How to Be a Dynasty MFL Commissioner
The popularity of dynasty leagues has greatly increased over the past decade. In 2009 there were around 4,000 drafts recorded on MFL. That number grew to 6,600 in 2015, and just over 8,000 last year.
The growth of dynasty leagues can be attributed to the increased popularity of fantasy football. As more and more fantasy owners become bored in the off-season, they look for alternatives to satisfy that hunger.
In comes dynasty league football. And the largest and most trusted website for all things dynasty is MyFantasyLeague.com, also known as MFL. This website is customizable from head to toe, so each hosted league is like a snowflake — no two are the same.
I’ve been a league commissioner for twenty years. I’ve had owners disappear mid-season, argue about rules, and even seen money get sent to the wrong player (oops!). I’m here to give you some advice as to how to set up and run a successful dynasty league on MFL.
Being a commissioner is a thankless and tiresome job. The league’s success or failure hinges entirely on you. When everything is going right, nobody thanks you for a job well done. When something goes wrong, you will be scolded or scrutinized for days on end. You best be ready for this on a yearly basis.
There are five key components to creating a successful league: Commissioner, Settings, Rules, Recruiting, and Communication. I’m going to break each one down separately so you can pick and choose the areas you wish to learn about.
Note: For all intents and purposes, the following advice is for leagues that require a yearly fee to participate. Free leagues are harder to control and maintain over the years.
COMMISSIONER
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Have you had leadership roles before? Are you good at diffusing conflict? Do you have a history of dedicating yourself to tasks through completion? Are you highly active and engaged via an online presence? Can you envision yourself having the same stamina and focus in year five of a league as you can in year one?
Some people start a league but don’t do enough even in year one to see it through. Commissioners who disappear or get lazy are the main reason why leagues die off. A dedicated commissioner who has a good head on his or her shoulders is what will help carry a league’s sustainability from year to year.
If you want to be a commissioner, you had better have said yes to all the questions above. You have to prove that you are organized, thoughtful, good with people, and can rationalize a solution quickly and thoughtfully without rushing hastily and making mistakes.
The best commissioners stay highly active from day one and aren’t rattled by errors or negativity. This alone will carry a league successfully from year to year.
Do not start a league if you are argumentative, easily swayed, unorganized, or if you’re life is too busy with too many other tasks throughout the year. A commissioner who puts doubt into his or her ability to be a successful leader is when a league starts to die off.
SETTINGS
The best part about being the commissioner of any league is that you get to tailor the league settings to match your vision of what makes a perfect league. Will there be any PPR scoring? Superflex? IDP? You get to choose all the details from the get-go before anybody else signs up.
Once you choose what settings you want in your league, you must then make sure MFL can handle the settings you desire. For example, I once wanted to create a double-player copy salary cap league. Through testing, I found out that MFL was incapable of handling multiple different salaries for double copies of a player in the same conference.
Had I continued with the above setting prior to testing and recruited owners to fill the league, everyone would have found out eventually that an error wouldn’t allow the league to move forward. I would look incompetent as a commissioner, and already the future of the league would be in doubt.
Nothing is scarier to an owner than a commissioner who comes off as incompetent. Testing your settings prior to recruiting is vital to the success of the league and yourself as a commissioner. Be sure that you test every little detail on MFL prior to moving forward with recruiting.
This includes starting requirements and roster sizes. A league that has sixteen teams and requires two starting quarterbacks would be a bad idea for when bye weeks occur. A league that has eighteen roster spots but requires starting ten players wouldn’t give owners enough depth.
Shallow roster sizes also decrease trading since most bye-week fill-in players can be found on the waiver wire. A league that trades is a league that sticks around and stays active, so I recommend deep benches for any league you create.
Settings that are too over-the-top will make it harder for you to fill vacant spots. Leagues with bonus points for every three hundred yards passing, and one hundred yards rushing and receiving will be harder to fill than ones without.
I think the best kind of league is one that is mostly standard scoring with some form of PPR, and one extra twist that makes it slightly unique vs other leagues without making it too crazy or over-the-top.
Some ideas I’ve seen work are:
- Rookie drafts that begin before the NFL draft.
