Short version:
I am the commissioner of a fantasy (American-style) football league (Hosted by Yahoo) that will be starting it's 23rd season this fall.
Its not the official Yesfans league. It's just a league for anyone I come across.
If you'd like an invite, send me a PM with your email address.
The draft is this Wednesday, August 9, at 7pm EDT.
I should warn you that the commissioner (me) is, by popular request from some managers, a bit of a hardass, You don't have to be any good at fantasy football to join, but you do have to make sure you field a starting lineup each week that doesn't include players with bye weeks or with long-term injuries where it was known they wouldn't play early in the week. Managers can and do get ejected and replaced at times- even during the season. I can love you as a human being or an Internet personality, but usually you'll have to log in at least weekly and make sure your starting lineup is full of people expected to play that weekend anyway.
Though some people aren't a good fit and get tossed or quit, we also have managers who've been with us for 5, 10, or 15 years, because they enjoy the way we do things or the mix of people in the league, presumably. We have some at least mildly quirky rules that some people dig for their own sake and that others like as a challenge that's a little different from the other leagues they play in.
Long Version:
I am the commissioner of a fantasy football league on Yahoo that will be playing it's 23rd consecutive season this year.
The rules and scoring are a little quirky, so it might be a fun add for someone who wants a slightly different challenge than other leagues they're playing in, or from past leagues they've played in.
The draft is Wednesday August 9 at 7pm and is usually over before 9pm (We allow a little more time on the clock than other leagues so people don't have to make panic picks, and can use the time when they need it, but we encourage everyone who knows who they're selecting in a given spot to just do it and not build unnecessary drama that drags things out. We're not televised on ESPN or something. 
).
Anyhow, we're a 12 team league, and right now we have 8 teams back, plus 2 we're waiting on responses from. However, that leaves 2 spots that are definitely open (Their managers from last year emailed me recently and bowed up due to health considerations, in one case, and a busy fall schedule in general, in the other case), and maybe those other 2 as well if we can't get responses from last year's managers for those teams soon (Basically, I'm filling the definitely vacant slots first, then I start filling the people I haven't heard of to make sure we're ready for the draft).
A few quick things I should mentioned so you can make sure this is a good fit for you:
- We are fairly aggressive in weeding out managers who aren't subbing out players on bye weeks, or who keep playing people who have long-term IR type injuries. We're not going to ding people who play someone who's questionable and was a scratch 90 minutes before kickoff or something after testing his ankle or whatever on the field, but if the guy tore an ACL two weeks ago, that becomes an issue. This was something a bit over half the league requested of me many years ago. Without money at stake, that seems to be what's necessary to keep a league where all 12 franchises (12 has become the norm in recent seasons, but we used to have less in the past, and since we have 8 coming back, if we only get two more, we could play at 10. Some people prefer 10. I'd like to get to 12 so I don't have to contract existing franchises without managers, but, if I have to, I have to.) are actively at least doing the minimum to prepare for each game, especially as teams fall out of contention and managers are less motivated.
So, if you can't at least commit to subbing people out on bye weeks and such each week, it may not be the right league for you. We have thrown people out during the season in some of those type of situations. Usually I'll email them first and try to discuss the situation if I think I can remotivate someone (or check in to see if they are doing anything early the next week after a gaffe the previous week without necessarily interacting with them), but not 100% of the time.
- We made a "no politics" rule a few years ago when for the first time in league history, someone started getting aggressively political. We have several staunch Democrats and several staunch Republicans. It just wouldn't go well. The league goes well when we're all focusing on fantasy football.
So, if you really need your team logo to be a framed portrait of your favorite Presidential candidate or something, this probably isn't the right league for you.
- We're not an official Yesfans league, or a league that's officially associated with any website. Some people think we are if they see posts like this several years in a row on a message forum (I don't think I've posted openings here, but often if we get quality managers, we'll go back to the well several years in a row).
