OT: Ways to make fantasy football more interesting

Submitted by Laser Wolf on

A group of friends and I have had a league going for over a decade but interest is starting to wane. Nobody wants to see the league die but everybody also feels like they are sort of opting in for saking of opting in without any genuine interest.

So I come to you, MGoBlog, with any ideas to spice up a fantasy football league. This could include unique ideas for scoring, payouts, etc. We added keepers a year ago and that has marginally piqued interest but I think it's going to take a bit more.

Mods please feel free to delete if the board has been a bit too fantasy football heavy lately.

ryanfourmayor

August 10th, 2015 at 9:17 AM ^

One league I'm in does weekly pay outs.
sometimes it's top Qb, or player, highest score, lowest score, highest flex etc.
If you use the cash app you can pay out asap.

jblaze

August 10th, 2015 at 9:23 AM ^

- trophy (last place pays for and gets it engraved for winner)

- Penalties for last 2-4 places (maybe 25% of the buy-in)

- Destination Fantasy Draft (so people will be excited to participate)

- Sunday viewing parties

- Keeper leagues (so middle of the pack & lower players can try and build for the following year)

ypsituckyboy

August 10th, 2015 at 9:22 AM ^

Money. The more on the line, the more people care. I don't play in any high dollar leagues, but I am in one that's a 10 team league for $100/person. Winner takes $700. I pay plenty of attention to that league.

MGoContest - who plays in the biggest money fantasy football league?

LBSS

August 10th, 2015 at 5:09 PM ^

The other thing you can do with more money is set aside a pot for secondary prizes. In my league this year we're doing a $75 buy-in for the 10 teams. Overall winner gets $400, runner-up gets $100, and the remaining $250 gets split into a lot of smaller prizes for things like highest single-game margin of victory, highest single-game point total by an individual player, etc. 

Sleepy

August 10th, 2015 at 9:19 AM ^

The best thing we ever did was eliminate kickers & defenses (read: completely random point generators) from our league.  Now, it's just...

QB

RB

WR

TE

RB/WR/TE

RB/WR/TE

...in your starting lineup.  Roll out 13 personnel if you want.

swdude12

August 10th, 2015 at 12:06 PM ^

We have eliminated the team defense and went with Individual Defense: 2 DL 2 LB and 2 DB but still have a kicker.  It blows away Team Defense and Special Teams.  Tackles are .5pts, sacks are 2, INTs are 3, fumble recoveries are 3 and TD's are 3.  That way if you get a INT for TD you get 6pts total. 

 

Keeper League.

 

Make your draft epic in any way possible and make it your big money league.  I make pump up videos and a funny video for the champion every year.

Last Place has to wear a dress to the draft and we get to name his team.

I also have a bad ass silver spade trophy that goes to the winner.

The Baughz

August 10th, 2015 at 9:20 AM ^

Our league is in the same exact spot. We did keepers and weekly payouts two years ago, and this year we are adding a trophy. Not sure what else there is. Hopefully the trophy will spice things up a bit.




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Eat Your Wheatlies

August 10th, 2015 at 9:38 AM ^

I honestly feel that most leagues run into this issue. Unless you have people that are die-hards and really look forward to competing and winning bragging rights, it can become a struggle. So many participants loose interest due to family and work responsibilities, but finding the right people can make a difference. We have had a revolving door over the last 3-4 years, which stinks, but you need active players to make it work.

4roses

August 10th, 2015 at 9:22 AM ^

I recommend extending the season into the NFL playoffs. Our league has done this for 4 years now and we love it. The idea was actually a suggestion from a Bill Simmons column. Hers's the basic idea:

- Regular season is all NFL weeks - 1 through 17

- At the end of th regular season the top 4 teams make the Playoffs

- Each playoff team gets to keep 5 players from their roster

- Draft 7 more players from the Non-playoff team's roster

- Accumulate points throughout the NFL playoffs, including the Super Bowl (Champion is based on total points)

 

Eat Your Wheatlies

August 10th, 2015 at 9:31 AM ^

Auction draft, live preferably. It makes the whole draft process so much more fun, plus you have an opportunity to get any player instead of being stuck in a slot. We have an auctioneer with a gavel and all.

Saint_in_Blue

August 10th, 2015 at 9:31 AM ^

Sometimes new blood can can re-energize the group. Pick out the 3-4 guys you like the least, kick them out of the group, and fill those spots with people you like better. :-\

clown question

August 10th, 2015 at 9:45 AM ^

ADD PUNTERS!!!

 

Nothing like rooting for an offense to fail miserably (without turning the ball over). Set the scoring so they don't mean much (like 1 pt for 100 yards punted), and then make fun of your buddies when they lose because of their punter (it will happen).

