league I commish, including the aforementioned HyperActive and Second Chance Dynasty Leagues. That addressed many of the rules, but neither of those leagues utilizes auctions or contracts, so I continued my search. Last year, Jarrett Behar started the Blue Label Dynasty League, which features both player contracts and an annual rookie auction. I was able to adapt most of Jarrett’s rules to fit this league and used a similar setup for what would be our developmental auction. Finally, at about the same time I was jump-starting this new league, the smart guys over at RotoViz had created a dynasty league of their own and were gracious enough to share their rules and setup with their readers. I loved their playoff format and quickly stole their idea.

Next, I had to come up with a name for the league. While this may seem like a minute or somewhat meaningless detail, it is important to me. In today’s world of social media and our growing fantasy focused sub-culter inhabiting Twitter, I knew this league would be discussed in great detail. I wanted a name that would fit everything it was- feature on top of feature bundled into one league. The name popped into my mind and I knew it was perfect- the Kitchen Sink Dynasty League. After all, this league had everything but the kitchen sink. Our own FFGhost would later point out that it had everything, but individual defensive players, but I’m not down with IDP.

With a rulebook set and a name chosen, the next step was to find a group of owners who were up for this insane type of league. I already had a couple of guys interested based on the initial Twitter conversation, but obviously needed more. I began by contacting my brethren here at DLF and a few guys quickly showed some interest, including Eric Dickens, Chad Scott, Brian Bulmer, Scott Peak and Derek Willett. After reaching out to a few others I thought might be interested, I posted a few generic details on Twitter and was suddenly overcome by a wave of interested parties. It was apparent that this league could be formed in a similar manner to that of the HyperActive leagues- two twelve team leagues made into one large league. As I entered the owner information into the new site, I noticed a theme. We had a similar number of fantasy writers and fantasy players, leading to our two divisions, Pros and Joes.

Rules written, league named, owners recruited. All that was left was to begin filling our rosters. Over the past few weeks, we have conducted both our startup auction, as well as our first developmental auction. While there have been many clarifying questions regarding the extensive rules, nearly all of the feedback I’ve received thus far has been positive and this has already become one of my favorite leagues.

I will explain some of the league rules I mentioned earlier soon, but I wanted to point out one feature I am most excited about. The more leagues I participate in, the more I enjoy both auctions and league utilizing developmental players. In Kitchen Sink, we will have as many as five auctions each off-season. In March, we will hold our second chance auction. April will be the date for the restricted free agent auction, while in May, we will auction off the incoming rookies. In June, our unrestricted free agent auction will take place and we’ll cap off the auctions with our developmental players in July. The chance to experience so many auctions each off-season and one of those being developmental players is a huge appeal for me, as well as other dynasty players.

I’ll wrap this up by giving some more details about each of the rules I mentioned earlier in the article. Some of these are very common and require little explanation, but a few are new or little used, so I’ll be more detailed with those.

Startup Auction: This one is pretty straightforward. Each owner had $400 to spend during the startup auction and had to fill a 27 man roster.
Annual Rookie Auction: Our first rookie auction will not take place until next off-season, but owners will receive various amounts of money to spend on rookies based on their finish in the standings. The teams finishing near the end of the standings will have more to spend on incoming rookies, while the top teams will obviously have less.
Annual Developmental Auction: Developmental players are college players who are held on a roster until they reach the NFL. This feature is a growing trend in dynasty leagues, but a developmental auction is not quite as common. In this league, each owner had the option to win as many as three developmental players during the auction.
Taxi Squads: Our five-man taxi squad is for all developmental players and can also house rookies. Any player on the taxi squad will not require a contract.
Flexible Lineups, including a Superflex spot: With owners only required to start one each from the quarterback, running back, wide receiver and tight end position, there is much flexibility left in the remaining starting positions. The most important of these flex positions is our superflex, which allows for a second quarterback to start. Beyond that position, there are four other flex spots for the running back, wide receiver and tight end spots.
Contracts: Every player on the active roster must be assigned a contract and each owner has a total of sixty contracts years to assign to their players. As expected, there are also penalties associated with cutting a player before their contract has expired.
Restricted Free Agents/Unrestricted Free Agents/Franchise Players/Transition Players: There are multiple ways an owner can maintain control of a player whose contract is expiring. A player could be tagged as an restricted free agent, which means other owners in the league have a chance to bid on their rights, though the original owner always has the option to match the bid and keep the player. Players with expiring contracts can also be tagged as franchise or transitional players, meaning they will remain with their team for an additional season.
Doubleheaders: To minimize the luck factor that often happens in fantasy leagues, we will use a doubleheader schedule. This ensures all teams play every other team twice.
Victory Points: Though I have rarely used it in other leagues, I am enamored with the victory point setup made available by MyFantasyLeague.com. This format rewards owners points based not only on weekly wins, but also on points scored. This is another feature that will ensure that the best teams are the ones advancing to the playoffs.
A Free-for-all Playoff System: Speaking of the playoff system…as I mentioned, I borrowed this playoff format from the RotoViz dynasty league. The top six teams from each conference, based on Victory Points, will advance to the playoffs. The first week of the playoffs will feature free-for-all match-ups between the four lowest seeds, with the top two teams receiving byes. The two highest scoring teams will advance to the next week and another free-for-all matchup, but this time the two teams that received byes the week before have the advantage of using the higher score of the first two playoff weeks. In week three and four, we will use a more traditional head-to-head format, though each team’s score will be a running two week cumulative score. It’s a complicated system, but again, rewards our league with a truly deserving champion.
Toilet Bowl Playoffs: Our toilet bowl is for the six teams that fail to reach the playoffs and has a similar setup. The main difference is that rather than player for the big money, the winning team of this tournament will earn an additional rookie pick and hence, more money to spend in our rookie auction.
Blind Bidding Waivers: This is one of the more common rules we have, yet if you’re not using this system to determine weekly waivers, I would highly recommend making the switch. In our league, the money used for waivers also will be used for our restricted free agent and unrestricted free agent auctions, so owners must be thrifty.
Second Chance Auction: This feature was detailed in an earlier Keeping Dynasty Weird installment. In short, owners who may be unhappy with their teams have the option to dump all of their assets, including all veterans, developmental players and any rookie picks they may have attained in order to participate in a dispersal auction.

As always, if you have questions about the Kitchen Sink league, feel free to comment below or contact me on Twitter @RyanMc23.

Here is a link to our league if you’d like to take a deeper look at the rules or want to check out our final rosters.

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Ryan McDowell

Contributor at Dynasty League Football

In addition to his senior leadership role here at DLF, Ryan is also a husband, father of three and PE teacher. Ryan is the commissioner of multiple dynasty leagues, most notably the Kitchen Sink Dynasty Leagues. Here at DLF, Ryan’s focus is on identifying, monitoring and analyzing player value.