- Rookie drafts that are split, so rounds one and two happen in April after the NFL draft, and rounds three and four happen in August during the preseason games.
- Yearly division realignment based on previous year’s standings.
- Compensatory draft picks for retired players.
- Taxi squad spots, where teams can place rookies without affecting roster size or potential points.
Whatever unique twist you put into your league, if any at all, you must research it first before you throw it incorporate it as a part of your league for the long haul. It would be detrimental to add a unique twist to your league but instead of it enhancing an owners’ experience, it does the exact opposite.
Some successful standard settings are as follows:
- Twelve or fourteen teams.
- QB, RB, WR, and TE positions only.
- 0.5 or 1 PPR.
- Start nine players in twelve team leagues. Start eight players in fourteen team leagues.
- Starting requirements: QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, and the rest flex.
- If doing a superflex, add one more starting spot.
- Roster size:
- Twelve team leagues should require twenty-four roster spots, and up to thirty-four if you want to force more trading.
- Fourteen team leagues should require twenty roster spots minimum, and up to thirty if you want to force more trading.
- Top six teams make the playoffs, top two earn a bye. If there are divisions, then all division winners should make the playoffs since that’s the point of divisions.
- Remaining four playoff teams get a payout.
- Payout structure of 7:4:2:1 ratio with the prize fund. (Take the total amount, divide it by fourteen to get x dollars. First place gets 7x, second gets 4x, and so on).
I prefer fourteen team leagues myself because then everybody plays everybody during weeks one through thirteen. Playoffs happen weeks thirteen through sixteen. It just makes mathematical sense and is pleasing to the eye.
A twelve team league will require a couple of teams to play each other twice, and if one team gets paired up with two bad teams, other owners get upset that they didn’t get as easy of a schedule. Anytime I find something that can possibly cause turmoil amongst owners, I avoid it.
I avoid scheduling playoffs through week seventeen since there is a history of NFL teams resting their players for the playoffs, putting fantasy teams at a disadvantage during the most crucial moment of the season.
If you decide you’d want to create a larger league with more owners, be aware that these leagues are harder to manage, track, and harder to fill when spots open up. I run two 32-team double-copy player leagues. There are more questions, owners disappear more often, and recruiting for open spots is harder.
If this is your first league, do not outkick your coverage. Stick with a twelve or fourteen team league and learn the basics first.
The last thing you need to worry about in your settings is the startup draft. Should you do a snake? Third round reversal? Auction? Rookies?
There really is no wrong answer, but the fairest way to do a startup is through an auction draft. Nobody needs to worry about getting screwed with draft position, nobody will complain about lopsided trades, and there is no waiting around for people to make a pick.
An auction draft allows everyone to bid whatever they want on any player they want. It’s 100% fair and equal across the board. There is action happening at all hours of the day, and someone busy one day can ignore the draft and resume it 24 hours later without missing a beat.
The fairest way to set up the auction draft is to allow 72 hours for an auction to end, with the auction timer resetting for every new winning bidder. This gives all owners a fair chance at seeing all possible players being selected at any time during the day that is convenient for them.
Proxy bidding should also be turned on. This allows owners to increase a maximum bid on any winning player so-as to not get outbid at the last second, similar to what eBay incorporates. A lot of frustration and anxiety will unfold onto you if this option isn’t turned on.
Rookies can be added to the auction draft to make it easier on you. If rookies are not added in the auction, then you will need to create rookie draft picks either individually (1.01, 1.02, etc) or as a set (first pick in all rounds, second pick in all rounds, etc). You can create these picks with the “Enter Custom Players” option in the settings.
RULES
Now that you’ve decided on settings, it’s time to write the rules, aka by-laws, aka the constitution. These are going to be the foundation to which your league will run. Anything not covered in the rules will create chaos later on, so make sure you cover every little detail as clearly as possible.
A detailed set of rules comes with two main benefits. It’ll give incoming owners a sense of security knowing how organized and detailed you are, and it’ll clarify any issues or problems that are sure to arise as the season unfolds. Both of these benefits work towards league stability.
A good rule of thumb is to seek out rules from successful leagues. If you are in a league or know of a league that’s been around a good while, it would be wise to check out their rules and give them a good read. Most successful leagues will not only have a set of well-written rules, but will also have revised and edited them over the years, saving you time and energy down the road.
