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Some general rules that you'll want to cover include what your roster limitations are, how trades will work, how free agency works, what your scoring rules are, and how team disputes will be handled.
Set up your league schedule
Next up, you'll need to put together a schedule for your league. Because your fantasy teams are made up of real-world NFL players and your points are based on their performance in real-world games, your schedule should be set within
course of NFL regular season. It's recommended that final game of your fantasy season be no later than second to last game of NFL regular season. This is because many real-world NFL teams rest their stars once they have qualified for playoffs. These stars are almost certainly same players that some of teams in your league rely on. Additionally if your schedule goes into playoffs, there is a strong chance that many of real-world NFL players on various fantasy teams won't have any active games left.
Whenever possible, you should try to create a schedule which allows each team to play every other team in league at least once.
Note: Draftwizard.com has a great tool to help you Create your fantasy league schedule.
Draft your teams
Now that you've got your commissioner, set up your rules, and put together your fantasy schedule you're ready to have your fantasy draft. The point of your draft is to let all teams in your league fill out their rosters in as fair and simple a way as possible.
Try to schedule draft for a time when everyone can attend and participate. In general live drafts make for a more community filled and fun league, but, especially at first, a live draft can be a slow and drawn out process. The more organized and structured you can make your draft, more fun each team should have and quicker whole process should go.
Note: Draftwizard.com has a great tool to set up and run your draft.
Play your games
Finally, you're ready to play your games! Submit your starting lineup, keep an eye out for possible trades or free agent pickups, gloat about your success, and trash talk to your league mates when they fail.
Most important of all, remember that fantasy football is a game and basic idea, whether you're winning or losing, should be to have fun. So enjoy!
Kevin Marshall is the founder of various fantasy sports sites including www.draftwizard.com and www.supermug.com. When he's not deep into coding new and improved features for one of these sites, he's generally doing research which has helped him to win his league championship two years in a row!
