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FFT Express - Fantasy Football Commissioner Tips You NEED Before Draft Day! Trade Drama, Waivers & More! (07/25 Fantasy Football Podcast
00:12:56
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- [00:00]
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- [00:32]
Dave Richard
Fantasy football leagues right now on Fantasy Football Today Express. Welcome into FFT Express everybody. Dave. Richard here. I'm joined by Kevin Murray, who's written a book. This is, this is the end all, be all when it comes to being a commissioner of a fantasy football league. Here we go, the Commissioner's Playbook. A guide to creating the fantasy football league of your dreams and a legacy that lasts. Man, just for a fantasy football commissioning book, that's a hell of a title. Kevin, tell us about the book. Tell me why you decided to write it.
- [01:08]
Kevin Murray
Well, thanks for, thanks for letting me be here. This is exciting. You know, my passion is, is commissioning. Once upon a time I won commissioner of the year and it really came down to just, you know, all putting all my heart in the league. And so I've been doing this for a long time. I love the game and for me fantasy is, is such a great experience, but that the foundation is the league experience. And so, you know, for commissioners, you know, getting the opportunity to, to, to foster an incredible league and help the experience for their league members be great, that's, that's the, that's the motivation. You know, the book essentially is for every commissioner who wants to raise the bar and for every fantasy player that wants to make their league special, you know, make the highlight of the year, it's, it's really for them.
- [01:51]
Dave Richard
Are there any universal pointers for commissioners? Whether it's a first time commissioner or a guy who's been commissioning a league for a long time?
- [01:59]
Kevin Murray
Well, you got to lead, right? You know, the commissioner's got to be a great leader. It's got to be a trustworthy leader. It's, it's, it's a person that, that has the opportunity to shape and create a league that they really, they really want to, right? When it comes to, you know, communication and engagement, like the more you put into your league, the more you'll get out of it. I know a lot of people will say, oh, commissioners, a thankless job and then complain about the duties, but when it comes to, you know, putting everything into your league, you're going to get it back if you. If you put your heart into it.
- [02:30]
Dave Richard
Is there one or two things that you have to have as a commissioner in every single one of your leagues?
- [02:36]
Kevin Murray
Well, weekly engagement. You know, you got to do something to keep league members engage. Right. People play in a lot of fantasy leagues these days. You want to be the league that everyone wants to win. Right. The more, you know, the more you're dialed into one league, that's the most entertaining, the better. So entertainment is huge. Whether it's weekly power rankings or, you know, having a. A league podcast or league newsletter or just staying active with engagement is really the key.
- [03:03]
Dave Richard
So that's pretty incredible that you go that far with your fantasy leagues, that you're going to create power rankings and. And all this other fun stuff to. To keep the league certainly engaged. I love that. That does take a lot of work. What do you say to commissioners that don't want to put in that kind of work? Are they just, you know, deadbeats who shouldn't be commissioning a league?
- [03:22]
Kevin Murray
Well, I mean, you can always collaborate with others in the league, delegate duties. Right. You know, if you're doing a power rankings, if you want to do power rankings for your league, you know, have each member of the league do one each week. Right. You know, you can always shift responsibilities, share responsibilities, and that can make a big difference to take the load off person.
- [03:40]
Dave Richard
Okay, so now the same question that I just asked you before, Kevin, but more about, like, the rules of a fantasy league. Are there any rules that you think I'm gonna ask it this way? Are there any fantasy football rules that you, as an expert commissioner, would say are just too archaic and too basic? They should be left in the dust. Fantasy managers and fantasy leagues shouldn't use any of these rules.
- [04:05]
Kevin Murray
Well, personally, I'm not a huge fan of vetoing trades. Right. I think that. I think the commissioner should be responsible for overseeing the veto process. Right. I think that, you know, people can complain to the commissioner, you know, bring. Bring that to the commissioner's attention and discuss it kind of, you know, on the back channels. But for a league to vote, you know, everybody's got a bias. Everybody wants to win. Everybody's competitive. They don't want to see their. Their, you know, their. Their arch nemesis, you know, get the advantage in a trade. And so I think that can cause some issues where, you know, you get one trade gets vetoed, and then, so you. You veto someone else's trade because you're mad. I think it just creates a little it creates potential for some catastrophe in a fantasy league. So the more the commissioner is involved in kind of just oversight and understanding that, you know, unless you're colluding, unless there's cheating going on, every manager should be able to to make the deals and manage the roster, their roster in the best way they can.
- [05:00]
Dave Richard
Would you say that having a veto at all is something that's not necessary? There shouldn't even be veto power in a league. I mean, we're all adults here playing in a fantasy.
- [05:09]
Kevin Murray
Yeah, really, it should maybe don't even call it veto. I mean, obviously a commissioner can step in if there's something egregious. Otherwise, you know, let managers manage their teams.
- [05:19]
Dave Richard
Kevin's here to help make fantasy leagues more fun, more meaningful, more community driven. I think he's made that very clear. When we come back from the break, I'm going to throw a couple of the fantasy cops questions we had on Friday's Mailbag at Kevin and see how.
