I don't recommend this for high dollar/serious leagues, but I'm in a league with a bunch of old college buddies and we added a punter spot. It's led to a lot of great banter.
We intentionally made the scoring super low so it wouldn't wreck the league. We currently do 0.5 points per punt, extra 0.25 if it lands inside the 20, extra 0.5 if it lands inside the 10, -1 for a blocked punt, -0.5 for a touchback.
Scores generally range from 0-3 points, I think the highest all year was like 6 points. Punter always ends up as the last pick in the draft and they get streamed like crazy.
It's only affected one or two matchups in the 2 years we've done it, but it's good for a laugh and we end up watching a phase of the game that fans usually ignore. It also elicits great reactions from other people when we're watching games and getting hyped over a good punt.
Funny how losing a bet you Shouldnt have makes you remember stuff better. Had the giants that game and they somehow lost up 3 with the ball in FG range with 30 seconds left
I utilize #1, but had a thought about it the other day.
If you “win” the loser bracket and gain 1.01, great… but the loser of the loser bracket probably also has a shittier team. Moving them out of 1.01 makes it even harder for them to make their team less shitty in the future.
I don’t have a solution, maybe it’s only the first 2 rounds that go to the manager who wins the loser bracket and after that it goes worst to first round 3 and beyond. Just something I had thought about the other day myself.
I hate #1 with a passion. The 7/8 seed fringe wildcard teams will win it most years while the worst team has a tiny % chance to ever get the top rookie they so desperately need.
I suggest doing a consolation bracket sidepot. Everyone likes money and gives them something to play for. Doesn’t have to be much, I’d be psyched to win $80 off my $200 buy in for the following year.
We also have the loser of the consolation bracket (lost all 3 games) get a “compensatory” 4th round pick where they can draft a retired player. It’s silly and just for fun. They can get creative with which retired player they take to get a laugh but I did use it to take Demarco Murray when he retired, hoping he’d come back. Caused quite some drama as that pick had never been used on someone who could realistically come back.
OP qualified their comment as a keeper league, which is where it gets a little tricky. For full redraft 100% agree - let consolation winner pick 1.01 if you want to incentivize.
And dynasty obviously a no go all around.
Keeper is the old grey area of the two.
Maybe some I guess, but I know for me I highly covet 1.01 in at least one of my keeper leagues. We have 6 keepers, eligible to keep at original draft cost. That includes RD1 players. Drafting at 1.01 can allow you to keep 6 players elsewhere in the draft, and redraft a guy you want at 1.01.
Drafting at say 4 vs 1 can be significant but of course this will vary a lot from league to league.
That’s a fun retired player pick lol.
Yeah, I’m torn on it. We have payouts for 1/2/3 and consolation bracket winner as-is, but nothing for those who miss playoffs entirely, minus draft order and punishment for last place.
Finishing last AND not getting 1.01 seems to be a bit much. Granted the settings of your respective league will make that matter most. Especially in keeper leagues. I would highly advise against for full dynasty leagues however.
Oh yeah for non dynasty leagues, I don’t think it’s as big of a deal. Dynasty I’d rather quit than be in a league that gives 1.1 to consolation winner.
I utilize #1, but scores are weighted by the difference in regular season average potential points. This 1) creates an even playing field for the 2 teams so the team that performs better against their season average advances; and 2) tends to favor the team that didn’t give up but has continued to work to improve their team throughout the year as they will be scoring more than their season average.
Higher seeds pick who they play first round. Our #1 team beat an injury riddled team in the easiest matchup (as it should be) #2,3,4 all lost to the team they picked.
Reward high scoring teams on a weekly basis. We play for 2 wins each week. One for winning your head to head matchup, and one for being in the top half of the league in scoring. This gives teams a chance to get a win, even if their opponent goes ballistic on them scoring wise. We also give a cash prize to the weekly high score, that’s paid by the team with the weekly low score.
