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Semi-annual shout out to league commissioners. (1 Viewer)

Hot Sauce Guy

Hot Sauce Guy

Footballguy
It’s a thankless job, and a lot more work at times than folks realize.

For example, this morning at 07:45 AM, 3 days before the draft, one league member had a family emergency. He has to miss the draft.

We have 3 people coming in from out of state: hotels & non-refundable plane tix, all the fixins. Plus the league needing 12 people, not 11.

I suggested finding a proxy so he didn’t lose his spot in the league - in all the panic & dealing with his own issues that hadn’t occurred to him. He was so relieved at the suggestion & started calling around.  Thankfully one of the guys in the league’s brother is available, and is a mutual friend of this league manager. He’s also a dude in my FBB league so I know him well, he’s a fun dude, and is psyched for the pizza & beer. 

Just one more league disaster narrowly averted of the 6,747,261 over the least 20 years I’ve commished for this league. 

To all the commissioners: I’m sure you’ve all got your own last minute white-knuckle crisis situations you’ve had to navigate over the years. And for that, you have my respect. 

Kudos to you; commissioners. Like slightly less geeky dungeon masters, we couldn’t play this game without you. 
:tebow:

 
candian fantasy guy said:
no, it's a thankless gig.
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We do get thank you’s :shrug:

I got a bit nervous last week. In the Asst commish in our 19 year, 32 team dynasty. The real Commish has been as busy as I have lately and almost stepped down. I’d be able to cover this year but busy too. He stayed on but next January we’ll be asking for replacements. Won’t quit the league. Our busiest time is the winter, but for the most part the thing runs itself and we have awesome owners. 

 
Been a while since I was commish, and I definitely appreciate the work. Good, attentive, available commissioners make a huge difference in a league. Thanks, commish!

I did have a few owners over the years offer to chip in to cover my team costs. I have also tipped my good commissioners from winnings. Got a few really good ones, thankfully. 

 
zamboni said:
I view it as being a camp counselor, but without the free food and romping in the woods.
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In a league post this week:

”We can change issue X next year if y’all want, either by 1) unanimous consent or 2) I’ll put up a poll. As always, this is your league. I’m the caretaker who turns on the lights every year.“

I’m a facilitator. I make sure everybody gets a voice. Tremendous level of respect for each other so they make my role easy. For the most part, I let them run the league the way they want. I’m 1/12th of what makes it a good league. Thankfully we have awesome humans and they never give me agita.

In the last two decades I can only remember one time I had actively intervene and  - for the greater good of the league - tell two guys to just chill tf out. That was like 2006 or 2009. Told them both to work it out or GTFO - but stop with the public drama. They met for beers and cleared it up, both stayed in the league for another 8-11 years.

I have a few traditions. Every year I publish a history of the league. Just a thumbnail of our evolutions and changes, and put up the list of the Champs/runners by year. I do another post which is a roll call of every league member past or present; often leads to reminiscing. I also do a “Who are you guys anyway?” in the years we are welcoming a new member - everybody posts a brief bio or whatever they want people to know about themselves. All this stuff helps maintain a particular ethos, but it only works bc we’re on the same page. We have fun trash talking. Always have had high retention. 

I’m a Veteran and these days it’s fashionable to say “thank you for your service.” I give a quick and pleasant thank you, then move on. But there are 19 million living veterans. It’s a necessary job that needs to be filled. That’s what commish is to me, just somebody doing the needful. Ain’t NBD.

 
Question:

My league is going have playoffs in weeks 15, 16, 17

The question is, what creative way is there for scheduling in weeks 12, 13 and 14?  League is not broken into divisions and obviously, every team plays each other once up through week 11.  Some teams however are always disadvantaged by having to potentially play the better teams twice (myself included in years past - except it was only two weeks vs now three weeks) so I am thinking of doing something to even out the scheduling in those weeks and manually adjusting the schedules.  

For example, in one of those weeks it can be 1st vs 2nd...3rd vs 4th....5th vs 6th etc...etc...which could have an impact on the playoffs and make it more exciting......Another week could be 1st vs 12...2nd vs 11...3 vs 10....etc...etc...

Any suggestions?   Anybody else employ something like this or planning to? 

Thanks

 
xenon said:
Question:

My league is going have playoffs in weeks 15, 16, 17

The question is, what creative way is there for scheduling in weeks 12, 13 and 14?  League is not broken into divisions and obviously, every team plays each other once up through week 11.  Some teams however are always disadvantaged by having to potentially play the better teams twice (myself included in years past - except it was only two weeks vs now three weeks) so I am thinking of doing something to even out the scheduling in those weeks and manually adjusting the schedules.  

