Advice setting up new Auction Dynasty League

General talk about Dynasty Leagues.
rdabicci
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Advice setting up new Auction Dynasty League

Postby rdabicci » Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:53 pm

Hello I am working on putting together a new dynasty league with an auction drafts. We will have 8 owners as thats all I can gather for reliable in person drafting and participation. I have a couple questions as this is my first dynasty league. I am going to list the details I have so far, although most of them are not set in stone. I'm hoping some people can point out potential weaknesses I haven't considered. We are going to be on ESPN because thats all I can get my players to agree to (fairly good app, free, and familiar)

8 teams
offensive starters: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 2 TE, 2 Flex (wr/te/rb), 1 Super Flex
defensive starters: 2 LB, 2 DL, 2 DBs, 1 Flex
Bench: 12 players? (I'm guessing this is too few?)

Are 2 Flex and a Super flex to many flex spots on offense? Should starters have more specific requirements instead of general Flex?

Does Superflex really add that much to league? Having 2 QBs kind of breaks some immersion for some of us.

Overall is that enough starter spots? I'm concerned that being an 8 team league that we should be having maybe 3RB and maybe even 4WR? On the other hand I'm concerned that having too large a starting set up will mitigate the excitement of star players as each individual starter will mean less.

How do I determine how many bench spots to have? I chose 12 because managing over 30 players seems a bit intimidating for some owners.

Auction draft $200 budget
$200 salary cap with a FAAB based on remaining salary
(I'm concerned that this will be too difficult to run on ESPN because I think I'd have to manually adjust everyones budget after every trade and every time waivers run.)
The other option would just to have no salary cap in season (would that be a problem?) At which point we could do regular waiver wire or FAAB I think.
In all cases the plan would be that dropped/added players would maintain their previous salary and undrafted players would be $1.

Subsequent draft years we would just draft all free agents and rookies together with each team's budget being the the difference between the salary cap $200 and their current kept players salaries. (Any problem with this idea?)

Sometime before the draft players would have to determine who they are releasing and keeping (specific time to be determined)

We are trying to determine what the actual rules will be for contracts as far as cost and limits
Should we limit players to a max 3 year contract before players must re-enter free-agency? 4? 5? No limit (concerned here a really good rookie pick would never be available to another team ever)

We plan on using auction cost as salary. Should players cost more each year they are kept? In subsequent years should the cost to keep a player be previous year plus 10%? Plus flat $ amount? Concerned that no increasing cost will lead to best team keeping all players with little choice to be made and remaining dominant. Also concerned that with increasing costs that every year most all players will be released with hopes of getting them for the same cost they went for originally and therefore saving 10%.

Do you foresee any other issues I'm not seeing?

Thank you for all the help

sportstalkryan
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Re: Advice setting up new Auction Dynasty League

Postby sportstalkryan » Mon Jul 30, 2018 11:55 am

rdabicci wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:53 pm Are 2 Flex and a Super flex to many flex spots on offense? Should starters have more specific requirements instead of general Flex?
Because this is only an 8-team league, you need to have the extra number of starting spots in order to actually differentiate the teams. Having just a few starters in an 8-teamer makes every team look like a Pro Bowl squad.
rdabicci wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:53 pm Does Superflex really add that much to league? Having 2 QBs kind of breaks some immersion for some of us.
Normally the Superflex adds a lot as some teams have to actually start mediocre, or even bad, QBs. But in a 8-team league, that only goes down 16 spots and so it's not going to add much. The more knowledgeable teams will still wait on QBs knowing the position is really deep this year. I would highly recommend tweaking the scoring system to create much greater range of points at the position. Say 6 pts per TD, 1 pt per 20 yds passing, and really bump up the negative points for bad plays. Maybe -0.1 pt per incompletion, -1 pt per sack, at least -4 pts per turnover. You need to force teams to value the position. Doing that and having the SuperFlex is a must for an 8-team league.
rdabicci wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:53 pm Overall is that enough starter spots? I'm concerned that being an 8 team league that we should be having maybe 3RB and maybe even 4WR? On the other hand I'm concerned that having too large a starting set up will mitigate the excitement of star players as each individual starter will mean less.
You want to force teams to have to start non-stars, as that will make the stars more valuable.
rdabicci wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:53 pm How do I determine how many bench spots to have? I chose 12 because managing over 30 players seems a bit intimidating for some owners.
With 18 starters, 12 backups seems like the bare minimum. Some teams will have problems covering bye weeks and injuries in some weeks with only 12 backups.
rdabicci wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:53 pm Auction draft $200 budget
$200 salary cap with a FAAB based on remaining salary
(I'm concerned that this will be too difficult to run on ESPN because I think I'd have to manually adjust everyones budget after every trade and every time waivers run.)
The other option would just to have no salary cap in season (would that be a problem?) At which point we could do regular waiver wire or FAAB I think.
In all cases the plan would be that dropped/added players would maintain their previous salary and undrafted players would be $1.

Subsequent draft years we would just draft all free agents and rookies together with each team's budget being the the difference between the salary cap $200 and their current kept players salaries. (Any problem with this idea?)
I'd do $300 budget, as that averages $10 per roster spot. I run my home league on ESPN and we do an auction, but we don't keep track of salaries during the season, so I don't know about how that would work there. I use MFL to host my more complex salary cap leagues. I don't think you should worry too much if the ESPN settings can't handle this, though. You can just set a minimum $ amount to keep a player acquired during the season.
rdabicci wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:53 pm Sometime before the draft players would have to determine who they are releasing and keeping (specific time to be determined)

We are trying to determine what the actual rules will be for contracts as far as cost and limits
Should we limit players to a max 3 year contract before players must re-enter free-agency? 4? 5? No limit (concerned here a really good rookie pick would never be available to another team ever)
You want to have a decent number of players available each year for a free agent auction. I would recommend no more than 4-year contracts, and put a cap on the total number of contract years a team can assign, say 60 years total (averaging 2 yrs per roster spot). And you may want to cap the number of 3- and 4-year deals (say no more than 5 each). Then have some way for a team to protect 1 player coming off a contract, like a Franchise Tag as the team will feel like they become identified with that player, and a way to protect at least 1 in-season pickup (exclusive rights free agent) as that rewards teams who are active during the season.
rdabicci wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:53 pm We plan on using auction cost as salary. Should players cost more each year they are kept? In subsequent years should the cost to keep a player be previous year plus 10%? Plus flat $ amount? Concerned that no increasing cost will lead to best team keeping all players with little choice to be made and remaining dominant. Also concerned that with increasing costs that every year most all players will be released with hopes of getting them for the same cost they went for originally and therefore saving 10%.
Yes, you must have salaries increase each year. I recommend 10% or + $4, whichever is higher.
rdabicci wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:53 pm Do you foresee any other issues I'm not seeing?
My biggest concern is having only 7 starting IDPs compared to 11 starting offensive players. With only 56 defensive starters total, you're barely scratching the surface there. Perhaps that's the point, you're dipping your toes into IDP and seeing if you like it. I'd recommend going whole hog, though, and do full 11 starting IDPs to match the offense, and increase roster size to 40. Oh, and ESPN has the option to use DI, EDR, LB positions instead of DT, DE, LB. I STRONGLY recommend using that, as it makes you compare players with the same roles on their defense.
Commish of 4 leagues. Prefer full roster, IDP, salary cap, contract leagues designed to replicate the NFL GM experience as much as possible. Because THAT'S the fantasy.


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