Note: This interview originally appeared in its entirety several years ago on the now-defunct CommishTalk.com website, a place where fantasy football commissioners could exchange ideas to improve their leagues. Italicized comments featured below were responses from the site owner, Justin Speer.

In the "Commissioner Spotlight" series of articles we have the privilege of an inside look at the experiences of fantasy football commissioners from all across the land. I believe there is great value in learning from experiences and exploring opinions aside from my own. I asked the same 10 questions to a wide variety of different commissioners. So let's get to it!

Jared Byrd

Commissioner of the "Ultimate Fantasy Football League"

Twitter: @jared259

http://www.ultimatefantasyfootballleague.net

 

1. How long have you been a Commissioner? What was your motivation to start your own league?

I have been the commissioner of the Ultimate Fantasy Football League (UFFL) since its creation in 2002, although I have been playing fantasy football since the late 90s. The UFFL is the first fantasy football league I've ever been the commish of, so it holds a special place in my heart. Most of the owners at the beginning were regular chatters or former site admins at the old CBS SportsLine chat rooms, which abruptly shut down in August 2001, and the league served as a way for us to keep in touch over the years. Six of the original 12 owners are still competing to this day.



If you have a bunch of former chatroom folks I'm gonna assume your league is pretty serious. That's great!

2. Do you do a live draft or online? Do you have any notable Draft Day festivities?

The UFFL has owners from all over the United States (and has even had participants from Canada and England in the past), so it's impossible to do an in-person draft. From 2002 to 2006, we did offline drafts, where owners would e-mail their picks to the rest of the league. Although this format was strongly preferred to autopick drafts, many of the owners hated offline drafts because they took several weeks to complete and the e-mails would often arrive out of order, get delayed for a few hours or go missing altogether. Since 2008, we've conducted live online drafts, following a one-year experiment where we tried a combination live/offline draft with less-than-stellar results (more on that later).



It's always a challenge to get the most out of draft day, especially when your owners are all over the place. Never comes without hiccups.

3. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy being a Commissioner and why?

My enjoyment level of serving as a commissioner (and playing fantasy football in general) has always been at a 10, although I wish I could devote even more time to running the UFFL. I consider myself to be an organized person and I'm constantly thinking of ways to improve the league year-round. I've also been fortunate that in a league of this size (14 teams) and history (currently in our 14th season), I haven't had to deal with any really controversial issues.

... There's always a tough balance on how much time to spend on your league. Great to hear your conflicts are at a minimum!

4. Is there anything you find unique to your league that you really enjoy?

Our championship game takes place in Week 16, so during the 17th week of the NFL season, we have a Pro Bowl where the head coaches are the regular-season fantasy points leaders from each division. Prior to the game, both coaches are provided with ballots featuring the top players from their respective division and they have to field the best lineup possible. Due to the fact that several NFL teams rest their star players in preparation for the playoffs, UFFL Pro Bowl coaches have to factor in which players might see limited snaps (or no snaps at all) when choosing their lineups, adding an extra level of strategy to the game. The Pro Bowl was created primarily to fill the huge fantasy football void between championship week and the NFL postseason, when many members of my league compete in the NFL.com fantasy playoff game.



I absolutely LOVE this idea! I will probably steal it. I'd be interested to hear more about the prize for this event and the best way to set it up on your site.

5. What is one rule your league has that you feel very passionately about and why?

The UFFL allows owners to select three keeper players to carry over from one year to the next, regardless of the position they play (and they can keep them for as many years as they want). In my opinion, having fewer than three keepers means you lose the sense of continuity, while having more than that number means teams at the bottom of the standings feel it's impossible to improve their team in a short period of time and lose hope.



3 does seem like a good number. Any more than that and you should probably just take the plunge into a dynasty league!



6. What is the biggest league conflict you've dealt with?

A few years ago, one of the owners publicly suggested that we turn the UFFL from a free league into a paid league because they felt it would increase the competitiveness by forcing owners to pay more attention to their rosters and lineups. This generated a lot of spirited debate, and although several owners jumped on the bandwagon for this idea, nearly half of the owners in the league at the time said that they had no interest in competing in a paid league and probably would have left. I was opposed to a paid league because I didn't feel comfortable handling everyone else's money and had heard horror stories from other leagues where some people never paid up, not to mention that converting the payments of our international owners would have been a hassle. I eventually suggested that someone else could start a paid league to co-exist alongside the UFFL with several owners participating in both leagues, but no one wanted to take charge and the paid league never materialized.



This is fascinating to me. I think it's great you guys don't play for money and it still stays competitive and interesting! Your friends must be better people than mine! You have one thing right, collecting league fees is a headache!

7. What is the biggest mistake you've made as a Commissioner?

In an effort to speed up the drafting process in 2007, I decided to have a hybrid live/offline draft, where the first eight rounds were conducted in an AOL Instant Messenger chat room and the last eight rounds were done in an offline fashion. A completely offline draft would have meant weeks and weeks of tediousness, but I had a computer that was on its last legs at the time and wouldn't have been able to access any draft rooms, so I decided to implement this idea as a compromise. The AOL Instant Messenger portion was a complete disaster, because my computer kept crashing and other owners kept getting kicked out of the chat room as well. In addition, there was no clock to force owners to make selections within a reasonable amount of time. It took five hours for the first eight rounds to be completed. The following year, I purchased a brand new computer that was capable of handling live draft software

I can safely say I will not be recommending AOL Instant Messenger to the visitors of this site! Don't want a mess on my hands.

8. What is your biggest frustration being a Commissioner?

The most frustrating thing is seeing owners that don't make lineup changes during bye weeks or when one of their starters is injured. One team's lack of lineup and roster activity could impact the postseason picture because teams that are lucky enough to face them can cruise to easy victories. A close runner-up to this pet peeve is when owners have IR-eligible players on their active roster and stash them on their bench instead of putting them on injured reserve, which prevents them from picking up a free agent who could add much-needed depth to their team.

I've toyed with some different ideas for punishing poor team management. The best solution I've come up with (and currently implement) is sending the bottom 3 finishers down to the Minor League which is less fun for many reasons than our Major League! Definitely makes people pay attention because they don't want to suck bad enough to be demoted!

9. What is one thing you've discovered being a Commissioner that you didn't expect?

Between the recruitment of new owners, the implementation of new rule changes and planning for the draft, I've discovered that the offseason is just as important as the actual fantasy football season, from a commissioner's standpoint. Every spring, I e-mail a questionnaire to each UFFL owner gauging their interest in returning for the upcoming season and trying to find out what changes (if any) they would like to see in the league. This gesture shows owners that their input is appreciated and is taken under consideration before league decisions are made.

All that is spot on except one thing. The offseason is MORE important as a commissioner! At least for me it is. So much planning and decision-making occurs when games aren't being played. The regular season feels like a vacation!

10. If you could only give one piece of advice to someone looking to start their own league, what would it be?

In order to have a successful league, a commissioner should be willing to take charge and communicate a strong vision for the future, while also taking into account the suggestions of other owners in order to improve the fantasy football playing experience. They should also be prepared to spend more time dealing with league matters than running their own team. 

I can tell you've been doing this for a while! Great work!