- [05:33]
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- [06:26]
Dave Richard
All right, back on FFT Express, Kevin Murray's with us, author of the Commissioner's Playbook, a guide to creating the fantasy football league of your dreams and a legacy that lasts 446 pages. Kevin wrote on this book. I I can't wait to get my eyes into it. There's a Kindle ebook available now for 99 cents. The paperback version. The hardcover versions, they're available on Amazon. Okay, we had two questions on our Fantasy Cop segment on Friday's FFT Mailbag show. Kevin, you tell me how you would have handled these situations. The first one, Justin Fields, we knew about it this week. He hurt his toe in practice. He limped off as soon as the news came out. Someone in one of the leagues that listens to our show went to go pick up to Rod Taylor, only to find out that Todd Taylor was already picked up by somebody else. Are you for that first come, first serve waiver priority or should there be a daily waiver process in fantasy leagues?
- [07:21]
Kevin Murray
That's a great question. In the off season, you know, I definitely think that it should be first come, first serve. I mean, you know, you're, there's no reason to have a waiver wire, you know, deadline or process during, during this time of the year. I think that it's free game, you know, she. But, but again, a lot of this stuff with, with league settings and rules, it comes down to the collective, you know, in the league. Like, you know, what, what do you, what is as a whole, what does the league think about this deal? Communicate, you know, come to a good understanding of how to set these rules and settings. But with, you know, in a league, it was my league. Yeah. I mean, this time of year, someone should be able to go pick up Taylor without hesitation.
- [07:58]
Dave Richard
And then if someone who missed out on Taylor called you up and said, hey, commission, I, I want you to change the rules, I want there to be a waiver process, would you just hang up on that guy or would you actually take it to the rest of the league for, for a vote? How would that work?
- [08:12]
Kevin Murray
Yeah, I think that in a, in a strong league, there should be a, a period of time where you discuss rules and settings and then you set them in place. Right. You don't want to change rules or settings at, you know, on a whim. During a fantasy season or even the off season, you should have a set period of time where you discuss rules. You set the rules. And then next year, you know, you can obviously bring this topic up and discuss it and set it. Set it how you want it.
- [08:35]
Dave Richard
Okay, so that's kind of the same theme. For the second question that we had on our show on Friday. There was a first time commissioner built a league with his buddies. Their first year went great. They decided to add a keeper element and they never decided how the keepers would be determined. And so the commissioner, I think taking your advice, kind of took it to the rest of the league and said, okay, what do you guys want? Half the league wants there to be. You keep whoever you want, keep two players, there's no penalty. The other half thinks there should be a draft pick penalty. If you're the commissioner of that league, how do you settle the issue so that everybody in the league is happy?
- [09:13]
Kevin Murray
Yeah. If you're setting up keepers, you want to do it in advance. A keeper rule. Right. If you're going to bring in, incorporate keepers into a fantasy league. You need to let everyone know this is what's happening for next season. You can't. Like, if they're setting keepers right now based on the roster they had last year where they didn't know there was going to be a keeper, there shouldn't be, you know, you should, shouldn't do that. I mean, I think that the easiest thing is to say, okay, everyone wants to do keepers. Okay, this draft we're going to draft our players and then next year based on the keeper format we're going to use, it's going to, it's going to be relevant then.
- [09:48]
Dave Richard
Okay, but how would you handle this situation now where half the league wants one thing and the other half wants the other? It's. If it's a tie right down the line, maybe does your vote count double then as commissioner, is that how you settle it?
- [10:01]
Kevin Murray
Well, I would say majority. You know, I would, I would assume that they are voting based on majority. Right. So if it's six, six or in a 12 man league, I mean, I think that it doesn't go through. You need seven votes. If you're going majority and the commissioner.
- [10:15]
Dave Richard
Shouldn'T abstain, the commissioner gets a vote, but it only counts for one. And then if it's deadlocked and someone either has to change their vote or there maybe are no keepers, is that maybe a solution too?
- [10:25]
Kevin Murray
Yeah, I would not integrate a keeper format until next season.
- [10:31]
Dave Richard
Okay, so now let's say that there was a majority of the rule passes, but maybe there's one or two managers. They're just whiners. They're. They're guys like this in every league. Do you have any advice on how league commissioners should handle these types of managers? They're just going to whine and complain about everything that happens in the league whenever they don't get their way.
- [10:52]
Kevin Murray
I mean, the, the honest truth is, is that vetting league members is one of the most important things you can do in a fantasy league. Like, you want to have 10 or 12 people that are, you know, rock solid. If you have members that are going to spoil the bunch. It's, it's something that you want to be looking into next season for a replacement in advance because you don't want to ruin a fantasy league. You know, fantasies for fun. Like fantasy should be fun. You want to focus on the fun elements, the good elements of the game. And you don't want someone that's always complaining and whining. And it's hard because Obviously, you know, it might be your, you know, your brother, it could be your cousin, it could be an integral person person in this group. But that's where communication comes in. You got to just, as commissioner, talk to that person, say, listen, this is, this is a problem we're getting. You know, we have these concerns, we're going to address them and we can either move forward or at some point we're going to find a final replacement. You just got to be honest and truthful and it all work out.
- [11:49]
Dave Richard
Yeah. And those are good qualities to have in life in general. I was going to say, what if the whiner is the host of your podcast and you have to talk to him every day? But we won't get into that. We won't get into that. Kevin Murray, the author of the Commissioner's Playbook, a guide to creating the fantasy football league of your dreams and a legacy that lasts. It's on Amazon right now and you can get the Kindle ebook for 99 cents. Kevin, thank you so much for giving us some of your time and thank you so much for writing this book. I intend to reference this a bunch in the leagues that I commission. For everybody out there, that watch, thank you very much. We will see you next time on FFD Express.
- [12:30]
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