Starting a FF League for My Kid & Friends...looking for tips (1 Viewer)

So my 7 year old son has started to express an interest in fantasy football or to at least ask questions about it.  I've talked to a couple of his friend's dads and they are all into the idea of creating a league for the kids next season.  I want this to be a fun thing for the kids and was curious if anyone has done this and has any helpful tips.  I'm thinking it should be a rather small league, 6 or 8 teams but curious as to if there would be a preferred format (PPR, etc.).  I'm also curious as to thoughts on best site to host.

I want this to be for the kids so I'm going to make sure I speak with all the dads ahead of time so they let each kid pick who they want from their favorite teams and dads are not overstepping trying to win the league for their kids.  Teaching the kids about stats and pro football will be a goal as well but the primary goal will be creating something fun for my kid and his friends and hopefully providing a bonding experience for fathers and sons.

Any advice from those that have done it will be very much appreciated.

I started mine off with a roulette wheel and a bag of pennies.

Rodrigo Duterte said:

I started mine off with a roulette wheel and a bag of pennies.

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No, he's not asking about how you started your retirement investment  plan. 

Baloney Sandwich said:

So my 7 year old son has started to express an interest in fantasy football or to at least ask questions about it.  I've talked to a couple of his friend's dads and they are all into the idea of creating a league for the kids next season.  I want this to be a fun thing for the kids and was curious if anyone has done this and has any helpful tips.  I'm thinking it should be a rather small league, 6 or 8 teams but curious as to if there would be a preferred format (PPR, etc.).  I'm also curious as to thoughts on best site to host.

I want this to be for the kids so I'm going to make sure I speak with all the dads ahead of time so they let each kid pick who they want from their favorite teams and dads are not overstepping trying to win the league for their kids.  Teaching the kids about stats and pro football will be a goal as well but the primary goal will be creating something fun for my kid and his friends and hopefully providing a bonding experience for fathers and sons.

Any advice from those that have done it will be very much appreciated.

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A beginner friend at work used NFL.com, I helped him navigate and it seemed like a good place to start.  It was Free and has a Pretty solid interface. 

Personally, for something like this I would use ESPN.  The interface is easy to use, it has links to the ESPN site, and is generally easy to use.  But, the best reason for a league like this, is that they do offer lineup advice and recommendations and the projected stats appear to be better than a lot of sites out there.  Almost like driving an automatic car, they can let the site take the lead on a lot of decisions and start assuming the amount of control that they are comfortable at the pace that they prefer.

I'm in a local redraft league on ESPN and I swear that at least half the league lets ESPN make all of the decisions for them.  And ESPN has been doing a lot better than me this year in that league.

EDIT - I just took a look at the lineup optimizer.  I'm not sure if you need an Insider subscription for that but it gives a projected win percentage based on either your opponent's current lineup or "optimized" lineup.  It will then offer suggestions as to who to start and explain why it made the decisions.  That could be very helpful for new players -- if you trust the recommendations which i don't always.  But it helps new players start thinking about why certain decisions are being made.

I have pasted a screenshot of the lineup recommendations below.  The greyed out players are recommendations that ESPN made.  And, although not formatted nicely here, there is a link to "Why did Insider make these recommendations."



LINEUP RECOMMENDATIONS
Insider attempts to maximize your team's Win Probability for your current matchup by recommending the most optimal lineup. Want to learn more? Click here



CURRENT WIN PROBABILITY

51.9%


INSIDER RECOMMENDED LINEUP

• OPTIMIZED
  
  

OPPOSING LINEUP SETTING
Optimized LineupCurrent Lineup


 


 

STARTERS


 


WK 14


 


 OUTLOOK


SLOT


PLAYER, TEAM POS


ACTION


 


OPP


STATUS ET


 


PROJ


NUMBERFIRE PROJECTION ANALYSIS


VOLATILITY


QB


Russell Wilson, Sea QBhttp://games.espn.com/ffl/clubhouse?leagueId=127799&teamId=8&seasonId=2016


 


 


@GB


Sun 4:25


 


19


Score 19.5 or more points: 65.6%; Pass for at least 1 TD: 76.3%


MED


RB


Ezekiel Elliott, Dal RB


 


 


@NYG


Sun 8:30


 


21


Score 20.77 or more points: 74.0%; Rush for at least 1 TD: 60.9%


LOW


RB


T.J. Yeldon, Jax RBhttp://games.espn.com/ffl/clubhouse?leagueId=127799&teamId=8&seasonId=2016


 


 


Min


Sun 1:00


 


8


Score 8.43 or more points: 39.8%; Rush for at least 1 TD: 5.8%


MED


RB/WR


Allen Robinson, Jax WRhttp://games.espn.com/ffl/clubhouse?leagueId=127799&teamId=8&seasonId=2016


 


 


Min


Sun 1:00


 


12


Score 11.63 or more points: 58.6%; Catch at least 1 TD: 17.3%


MED


WR


Sammy Watkins, Buf WR  Qhttp://games.espn.com/ffl/clubhouse?leagueId=127799&teamId=8&seasonId=2016


 


 


Pit


Sun 1:00


 


11


Score 10.8 or more points: 61.6%; Catch at least 1 TD: 36.2%


MED


WR


Brandin Cooks, NO WRhttp://games.espn.com/ffl/clubhouse?leagueId=127799&teamId=8&seasonId=2016


 


 


@TB


Sun 4:25


 


13


Score 13.43 or more points: 57.9%; Catch at least 1 TD: 43.4%


MED


TE


Eric Ebron, Det TE  Qhttp://games.espn.com/ffl/clubhouse?leagueId=127799&teamId=8&seasonId=2016


 


 


Chi


Sun 1:00


 


10


Score 10.46 or more points: 41.2%; Catch at least 1 TD: 26.7%


MED


D/ST


Dolphins D/ST D/ST


 


 


Ari


Sun 1:00


 


9


Score 9.2 or more points: 43.0%; Allow fewer than 20 points: 45.7%


MED


K


Graham Gano, Car Khttp://games.espn.com/ffl/clubhouse?leagueId=127799&teamId=8&seasonId=2016


 


 


SD


Sun 1:00


 


8


Score 8.14 or more points: 58.0%; Kick at least 1 FG: 61.1%


MED



Below is an example of ESPN's recommendation explanation for one suggested move.

