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Scoring

Connect Four

A Rule About Scoring

We sat down with everyone we could find at MyCommishRules HQ (all two of us) to answer a very important question: Why are coordinated touchdown celebrations increasing in recent years? Here is what we came up with: IT’S FUN. It’s more fun. Nothing beats watching the camaraderie of two players connecting for a score and then celebrating it. Well maybe one thing beats it — like having both of those players on your fantasy team. While players are celebrating at the game you can be celebrating from your couch with a few bonus points.

 

How It Works

In daily fantasy (DFS), this is called “stacking” – as in the act of drafting both a quarterback and additional skill position from the same NFL team to your roster in the hopes of doubling up on scoring when they’re both involved in a play. The reason this is so popular in DFS is because you can take advantage of a good matchup and may be easier to predict week to week. BUT – we here at MCR think this should expand beyond DFS because you should be rewarded for rostering the only two players who touch the ball on a scoring play.

 

Naturally, this rule only applies on scoring pass plays. If the QB you started passes it to a RB/WR/TE you also started and the play results in a score, you will receive normal points (as decided by your league. We’ve got some ideas on that, too) AND each player will be awarded two bonus points, for a total of four. Win, win, win. Boom. Connect Four, team celebration, fist pumps from couch, etc, etc.

 

Implementation of this rule change can be fairly painless. Some league sites are highly customizable and will allow this feature to be adjusted within the scoring settings. If you don’t use one of these league sites, as Commish you have the ability to manually change scores for each team each week to account for these stacked scores. Don’t worry – odds are there will not be a huge number of these each week, so this is a fairly easily managed rule adjustment.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • As always, inform your leaguemates of this new rule suggestion. Vote. 
  • Decide how many bonus points you’ll allow for owners who start both the QB and skill player involved in a scoring play. We suggest two bonus points for each player – totalling four. 
  • Determine if your league site has the option for automatic stacked scoring.
  • If not, Commish is to manually add bonus points to players after the week’s games.

Change Ups

The amount of bonus points awarded can be adjusted. If you really want to incentivize stacking, increase the number of bonus points scored. Feeling lazy? Do you trust your leaguemates? Have them keep track of stacked scoring and self-report at the end of the week’s games. If they forget to report — no bonus. 

 

Want to make some use of those worthless kicker/defense positions? If teams stack kickers and defense/special teams — award a bonus point for each made field goal. YOU get a bonus! And YOU get a bonus!

 

Download the rule summary now!
Download the FREE "Scoring" Rule Summary to share with your leaguemates now!

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You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

Tiered PPR

A Rule About Scoring

Today, the Point-Per-Reception (PPR) scoring format is becoming pretty much ubiquitously used in fantasy football leagues. It’s a fun and easy way to add more points to your league. 

 

This format does come with its drawbacks though. Mostly, the format broadly attributes a point to any reception regardless of yardage or the location on the field. But we are here to say there is an alternative to the archaic standard PPR system. Similar to the Long Play Bonus Rule, the Tiered PPR format reflects our understanding that not all catches are created equal. A 5-yard checkdown is not the same as a 37-yard shot downfield. So why are you still treating them the same in your league?

 

How It Works

In this format, the first thing to consider is how many reception tiers you want and at what yardage ranges they should encompass. These can be as simple as an extra full point bonus for crossing each 10-yard tier or, you could split it out to award only fractional points in the smaller tiers. We suggest using a scoring system that disincentivizes easy short dump offs that get gobbled up at the line of scrimmage but rewards long ball plays. That would look something like this: 

 

  • Receptions of 0 – 4 yards = +0.25 points
  • 5 – 9 yards = +0.5 points
  • 10 – 19 = +0.75 points
  • 20 – 29 = +1 point
  • 30 – 39 = +1.25 points
  • 40+ = +1.5 points

You could apply these points in addition to your normal full point or half point PPR scoring such that a 4 yard catch equals 1 standard PPR point plus a 0.25 Tiered PPR bonus (plus whatever individual yardage scoring you have in place). Or, you can eliminate your standard PPR format altogether in favor of this fractional structure. 

 

Now, we know that implementing this scoring format on your traditional league site might be difficult. ESPN, Yahoo, and NFL so far don’t allow this kind of detailed customization. If you are interested in implementing this scoring format though, MyCommishRules recommends you move your league over to our friends at Sleeper.app. They allow hyper-customization of your league and if you have questions about how to do that, their customer support is top notch. 