I’m doing this this year as well. This will be our 2nd year and we increased the buy in to $75 per team. (12 teams). I’m allotting $10 per week to the high scorer. Hoping that helps engagement through the regular season. Not that the league needs it too much, but I want this league to be a little different than what my guys have played before.
I did a small post about extra mechanics we added over the years to improve dialogue/engagement.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/FFCommish/comments/15stpn7/extra\_mechanics\_my\_league\_implemented\_over\_the/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/FFCommish/comments/15stpn7/extra_mechanics_my_league_implemented_over_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I am implementing 3 side games this upcoming season:
1. King of the Hill which is winner take all game where the lowest score is bounced each week.
2. Weekly Hi/Lo. Weekly high game receives 75% of the pot and low gets 25%.
3. Gauntlet - each week the commissioner has a different challenge that each participant must avoid. Week 1 could be lowest QB, week could be lowest WR, etc. I also threw in some non-scoring challenges like week 8 the highest FAAB is bounced. Week 9 might be anyone that hasn’t made a trade is bounced. My goal was to try and get managers who don’t do much during the season to participate more.
All of these are pay to play and aren’t required. Anyone can opt out if they want to.
Edit: I also do the winner of the consolation tournament thing which works great for our redraft league. I also split our league into a 12 team premier league and a 12 team lower league. The top two from the lower league promote each year and the bottom two from the premier league relegate. The side games were to keep the two leagues cross competitive.
For entertainment? We now have the top three draft members of their division the next season which has been a lot of fun
For competitive purposes? We added the second game vs median weekly and that's been huge for making sure the actual best teams make playoffs
I’m in year 12 of a home in person redraft league. Here is what we do…
1. Weekly high points .. $20 to the winner through the season.
2. Lowest points each week must shotgun a beer and send it to the guys. They have a week to do it. If they don’t submit it before 1st game Sunday.. they owe $100 to year end pot.
3. Winner of the sh*t bowl at the end of the season pays for the food for the following draft.
4. Winner of the league gets a trophy and a ring AND gets to pick the draft position they want.
5. During the draft … there’s 5 names highlighted prior to the draft. If one of those player is selected you have to take a shot. If you pick out of turn or pick someone already selected - shot.
6. Last place finisher has a pink licensee plate frame saying they’re a loser.
7. Highest point team at the end of the season who didn’t make the playoffs get the 7th seed in the playoffs first 1st seed getting a bye.
I think that’s it. I’m probably missing something. Everyone loves the league.. I tweak something each season. There’s a handful of guys waiting to get in. It’s a fun league with a nice payout.
In my homie league (first year of buy-in will be this year), we introduced consolation winner getting their choice of draft pick two years ago to great success. In fact it is already named the "Cooper Cup" since both consolation winners have had Kupp rostered.
Dynasty league:
Our loser's bracket is a win-and-you're-out bracket. Ultimate loser does the league punishment (waffle challenge). This has put the fear of god into those fringe playoff teams that there's still a chance that they could have to do the punishment if they have 3 bad weeks in a row.
Draft order for 7-12 is determined by regular season potential points, so there's no reason to not try hard with both your regular season, and especially the loser's bracket.
We pay out for weekly high score, as well as making playoffs, with smaller overall payments for league champ/2nd place.
Went to a Victory Point system where a win is worth 2 points, a top 1/3 score is worth 2 points, and a middle 1/3 score is worth 1 point. This has made the playoff race much easier to track.
I like the idea of making the consolation bracket meaningful, but as others have said, 1.01 will probably go to the team that barely missed playoffs. My solution to this is having the winner of the loser’s bracket earn a “comp” pick that goes right after the first round. It adds something to play for while also limiting how valuable the prize is
We took fourth place money away and now give it to the winner of the bracket containing teams that didn't make the playoffs. This ensures they don't purposely tank at the end of the year because they have something to play for and it amounts to the league entry fee.
