It’s time to kick off the 2017 HFFL season!
The long, football-less summer is almost over and we’re on the cusp of the most wonderful time of the year: Fantasy Football season! And this syllabus will provide everything you need to prepare yourself for the best fantasy football season ever!
We have a number of rookies joining us this year, so welcome them! For you newbies, you should read over everything carefully so you understand how the HFFL runs.
Basics
The HFFL exists as 3 separate leagues of 12 teams each, but they are all part of the HFFL universe! There are two lower leagues and one upper league. The lower leagues are the Premier League (PL) and the Elite League (EL) and the upper league is known as The League of Champions (LOC).
Everyone starts out in one of the lower leagues. To get to the League of Champions, you have to earn your way in. Those managers playing in the League of Champions this year won their way in last year. More on advancement later.
Our leagues are hosted on Yahoo Sports. It’s a pretty great platform and, better yet, it’s free! You’ll need a Yahoo account if you don’t have one yet.
This year, the leagues and draft orders look like this:
| League of Champions | Premier League | Elite League | |
| 1 | Hyatt H | Paul R | Chris A |
| 2 | Jake L | David O | Bob D |
| 3 | Peter C | Dan E (rookie) | Jon F |
| 4 | Chris T | Caleb T (rookie) | Nick L |
| 5 | Darren J | Spencer P | Chris W |
| 6 | Andrew L | Tyler L | Matt R (rookie) |
| 7 | Caleb Z | Jim R | Cory E |
| 8 | Edward P | Nate E | Russ N |
| 9 | Mark E | Greg K (rookie) | Bret H |
| 10 | Eric H | Brian P | Clint N (rookie) |
| 11 | Ron R | Tom Mc | Wayne T |
| 12 | Eric M | Luke A | Sam E |
Now you can officially scope your competition! And don’t forget to find the rookies and welcome them to the madness!
Drafts
| Nomination Order | League of Champions | Draft Stock |
| 1 | Hyatt H | 7 |
| 2 | Jake L | 7 |
| 3 | Peter C | 4 |
| 4 | Chris T | 4 |
| 5 | Darren J | 4 |
| 6 | Andrew L | 3 |
| 7 | Caleb Z | 3 |
| 8 | Edward P | 2 |
| 9 | Mark E | 2 |
| 10 | Eric H | 1 |
| 11 | Ron R | 1 |
| 12 | Eric M | 1 |
| Draft Order | Premier League | Draft Stock |
| 1 | Paul R | 12 |
| 2 | David O | 11 (coin flip) |
| 3 | Dan E (rookie) | 11 (coin flip) |
| 4 | Caleb T (rookie) | 10 (coin flip) |
| 5 | Spencer P | 10 (coin flip) |
| 6 | Tyler L | 10 (coin flip) |
| 7 | Jim R | 9 (coin flip) |
| 8 | Nate E | 9 (coin flip) |
| 9 | Greg K (rookie) | 8 (coin flip) |
| 10 | Brian P | 8 (coin flip) |
| 11 | Tom Mc | 8 (coin flip) |
| 12 | Luke A | 6 |
| Draft Order | Elite League | Draft Stock |
| 1 | Chris A | 12 |
| 2 | Bob D | 11 |
| 3 | Jon F | 10 |
| 4 | Nick L | 9 |
| 5 | Chris W | 8 |
| 6 | Matt R (rookie) | 7 |
| 7 | Cory E | 6 (coin flip) |
| 8 | Russ N | 6 (coin flip) |
| 9 | Bret H | 5 (coin flip) |
| 10 | Clint N (rookie) | 5 (coin flip) |
| 11 | Wayne T | 5 (coin flip) |
| 12 | Sam E | 5 (coin flip) |
You may bring a snack or drink (no booze) to share at your draft party!
These are the dates that worked for the overwhelming majority of the owners. If you can’t make it to your scheduled draft night, you have a couple of options.
Remember, you can’t win your HFFL Super Bowl on draft night, but you can probably lose it. We want everyone to feel good about their team and that starts at the draft.
Rules
The rookies among us will also appreciate a word on Weekly Waivers and Free Agent Blind Bidding.
At the start of the first game of the week, any player that isn’t on a roster is placed on Waivers. These players cannot be picked up immediately by teams. If a team wants one of these players on waivers, they must bid on him from their imaginary waiver budget ($100). The bids are blind, so you don’t know if any other team is bidding on this player or how much they are bidding. Strategy is key here. Then on Tuesday, the team with the highest bid gets the player and the other teams keep their money. This levels the playing field for those guys who aren’t watching every game on Sundays looking for breakout performances and snatching those guys up. If no one picks up a player on waivers, then on Tuesday he’s a free agent again and anyone can pick him up, “for free”, immediately. You’ll get the hang of it.
And just remember, there is no ACTUAL money involved with the HFFL. Just fun!
Playoffs and Advancement
HFFL Universal Blast
Each week, you can expect a goofy wrap-up post/email to appear in your inbox: The HFFL Universal Blast. You can also check HiawathaFantasyFootball.com which houses all the back-issues of the Blast and lots of other information – including career statistics for everyone and other geeky numbers.
Okay, that should do it! Check your email soon for your official invite to your Yahoo league, click through and set up your team! You must be set up with your team to draft! It’s VERY important!
Now… let’s go!!
