YaaHoo_Cats! Fantasy Football League, est. 2011
So, this is how I run our YaaHoo_Cats! fantasy football league. I have been the commissioner since its inception in 2011, and this page is intended to share how we do things, and lend you some insight on how to start up and run your league, or perhaps just to improve the league that you are in.
Who We Are
Who We Are
- Old friends, college buddies, family members, co-workers and acquaintances.
- Some members, including myself, have played in leagues together before the YaaHoo_Cats! came together.
- The YaaHoo_Cats! name came about from some apartment cats that lived in and around the On the Green Apartments that my wife and I were living at between 1985 and 1986 (before Yahoo! was a thing). When we would throw our garbage bags into the community dumpster, often times cats would come leaping out at right angles and we would yell "Yahoooooo!" So when we formed our fantasy football league in the online Yahoo! fantasy site, Yahoo became baked into the name, and the cats just kinda went, so........One thing, though, Yahoo! is funny about using their name in your league's name, hence the funny spelling. And yes, that is why our trophies are dumpsters. Now you know.
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Structure of the YaaHoo_Cats! League
The YaaHoo_Cats League plays "points only", and each team plays against all teams in the league (i.e. your team is competing against the other eleven teams, not just one) - every week - and the League Championship goes to the team that has accumulated the most points for the entire NFL season (17 regular season games). There are twelve teams in our league.
Traditionally, and as discussed on the Commissioner's Tools page, we have our online draft on the Sunday or Monday afternoon of Labor Day Weekend. This day is best (for me anyway), because all of the pre-season games are over, and the first NFL game of the season is the following Thursday. At this point you have all of the information you can get related to who the NFL starters are, and which players are having injury problems. This date may not be ideal if you like to travel that weekend, but with today's technology, it can be possible to draft on your cell phone or laptop computer as long as you have wi-fi available. And, if this is not possible, then the Yahoo! site will just auto-draft for you, possibly better than you would have done yourself #:^),.
Draft day is a special day, as even though our league members are are located around the state and the country, we can still connect to each other with the Yahoo! Fantasy Football site's chat feature, and for some Skype or Facetime. The draft order is announced by Yahoo! thirty minutes before the draft, so depending on who you may have drafting along with you, there can be hollers of "Success!", or just as likely some loudly expressed profanities not listed here "$%@#$!!!". As mentioned in Fantasy Football Leagues, Structures and Drafts, the YaaHoo_Cats! use a traditional "Snake Draft" on Draft Day.
Scoring System
We use a fairly common PPR (points per reception) scoring system, modified with some bonuses. Too many settings to describe, so in addition to the pics on this page, I have attached a .pdf copy that you can upload, as these may be hard to read:
A .pdf of our scoring settings can be found here.
The YaaHoo_Cats League plays "points only", and each team plays against all teams in the league (i.e. your team is competing against the other eleven teams, not just one) - every week - and the League Championship goes to the team that has accumulated the most points for the entire NFL season (17 regular season games). There are twelve teams in our league.
Traditionally, and as discussed on the Commissioner's Tools page, we have our online draft on the Sunday or Monday afternoon of Labor Day Weekend. This day is best (for me anyway), because all of the pre-season games are over, and the first NFL game of the season is the following Thursday. At this point you have all of the information you can get related to who the NFL starters are, and which players are having injury problems. This date may not be ideal if you like to travel that weekend, but with today's technology, it can be possible to draft on your cell phone or laptop computer as long as you have wi-fi available. And, if this is not possible, then the Yahoo! site will just auto-draft for you, possibly better than you would have done yourself #:^),.
Draft day is a special day, as even though our league members are are located around the state and the country, we can still connect to each other with the Yahoo! Fantasy Football site's chat feature, and for some Skype or Facetime. The draft order is announced by Yahoo! thirty minutes before the draft, so depending on who you may have drafting along with you, there can be hollers of "Success!", or just as likely some loudly expressed profanities not listed here "$%@#$!!!". As mentioned in Fantasy Football Leagues, Structures and Drafts, the YaaHoo_Cats! use a traditional "Snake Draft" on Draft Day.