For example, in one of those weeks it can be 1st vs 2nd...3rd vs 4th....5th vs 6th etc...etc...which could have an impact on the playoffs and make it more exciting......Another week could be 1st vs 12...2nd vs 11...3 vs 10....etc...etc...

Any suggestions?   Anybody else employ something like this or planning to? 

Thanks
Click to expand...
Worthy of its own topic. 👍🏼

 
Been a commissioner for eight years with the Yahoo! Play or Die! league, setup to be a 14-16 team league that uses PayPal to collect league dues; make international payments simple and secure, but disliked by the Fantasy community because in the past it was easy to scam people. AS a result I have to recruit from all over and put as much info about the league/league history as possible, as well as making sure I'm accessible to communication at all times. And because you're willing to do that, people think you're an easy target and try to walk all over you.

- Messed up your waivers because you accidentally dropped Michael Thomas at 3am in the morning? Well I guess I have to turn back FAAB waivers and reprocess all the bids one at a time to fix it (which I did, honest mistake because no one is dropping Michael Thomas for a waiver TE).

- Make too many transactions in a week because you want to keep your Bye Week kicker? Well it's CLEARLY the commissioners' fault even thought it's been in the rules for 4 years.

- You make a questionable trade and have it pushed through Sunday morning, then want it rescinded ... on Tuesday afternoon? And you were drunk at the time? Well CLEARLY the commissioner is in cahoots with the other owners and hacked your computer, forcing you to make the trade and somehow hid it from you for 2 and a half days!

Seriously, it's just insane. I know there are commissioners who get some rake for doing leagues but I don't; all dues go into the prizes (close to a grand for 1st and 4th gets you a little more than your buy-in back). Why do we do it? Because for the most part it keeps us sane playing in a league with settings we are comfortable with, and for the love of the game/competition.

 
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I hear you.  I don't get squat but most of the same guys play in a NFL playoff pool that allows the guy who runs it to play for free (go figure).  

Most of the guys are fine but the guy that complains loudly that he can't pick up a player Monday night (same rule for 15 years that he's been in the league)

Same guy wants rules that have to be manually enforced by me, like " you have to have a kicker on your roster at all times", no suggestion about how it is enforced or what the penalty is.  

Sorry I digress.  I mostly do it because the last commissioner did a really poor job (waiting until something happened before clarifying a rule etc)

 
Ardbeg4ever said:
Sorry I digress.  I mostly do it because the last commissioner did a really poor job (waiting until something happened before clarifying a rule etc)
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I took over the league with 8 other defectors because our original IDP commish tried to cheat & got caught. 

I was a wildcard team headed into week 13, 1 week before the playoffs. I noticed that my 8-5 record had flipped to 7-6 overnight on a Sat. I asked what happened and Commish claimed it was an "ESPN stat change" that caused a W 4 weeks before to become an L. Deeply suspicious, as I'd never seen a month-old stat change, I emailed ESPN's CS and they said the change was done manually, by the commish. And further that all scoring changes were final by the Thursday after games were played out (finishing with MNF)

So....that wasn't fun. 

Anyway, we needed a commish, and I didn't love the set-up of the league, so I volunteered. That was more than 2 decades ago. Crazy how time flies. 

We migrated from ESPN (thank god) and I set it up with what I thought were good initial settings. The rules changes have all been done by democratic process, with a poll posted & 50% +1 needed to finalize a new rule (or remove an old one). Every year prior to the draft I send out a request for scoring change suggestions (because folks plan strategy around scoring) and every year AT the draft, I open the floor for rules proposals (non-scoring). It's very smooth, and no one complains about anything. 

There have been dust-ups over the years. One case of legit collusion (both 10 years out of the league since), challenges like the above in my OP yesterday, and one league member who's brother in law and also league member relapsed, took all the drugs, & stole/crashed/rolled his wife's brand new car then went to jail 5 days before the draft, so he needed to be replaced in a hurry. 

But other than a few random things, it's been a pretty smooth job.  As we get older, work sometimes gets in the way - members on business trips send me a lineup to set just in case a defensive player is out, or if someone is questionable to start they'll send me a contingency plan - as commish I don't mind doing stuff like that for the league members. It sucks to be at a conference with your boss and miss football already, but to potentially lose a game for lack of access would be even crappier. 

