Is it too early to start talking about fantasy football?
I’m considering running a league this year that would be aimed at being a serious/hardcore league.
But this thread can serve as the general discussion forum for all SDMB fantasy football leagues before football season is close enough to break off into several threads. Catch up with people, discuss leagues and rules, whatever.
As far as the league I’m proposing, the main requirement is that the people who volunteered to sign up for it would be active throughout the whole season. A few people in our league last year lost interest midway through the season and stopped playing - which made things screwy for those of us still playing, when the playoff seeds could be determined by who gets the lucky matchup with the guy who hasn’t adjusted his roster and is starting 4 injured players. I’d want people who love fantasy football and will be competitive and active every week. And showing up for the live draft is a big deal, too, I think - it’s the biggest part of your season, and it’s just fun when we have everyone show up and discuss the picks as they happen. Essentially I’d like all of the most serious, competitive fantasy football players in the SDMB all in one league - I guess the All-SDMB fantasy football team. Those who already have a regular league every year would be welcome if they were okay with managing both leagues.
From there, everything is flexible. Once we decide together how many teams we’ll have, and pick who’ll be in it, we can discuss what the best scoring system, trade rules, etc. are.
Well, anyway, I’m just opening the dialog - feel free to discuss anything related to fantasy football. And tell me if you have interest in participating in the league I’m proposing.
The only real difficulty is that, when you’re signing up, pretty much everyone says that they’ll do all those good little things.
Apparently it’s a lot harder to be devoted to a team when you’re down in the standings and things aren’t going well. If I’m ever in that position, I’ll let you know how it goes.
I do one or two SDMB leagues every year, and I’m definitely looking to do the same this year. I particularly come to the SDMB leagues for the ones that are ‘different’ in one way or another - be it our 16 team leagues, or our leagues with different takes on stats, or any of the other weird things that we do. But you know that if you try to put an ‘elite’ league together, well, I’m all for kicking some people around in that venue, too.
So I guess you can put me on whichever lists you’re starting.
That’s true, but I hope people will respect my wishes as far as this league goes and bow out if they know they’re not dedicated. There are probably enough SDMB fantasy footballers with enough of a history to form a league with the known reliable ones. From our league alone last year (cough you know, the one that I won cough) there were at least 6 solid, reliable people.
People who have a reliable history would get a priority over newbies, although newbies would be welcome to… uh… apply? I guess. I’m not trying to be elitist or anything, I just want to form a league of people who put the same ballpark of effort into fantasy football as I do, it’s more fun that way.
I got LT’ed in the playoffs by the team that was undefeated in the regular season, I don’t feel THAT bad about last years team. Especially considering the stiffs I kept throwing out there at QB.
But yeah, I know what you mean. The big thing for me is showing up for the draft - there is nothing like a draft where almost everyone is there and participating, though of course that can be a hard thing to organize.
I’m just lucky that my core players all got hot at the right time. Taz went undefeated through every game except the championship. If I recall correctly, LT didn’t have an especially bad day, just not a great one, and my core players (Manning to Harrison) went nuts.
All the more reason to start talking early - if we get our league formed early on, we’ll have a bigger choice of the limited amount of draft times and ideally find something that’s good for everyone.
I’m definitely interested in fantasy football this year. I’m a reliable fantasy player, since being commish of the SDMB keeper league requires me to stay active in fantasy football through the end of the season.
One general fantasy tip is to use a non-locking waiver wire. It is easy for the commish to manage, is very flexible for the players, and it prevents the “closest to the computer” syndrome when somebody has a breakout game. I can post details on how it works if you like.
As for live draft times, I cannot do Labor day night, since that’s the keeper league’s live draft. I’d recommend Wednesday, August 29th at 10:00pm Eastern. This is before the last week of preseason, but pretty much no fantasy players get any playing time the last week so injuries shouldn’t be an issue. Thursday night could be a conflict for people taking a long Labor Day weekend. Earlier than 10:00pm Eastern could be a problem for West Coasters.
I’m definitely interested in any hardcore fantasy football leagues. I’ve been playing fantasy football for about eight years now, and I’ve never had anyone be more active in a league than I am. Take that for what it’s worth, since I played in mostly public leagues that are abandoned by everyone but me halfway through, but even in the hardcore leagues, I’m there the most. I’ve won my last couple leagues with moderately good attendance, and I can promise you that you won’t be disappointed with my activity.
I’ve been trying to find a steady group of people to play with for a while now. I’d like to be informed on anything that starts up here on the Dope.
I just want to head this off, even though it’s only speculation… I can’t do Wed. the 29th, because my work-money league is drafting after hours that day. And I definitely prefer something closer to 9pm Eastern if it’s a work-night, depending on how big the league is and how long we expect the draft to be. That general time period is definitely a good one, though.
The sweet spot is between Tuesday, August 28th and Wednesday, September 5th inclusive. The Bengals (and Falcons) starters will play most of the game on the 27th, so you want to wait until after that to mitigate injury risk. The season opens on the 6th, so obviously you want before that.
So far there are conflicting drafts already scheduled for the 29th and 3rd, plus you probably want to avoid the long Labor Day weekend, so that kills the 31st, 1st and 2nd.
That leaves:
August 28th
August 30th (Thursday night before Labor Day weekend; might be problematic.)
September 4th
September 5th
Subscribing to thread to keep updated. I’m commishing my main league again, but I’m also already in a couple of others. I can’t stand quitters, either, UGH! If enough people sign on, tho, I’ll just stay in my local leagues.
Would you guys mind posting with your usual team name and your yahoo account name? Sometimes I forget the SDMB name to team name translation for the leagues I’ve been a part of, and with a yahoo ID I can check out your fantasy profile (I think).
My team name also swings around - though I play as Last Place when I can’t think of anything remotely original - and my Yahoo! ID is jms_mps (nickname is just jms in the new display system they’re using).
There’s a “fantasy profile” page under the yahoo fantasy sports that tells you your history with various leagues, rates you, etc. There’s a “compare to a friend” feature that I thought would allow me to check out other people, but it’s only a dropdown menu to compare yourself to people you’ve already been in leagues with. Is there any way to look up arbitrary fantasy profiles for yahoo sports?
In a random related note, I seem to be pretty good at all kinds of pick 'em leagues. I’ve finished 2/21, 2/13, 2/20, 3/11, and 7/12. I’ll also be running those (as well as survival, and maybe even salary cap football, I’m a football junkie now) this season like I did last year.
I haven’t ever used Yahoo for fantasy sports. Actually I think I may have used it a few years ago during my “year o’ catastrophe,” and I think thats why I stopped. Superstition and all that. I don’t even remember my user name.
How many teams should we be aiming for? 12 seems to be ideal, but I’m open to discussion on what you guys feel is best.
The teams and playoffs we had in our league last year seem pretty close to ideal - 12 teams, week 14-16 playoffs, 1 and 2 seed get a first week bye. But I’m open to discussion.
Yahoo profile: jchristidis
Last year my team name was Holding Out For Bush.
If you look at my profile, you’ll see that football is my poorest sport but it’s not for lack of trying. So I’m interested in whatever the SDMB sets up this year.
SDMB FF History
15/16 - 2005 (Damn you Culpepper!!! Damn you!!!)
8/12 - 2006
