What Makes a Great Madden League?

[cooper417]

I've been playing online in CFMs since M13. I've joined some of the worst leagues out there to some of the best. I currently co-commish a league & have a few admins in addition to the 2 commishes to help with the league & any decision making.
These are some of the more important things that I look for:


1. You need a commish or admin team that will make sure everyone is treated the same. Showing favoritism or having a "boot happy" commish can ruin the fun in a league very quickly.

2. Trades need to be approved or denied on a consistent basis. You can't let lob sided stuff go just because it involves a vet owner or a commish, etc. (For sim leagues obviously)

3. Participation from owners. Whether that involves entering a chat every now & again or using a forum on occasion. Leagues where it is difficult to track down owners is a headache.
Simply just playing games isn't very fun IMO. Participation brings a feeling of a community to your CFM.

4. A league site/forum other than a phone app chat to post league related information. Somewhere owners can also post. This can be a free forum or Daddy leagues, etc.

5. A clear set of rules & implementation. I prefer sim leagues, so a set of rules you agree with is important. Shouldn't be too strict or too lenient either.

It's my personal opinion that owners can make a good league or a having a good commish can help get the right owners to help make a league good.
Something beyond a CFM of just playing games is important to me.

As far as competition, that is less of a concern if you have the things I mentioned above in place. You need some competition among owners but having the best Madden players doesn't always mean having the best owners.
Some of the owners I respect & enjoy the most are guys that aren't that great but have a great attitude & still have fun playing.

Prizes in Madden leagues have never been something that make me enjoy a league any more than ones with no prizes at all.

[Khanchus]

first is first it must be a sim league for me, consistency, maturity, admin team (not just one admin)

communication, strict weekly sim schedule, good sportsmanship,

if they dont have a website or 3rd party website then i would probably not consider it

longevity, owners able to voice opinions in mature manner

being apart of a 32 man league makes leagues less than 32 users not as appealing as before

strict rules for roster movement, gamecalling and playbooks

i hate to say it but i prefer to play with ppl 25 yrs or older

maturity is key tho

weeding out the frauds and having a good team with a planned out schedule of activities per week/month etc....

i probably wont join a new league unless it has some kind of creditability
(some of this was said already)

there should be very very little tolerances for unexcused things (such as unable to schedule a gamE) scheduling should be done within 24 hrs within advance

lastly the league is only as good as its owners... its impossible for a team to examine every detail of the league... ethics plays a part too

[The JareBear]

The number one thing that appeals to me is sim gameplay. SOS is the first league I've played in that truly embraces, league wide, a "play to win fairly" approach rather than a "play to win at all costs" approach. This goes a long way. Games look like what I see on Sunday's, it's fun to watch our twitch streams because of that.

A lot of leagues I've been in have either had "some sim, some madden ball" mixes or "plays sim until losing the game then goes hurry up five wide rest of game" type of stuff. It just gets old, especially the bickering that comes with people feeling cheated by the way they lost. That's why I'm glad I found SOS on here

Add a rule set to enforce realistic roster manipulation and that's tough to beat.