Did you know that the great staff at DLF already has a library of rules for you to look at and copy? Talk about a wealth of information at your fingertips.
Click here: http://forum.dynastynew.wpengine.com/viewforum.php?f=102
I’m a stickler for rules, and I believe that all rules should be in the following format:
- Definition (what kind of league it is)
- Purpose (how and why it was created)
- Notice (a “cover your ass” area that basically says “we’re all responsible”)
- TL;DR calendar (a summary of the rules and yearly schedule)
- Detailed sections of league rules including:
- Startup draft
- Rookie drafts
- Waivers
- Trading
- Roster composition
- Starting requirements
- Scoring
- Scheduling
- Playoffs
- Payouts
- Dispersal drafts and ownership replacement
For an example, I’d like to show you the rules for my NFDL league. This is a 32-team double-copy player keeper league. It’s been in operation since 2014 and to date is my most-popular league based on yearly return-rate.
Click here: http://www65.myfantasyleague.com/2019/home/48454#8
The sections are spread out and labeled accordingly so everything is easy to find because it’s organized and detailed. Anyone using a search feature (ctrl+f) can find anything they are looking for instantly.
There are a few “must have” rules that I live by for all of my leagues. The number one thing I want to discourage is tanking. Tanking is the act of purposely losing games or sitting players in order to increase their draft position for the following season.
In order to curb tanking, I order draft position by potential points. Potential points (aka PP) is the total sum of all points your team accumulated throughout the season, if you were to have started you best possible players every week.
This means all owners cannot simply sit their best players and lose games on purpose to increase their draft position. The only viable method a team can now increase their draft stock is by trading away their best players, and I’m perfectly fine if a team decides to do this. Rebuilding from scratch is not easy, so if someone wants to attempt it, be my guest.
The second rule that I think should be enforced is that an owner should be required to pay in advance to use their future draft picks. I’ve seen owners join a league, go for broke by trading away all of their future draft capital and acquire as many aging vets as possible, and then bail on the league as soon as the season is over.
The problem created is now there is an open unpaid team with a bad roster and no draft picks. Good luck finding someone to pay for this spot. If you require an owner to pay for future draft picks, you could at least give this team away for free. A free team is an easy team to fill.
The last rule I think is crucial to longevity is when it comes time for finding replacement owners. There are always going to be owners that leave your league for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes life happens and they need to decrease the amount of activities in their lives. Sometimes an owner disappears and there’s no explanation as to why. Often times, however, it’s because a team is so bad and beyond repair, so an owner bails and now a replacement has to be found.
For teams that are paid and vacant, a new owner can come in for free to take it over. Preferably, you can get a new owner to pay for another year in advance, and therefore get someone to stick around for a minimum of two seasons to help build the team back into shape.
For teams that are unpaid, they should still have their future draft picks, assuming my advice above was used. These teams should be vacated of all players and redrafted separately through a dispersal draft. It’s the most fair way to distribute players to new owners.
To do this, you will need to archive your rookie draft and setup a new draft comprised of only the unpaid teams with owners that are going to be replaced. Rookie picks should be drafted as a bundle added via the “Enter Custom Players” option in commissioner tools.
For an example of what a dispersal draft would look like, complete with rookie pick bundles and all, click the following link. It’s my 96 team league called Dynasty96. There were ten new owners by the end of 2018, so I created a third round reversal snake draft and dispersed all players and rookie picks via this method.
Click here: http://www62.myfantasyleague.com/2018/options?L=68479&O=17
RECRUITING
Now that you’ve created settings, tested them out, and wrote a sturdy set of rules to cover every challenging aspect such as rookie drafts, startup drafts, replacement owners, and payout information, you are finally ready to recruit owners to your league.
Recruiting can be tricky and difficult. If your league settings are challenging, your recruiting process will be slower than in other leagues. If you charge too much or too little, you’ll get owners who won’t care as much or won’t be able to pay. I find that a typically good minimum to charge for league fees is $35 and a good maximum is $60.
