Setting up a startup league

[ProfPoobah]

I was hoping to pick the brains of people who have done this, to get a feel for their preferences. I've only ever picked up orphaned teams, and am co-commissioner of a new startup. The core of the group are meeting soon to discuss things, and I wanted people's opinions on the following:

1) Would you do Superflex in a 12-team league? Many thoughts that this would drive the value of QBs even higher than they already are in a SF league.

2) Thoughts on TE premium?

3) If the startup draft wasn't until after the NFL draft, would you include rookies in your startup draft, or have a separate draft for them? If the latter, would you make "Rookie Draft Pick 1.01" a draftable player in the startup?

4) Which sites do you like or hate?

5) Thoughts on best ball? With such large rosters....

6) Anything you'd offer as advice I haven't covered?

My appreciation for whatever thoughts I get back!

[abloom]

I was hoping to pick the brains of people who have done this, to get a feel for their preferences. I've only ever picked up orphaned teams, and am co-commissioner of a new startup. The core of the group are meeting soon to discuss things, and I wanted people's opinions on the following:

1) Would you do Superflex in a 12-team league? Many thoughts that this would drive the value of QBs even higher than they already are in a SF league.

2) Thoughts on TE premium?

3) If the startup draft wasn't until after the NFL draft, would you include rookies in your startup draft, or have a separate draft for them? If the latter, would you make "Rookie Draft Pick 1.01" a draftable player in the startup?

4) Which sites do you like or hate?

5) Thoughts on best ball? With such large rosters....

6) Anything you'd offer as advice I haven't covered?

My appreciation for whatever thoughts I get back!

Hello, I think it's great that you are reaching out for ideas, but I'll point out there really is no one right way to run a league (though I will say there are some wrong ways). I'll answer your questions and give my opinions on the types of leagues I most enjoy:

(1) Currently my favorite size and format is a 14 team SF. You are right that SF increases the value of QB but you can also say that 1QB increases the value of wr and RB. Personally I think QB is almost worthless in a 1 QB league.

(2) TE premium is fine, but if you really want to increase the value of TE, start 2 TE is the way to go. The real issue with TE is that there are so few great ones and the rest are average. One option is to just completely eliminate the TE requirement but I don't particularly like that method. I'm fine with there just being some elite TEs out there that have overinflated prices.

(3) if it's after the rookie draft you include the rookies no matter what. If it's before the draft you can either include rookies (without knowing their draft capital or landing spots) or you draft rookie picks. Under no circumstances do you ever have two separate drafts where the rookie order is reverse order of the main startup. honestly given the time I just suggest doing one draft after the NFL draft

(4) I like MFL, but really it's just personal taste.

(5) bestball is fine, but I like the strategy of setting lineups and playing matchups.

(6)
Personally I prefer to have an auction start-up. This allows everyone to have a chance at drafting every player. Other important rules are no league votes for vetoes and only trades that are vetoed are for collusion. Any offendered that collude are replaced asap.

I also want to point out that any set of rules are fine as long as everyone agrees to them.

[Mjvb5]

I was hoping to pick the brains of people who have done this, to get a feel for their preferences. I've only ever picked up orphaned teams, and am co-commissioner of a new startup. The core of the group are meeting soon to discuss things, and I wanted people's opinions on the following:

1) Would you do Superflex in a 12-team league? Many thoughts that this would drive the value of QBs even higher than they already are in a SF league.

2) Thoughts on TE premium?

3) If the startup draft wasn't until after the NFL draft, would you include rookies in your startup draft, or have a separate draft for them? If the latter, would you make "Rookie Draft Pick 1.01" a draftable player in the startup?

4) Which sites do you like or hate?

5) Thoughts on best ball? With such large rosters....

6) Anything you'd offer as advice I haven't covered?

My appreciation for whatever thoughts I get back!

1. Kinda confused here. question seems like SF would drive QB price higher than in SF? I highly recomend SF to give QBs the ability to actually get value over a mid first and be actual assets.
2. Yes, same as SF. Without it after the top 1-4 guys its just a replacement level crapshoot
3. I prefer drafting pick #s just to avoid the Harmon types but its fun to make people call there shots. You can draft kickers as rookie pick placeholders... first kicker taken = 1.1, second 1.2 etc
4. I love sleeper if you use mobile apps, apparently people had issues with using them for buy ins so you may want to go 3rd party
5. never played it tbh but Im in huge roster deep starting req and it works

[Niceguy]

I was hoping to pick the brains of people who have done this, to get a feel for their preferences. I've only ever picked up orphaned teams, and am co-commissioner of a new startup. The core of the group are meeting soon to discuss things, and I wanted people's opinions on the following:

1) Would you do Superflex in a 12-team league? Many thoughts that this would drive the value of QBs even higher than they already are in a SF league.

2) Thoughts on TE premium?

3) If the startup draft wasn't until after the NFL draft, would you include rookies in your startup draft, or have a separate draft for them? If the latter, would you make "Rookie Draft Pick 1.01" a draftable player in the startup?

4) Which sites do you like or hate?

5) Thoughts on best ball? With such large rosters....

6) Anything you'd offer as advice I haven't covered?

My appreciation for whatever thoughts I get back!

I've set up 7-8 leagues over the years and still commission all but one of them. Here are my suggestions for whatever they are worth.

1) Yes, this makes the league so much more interesting. SF in a 12 team league is fun. Ideally, your roster has 3 starters, but only 8 out of 12 teams can achieve this mathematically.

2) never done TE premium, might be fun though if you wanted to increase the value of as many positions as possible and thus increase the overall value of draft picks

3) I have always had the start up draft after the NFL draft and with one exception included the rookies every time. The reason is that it is difficult to determine a fair draft order for the rookie picks with no previous season. I really like putting the rookie picks in the startup draft instead of the actual players however. We've done it this way before and it's definitely fun.

4) If the league is going to be a 12 team league without any weird features such as double copies of players, etc., I love Fleaflicker. It's free and it's designed for dynasty. Keeps all of your league history etc. Definitely avoid the mainstream sites like Yahoo and ESPN for dynasty. They are designed very specifically for redraft and don't track your rookie picks, draft order, etc.

5) Never done best ball but I plan to at some point. It depends how much ongoing management you want the owners to have and how much involvement you want. Setting lineups keeps people more engaged IMO and allows skilled owners to gain an edge by setting better lineups. Best ball ensures a more fair competition since it eliminates games where somebody plays against a lineup that isn't set properly (ie has injured players, bye week players, etc. starting)

6) Yes, several things

Think through the scoring in great depth before you start.

How will you determine rookie draft order? Inverse of standings (most common) or inverse of optimum points for (better IMO because it removes any benefit from setting bad lineups to tank on purpose)?

Write out a league constitution before you start. I can provide one from one of my leagues if that would help you. PM me.

Establish in the constitution how the league will deal with future changes, such as scoring, adjusting rosters, etc. Will the league vote on things? What can the commish decide on unilaterally? How does the league deal with replacing owners who drop out - assign orphan teams or (better IMO) do a dispersal draft? how are rookie draft picks dealt with in the dispersal draft?

Some of my leagues offer compensatory draft picks for certain things like winning an in-house survivor pool or winning pick-em etc.

[JTLoh]

I'd do 35 teams 3 copy.