It's not that there'd be anything wrong with being an official league for a website. It's just that we're not. So, I always try to mention that if I remember to, just because sometimes in the past people have gotten confused and thought they were renewing a team in an official league somewhere or don't understand why it isn't all people from the forum- and also because I don't want to step on the toes of any official website league(s) by making it seem like we're trying to be them. We started before most of today's forums were around, and may continue past them.
- As of right now, Yahoo is rating us as a "gold" league, which is supposed means above 80th percentile/top 20%. That's just based on the teams already registered and could change. We don't really care how good people are (or aren't), though. We just want to see them trying and subbing out people with bye weeks and long-term injuries for healthy people who are playing that week. Usually the league winds up with managers from Platinum (Top 5%) to Bronze (Bottom 60%), so there are some really challenging teams you can feel proud of beating and some teams that are more beatable so you don't go 0-for the season.
I just mention this in case someone wants to see what they'd be up against competition wise. Otherwise, I wouldn't mention it. We don't really pay attention to ratings and levels, and you don't have to worry that you're lowering our league average if you're rating Bronze or something (We don't really care about the league's official Yahoo rating). You just have to keep trying each week.
-Since we're such a long-standing league with so many franchise names that have been around a long-time, we give every new manager we assign a franchise to the option of keeping the old name or coming up with their own. We like it when people keep names, because it creates a sense of continuity, and if one of our teams has a rivalry with a team who's manager left between seasons, at least we can sort of keep it going with a team of the same name run by a different manager. We don't want to lose anyone who wants to play over their unwillingness to keep an old team name, though. So it's up to the manager, but we do encourage people to *consider* keeping names, but ultimately leave it up to them.
If people do choose a new name, we recommend something that sounds like a real sports franchise and includes a city designation before it, but those are more suggestions than hard and fast rules. What is a rule is that we don't allow people to name teams after NFL or other pro sports franchises- there we step in and make a change.
Anyone who's interested should PM with an email address that I can send an invitation to.
Thanks for reading!
I am the commissioner of a fantasy (American-style) football league (Hosted by Yahoo) that will be starting it's 23rd season this fall.
Its not the official Yesfans league. It's just a league for anyone I come across.
If you'd like an invite, send me a PM with your email address.
The draft is this Wednesday, August 9, at 7pm EDT.
I should warn you that the commissioner (me) is, by popular request from some managers, a bit of a hardass, You don't have to be any good at fantasy football to join, but you do have to make sure you field a starting lineup each week that doesn't include players with bye weeks or with long-term injuries where it was known they wouldn't play early in the week. Managers can and do get ejected and replaced at times- even during the season.
I can love you as a human being or an Internet personality, but usually you'll have to log in at least weekly and make sure your starting lineup is full of people expected to play that weekend anyway.Though some people aren't a good fit and get tossed or quit, we also have managers who've been with us for 5, 10, or 15 years, because they enjoy the way we do things or the mix of people in the league, presumably. We have some at least mildly quirky rules that some people dig for their own sake and that others like as a challenge that's a little different from the other leagues they play in.
Long Version:
I am the commissioner of a fantasy football league on Yahoo that will be playing it's 23rd consecutive season this year.
The rules and scoring are a little quirky, so it might be a fun add for someone who wants a slightly different challenge than other leagues they're playing in, or from past leagues they've played in.
The draft is Wednesday August 9 at 7pm and is usually over before 9pm (We allow a little more time on the clock than other leagues so people don't have to make panic picks, and can use the time when they need it, but we encourage everyone who knows who they're selecting in a given spot to just do it and not build unnecessary drama that drags things out.
We're not televised on ESPN or something. ).Anyhow, we're a 12 team league, and right now we have 8 teams back, plus 2 we're waiting on responses from. However, that leaves 2 spots that are definitely open (Their managers from last year emailed me recently and bowed up due to health considerations, in one case, and a busy fall schedule in general, in the other case), and maybe those other 2 as well if we can't get responses from last year's managers for those teams soon (Basically, I'm filling the definitely vacant slots first, then I start filling the people I haven't heard of to make sure we're ready for the draft).