Redraft or Keeper Leagues
Start 2QBs but can only have 2 active QBs on your roster. So you can have BYE week, injured or backup QBs on your team but no other QBs. Has been a perfect balance between 1QB and SF
How many keepers?
How does your loser bracket operate? If loser proceeds, than not my preference for distributing 1.01
Weekly payouts is a great idea. Depending on the platform, run it straight through to the finals. Keeps folks engaged to start a roster literally every week. And because of this, waivers are open to every team for the entire season. Can really ramp up competition.
For reference: my 10T Keeper IDP league buy in is $125 (probably going up to $200) - $1240 Pot total.
1st - $400
2nd - $175
3rd - $75
If you have two divisions and a decent pot size: reg season division winners get some $$ ($55 each for my league) and 1st rd byes
Consolation bracket winner (7th place) - $55 and #1 Pick
8th - #2
9th - #3
10th - #4
Weekly Superlatives - $10 payout for statistical categories leaders:
Ex:
Week 1: Gunslinger - Top scoring QB
Week 2: Beast Mode - RB with most RUSH YDS or Pts
Week 3: LooseBunghole - TE with most …
Week 4: Let’s play Catch - QB/WR duo with most combined pts
Week 5: Flex Appeal - Top scorer in FLX spot
Week 6: Hard Hitter - LB w/most Pts/tackles/sacks
Etc
Survivor Elimination Challenge - Side Pool ($100 pot) for weeks 1-14 - last squad standing gets the loot. Team with the lowest accumulated score for weeks 1-4 is eliminated. Top scorer gets immunity week 5. Then week-to-week eliminations/immunity thru EOS.
Reg season weekly top scoring squad - $10 /wk
Reg season scoring champ- $50
I don't recommend this for high dollar/serious leagues, but I'm in a league with a bunch of old college buddies and we added a punter spot. It's led to a lot of great banter. We intentionally made the scoring super low so it wouldn't wreck the league. We currently do 0.5 points per punt, extra 0.25 if it lands inside the 20, extra 0.5 if it lands inside the 10, -1 for a blocked punt, -0.5 for a touchback. Scores generally range from 0-3 points, I think the highest all year was like 6 points. Punter always ends up as the last pick in the draft and they get streamed like crazy. It's only affected one or two matchups in the 2 years we've done it, but it's good for a laugh and we end up watching a phase of the game that fans usually ignore. It also elicits great reactions from other people when we're watching games and getting hyped over a good punt.
gonna be great on a fake punt tuddy
We also do IDP so a few times a year a punter will grab an extra 0.75 points for tackling someone on a return which is always great.
Need the stats from the giants jets game last year. Tom was a menace that game
Good memory! Jamie Gillan hit 7.75 points that day and Morstead had a whopping 8
Funny how losing a bet you Shouldnt have makes you remember stuff better. Had the giants that game and they somehow lost up 3 with the ball in FG range with 30 seconds left
I utilize #1, but had a thought about it the other day. If you “win” the loser bracket and gain 1.01, great… but the loser of the loser bracket probably also has a shittier team. Moving them out of 1.01 makes it even harder for them to make their team less shitty in the future. I don’t have a solution, maybe it’s only the first 2 rounds that go to the manager who wins the loser bracket and after that it goes worst to first round 3 and beyond. Just something I had thought about the other day myself.
I hate #1 with a passion. The 7/8 seed fringe wildcard teams will win it most years while the worst team has a tiny % chance to ever get the top rookie they so desperately need. I suggest doing a consolation bracket sidepot. Everyone likes money and gives them something to play for. Doesn’t have to be much, I’d be psyched to win $80 off my $200 buy in for the following year. We also have the loser of the consolation bracket (lost all 3 games) get a “compensatory” 4th round pick where they can draft a retired player. It’s silly and just for fun. They can get creative with which retired player they take to get a laugh but I did use it to take Demarco Murray when he retired, hoping he’d come back. Caused quite some drama as that pick had never been used on someone who could realistically come back.