But those little extra efforts contribute to league harmony, and we're a highly competitive bunch who really love the game & the game of football. There are often side bets on games, from a round of golf to one time a $500 bet between league members of who's newly drafted set of 3 WRs would outscore the other. That was insane and hilarious, but hey, that's between them. It's all good natured, and the league winner always brings a bottle of bourbon to the post-season draft (we have ~18 guys from 3 different leagues draft a postseason contest) 

The important part to me as commish is that everyone has a good time - at the draft, in-season, and in the off-season. We're all friends & it's important to me that we all remain friends, so I'm johnny on the spot to resolve any potential issues. 

 
I am co-commish in one league...took over commish of another.

The co-commish league is easy.  Draft day is basically the same every year.  Actually on zoom this year again for the 2nd year in a row.  Should be an easy draft.  Fun old league of people I used to work with.

Other league...is fun, group of local friends...not super serious and I typically do well.  Getting the draft set up with this group is an absolute crap-show.  Nobody is ever available at the same time...they wait til the last minute to get back to me on availability and we always have someone last minute pull a "draft me from a list" or I will call in.  It never fails.  This year is no different.  Ending up rushing through one draft to likely head out to this one earlier than I wanted to...but the only way to accomodate a group with a lot of kid's activities and some work travel (and another guy who seems to be on vacation every other weekend of the year).

 
Hot Sauce Guy said:
last 4 years I’ve started the conversation in March. 
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Would not change a bit with this one...it would all still be last minute...hey can we change this or that.

Finally got it all worked out so we have a date of the 7th...this one always seems to draft in the few days before the season.  Just works out that way but hard to predict with some of the work schedules (one guy is out of town a lot most weeks...mostly in driving distances but he never knows ahead of time when or where).  Others with just unpredictable kid's sports schedules and so on.  Im lucky my kids are a little older (one where he can drive himself to and from any types of practices or work.  And my daughter's schedules are pretty well set and we have help there as far as carpooling her to and from Dance rehearsals when needed.

 
Hot Sauce Guy said:
It’s a thankless job, and a lot more work at times than folks realize.

For example, this morning at 07:45 AM, 3 days before the draft, one league member had a family emergency. He has to miss the draft.

We have 3 people coming in from out of state: hotels & non-refundable plane tix, all the fixins. Plus the league needing 12 people, not 11.

I suggested finding a proxy so he didn’t lose his spot in the league - in all the panic & dealing with his own issues that hadn’t occurred to him. He was so relieved at the suggestion & started calling around.  Thankfully one of the guys in the league’s brother is available, and is a mutual friend of this league manager. He’s also a dude in my FBB league so I know him well, he’s a fun dude, and is psyched for the pizza & beer. 

Just one more league disaster narrowly averted of the 6,747,261 over the least 20 years I’ve commished for this league. 

To all the commissioners: I’m sure you’ve all got your own last minute white-knuckle crisis situations you’ve had to navigate over the years. And for that, you have my respect. 

Kudos to you; commissioners. Like slightly less geeky dungeon masters, we couldn’t play this game without you. 
:tebow:
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About 5 years ago we had a similar situation in our local league (well, with 1 guy flying in and 2 guys driving 4-5 hours).  One had to cancel on the day of the draft because his gf went into labor early. We had to scramble to find a replacement although it's not easy in an auction IDP league (with fairly high league fee to boot). We had an all points bulletin and found a replacement in the afternoon. Crisis averted.

I remember about 20 years ago one guy didn't show up to the draft in the days when we scored things by hand based on USA Today box scores. I had to create a "phantom" team idea because it was too last minute to find a replacement.

Anyway, I've never taken a tip or a reduced/free team. It's not in my DNA. I just accept the sacrifice of being a commissioner. I know my guys appreciate me.

There is one internet Commissioner that always goes online recruiting owners on Rotoworld (and this site) and doesn't mention in rules that he plays for free. You only realize it if you calculate the payouts. Irks the hell out of me. He runs double-digit plus high dollar leagues. Yeah, it's some work involved, but it's basically a $10k free roll for him.

 
I have been my league's commissioner for two decades and rl things have gotten in the way of me being as attentive as a newbie wanted so he proposed league rule changes and I didn't bother to read.  Well he says the league voted even though five of twelve teams didn't bother to vote so he wants the rule changes which consist of three things that would greatly impact scoring.

I crunched the numbers.

Oddly enough the one team that would benefit the most is my team.  I pretty much have dominated the league so the last thing this newbie wants to do is gift me extra points every week.  Oh and one of the other teams who would benefit by the rule changes he proposed?  Take a guess. 

I just posted my findings and told him I'm not making rule changes this year.

We'll see what he and the rest of the league have to say.  

