Thanks Black. Some great info. A lot of work for ya though at first glance.
I got input from about 4-5 leagues from people on the Shark Pool, and borrowed rules from 'here and there' to build our league rules. It did take me a long weekend one November to read thru all the leagues, highlight what I liked, then go talk it over with a buddy who was going to be in the league. After I created the rules, I met a couple of time in the Spring with 2-3 guys I recruited and
shared the rules over beers/wings and walked through scenarios to see what they thought. That was VERY useful in fixing the most important rules (for us, that was the length of contracts, how many contract extensions were allowed, length of contract extensions, total roster size, and taxi squad rules). We worked hard to put in incentives to draft and HOLD rookies, even then, at the end of the day my league turned into more of a hybrid Keeper//Dynasty league (we tend to keep about 12-15 players yearly?), but does make it more dynamic.
The most important part of the league is getting quality Managers. All of mine were local to start, so we could do face to face drafts, meet for wings/games and the NFL draft, etc. Even if they move, after they've been in the league a year or two, you can often count on them (my experience). I would also get inputs from some 'key' Managers on the rules well ahead of time. Give them time to think about scenarios (like trading, extending/franchising players, taxi rules, etc.) so you get those shaken out before you kickoff your first draft.
About 1/2 the stuff in my League Rules (or 'constitution')
are needed only about once/year. It's good to toss those 'corner case' rules in there (like you can't drop then re-add a guy and give him a new contract; all league members are responsible for verifying scoring settings before the season starts; we don't retroactively change scoring, etc.). Stuff like that doesn't come up much, but it can rock the league when it does. The same is true with collusion prevention rules: they seem offensive when you show them to prospective managers, but they are needed sometimes.
The next most important part of building the league is
getting the rules such that the league is 'playable'. ie, we decided to just use Contract Years to encourage player churn, after originally considering Salary Cap, too. This was because (I thought) keeping track of the yearly salary increases (x% for certain performance, etc) would be too hard.
The thing I miss by not using a $ Salary Cap is that we don't do an Auction each year for Free Agents. That would have been fun. I had wanted a yearly Auction for Free Agents sometime in the summer, then Rookie only Draft before kickoff of the season. In the end, it helped simplify my league, as only one had ever done a Dynasty league before (none had done an Auction ever!). They all really like the league (and really enjoyed the original Auction).
Once the rules are adopted (including Scoring...ie 4 points for TD vs. 6 points?),
people won't want to change them, because SOMEONE will have planned some big team decisions around that rule. It is VERY hard to change the rules midstream.
A couple more inputs on scoring: you probably want to do something like 4 points/pass TD (vs. 6 points) and a sliding scale for PPR if you choose PPR (0.5 PPR for RB, 1.0 PPR for WR, 1.5 PPR for TE). Another thought is just to go 0.5 PPR across the board, due to the increase in passing game in the NFL. With 1 PPR, all of a sudden, non-passcatching RBs are REALLY devalued. By the way, all this assumes 10 yards= 1 point (aka, "High Performance Scoring".)
Also
be careful on Defense/ST scoring (if you are non-IDP). If you add in aggressive Return Yards points to D/ST, it starts to wash out the penalties for Points Against (ie other team scores a TD taking points away, but then kicks off to them and they get a few points back). Also,
with Kickers, if you do >40 yards== 4 points, >50 == 5 points...some kickers get alot more value. It can add diversity, but personally, I prefer to lessen the impact of Kickers and D/ST in my leagues (although, I use return yards and more points for longer FGs).
Two more final suggestions (for any league):
1)
Go open a small savings (or checking) account at your local bank (I used a Credit Union) for your Fantasy League(s). 'Verify' your PayPal account with it. You can now accept credit card payments (for 1.5-3% fee). You can transfer money back and forth online between PayPal and your Bank. You can Paypal back winnings at the end of year or even have PayPal send you checks out of the account (or get your bank to cut you a check). This ensures all money is there at the end of the season.
2)
Give the Commish 'final say' over EVERYTHING. Put it in the rules. I have tried 'league vote' or 'league approval' for stuff, but the ones that vote usually are the ones with something to gain/lose. You can say "If there is a complaint, the commish may put this to a league vote." Usually, when there's a problem, I do formally or informally run it past my league mates. Most of the time the league doesn't care, as long as the 'fair' thing is done. Be sure to be 'above the fray', so if you are involved in a dispute, you need to get public support for your decision. A couple of times when I would have just made a decision, when I was involved, I had the league give inputs/vote so it did not look bad.
As soon as the dispute is over,
put something in the rules to prevent it from happening again. I edit my rules as the season goes, then bring up those changes up for 'vote' each August at the Draft. Everyone usually mumbles "fine, fine" and we get on with the draft.