Insider has optimized your lineup to maximize your Win Probability for the current matchup and recommends the following moves:
Sammy Watkins for Mike Wallace

Sammy Watkins has a projected scoring range of 6 to 20 points, giving him a 60.2% chance to outscore Mike Wallace, whose projected scoring range is 6 to 16 points.

Baloney Sandwich said:

Any advice from those that have done it will be very much appreciated.

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Five of us in my neighborhood league happen to have sons in the same age range, and since we hang out together a lot watching RZ on Sundays, they've been clamoring for their own league since they were around 8 themselves.

Given the time of year, I'd strongly recommend starting them out the way we did, which was to set up a playoffs-only draft-and-done league for them - helped "test the waters" by getting them used to the draft process (we did an offline draft, no clock of course, with the dads offering advice to the kids as needed). We set it up as a 6-teamer and just tracked total points (the sixth being a buddy's 8yo daughter who jumped in at the last minute knowing nothing at all about the NFL ... naturally she took 2nd place ). Unfortunately MFL is the only place I know of that offers free playoff leagues, but fortunately the kids didn't have to worry about learning the interface since there were no trades, lineup moves, etc.

Then, starting last season, we set the kids up along with the 5 dads as a separate 10-teamer on ESPN, which is where I already host our local league - again I'd strongly recommend this as it's free, easy to use, and has a pretty intuitive iPad app - and of course the kids spend more time on iPads than we do. Standard scoring, standard lineup settings, and kids and dads in separate divisions (so in a 13-week regular season the kids play each other twice and the dads only once, which they enjoy more). Four-team playoff with a minimum of three kids qualifying. For the first year we did more of a "free for all" with FCFS waivers for the kids where the dads couldn't make add/drops until Saturdays, just to get them acclimated to the in-week process, but this season we've moved to something more akin to regular schedules. We didn't bother with money the first year, but this year each dad threw $10 in just to have something besides bragging rights for the boys (now 10yo's) to play for.

Any way you choose to go, the kids should have a blast (and they can even learn some life lessons in the bargain ... like my son, who this year had his opponents score 200 more points against him than any other team allowed, so finished 3-10 with the 4th-highest scoring team - the lesson of course being "sometimes life isn't fair" ). Best of luck!

I'd also recommend using Espn as it's very user friendly, and obviously I would keep things as simple as possible as the kids are so young. Maybe initially just go with actual scoring and leave out yardage scoring altogether. Maybe QB, 2RB, 2WR, TE, K, DEF.

As for rules, keep it simple but try to match it to what the kids watch.  I believe that most of the fantasy trackers that appear during games use a non-PPR format so it might be helpful to start with that so that they can get updates as to how their players are doing and learn about values while watching the games.  Or, if you watch a particular pre-game show on Sunday, use the format that they use so that the kids can get some more value from that.

I would also recommend having each parent do a quick write-up each week.  Nothing long but talk about the games, match-ups, lineup decisions, and even offer a piece of advice.  It will probably take 15-30 minutes once every 6 or 8 or 10 weeks but I think that the kids would get a lot out of it and it adds to the experience.

I believe Terry Cannon (TC was a pillar of this industry) ran free youth leagues. Not sure if that website is still up and running. I'll look around and see what I can find. 

Hooper31 said:

I believe Terry Cannon (TC was a pillar of this industry) ran free youth leagues. Not sure if that website is still up and running. I'll look around and see what I can find. 

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Wow, that's a name from the past.  Terry was awesome with what he did.  I think that he had some health issues a while ago and is no longer doing this.  But I do remember that he had a lot of great articles and advice.  If you can find his stuff definitely look at it.

We're in the second year of our kids' league.  I started it up last year for my (then) 9 and 7 year olds.  We had eight teams to start and set the league up on ESPN.  We got all the kids together for the draft and used a big draft board and stickers. All were 9 (4th grade) except for my 7 yo (2nd grade) who watches more NFL and knew as much or more than the 9 yo's.

I figured the kids would get bored after the 5th or 6th round but most were still really into it right through the last pick.  My two kids were sharing the draft dominator on an ipad and other kids had apps or paper lists.  Once we got them going, the dads pretty much stayed in the kitchen BS'ing and drinking beers unless there was a problem or a kid came in with a question.

I think it helped that all the kids are really into football and knew alot of the players but I think any kid could do it if they had a list and just crossed people off and picked their way down.

This past year we added two more kids who really wanted to join in and turned away a couple because we didn't want to have too many teams.  Sitting through that second draft with 10 teams was pushing it a bit for the kids' attention spans.  I wouldn't start a league with more than 6-8, see how it goes and expand from there.

I think the first year we used QB, RB, WR, WR, TE, K, D.  The second year we added a flex spot,  PPR scoring.  Waivers are reverse order of the standings that week.  I had each dad chip in $20 which (mostly) covered draft board, pizza, beer (for dads, juice for kids), and end of season prizes (gift cards to **** s) for Superbowl winner and runner up.

All the kids have really liked it and all the parents continually thank me for setting it up so it worked out well for us.

Connected to TC via facebook and sent him a text. Hoping he can stop by and chime in.