 
Bracie Smathers said:
I have been my league's commissioner for two decades and rl things have gotten in the way of me being as attentive as a newbie wanted so he proposed league rule changes and I didn't bother to read.  Well he says the league voted even though five of twelve teams didn't bother to vote so he wants the rule changes which consist of three things that would greatly impact scoring.

I crunched the numbers.

Oddly enough the one team that would benefit the most is my team.  I pretty much have dominated the league so the last thing this newbie wants to do is gift me extra points every week.  Oh and one of the other teams who would benefit by the rule changes he proposed?  Take a guess. 

I just posted my findings and told him I'm not making rule changes this year.

We'll see what he and the rest of the league have to say.  
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Mutiny is never ideal. :lol:  

In the league I’ve run for about as long as you & yours, rules changes are brought up to the commissioner. The commissioner puts it up to vote. 6+1 = passed. 6-6 = commissioner’s call. 

There’s no way i would allow a rogue rules change vote to stand, especially when it impacts scoring & this close to the season.

that n00b sound like a hand-full. Good luck. 

 
Hot Sauce Guy said:
Mutiny is never ideal. :lol:  

In the league I’ve run for about as long as you & yours, rules changes are brought up to the commissioner. The commissioner puts it up to vote. 6+1 = passed. 6-6 = commissioner’s call. 

There’s no way i would allow a rogue rules change vote to stand, especially when it impacts scoring & this close to the season.

that n00b sound like a hand-full. Good luck. 
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I'm actually really pissed because I just checked and not only would I reap a windfall by added scoring and extra flex positions but the two positions I am strongest and by faaaaaarrr the deeeepest at are the two positions that would gain the most.  I mean he really didn't think it through.  I was mad enough but after crunching the numbers and seeing how much I would gain.... really mad.  I could hold the rest of the league hostage for years with these insane rule changes.

 
Bracie Smathers said:
I'm actually really pissed because I just checked and not only would I reap a windfall by added scoring and extra flex positions but the two positions I am strongest and by faaaaaarrr the deeeepest at are the two positions that would gain the most.  I mean he really didn't think it through.  I was mad enough but after crunching the numbers and seeing how much I would gain.... really mad.  I could hold the rest of the league hostage for years with these insane rule changes.
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Kudos to you, league commish, for having the integrity to shoot down something that would benefit you hugely then. 

#salute

 
It's a hassle but I want my leagues to stay together.  I wanted to quit being a commish a couple of years ago.  I suppose the desire to have the leagues keep going was more important than my desire to quit, so I'll keep on going as long as I can.

 
In the league I've been in the longest the commish gets $25 off his entry, $200 buy in. In the league I've run the longest I get $10 off my entry, and the guy that runs some custom options through his server that are implemented into our MFL league site also gets $10 off, $140 entry. All the other leagues I commish or co-commish there is no value incentive.

I also keep my league site fee discounts that I get through the subscription to this site, which covers the subscription fee plus a little extra.

 
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darksideofoz said:
In the league I've been in the longest the commish gets $25 off his entry, $200 buy in. In the league I've run the longest I get $10 off my entry, and the guy that runs some custom options through his server that are implemented into our MFL league site also gets $10 off, $140 entry. All the other leagues I commish or co-commish there is no value incentive.

I also keep my league site fee discounts that I get through the subscription to this site, which covers the subscription fee plus a little extra.
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I'm not big on commish payments, but these are very reasonable as these things go. 

I've seen quite a few instances of "commish plays for free" and I think that's horsepuckey. I would never play in such a format.  But $10 or $25 of $200 isn't extreme at all. There is work involved, after all. 

Personally, I am self-employed & work weekends. So for me to take a weekend day off for the FF draft can cost me 10x the league entry fee. e.g. I would "win" more by quitting FF & dragging my butt to work. :lol:    But that's not really what it's about. It's getting together with friends and the annual competition that I love. And if it weren't for FF I'd probably never take a weekend day off. It all works out. 

 
I've started a league discord server in the hopes this makes my job as commish easier. There's a learning curve for the n00bs but I hope everyone will embrace it in time. If I get one more text that "X owner isn't responding to trade email"... now they have a tool to communicate in real time if necessary. 

 
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it's the worst.

last year, in my longest running league, the winner gave me a tip, that equaled the buy in.  that was nice.  he could tell that i was over it.

sadly, in another very long term dynasty league, the commish passed away about 3 weeks ago.  we are still figuring out what to do.  my dumb ###, took the reins(temporarily!!) because i was familiar with the MFL system.  already having to chase people.

it's the worst

 
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