How to Find a Devy League

Now that you know what a devy league is, you want to join one. This article will tell you how to find a devy league.

After reading the introduction to this series, a devy fantasy football league sounds interesting to you. So, logically, your next question is, "Where do I find one of these leagues?" In this article, I will go over the platforms, their pros and cons, and how commissioners advertise for devy leagues. I interviewed three commissioners of devy leagues, so you don't just have to take my word on any of the information.

Platforms used for Devy Leagues

Technically a devy league can be housed on any fantasy football platform. That could include ESPN, MFL, Sleeper, Yahoo, or any other application. The most frequent applications used are MFL and Sleeper. Of the three commissioners I interviewed, two of them use MFL.

My Fantasy League

MyFantasyLeague.com (MFL) was created in the 1990s to help commissioners run their fantasy football leagues.

Pros

• There is so much customization that can be done in MFL to fit any theme that you want. Below are some examples of leagues I am in.

• Ability to create players in MFL so that they can either be placeholders for devy picks or the actual devy players selected.

• MFL has a good desktop application for those people that want to use a personal computer rather than a mobile device.

Cons

• MFL does not adapt or update its website or functionality mid-season or very often at all.
• MFL has an application for mobile devices, but it can be hard to use at times. Certain functions cannot be done unless you go to the website on a browser. For example, if you are over the roster limit, it will not let you drop players individually unless you are on a browser.
• There is a fee to run the league on the website
• While there is a chat feature on MFL, many leagues use a separate application, GroupMe.

Sleeper

Sleeper fantasy football started in 2017 but has been used since 2014 for mobile chat for fantasy leagues. I personally found Sleeper during the pandemic in 2019 and is my preferred platform.

Pros

• There is no cost to run a league on Sleeper.
• The mobile app is easy to use and good for those on the go trying to set lineups or make transactions
• Sleeper is constantly listening to feedback and making adjustments, even in season.
• There is a trade screen where you can easily see everyone's rosters

Cons

• The opposite of MFL, Sleeper's desktop version can be hard to use and looks vastly different than the mobile features.
• You are not able to create players like MFL. For draft picks, many add extra rounds to the rookie draft and then draft placeholders. So for devy leagues, many have a spreadsheet that needs to be used to keep track of college players selected.
• You can use nicknames for players, but those nicknames are not shown on the trade screen. So this does not help much for those college players in devy leagues.

While I prefer Sleeper because of the mobile functionality, I use both platforms. The customizations of the pages are not a big deal to me personally. Below, you can read what other commissioners said based on their favorite platform:

I prefer Sleeper and I don’t really care for MFL, but it is functional. I’m not sure I have one I would call the “worst,” I think preference between the two major platforms is largely based on demographics and experience.

All my leagues are run on MFL because of the customization options.

I only play on Sleeper, so I can't really say.

How Leagues are Advertised

There are many different ways to look for devy leagues, but the three that I have mainly used are: searching for devy leagues on Twitter for tweets, looking at the fantasy football channel on sleeper, or checking out a looking for leagues forum. Below are how the interviewed commissioners look for members:

Started through Reddit then other managers in my league started to recruit for me.

I would ask around in leagues and see if there are any newbies that want to try devy. When I first started, I would scour the DLF message boards looking for others who wanted to try devy. Now, there are a ton of discords that you can find leaguemates in. My biggest suggestion is to start a league with friends. 

I try to pull from pools of managers I have experienced competing against in other leagues and I have had good luck finding managers on Destination Devy and Devy Deep Dive patron groups

Thanks for checking out my article, make sure to watch out for the next piece in the series on how to commission a devy league. You can read all my work on my IDP Guys Author Page and find me on Twitter @hayeb3.