The 8 Best Ways To Spice Up Your Fantasy Football Leauge

It's nearly August, which means 'The Bachelor' is coming to an end and it's time to pay attention to America's second greatest pastime: Fantasy Football. (No, not that football, you hooligans!) But last year was sort of ho-hum. How do you recapture the magic of what it was like to first play?

1. Make the Stakes Just as High for Coming in Last.

Via teamjimmyjoe.com

Alright, so these people are absolutely insane. Nobody wants to get a tattoo because they came in last. But you can still have an equally shameful trophy they must display in their home, a spandex outfit they have to wear in public, or some other incriminating piece of history to award.

2. Rivalry Week.

Via chachaandspoons.com

Just like in real football, everybody loves a good rivalry. Foster them in your league! You can either stack the schedule so rivals play every season, or just make a 'rivalry week' where the winner gets an extra prize. In my league, the loser writes a love poem dedicated to the winner's team. Some people love it, and some people aren't poets.

3. Have a Competition to Determine Your Draft Order.

Via ign.com

Add a second layer of meaningless competition to your fantasy league by making the draft order decided by a contest. See who can chug a beer fastest, who has the best memory for TV trivia, or even who can pick the fastest yellow duck in a rubber duckie race. The possibilities are meaningless...I mean: endless!

4. Give Out a Big-Ass Trophy.

Via 12hourawards.com

People are attracted to shiny things. Make sure they've got a reason to care by spending way too much money on your end of season awards. There's nothing quite like paying someone $50 to engrave: '2015 Champions - Gronk if You're Grorny' on a trophy after all.

5. Play-in Games for the Playoffs.

Via social.quintevents.com

Every league has that one person who whines about their seeding or missing the playoffs. "In my other league" blah, blah, blah. Enough of it! Make the final spot a truly dicey situation and award it to the team with the most points scored during the season, but not necessarily the one with the next-best record. Sure, you'll get a whole new batch of whiners, but at least it's not the same whiner!

6. Put Last Year's Playoff Teams All in the Same Division.

Via robshep.com

Nothing screams 'shake up' quite like forcing all of last season's best teams to play twice this year. I doubt this goes well the first season, but it definitely incentivizes you to win it all or tank at the end of the season.

7. Weekly re-caps.

Via forum.wotlabs.net

Put someone in charge of re-capping last week's games every Tuesday. If someone forgot to start a D/ST or thought Marshawn Lynch was still on bye, the entire league gets to know! .

8. Kick the Last Place Team Out.

Via techcrunch.com

If you're looking a way to ruin friendships in the name of a little fun, give the last place team the boot. Of course, you should probably have a solid stable of replacements lined up, because I doubt that people will want to come back after you kick them to the curb.