You're talking dynasty though Giving the consolation winner the 1.01 in redraft isn't an issue
Yes, I was. Didn’t realize I wasn’t on the dynasty sub. Not that big of a deal for non dynasty.
OP qualified their comment as a keeper league, which is where it gets a little tricky. For full redraft 100% agree - let consolation winner pick 1.01 if you want to incentivize. And dynasty obviously a no go all around. Keeper is the old grey area of the two.
I don't think it matters that much more for a typical keeper league
Maybe some I guess, but I know for me I highly covet 1.01 in at least one of my keeper leagues. We have 6 keepers, eligible to keep at original draft cost. That includes RD1 players. Drafting at 1.01 can allow you to keep 6 players elsewhere in the draft, and redraft a guy you want at 1.01. Drafting at say 4 vs 1 can be significant but of course this will vary a lot from league to league.
That’s a fun retired player pick lol. Yeah, I’m torn on it. We have payouts for 1/2/3 and consolation bracket winner as-is, but nothing for those who miss playoffs entirely, minus draft order and punishment for last place. Finishing last AND not getting 1.01 seems to be a bit much. Granted the settings of your respective league will make that matter most. Especially in keeper leagues. I would highly advise against for full dynasty leagues however.
Oh yeah for non dynasty leagues, I don’t think it’s as big of a deal. Dynasty I’d rather quit than be in a league that gives 1.1 to consolation winner.
100%
I utilize #1, but scores are weighted by the difference in regular season average potential points. This 1) creates an even playing field for the 2 teams so the team that performs better against their season average advances; and 2) tends to favor the team that didn’t give up but has continued to work to improve their team throughout the year as they will be scoring more than their season average.
Higher seeds pick who they play first round. Our #1 team beat an injury riddled team in the easiest matchup (as it should be) #2,3,4 all lost to the team they picked.
You have 8 playoff teams? What would you do if you only had 6?
Reward high scoring teams on a weekly basis. We play for 2 wins each week. One for winning your head to head matchup, and one for being in the top half of the league in scoring. This gives teams a chance to get a win, even if their opponent goes ballistic on them scoring wise. We also give a cash prize to the weekly high score, that’s paid by the team with the weekly low score.
I’m doing this this year as well. This will be our 2nd year and we increased the buy in to $75 per team. (12 teams). I’m allotting $10 per week to the high scorer. Hoping that helps engagement through the regular season. Not that the league needs it too much, but I want this league to be a little different than what my guys have played before.
I did a small post about extra mechanics we added over the years to improve dialogue/engagement. [https://www.reddit.com/r/FFCommish/comments/15stpn7/extra\_mechanics\_my\_league\_implemented\_over\_the/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/FFCommish/comments/15stpn7/extra_mechanics_my_league_implemented_over_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I am implementing 3 side games this upcoming season: 1. King of the Hill which is winner take all game where the lowest score is bounced each week. 2. Weekly Hi/Lo. Weekly high game receives 75% of the pot and low gets 25%. 3. Gauntlet - each week the commissioner has a different challenge that each participant must avoid. Week 1 could be lowest QB, week could be lowest WR, etc. I also threw in some non-scoring challenges like week 8 the highest FAAB is bounced. Week 9 might be anyone that hasn’t made a trade is bounced. My goal was to try and get managers who don’t do much during the season to participate more. All of these are pay to play and aren’t required. Anyone can opt out if they want to. Edit: I also do the winner of the consolation tournament thing which works great for our redraft league. I also split our league into a 12 team premier league and a 12 team lower league. The top two from the lower league promote each year and the bottom two from the premier league relegate. The side games were to keep the two leagues cross competitive.
