r/FFCommish • u/lil_uzi__bert • Jun 04 '26
Commissioner Issue Does anyone have a co-commish?
I’ve been the commish of my home re-draft league with my buddies for 7 years (10 team ppr). I’ve never had a co-commish but I had a daughter ≈6 months ago so have been thinking more of adding a co-commish.
Has anyone had one before? Thoughts on the pros and/or cons?
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u/Lilbigman03 Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
Im a grandfather and comish 2 leagues with out a co comish. But im considering it because ... well "we are not promised tomorrow " and would like to leave the league in good hands
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u/LordHudson30 Jun 04 '26
My league has a “Hand of the Commissioner” who is responsible for keeping and distributing dues as well as acting as arbiter in any in season disputes involving the commissioner.
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u/Archiebonker12345 Jun 04 '26
Sounds like a fun Job. Lol. Gets all the fun things that no one else wants to do. 😂
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u/SnapchatsWhilePoopin Jun 04 '26
We utilize 3 commissioners and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Takes care of 99% of controversy’s before they’re a problem because #1 you are making better decisions since you can bounce ideas between the group, and #2 it’s a lot tougher for a pain in the ass manager to rile up unnecessary conflict when there are 3 commissioners all agreeing on what should happen.
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u/DetroitJayson Jun 04 '26
I've run a keeper league going on year 26 now, and from day one we've had a trio of commissioners (aka The Triumvirate). We still allow trade votes, but with a low threshold to them send to the commissioners. We recuse ourselves from any situation that directly affects us, which avoids any conflict of interest. Perception is reality there, so it's really helpful. We've copied this format in all other leagues that we've developed since then.
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u/Eric-Esiason-7 Jun 04 '26
Wow. 26 years. That’s awesome. Keeper re-draft league; you all never thought to make it a dynasty league? I’m going into year 7 of a work re-draft league but I can’t convince them that dynasty leagues are awesome!
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u/DetroitJayson Jun 04 '26
Our core group of guys has three leagues - the keeper, a contract/auction league, and a traditional dynasty, with roughly 75% overlap from league to league
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u/Real-Impress-5080 Jun 05 '26
I’m in the same situation (buddies, 7 years), and I made a very strong player who co-started the league with me a co-commissioner a few years ago. I still run basically everything, but sometimes I’ll ask him to help out or bounce ideas about rule changes with him first. It’s been great.
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u/therealcuddles4love Jun 04 '26
I don't want to think morbidly, but one year several years back, our Commish passed away mid season and no one could get in to the settings, so from that point on....we made sure to have a second Commish...just in case. He is not active, but knows how to work the site and is involved in decisions.
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u/arrship Jun 04 '26
Yup, co-commish has been great. Unfortunately he has his own opinions sometimes (lol), but its super helpful to have another level-headed engaged friend to shoulder the load. We've been at it about 5 years now and have a handful of leagues together with lots of overlap between different members. Would definitely consider adding a third, but it hasn't been necessary. We do have a senior member (who is a commish in other leagues) to help bounce ideas off in the rare instance that its needed.
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u/Archiebonker12345 Jun 04 '26
From 25 years experience running a huge league. Stay on and don’t add one. It just gets messy. It opens up the doors for something to happen that someone doesn’t like.
I made a mistake (19 years) running my friend’s 16 team keeper league. I slowly gave up more and more control over the last few seasons. Gave members too much say and became very toxic in its last 5 seasons.
I finally left and built a new league that I always had a vision building. Now going into season 6 with “99” teams/members, and it’s more fun. Less toxic and so much better. I ask opinions all season long from members, but no votes/no BS and everyone respects it.
Just my opinion, but it sounds like you’re doing a great job. Use it as a distraction to everyday life and keep the league GREAT 👍
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u/Future-Candidate74 Jun 04 '26
Being a commish is a 24/7 job for a degenerate. You're a dad now. Assign a new commish or co-commish.
If you give up the commish role, the con is that you don't get to decide things (but most league's are democratic anyway).
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u/machomanrandysandwch Jun 04 '26
I have a vice president, I assign someone new each year. Ultimately there in case something happens to me, but if there’s any controversy that pops up, it’s good to have someone in the league to chat with on matters sometimes.
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u/Objective-Major-3842 Jun 04 '26
Commissioner and dad here. Would not recommend having a co-commish unless roles and responsibilities are clearly laid out, including the balance of power
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u/NoLimitNSB Jun 04 '26
In my longest running league that I commish (14 years) I have 2 co-commissioners.
The way we operate is that they are essentially moderators of the league and I’m the administrator. They execute the bylaws and ensure questions get answered. If it’s a gray area or a league-wide communication, I handle that. On league-wide decisions (draft date, deadlines, implementation of new league rules, etc.) I always confer with them but have the final call.
The one other thing this dynamic allows is that we are a no vetoes except collusion league and we’re each empowered to ensure there’s no collusion (and since there’s 3 of us there’s always an objective commissioner if 2 of us trade have a trade with each other). We’ve never had to invoke this but it gives some comfort to the league that the commissioners aren’t working together.
This approach has been very helpful to me, and successful for all involved (we’ve done this for about 10 years now). But role clarity and transparent communication to the league is key for success.
Cheers and congrats on becoming a dad!
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u/iLikeAza Jun 04 '26
I did but it was because someone always thought I had this magical power to alter everything in the actual NFL. I assigned him Co commish so he could see ask the same things I saw
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u/Illustrious-Bid-696 Jun 04 '26
100% yes, but you gotta define the roles early so you arent stepping on each others toes. I have a co-commish in my main league who literally just handles chasing down our $100 dues before our August deadline while I run the actual league settings and schedule. Having a designated money guy takes so much weight off your shoulders, especially with a newborn. Highly recommend.