When you do start the recruiting process, you will need to have plenty of time set aside to get the league organized and owners acclimated to their new teams. Do not send out a recruiting post and then disappear for two hours to go grocery shopping. Recruiting is the first impression that owners will have of you, so be prepared and be fully active and engaged
Did you know that MFL has its own recruiting forum? It’s for commissioners and owners alike, and allows for all of us to peruse through all openings to find the ones best suited for what we’re looking for. Reddit and twitter are also good sites to advertise on. For the DLF recruiting forum, click the following:
Click here: http://forum.dynastynew.wpengine.com/viewforum.php?f=10
Make sure you advertise the league type, cost, number of teams, and method of startup draft you plan to use. Post a link to the rules, mention any unique twists or settings about your league, and list your email address for clear and immediate communication.
When owners start contacting you, you will need to respond in a timely manner. Owners I like to add to my league are ones that ask clarification questions to something I didn’t already mention, or owners who are excited to join and say the phrase “I can pay right away”. Owners I avoid are ones that ask something that’s already been answered in the post, like the cost of the league or a link to the rules.
All paid leagues should use a third party payment method for collecting dues and paying them back out when the season is over. I use leaguesafe, and others use teamstake. Both website are owned by the same company, however, so pick your poison and go with it. These sites give all owners of a league equal control over funding, as long as those are the settings chosen by the commissioner (hint: they should be).
Some commissioners use paypal, but you’ll be unable to recruit some owners because paypal is less secure since the receiver of funds will have all the access to the league money. Any form of monetary tracking that gives full control to the commissioner is a no-no in my book.
You will want to add owners to your league as soon as they pay. The longer you keep a new owner waiting around for the official MFL invitation, the less excitement you will generate about the league. You want happy owners right away so that they will tell their friends and you’ll fill up the league quicker than normal.
The process above should also be used when recruiting replacement owners. If you are replacing open teams that have been paid for, I suggest not recruiting on a first-pay, first-serve format. If you have three open teams that have been paid for, recruit three owners and have them pay for a year in advance for the right to choose which team they want to take over.
This usually entices all three owners to pay up. Now you have three owners that are paid for the next two seasons. After all owners are paid, randomize an order between them using any third party site, and dole out the teams in the order given. This system helps your league stay alive longer and fills open teams faster.
COMMUNICATION
I cannot stress enough how important this piece is for the longevity of any league. Communication is an ongoing skill that any good commissioner utilizes over the life of their league. Owners don’t need daily updates, but league-wide reminders and important updates are vital to the overall success of any league.
In MFL, there is an easy way to email all owners. Go to “communications” and “email entire league”. Copy that link and paste it into the BCC part of an email to prevent the dreaded “reply all” action. Keep your emails short yet thorough, and be sure to proofread them prior to hitting send. Respond immediately to any questions.
I would also strongly recommend using a third party website for communication. The MFL chat and message board are fine, but since communication is a fun part of any league, creating a chat on apps like groupme or slacker would be a wise choice. All apps are customizable to the user, so each use can be as active or as inactive on these apps as they please.
Make sure to keep an eye out for all owners who seemingly disappear over the course of time. If you see a team that appears vacant, check the transactions for that team and see if they’ve made a move in the past month. If not, it would be wise to email or text them if a number is provided.
Do not rush to replace inactive owners. I’ve had owners who lost a job, moved to a new city, had a baby, or been deployed to Afghanistan. It’s important that you give each inactive owner a good few weeks to respond to your messages. A good commissioner checks on the activity of its owners every month or two.
*****
I hope this detailed article will help any future commissioners with the knowledge they need to get started. Having knowledge at hand will give you the confidence to carry through your dreams of being a commissioner.
As I said before, it’s a thankless and tiresome job. It requires you to be active almost 24/7, and there will often be times that you will have to overcome adversity. You will have owners that whine and complain. They will claim you aren’t doing your job and may even make your life a living hell for a few days on end.
Eventually, those owners will depart and you can replace them with better ones who care. I’ve found that the toughest part of any league will be the first two seasons. By year three, everything is usually smooth sailing.
So here’s to you; The Commissioner! May your future endeavors be fun and challenging. If you need help or want feedback, feel free to ask any questions vie email or on the commissioner forum. We are always here to help.
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