A few quick things I should mentioned so you can make sure this is a good fit for you:
- We are fairly aggressive in weeding out managers who aren't subbing out players on bye weeks, or who keep playing people who have long-term IR type injuries. We're not going to ding people who play someone who's questionable and was a scratch 90 minutes before kickoff or something after testing his ankle or whatever on the field, but if the guy tore an ACL two weeks ago, that becomes an issue. This was something a bit over half the league requested of me many years ago. Without money at stake, that seems to be what's necessary to keep a league where all 12 franchises (12 has become the norm in recent seasons, but we used to have less in the past, and since we have 8 coming back, if we only get two more, we could play at 10. Some people prefer 10. I'd like to get to 12 so I don't have to contract existing franchises without managers, but, if I have to, I have to.) are actively at least doing the minimum to prepare for each game, especially as teams fall out of contention and managers are less motivated.
So, if you can't at least commit to subbing people out on bye weeks and such each week, it may not be the right league for you. We have thrown people out during the season in some of those type of situations. Usually I'll email them first and try to discuss the situation if I think I can remotivate someone (or check in to see if they are doing anything early the next week after a gaffe the previous week without necessarily interacting with them), but not 100% of the time.
- We made a "no politics" rule a few years ago when for the first time in league history, someone started getting aggressively political. We have several staunch Democrats and several staunch Republicans. It just wouldn't go well. The league goes well when we're all focusing on fantasy football.
So, if you really need your team logo to be a framed portrait of your favorite Presidential candidate or something, this probably isn't the right league for you.
- We're not an official Yesfans league, or a league that's officially associated with any website. Some people think we are if they see posts like this several years in a row on a message forum (I don't think I've posted openings here, but often if we get quality managers, we'll go back to the well several years in a row).
It's not that there'd be anything wrong with being an official league for a website. It's just that we're not.
So, I always try to mention that if I remember to, just because sometimes in the past people have gotten confused and thought they were renewing a team in an official league somewhere or don't understand why it isn't all people from the forum- and also because I don't want to step on the toes of any official website league(s) by making it seem like we're trying to be them. We started before most of today's forums were around, and may continue past them.- As of right now, Yahoo is rating us as a "gold" league, which is supposed means above 80th percentile/top 20%. That's just based on the teams already registered and could change. We don't really care how good people are (or aren't), though. We just want to see them trying and subbing out people with bye weeks and long-term injuries for healthy people who are playing that week. Usually the league winds up with managers from Platinum (Top 5%) to Bronze (Bottom 60%), so there are some really challenging teams you can feel proud of beating and some teams that are more beatable so you don't go 0-for the season.
I just mention this in case someone wants to see what they'd be up against competition wise. Otherwise, I wouldn't mention it. We don't really pay attention to ratings and levels, and you don't have to worry that you're lowering our league average if you're rating Bronze or something (We don't really care about the league's official Yahoo rating). You just have to keep trying each week.
-Since we're such a long-standing league with so many franchise names that have been around a long-time, we give every new manager we assign a franchise to the option of keeping the old name or coming up with their own. We like it when people keep names, because it creates a sense of continuity, and if one of our teams has a rivalry with a team who's manager left between seasons, at least we can sort of keep it going with a team of the same name run by a different manager. We don't want to lose anyone who wants to play over their unwillingness to keep an old team name, though. So it's up to the manager, but we do encourage people to *consider* keeping names, but ultimately leave it up to them.
If people do choose a new name, we recommend something that sounds like a real sports franchise and includes a city designation before it, but those are more suggestions than hard and fast rules. What is a rule is that we don't allow people to name teams after NFL or other pro sports franchises- there we step in and make a change.
Anyone who's interested should PM with an email address that I can send an invitation to.
Thanks for reading!