Yahoo has recently introduced a co-manager option in its draft-based leagues. In the four-league Scrap Heap Fantasy Sports tournaments this gives us the advantage that I can be the commissioner of all four leagues whilst only having one team in the competition. Here's how it works.......
Pre-Draft
The Commissioner sets up the league, establishes the settings and books a draft time. He will then invite one manager from the league to "co-manage" the team. Once this has been accepted, the Commissioner changes the team name to match that specified by the co-manager on their registration form. The co-manager is then free to pre-rank their players (if desired) and make any other preparations for the draft. During this period the Commissioner will set up the draft order and post this on the league message board.
The Draft
Only the co-manager will be present in the draft room in order to minimise the possibility of a conflict occuring within the Yahoo draft software.
Post Draft & In Season Play
For the co-manager the team operates like any other team in a league in which they are not the Commissioner. They can vote against, but not veto, pending trades. They are free to make transactions as normal via the waiver system. The co-manager has no access to any of the Commissioner controls and so cannot change any league settings and cannot process trades. Meanwhile, the Commissioner accesses the league on a regular basis to compute the latest standings, make decisions on trades and so on. Any posts from the Commissioner on the league message board will be tagged "(Commish)" and will come from the scrapheapcommish Yahoo ID. Posts from the co-manager will come from their chosen Yahoo ID. The Commissioner will not make any changes to the roster of the co-managed team, unless requested by the co-manager for short periods due to vacation, technical issues, etc. Such periods should be short and the Commissioner will make the minimum number of substitutions and transactions to keep the team with a fully healthy roster. However, this is no excuse for inactivity on the co-owner's part and the normal penalties will apply!
The Commissioner is always looking for volunteers to co-manage teams, and requires at least three people to volunteer each season, so please consider this during your registration for the draft-based leagues.