From the Desk of the Commish

Ryan McDowell Posted On June 17, 2015

desk

As you probably know, one of my passions in the fantasy football industry in creating and managing dynasty leagues. Of the 18 dynasty leagues I currently play in, I am the commissioner of 11 of those. On top of that, I also run another 26 leagues (and counting) as part of a commissioner service.

I’ve written about a number of topics relating to the role of the commissioner in the past, including a strong set of rules and various types of creative leagues. In anticipation of the revival of the From the Desk of the Commissioner series, as I often do, I reached out to my Twitter followers for potential topics that should be covered and the response was overwhelming. With that in mind, I’ll turn this and subsequent articles into somewhat of a commissioner mailbag that will accompany our new Commish 101 series we’re running within our free content. If there are other topics related to dynasty league commissioning that you’d like to see discussed, just respond in the comments section below.

First of all, here was my call out on Twitter…

Working on some articles from a dynasty commissioner POV. Any specific topics you guys are interested in related to that?

— Ryan McDowell (@RyanMc23) April 23, 2015

@RyanMc23 sites to host the league on — Scott Benson (@skobyn) April 23, 2015

I’ve been a longtime supporter of the folks at MyFantasyLeague for many reasons. I gave you a few reasons why I prefer MFL for my dynasty leagues in this Making a List article, but there are many more, including some of the best customer service I’ve experienced, as well as fully customizable leagues, in relation to both the look of the league site, as well as the rules and formats they make available.

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Of course, there are other viable options for league hosting services that can meet your needs. In the past couple of years, I’ve played in a pair of leagues at Reality Sports Online, often referred to as RSO. The leagues hosted at RSO are all auction leagues and the goal is to bring some of the characteristics of running a real NFL team right to your computer as you are forced to make quick and franchise changing decisions related to players you will bid on and attempt to acquire. My first experience with RSO included a marathon six-hour startup auction that lasted well into the night. This might make some cringe, but it was a blast!

Finally, if you’re looking for a more cost effective option, I would highly recommend the team over at Fleaflicker, who offer free league hosting service for leagues of all types.

@RyanMc23 One that hit home lately is the concept of retiring players, and the penalties associated. Ie: player retires, contract remains.

— Sean Tenerelli (@Phinphan54) April 23, 2015

Many of my responses to these questions will be a matter of personal preference, and this is one that falls into that category. I would never think that my way is the only way, but this is how I would handle it. Over the years, we can all remember the truly surprise retirement announcements from players seemingly in the prime. In football, the two best recent examples are running backs Ricky Williams and Barry Sanders. Both walked away from the game after rushing for over 1,300 yards and both were very highly ranked in fantasy leagues at the time. As we know, Williams would later return. The point is, these types of moves are fairly rare in the NFL. What’s more likely is a player is sitting by the phone waiting for one more shot, as we’re currently seeing with Reggie Wayne, Wes Welker, Chris Johnson, Steven Jackson and others. When assigning contracts in a dynasty league, the number of quality years remaining must be considered as part of the contract. If you’re giving a long-term deal to Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, you’re going to be left holding the bag. This is also true of almost any running back. Risk of injury and retirement must be factored into your contract decision and because of that, I would not allow dynasty teams to release retired players without a penalty. That penalty should be the same as it would be for releasing any other player before their contract has expired, otherwise, your allowing your league owners to play fast and loose with contract assignments with little to no risk.

@RyanMc23 how far in future should teams be able to trade picks? should they have to pay fees in advance? — Sigmund Bloom (@SigmundBloom) April 23, 2015

Another case of personal preference here, but I think the maximum number of years teams should be trading picks is two, and that’s only if you have a solid group of dynasty players you know you can count on to stay in the league. In most of my leagues, I do allow for trading picks from two years out, though some I stick with only one. I’ve seen too many cases where owners sell their future picks off as soon as they become available and these are often the teams I see at the bottom of the standings. Allowing teams to sell picks three, four or even five years into the future is a logistical nightmare. After all, some of the owners have come to me asking how and when they traded their second or third round pick, which is easy to track down in most cases, unless they traded it five years ago.

As for the second part of the question, I absolutely think there should be some type of pre-payment system when trading future picks. I’ve been in leagues in the past that required a 50% down payment when trading any future pick, including a late rounder. Personally, I think this discourages trading, as it can often be a third or fourth round pick thrown in that seals the deal. I would not be as willing to do that if it also comes with a payment requirement.

Instead, I prefer to require the 50% pre-payment only when trading first round picks. Obviously second and third round picks have value as well, but we all know when considering adopting an orphaned dynasty team, it’s those first round picks that we look for first. Even allowing pick trades of one or two years, managing this from a financial standpoint is one of the commissioner’s toughest and most important tasks.

@RyanMc23 Oh man so many How to handle a dispute about a rule that doesn’t exist yet!

— Mike MFL10 Addict (@MikeMar05) April 23, 2015

When I was preparing to commish my first dynasty league ten years ago, I spent hours and hours researching, reading articles and scouring successful dynasty leagues in an effort to create a league constitution that covered everything. While I’m proud to say the set of rules I wrote for that first league has been used by countless dynasty leagues over the past few years, most of which I’m not involved with at all, I will admit they are far from perfect. There have been and will continue to be situations that arise that are not covered in your league bylaws. When this happens, a commissioner must simply use his best judgment to resolve the situation as he sees fit. If the commissioner has developed a reputation among the league owners as fair and impartial, there should not be an issue. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

One other option and something I’d suggest is to have a trusted group that the commissioner can turn to in times advice is needed. This can be an official rules committee made up of other owners in the league, or simply someone who the commissioner trusts to make sound decisions. Of course, this person or persons must also have displayed the ability to remain impartial in all situations.

Finally, once the particular situation is resolved, be sure to amend your league bylaws to reflect the decision and new precedent.

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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.