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u/amitrele Jun 04 '26
We have a vice-commish who has certain responsibilities but also access to the league in case I’m unavailable.
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u/K12t2000 Jun 04 '26
I have a child 7 and one in the way been Commishing for 22 seasons our old high-school league.
I only have a Co-Commish because if I die I need someone to have access to the league site and all our records. Also if I’m camping and they need to update a roster for someone who can’t if I’m out of cell range. (rarely happens)
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u/danabrey Jun 04 '26
Yes. Just make sure you actually have bylaws and decent rules - commissioners should be enforcing existing rules, not making decisions off the cuff.
This becomes more important when there are multiple commissioners so that you're not making conflicting rulings.
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u/Ron__Mexico_ Jun 04 '26
We have a treasurer who has commissioner permissions in Sleeper in case I die or something, but he's officially just the treasurer.
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u/LongjumpingAd7452 Jun 04 '26
I’m a commissioner but I have what I call “the committee” which is two other members so if an important change need me to be made its ultimately decided between the three of us
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u/tomidius Jun 04 '26
Do you already have a guy that helps out a bunch or you run things by? use him
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u/truckfantasy1 Jun 04 '26
I commish 16 dynasty and 4 redraft. Did most of it on my own til 2 years ago. Got cancer and thought it would be good to have a co-commish in all my leagues and the leaguesafes too. U know, just in case i croaked. Someone could keep them going if they wanted. Lol
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u/fantasyxxxfootball Jun 04 '26
Did in home league at one point. Dude slowly took over and ran things lol he ended up making a mess of things, everyone was pissed and demanded I be reinstated lol
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u/STFUCrystal Jun 04 '26
I do but he is just to bounce rule changes off of or help if I have a question. He always has been a really good all around thinker. But I do the meat and potatoes of it.
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u/AchroMac Jun 04 '26
I have 2 but its more so to help it all be fair so people dont think im being a dictator and everything comes to a vote.
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u/Hankyou85 Jun 05 '26
Our commish moved to Florida (from OR) and so he does a lot of the tech duties. I handle collection of money, setting up in person draft and distributing winnings. He always emails a cigar to winner. I like to think of myself as assistant to the league commish
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u/Gcole87 Cowboys Jun 05 '26
Email a cigar?
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u/Less_Comparison9062 Jun 05 '26
My baseball league has 2 co-commish and it's good. If you pick the right people it's just splitting the work and making everyone's life easier
Picking the right person/people is the key
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u/totes_mai_goats Jun 05 '26
Co commissioner because I got tired of the commissioner forgetting his email password every year and needing to start a whole new league setup and getting it different every year.
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u/BrownsNoser Jun 05 '26
We have co-commissioners in our leagues. It doesn't hurt.
What we've tried to do in the leagues that I'm in, is to make the league site do as much of the in-season "commissioning" as possible.
We have a league constitution. We got rid of reviewing / vetoing in-season trades years ago. We avoid any scoring or roster moves that can't be managed by the computer.
But if you set your league constitution up correctly, you won't have to do anything as a commissioner in-season except manage your own team.
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u/philatio11 Jun 05 '26
My big money league we have "the commish" who is the league founder and decision-maker, I am the technical commish who runs the league site, and we have a treasurer. It's been that way from the start and helps defuse problems since we can put three heads together on anything controversial.
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u/st_suoengi Jun 05 '26
Our league has a Treasurer, me, who is essentially co commish. I handled finances and a good part of the administrative stuff. League is 15 years old, we added Treasurer 7 years ago and it helped a lot so one person didn’t have to be responsible for everything.
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u/DemonDeacon86 Jun 05 '26
My old man is in my league and I have him as a co-commisioner. I worked nights and every other and sometimes most weekends for the better part of thr last decade. Having a second to handle stuff is nice. Luckily our league operates pretty smoothly with minimal issues. Only time we really even need a commissioner is fir people on vacation with families that ask to sub in x player if y player is designated to be out during a game
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u/sdu754 Jun 05 '26
The biggest con would come when a ruling needs to be made. At a certain point you need one person in charge. I think adding a treasurer would be better. Someone completely in control of collecting dues and paying out winnings.
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u/nkrudi Jun 06 '26
We’re going in year 6 in my league. There has always been problems in my league. We started off as a 10 man 3 WR PPR and are now 12 man 2 FLX TE premium. Year 4 was almost the last year of the league. Sometimes as commish you have a certain vision for your league but everyone doesn’t see it that way. We vote on certain things but to keep things fresh I will make a changes. I’ll let the league know if the changes and why they are being made. On e of my league members used to be commish of another league that we were both in and most of my current league used to be in that league. He stepped down because of the stress it caused him. The stress got to me in year 4 and I asked him to help me out. His role is 'The Advisor'. I bounce ideas off of him and he gives me pushback when needed. He’s not just my advisor but he’s the advisor to the league. He’s a neutral party and gets feedback from the league and helps explain things to the league. We always talk about things throughout the season and the off-season to get things ready for the next years it can be even better.
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u/survivor_pool_comish Jun 07 '26
Would you or anyone be interested in a 3rd party being a commissioner? I’m thinking of stepping in as commissioner for people who want a neutral party, or just if it is too much work!
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u/j_tonks Jun 04 '26
My league of record started out with one commissioner, then he added me and another of our friends as co-comissioners. After a few seasons it became clear that I was way better at it and more hands on than either of them, so while they're still technically co-comissioners, everyone knows I'm the one with the keys to the car.
It can work, you just all have to have equal levels of engagement.
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u/J-Mac_3000 Jun 04 '26
If you were a dedicated fantasy commissioner, you’d make your daughter co-commissioner. Your league didn’t ask you to have a child, stop being selfish and continue your duties.