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Establish the structure of your Tiered PPR system. How many Tiers, the yardage ranges, and how many points to award each tier. (Our example above had six tiers each with various yardage ranges. Remember that is was to award more points to longer plays.)
  • Once your league has settled on the number of tiers and the yardage ranges, determine if this format will be in addition to your typical PPR format (i.e. act as extra bonus points) or replace your PPR format entirely. 
  • In order to implement this scoring format, you may have to make a league site move to one that offers this kind of built-in customization. We suggest using the Sleeper.app for your Tiered PPR league (or any league for that matter – it’s that good, honestly).

Change Ups

The bonus amount you wish to attribute to the yardage of each is obviously up to you. Our numbers are only a starting place. 

 

We also wonder if there is some possibility to integrate a few subjective factors into your PPR scoring system. Currently, PPR scoring only considers numerical factors – yards, number of catches, etc. But what if you could add points for the non-numerical factors of a catch such as a difficulty rating (using contested catch data) or a “clutchness” rating (catches under the two mintue warning or on 4th downs)? Admittedly, this change up requires a bit more dedication on the part of The Commish to administer but wow that would be fun!

Download the rule summary now!
Download the FREE "Scoring" Rule Summary to share with your leaguemates now!

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You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

Subs

A Rule About Scoring

Just great! Your star running back gets injured on the opening drive of the game and puts up a big ol’ goose egg. Meanwhile, a mid-tier running back on your bench has a career day against a division rival. Wonderful. Congrats, you’ve found yourself squarely in the middle of fantasy football hell and now your perfect season is in jeopardy with a ton of worthless points on your bench. Remove this all too familiar hellscape from your league and call in the reserves with the Substitute Player Rule.

 

How It Works

Like the wise Hannah Montana once said “Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has those days.” We shouldn’t be punished for that and now we finally have a fail safe for those weekly lineup mistakes. The idea of this rule is simple: designate a player each week to serve as your “Sub” whose points can be called upon if a starting player underperforms on an epic level. This rule is one of those super easy ones to implement and there is no need for back and forth communication with owners, so long as you follow a few easy steps.

 

First, we suggest setting a point limit that a player would have to fall under in order to be eligible for a substitution each week. Depending on the scoring in your league this will differ, but it’s generally safe to say that if a player scores fewer than 5 points, they could be substituted. Next, we suggest limiting sub players to only within the starting player’s position group, i.e. WR can sub in for a WR. Finally, make sure each owner understands how to designate a sub player each week. A real easy way of doing this is to designate that the sub is the first player listed on their bench. From there, The Commish can easily check the final point totals after the final week’s game, determine whether a sub is eligible based on the minimum point criteria, and then check the bench to determine whether their sub player is an eligible replacement based on position.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Determine the specifications required in order to make a sub eligible, i.e. starting player’s minimum points scored (if any) and same position or any position.
  • Owner’s will designate a sub each week by placing that player in the top position on their bench.
  • Commissioner will review point totals after the final week’s games and replace one starting player’s score with the sub’s score (if necessary).

Change Ups

We wrote this rule to ensure easy implementation, but it also limits the effect of the rule from week to week. If you want to make the most of this rule, drop the position pairing that must take place, and look only at point totals. Any one player who does not score the minimum set by your league can then be replaced with the sub player’s points. Or drop the point requirement altogether! The sub can then replace the lowest point total scored by any starting player, so long as the sub has scored more. This rule has a ton of flexibility, which is one of the reasons we like it so much.

 

Download the rule summary now!
Download the FREE "Scoring" Rule Summary to share with your leaguemates now!

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

El Capitan

A Rule About Scoring

Morgan. Crunch. Planet. We all have a captain in our hearts. In the NFL, being captain means wearing a tiny little badge and calling heads or tails. Exhilarating. Now, try to think of a world where being the Captain means something. WELCOME TO THAT WORLD! Each week the Captain of your fantasy football team will see an automatic point increase. Take that Captain Kangaroo! 

 

How It Works

Here is what happens. Owners will pick a player on their team to be named “Captain” of their squad and no matter their performance that week, this player will receive a 20% bonus (rounded up to the next full point if your league doesn’t use fractional points) added to their final point total. Owners will notify The Commish of their captain prior to the start of that week’s games and then The Commish will be in charge of manually changing the point totals at the end of the week’s Monday night game(s).