Scoring System
We use a fairly common PPR (points per reception) scoring system, modified with some bonuses. Too many settings to describe, so in addition to the pics on this page, I have attached a .pdf copy that you can upload, as these may be hard to read:
A .pdf of our scoring settings can be found here.
I just noticed that I have to change the end date of November 20th to the last weekend of the season, as in our league we can draft until the end. Banquet dues, man!
Dues Structure
We are just a bunch of friends, and thus so all of the pooled money is split to the winners, or used for them in the form of trophy maintenance, or banquet expenses. The Commissionership is a volunteer job.
Prize Money Payouts
The prize pool consists of league dues ($100 per team), as well as 40% of the trade monies collected during the year ($2/$5 = 40%).
Dues Structure
We are just a bunch of friends, and thus so all of the pooled money is split to the winners, or used for them in the form of trophy maintenance, or banquet expenses. The Commissionership is a volunteer job.
- Annual Buy-in is $125
- $100 goes towards the prize pool.
- $20 goes towards your first 4 trades @ $5 a pop.
- $5 goes towards the trophy fund, which includes engraving, purchase of mini-dumpstys, and plastic cat figurines. Any excess goes towards the banquet fund.
- Trades (Waiver Wire pick-ups or between teams) are $5 apiece. Of this $5, $2.00 goes towards the prize pool, and the other $3.00 goes towards the end of season banquet. We used to go 50/50 but we voted in the new structure during our 2022 banquet, as inflation had made our banquet fund a little light. Either that, or we are just having a merrier time! Oddly, our league has not had a trade between teams yet, and let's face it, most trade offers are ridiculous.
- Before the season begins, I include a message about paying your dues in my annual engagement letter. I encourage the payment of dues before the season begins, and a few even do. The rest of the dues trickle in during the season, perhaps out of guilt, or more likely from the Commissioner's occasional nagging. Since I know everyone in the league, I don't stress too much about dues collection, as they usually, eventually, all come in before the payout at the banquet. But, there have been two occasions where the fantasy owner played all year and failed to pay up at the end. These players, who we do not speak of and are dead to us, were BFL'd. Banned For Life. The moral here is to only invite people into your league that you can trust to be good to their word, and their pocket books. There are free leagues for players that are chintzy, or for minor children. $125 may seem like a lot of money, but spread over 18 weeks it is only $7 per week. In theory you could save $20 bucks by drafting well and not making any trades, but the payoffs are pretty good, so it is a good investment in an enjoyable NFL season.
Prize Money Payouts
The prize pool consists of league dues ($100 per team), as well as 40% of the trade monies collected during the year ($2/$5 = 40%).
- Weekly Wins
- If your team scores the highest amount of points in weeks 1-18, then you win $25 per weekly win.
- Highest Totals of the Year
- The highest weekly score of the year wins $50
- The second highest weekly score of the year wins $25
- Overall Standings Winners (paid from remaining prize pool)
- First Place (League Champion) - 50%
- Second Place (Runner Up) - 30%
- Third Place - 20%
- File links to the YaaHoo_Cats! Scoresheet & Recap (below) (Excel file), (.pdf file).
Trophy Time!
Our Trophies. Each year's League Champion receives the YaaHoo_Cats! Dumpsty Trophy. It is theirs to keep until the end of the following season, whereat they must send it back to the commissioner for engraving & presentation at the next year's end of season banquet. Each champion will also receive, to keep permanently and display prominently, a "Mini Dumpsty". This too is also engraved with their achievement. Each Mini Dumpsty trophy also comes with thier own "YaaHoo_Cat" with the year of their championship Sharpeed on the underbelly.
Many years ago, my dad gave me a couple of about 12" x 12" pieces of brass plate (he was a metallurgist after all). Through a combination of jig sawing and filing, I was able to make the plates that are used for engraving. I like the rustic look, as it goes with the dumpster theme.
