Family Fantasy Football League Suggestions (1 Viewer)

Jedi Knight said:

I do this exact type of league.  We use MyFantasyLeague.  We have a live, on-line draft as most of the members are from Charlotte, but we have a couple from Florida.  We also do best-ball with weekly head-to-head.

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Long Ball Larry said:

Vampire league seems like the only way to go to me.

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amnesiac said:

i’m not familiar, could you fill me in, please?

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Long Ball Larry said:

sorry, just kidding around.  it is a league where one owner cannot draft a team or only can draft $1 players.  Must fill out roster with waiver players.  But for every game they can win, they get to steal a player from the team that they beat.

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amnesiac said:

and any general suggestions?

thanks!

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Long Ball Larry said:

Vampire league seems like the only way to go to me.

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JoeSteeler said:

sleep with the commissioner's wife

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amnesiac said:

so we’re starting a family league this year with the kids and their cousins. 

we are having a live draft, but then want to enter it online since they are in different cities.  

was thinking best ball format, but still want them to have head to head matchups. 

any suggestions where to host it?  

and any general suggestions from anyone who has done a similar league before?

thanks!

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• MFL is great for customizing non-standard formats like the one you referenced, but honestly a regular ESPN H2H league is fine, free, and probably better-geared for the audience. The MFL UI is byzantine and frustrating even for me - I can't imagine what it would be like for a 10- or 11-year old to deal with.
  
• Not sure how many teams you're thinking, but try to keep the format shallow enough that every kid's team looks really good on paper. We started with 8 teams so I ran 2/2/3/1/1/1, with only 5 bench spots so there was plenty of talent on the wire; last year we had 10 so we scaled back to 1 QB (and added a flex).
  
• In that vein, most sites have a setting to reset the WW order each week to reverse order of standings. In adult leagues I think that's asinine, but it's a great idea for kids - levels the playing field by giving the worst teams first crack at the wire every week.
  
• Don't be afraid to be an active commissioner by blocking trades that seem one-sided, or going in to take an injured guy out of Aiden's lineup on Sunday because, you know, he's 9 and doesn't own a smartphone. Being fair is more important than being a stickler for the rules.
  
• The parents all chip in a nominal amount ($5-10); the first year, I used it to buy a GC for the winner and runner-up, and a small present (those little medals on ribbons you can get on Amazon for $3) for each owner with a customized label - you can always find something that each team did better than anyone else's. As the kids have gotten to be tweens I've moved from that to GC's to the top two and consolation bracket winner (6-team playoff and a 4-team CB, which again I don't like in real leagues but makes sense for kids).
  
• Make sure the goal is having fun rather than fostering competition, at least in year 1 ... at this stage, the kids are honestly more competitive about it than we are