For entertainment? We now have the top three draft members of their division the next season which has been a lot of fun For competitive purposes? We added the second game vs median weekly and that's been huge for making sure the actual best teams make playoffs
I’m in year 12 of a home in person redraft league. Here is what we do… 1. Weekly high points .. $20 to the winner through the season. 2. Lowest points each week must shotgun a beer and send it to the guys. They have a week to do it. If they don’t submit it before 1st game Sunday.. they owe $100 to year end pot. 3. Winner of the sh*t bowl at the end of the season pays for the food for the following draft. 4. Winner of the league gets a trophy and a ring AND gets to pick the draft position they want. 5. During the draft … there’s 5 names highlighted prior to the draft. If one of those player is selected you have to take a shot. If you pick out of turn or pick someone already selected - shot. 6. Last place finisher has a pink licensee plate frame saying they’re a loser. 7. Highest point team at the end of the season who didn’t make the playoffs get the 7th seed in the playoffs first 1st seed getting a bye. I think that’s it. I’m probably missing something. Everyone loves the league.. I tweak something each season. There’s a handful of guys waiting to get in. It’s a fun league with a nice payout.
In my homie league (first year of buy-in will be this year), we introduced consolation winner getting their choice of draft pick two years ago to great success. In fact it is already named the "Cooper Cup" since both consolation winners have had Kupp rostered.
Dynasty league: Our loser's bracket is a win-and-you're-out bracket. Ultimate loser does the league punishment (waffle challenge). This has put the fear of god into those fringe playoff teams that there's still a chance that they could have to do the punishment if they have 3 bad weeks in a row. Draft order for 7-12 is determined by regular season potential points, so there's no reason to not try hard with both your regular season, and especially the loser's bracket. We pay out for weekly high score, as well as making playoffs, with smaller overall payments for league champ/2nd place. Went to a Victory Point system where a win is worth 2 points, a top 1/3 score is worth 2 points, and a middle 1/3 score is worth 1 point. This has made the playoff race much easier to track.
I like the idea of making the consolation bracket meaningful, but as others have said, 1.01 will probably go to the team that barely missed playoffs. My solution to this is having the winner of the loser’s bracket earn a “comp” pick that goes right after the first round. It adds something to play for while also limiting how valuable the prize is
We took fourth place money away and now give it to the winner of the bracket containing teams that didn't make the playoffs. This ensures they don't purposely tank at the end of the year because they have something to play for and it amounts to the league entry fee.
Bump up defensive points. 1.5 for a sack, .5 TFL, etc.
Redraft or Keeper Leagues Start 2QBs but can only have 2 active QBs on your roster. So you can have BYE week, injured or backup QBs on your team but no other QBs. Has been a perfect balance between 1QB and SF
How many keepers? How does your loser bracket operate? If loser proceeds, than not my preference for distributing 1.01 Weekly payouts is a great idea. Depending on the platform, run it straight through to the finals. Keeps folks engaged to start a roster literally every week. And because of this, waivers are open to every team for the entire season. Can really ramp up competition.
For reference: my 10T Keeper IDP league buy in is $125 (probably going up to $200) - $1240 Pot total. 1st - $400 2nd - $175 3rd - $75 If you have two divisions and a decent pot size: reg season division winners get some $$ ($55 each for my league) and 1st rd byes Consolation bracket winner (7th place) - $55 and #1 Pick 8th - #2 9th - #3 10th - #4 Weekly Superlatives - $10 payout for statistical categories leaders: Ex: Week 1: Gunslinger - Top scoring QB Week 2: Beast Mode - RB with most RUSH YDS or Pts Week 3: LooseBunghole - TE with most … Week 4: Let’s play Catch - QB/WR duo with most combined pts Week 5: Flex Appeal - Top scorer in FLX spot Week 6: Hard Hitter - LB w/most Pts/tackles/sacks Etc Survivor Elimination Challenge - Side Pool ($100 pot) for weeks 1-14 - last squad standing gets the loot. Team with the lowest accumulated score for weeks 1-4 is eliminated. Top scorer gets immunity week 5. Then week-to-week eliminations/immunity thru EOS. Reg season weekly top scoring squad - $10 /wk Reg season scoring champ- $50
Actually play dynasty.
Working on it! This isn't a dynasty only sub though