 

If an owner wants, they can choose the same player as captain for the entire year. Or as Commish, you can set some limits, i.e. not choosing the same player consecutive weeks or having a player max out as Captain after three weeks. It is also important to establish how you would like to be notified about owner’s Captains each week. This can be through the group chat or word of mouth, but we suggest easier ways such as a working Google Doc, or better yet – a Google Form that each owner will have access to. This way you don’t need to shake owners down, and you have record of each team’s Captains week-to-week.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Owners will deem one starting player their Capitan. This player will automatically receive a 20% point bonus to their point total that week. 
  • Commish establishes how they would like to be notified of each team’s Captain every week and sets up the time and day that will be the submission deadline.
  • If using a Google Form or Google Doc to record Captains, create this and send out the link to each owner.
  • After each week, manually add bonus points (20% per team Captain, rounded up) to each team. To make it easy we suggest doing this all at once after the last game of the week.
  • Since points will be added manually each week, there will be no need for any rule or settings changes within the league site.

Change Ups

As mentioned above you can limit the number of weeks a player can be Captain or notify owners that players can not be chosen in consecutive weeks. This is a good way to stop owners from choosing their QB every week, which may happen simply due to the nature of the game in which QB’s consistently score more than any other position. Or if you want to get crazy, we can get crazy. Introducing: “the Scrub.”

 

Opposite to the Captain, each week on your team will also be the “Scrub.” This player will see a 20% decrease in their point total for the week. But that is not all. The Scrub is actually chosen by your opponent. Just as you submit your Captain each week, you will determine which of your opponent’s players is the Scrub. If doing this anonymously it adds a new element of strategy to each week’s set of games.

 

Who do you think your opponent will call Captain? Do you want to choose that player as their Scrub and try to offset the point increase? Or will you choose a different Captain assuming your opponent will know that is the obvious choice and name him your Scrub?! ARE WE PLAYING FANTASY FOOTBALL OR ARE WE PLAYING CHESS?! This may be a lot to take in for a league so feel free to start with just captains for the first year and see if your league is ready for Scrubs the next.

 

Download the rule summary now!
Download the FREE "Scoring" Rule Summary to share with your leaguemates now!

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

4 pt vs 6 pt Passing Touchdown

A Rule About Scoring

It’s a question as old as time – should QBs score 4 points or 6 points for each touchdown they throw? Well, buckle up because we will describe, in depth, the rationale for each side. At the end, your task is to choose one of the two. Sounds easy, right? 

 

How It Works

This isn’t your granddaddy’s (or even your daddy’s) NFL anymore. The league has become more and more offensively-focused after each one of those seemingly endless rule changes. We will keep our opinions of Roger Goodell to ourselves for the time being, but in the meantime, let’s just say its a good time to be an offensive skill player in today’s NFL. And nowhere is that more evident than at the QB position.

 

QBs are throwing for GOOBS of touchdown’s nowadays. Patrick Mahomes threw 50 of dem thangs in 2018. This is significantly more than the most by a RB (Todd Gurley with 17) or WR (Antonio Brown with 15). But because QBs score TDs in abundance should they be worth fewer points to even out point potential?

 

4-point passing touchdowns means that QBs are less valued across the board. In a 4-point passing touchdown league, you can probably expect QBs to be drafted much later in the draft, placing more emphasis on those other skill positions. We recommend a 4-point passing touchdown rule in those really intense leagues where people stay up late the night before the draft mainlining top-200 lists and gadget draft strategy videos on youtube.

 

6-point passing touchdowns means points, points, points! Which can be fun especially if your leaguemates aren’t exactly fantasy football experts and need those high flyers to keep long-term interest. In the end, during the game, a passing touchdown is still worth the same six points as a rushing touchdown. If it’s good enough for the NFL, then it should be good enough for your league.

 

Whichever way your league chooses to score touchdowns, just hop into the league dashboard and adjust your setting accordingly.

 

For example, a claim is put in for a WR and Owner 1 puts $5 on the claim. Owner 2 puts in a claim for the same player but wagers $7. Owner 2 would then get that player and $7 would be deducted from their total. Owner 1 retains the $5 they bid since their transaction did not go through. Claims can be placed on multiple players during the week and it is up to the owner to determine the amount they want to spend for each transaction individually. When the waiver wire closes, the priority will always go to the owner who wagered the higher amount of FAAB dollars.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Poll league owners to come to consensus on which passing touchdown scoring scheme is preferred
  • Adjust your league settings to be in accordance with your league’s decision
  • Let those pigskins fly!

Change Ups

Your league’s decision on the scoring scheme will ultimately determine which other change ups you could implement. If you decide to stick with the standard 6-point passing touchdown scheme, we love the idea of adding in some RB/WR/TE-centric Scoring Rules to even the playing field. Adding in a Point-Per-Reception or Point-Per-First Down Rule, or even a Long Play Bonus will give those other skill positions some extra clout.