SwitchbladeSam

August 10th, 2015 at 10:03 AM ^

Side contests-- first person to have a player get arrested etc.

You have to have some kind of weekly contest the last 4 weeks to keep the people out of playoffs interested and trying




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Sac Fly

August 10th, 2015 at 10:06 AM ^

I did a league where each team was given a horrible first name. The last place team had to name their next kid after the winners team.

It didn't end up working, the guy's wife vetoed her son being named Jeeves.

The Maizer

August 10th, 2015 at 10:07 AM ^

Two suggestions:

1. Make your bench really small (like 2 slots). This forces owners to really care about waivers and waiver priorities. It adds a new element of strategy when you have to consider dropping a quality RB because he has a bye week and you really need to beat the Fantasy Footbaughs this week.

2. Make your bench really big (like 10 slots). This means there will only be sleepers and garbage available as free agents so it will force owners to really care about trading. I find that trading is one of the most fun parts of fantasy football and it is not done enough.

AnnArbaugh05

August 10th, 2015 at 10:09 AM ^

We do a big buy-in, and the last place team gets a haircut of the winner's choice. Keeps everyone engaged and trying not to get last place. Second place gets buy-in money back, winner gets the rest. The big initial investment keeps all in the league interested and the haircut is a little extra motive!

Suavdaddy

August 10th, 2015 at 10:18 AM ^

Makes the draft so much more skill than luck - you can have any player you want.  We use a $100 fixed budget for the auction (some leagues use $200).  You have to have at least $1 last for your last spot.

Also, we use a blind bidding for waivers - no cue.  $1000 fictitious dollars for bidding on players each week.  Bids due by Wednesday night.  First come first served opens Thursday at noon.  We also charge $5 per waiver move.  

Also, we have a bifurcated pool and scoring.  Traditional 13 weeks and then tournament for half the pot.  the other half is based on a season long Vic Points system - 2 points for a win each week and then the top scorer each week gets 2 points, second highest 1.8 points, third highest 1.6 points, etc.  That running total for a 16 week season gets the other half of the pot.  We pay first and second prize in both (including portion of waiver pot).

Great dynamics in the pool. 

joeyb

August 10th, 2015 at 10:22 AM ^

I just joined a super hardcore league (at least compared to what I'm used to). 32 teams (16 in 2 conferences), IDP, auction, negative PPR. I think any one of those would make your league harder and more interesting.

Gulo Gulo Luscus

August 10th, 2015 at 3:38 PM ^

huh.  so basically a 2.5 yard completion/rush/catch are all "zeroed out" as equal instead of having different values in most leagues.  i would have to see a comparison of top 10 players in that system vs standard scoring to get a better sense of the impact, but i'm not sure i really agree with its representation of value.

America

August 10th, 2015 at 10:26 AM ^

Always wanted to have a QB bankruptcy rule where if the QB ever throws a pick 6 his points drop to 0 for that week. If it was at the end of the 1st half then the QB would still have the 2nd half to accumulate points, but if it was in the 4th quarter it could crush someone's soul. It would not come up very often, but when it did it definetly could swing a game which should at least keep people interested until certain QBs are done for the day.

BeatOSU52

August 10th, 2015 at 10:33 AM ^

I am proposing this to my league and would like thoughts from anyone here. We got a 12 team league where 6 make the playoffs. I propose top 4 with the best record get the top 4 spots but then we have two wild cards where the top 2 scoring teams (not in the playoffs already obviously) get the last 2 playoff spots.



Thoughts ? Looks like yahoo doesn't have a setting for that and so id have to set the playoffs manually

UofM626

August 10th, 2015 at 10:56 AM ^

Where before the draft starts you pick a random number 1-12 or 1-10 depending on the participants. Now here is where it's interesting: say u have the #1 you get to pick any combo WR and RB from the same team, say you want Pitt's Bell and Brown. Every player has to do this before the real draft starts. Once everyone has done this, depending on there points from last year will determine your actual draft spot, the more points they scored the lower you drop on the draft order.



This takes some thinking and some skill cause u can take a combo who is good but didn't perform as well and grab the #1 pick or you can take the best out there and pick 12th...



Started this a few years ago and it makes the league real interesting!!

MichiganStephen

August 10th, 2015 at 11:23 AM ^

I've been running a 20-team college league for 5 years now. Interest has never waned, we see turnover of about one owner per year and we have a waiting list to get into the league. It's awesome. Fantrax is the only game in town for now I believe for a mangement tool. Also eliminates the monotony of drafting from a list instead of doing your own research. Owners who do their homework the best seem to win it the most.