How to run a pick'em league with friends

Picking games is more fun when there's a standings board with your friends' names on it. A private league gives your group its own standings, its own chat, and its own settings, while everyone still appears on the site-wide leaderboards too.

Setting it up

Create a league from the Leagues page, give it a name, and choose its sports: NFL, college football, NBA, or any mix. A league only counts games in the sports it plays, so an NFL-only league never picks up anyone's college or NBA picks.

Then share the invite link. Anyone who opens it can join with a free account, and they land straight in your league.

Choosing how you score

Most groups are happy with the defaults, but a league owner can tune a lot:

• Which college games count: just Power 4, Group of 5 too, or FCS opponents as well.
• A curated weekly slate: hand-pick the games that count each week, so the league focuses on the matchups everyone cares about.
• Game of the Week: use the site's pick, or let the league choose (or vote on) its own.
• Perfect-week bonuses: big one-time rewards for a flawless week.
• Calls: whether calls on games count in the league's standings, or stay a separate side game.

Keeping people playing

The biggest threat to a pick'em league is the person who forgets in week four. A few things help:

• Turn on pick reminders in Settings — the site emails players who haven't picked yet before games lock.
• Use the league chat. A little trash talk keeps everyone checking in.
• Keep the slate manageable. A curated slate of the week's best games is easier to keep up with than every game on the schedule.
• Post standings updates. Rank movement each week gives people at the bottom something to chase.