 

Download the rule summary now!
Download the FREE "Scoring" Rule Summary to share with your leaguemates now!

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

Long Play Bonus

A Rule About Scoring

“He takes a shot downfield. Caught! 10…5…touchdown!”

 

The deep hail mary or explosive sideline scamper are some of the most exciting plays in all of football. While these long touchdowns translate to points for your fantasy team, they happen so rarely and are so game-changing that it feels like they should be worth a little something extra. This way that early draft pick on that play-making receiver may just be worth it.

 

How It Works

It’s always fun to add more ways of scoring points on a weekly basis. Using the Long Play Bonus Rule rewards players who take it coast to coast for the score.

 

When a player, whether a RB, WR, or TE, scores a touchdown of 40 or more yards, this player earns all the usual points for yardage and the score. However, under this rule, that player would also receive a Long Play Bonus of 4 extra points.

 

Logistically, this is an extremely simple Rule to implement. Most league sites will allow Commissioners to select which plays receive bonuses. Some sites even have this bonus as a stock option, all you need to do is enable it.  

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • With your leaguemates, determine which play distance will trigger this bonus. We suggest scores of 40 yards or longer.
  • Determine which positions are eligible to receive this bonus. Will QBs get bonus points?
  • Enable bonus point settings on your league site’s Commissioner Dashboard.

Change Ups

The traditional way to play this rule is to only apply the bonus to the skill player (RB, WR, and TE) scoring the touchdown. If you so choose, you can also apply the rule to the QB who is dropping the dimes to the players.

 

Don’t like the seemingly arbitrary 40 yard or more threshold? That’s cool, we’ve heard of other leagues that add bonus points on a sliding scale depending on the yardage of the play. For example, a 52-yard touchdown would receive an additional 5 points, whereas a 76-yard score would get an extra 7 points bonus.

 

For a truly high scoring, high powered league, combine the Long Play Bonus Rule with something like the Big Game Bonus Rule and prepare for some 200+ point weeks!

 

Download the rule summary now!
Download the FREE "Scoring" Rule Summary to share with your leaguemates now!

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

Hot Streaks

A Rule About Scoring

From DOWNTOWN! He’s on fire! Sometimes when you’re in the zone, you feel unstoppable. Think Ken Jennings on Jeopardy or Bobby Flay on The Iron Chef or Cersei on Game of Thrones. The Hot Streaks Rules is the best thing since you were a little kid dribbling around the court with that flaming basketball in NBA Jam.

 

How It Works

Stringing together three or more wins in a row gives us LIFE during the mid-season slog of fantasy football. Demonstrating to the other owners your team management prowess is one of the highlights of fantasy. It is time to keep that feeling rolling. The Hot Streak Rule awards those owners who are trending in the right direction by giving them a point boost for every week they stay riding on the winning train.

 

Under this Rule, owners who have won three head-2-head matchups in a row will receive a point bonus in the following week. The amount of points this owner receives as a bonus is ultimately up to you. We recommend sticking within the range of 2 – 5 points, which is enough to make a difference by the time Monday night rolls around but not enough that its insurmountable.

 

Conversely, owners can also go on Cold Streaks. If an owner has lost three head-2-head matchups in a row, they shall receive a negative point penalty in the following week. Together, the Hot and Cold Streak points will keep the league engaged and always striving to get back in the win column.

 

Logistically, this is another one of those easy to implement rules. Simply, go into the league dashboard to manually edit an owners points prior to the games each week.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Determine the length of winning streak that constitutes a Hot/Cold Streak. A three game winning or losing streak is what we recommend as a good starting point.
  • Once an owner is on a Hot Streak, that owner will continue to receive a predetermined point bonus for each week so long as they continue their winning ways. If that owner loses, they must once again go on a three game winning streak to get bonus points.
  • The inverse applies to those owners who have lost three weeks in a row, activating the Cold Streak point penalty.
  • Prior to the week’s matchups, The Commish will manually edit each owner’s points accordingly.

Change Ups

You ultimately have the final say in how many wins or losses it will take to trigger the bonus/penalty. We only offer up three wins as a starting point. You could easily adapt this to be a progressive scale where for every consecutive win an owner tallies, they get a corresponding amount of bonus points. For example, after a one game win streak, one extra point the next week. Two game win streak, two extra points the next week. Eight game win streak, eight extra points the next week.

 

Download the rule summary now!
Download the FREE "Scoring" Rule Summary to share with your leaguemates now!

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.