The Dumpsty was ordered online through dumpsty.com in December of 2016 for a price of $198. A bit of an investment, yes, but it is heavy duty, well constructed, and cool. The Mini Dumpsters are ordered online, Amazon, and are about $17 per. The YaaHoo_Cats! figurines are actually pretty hard to find, so before Shopko went out of business, I bought their last five in 2017. I'll have to begin my hunt soon for replacements.
From the beginning, I have been taking my engraving to Sandy's Trophies in Pasco, WA. My initial engraving cost $64, but this included engraving on the trophy, as well as catching up on the 2011-2016 League Champions. The engraving for both 2022 trophies was $29.95.
So my advice is to get a trophy. Trophy shops have stock models, and you can find them online, but like the YaaHoo_Cats, you too can think of some peculiar trophy that rings true with your league members. There is something "legitimizing" about your league having a trophy. If you don't have one, get one, and I also encourage you to put the names of former champions on it, if known.
Many years ago, my dad gave me a couple of about 12" x 12" pieces of brass plate (he was a metallurgist after all). Through a combination of jig sawing and filing, I was able to make the plates that are used for engraving. I like the rustic look, as it goes with the dumpster theme.
The Dumpsty was ordered online through dumpsty.com in December of 2016 for a price of $198. A bit of an investment, yes, but it is heavy duty, well constructed, and cool. The Mini Dumpsters are ordered online, Amazon, and are about $17 per. The YaaHoo_Cats! figurines are actually pretty hard to find, so before Shopko went out of business, I bought their last five in 2017. I'll have to begin my hunt soon for replacements.
From the beginning, I have been taking my engraving to Sandy's Trophies in Pasco, WA. My initial engraving cost $64, but this included engraving on the trophy, as well as catching up on the 2011-2016 League Champions. The engraving for both 2022 trophies was $29.95.
So my advice is to get a trophy. Trophy shops have stock models, and you can find them online, but like the YaaHoo_Cats, you too can think of some peculiar trophy that rings true with your league members. There is something "legitimizing" about your league having a trophy. If you don't have one, get one, and I also encourage you to put the names of former champions on it, if known.
And Finally, The Banquet
Every fantasy football season should end with a banquet. It is something we look forward to, so here are some tips on how we do it:
- When/Where
- Ideally the weekend before the Super Bowl. We like to have it in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday, say 3:00 or so.
- We have ours at the Sports Page, and I encourage you to find a similar festive location.
- Funding
- During the season, trades are $5. Forty percent ($2/$5) of the trade money goes towards the banquet. For the 2022 season, this amounted to $462.50, down from $515 in 2020! Generally the trade money pays for the merriment, food, and tip. Otherwise, owners need to kick in a little extra to cover the tab (extensive!).
- Guests
- Each team in the league gets to bring one guest, and is covered by the group funding.
- During the social hour, we have a casual business meeting to discuss the running of the league. If there is a quorum (7 teams), then rules can be changed. Examples of changes could be the number of bench players, annual dues, scoring values, etc. For example, during the 2022 season banquet, the league owners voted to change the $5 trade monies to $2 for prizes and $3 for the banquet fund (from 50/50 previously). The floor is open to all league owners to bring up any issues that may affect the league.
- Before the trophy presentation, the commissioner gives a brief speech.
- Money payouts and Trophy Presentation
- Each league owner that has won any money (weekly wins, top three, etc.), shall receive their winnings in an envelope with the payout described on it. Payouts are handed out smallest to largest.
- Third Place is awarded.
- Second Place is awarded.
- The League Champion is presented the Dumpsty trophy. Inside of Dumpsty contains their Mini Dumpsty. The League Champion is given the chance to speak.
- After the trophy presentation, the league enjoys each other's company, beverages and a variety of heavy appetizers. During this time, we may have a raffle, using the "Raffle Cats". These are twelve extra plastic cat figurines with numbers written on their bellies, 1-12. Drawn from Dumpsty. Your number is the number that you finished in the league that year (i.e. League Champion is #1, last place is #12. We give out prizes such as football themed necklaces, blankets, footballs, etc. You must be present to win, and you number can only be drawn once.
- So that's it. We leave a generous tip because we are a needy bunch, and always get great service.