SALT LAKE CITY — A big part of what makes fantasy sports so fun, particularly in the years since computers have streamlined the entire process, is the personalization allowed.

No two leagues have to be the same. A league or owner can alter everything from scoring format to roster size, from trade deadlines to waiver rules. Big into quarterbacks? Juice up their scoring and make them the most important position in the game. Sick of seemingly random team defenses swinging matchups? Just remove them from your league. Major sites like ESPN and NFL.com have tons of customization available, and certain other niche sites, which charge fees, allow even more.

These facts bring us to a difficult and subjective question — what is the perfect fantasy football league?

On the surface, this is just one man's list. But know that it comes with great gravitas; years of experience with all possible formats, winning and losing in all the most beautiful and brutal ways possible.

Certain elements will be realistic within publicly available means, others less so. We'll leave out certain simpler distinctions — things like PPR or no, exact roster size and scoring are more personal preference than anything. Let's get to it.

1. No kickers

It's in The Mantra, it's in the best league I play in and it should be a standardized rule across all fantasy football leagues everywhere. Kickers add nothing to the fantasy experience. They are literally impossible to predict on a week-to-week basis — don't believe that one friend of yours who claims to have a "system" for streaming kickers. He's lying. It doesn't exist.

To make the game even more skill-driven, replace the kicker slot with a second FLEX. This is how my primary league now runs, and it's easily the best format I've ever played. It requires more attention paid during the late rounds of the draft and reduces the utter randomness kickers bring. Once you go no-kicker, you'll never go back.

2. Garbage time only counts for half points

All experienced players have lost at least one matchup when an opponent's receiver hauls in some meaningless 60-yard touchdown with their real-life NFL team down 27 points with 45 seconds to play in the game. It's more annoying than traffic in downtown Los Angeles.

The solution: "garbage time" points only count for half their normal value. This isn't a feature offered by any public site (or even any private one I'm aware of), but it wouldn't be all that tough to institute — the only difficult part would be determining your league's threshold for what "garbage time" actually means. Personally, I'd go with a sliding scale: anytime the score gap is 14 points or higher in the fourth quarter, or at least 21 points in the third quarter.

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Fantasy football 2015: The waiver wire

With a week in the books and fervor surrounding draft time finally subsiding, it's time for the next major personnel flow element in the game: the waiver wire. (Photo: KSL)

3. No yardage bonuses, please

OK, so one basic scoring gripe: Many leagues have a silly rule where players are rewarded with bonus points after crossing a certain threshold — typically 100 yards for backs and receivers, or 400 yards for quarterbacks.

What's the point of this? Is rushing for 100 yards really that much more valuable than rushing for, say, 98? These thresholds are arbitrary and shouldn't exist.

4. Penalties drawn count for points

My favorite overall fix I wish the major sites would institute would be the addition of fantasy points for players who draw penalties, and, therefore, gain yardage for their teams. The most common example would be wide receivers, who frequently beat their man only to have him commit a pass interference penalty and deny them their well-deserved fantasy points.

Why not reward this? It's clearly skill on the player's part, and fantasy should be about putting together the most skilled group possible. If a receiver draws a 25-yard PI penalty, he should be awarded 25 yards worth of fantasy points. The same could go for running backs (facemask and horse-tackle penalties) and quarterbacks (also rewarded for PI penalties).

5. Last-place "prizes"

The winners of leagues are always rewarded, be it through bragging rights or more tangible compensation. But the best leagues also include the inverse — cellar-dwellers are punished, most commonly in the form of embarrassment or ridicule at their awful team.

It's a tough balance to achieve. Everyone in the league has to be on board from the start, and you have to have owners who stick to their word and will willingly submit to some sort of embarrassment if they find themselves in the basement. But the leagues able to pull it off are better off for it, both competitively (this keeps owners from simply abandoning their teams late in the year) and from a fun standpoint.

6. Eliminated rosters lock automatically

OK, so these final two are at slight odds with one another. If your league is one of the rare ones that has successfully instituted "prizes" for those at the bottom of the standings, it's acceptable for even eliminated owners to continue adjusting their roster as they strive to avoid personal ridicule.

Most leagues don't have those, though. And if the winners are the only ones recognized, this should be a standard rule across all leagues. We mentioned it last week among waiver pointers, and it extends to things like trades and all other roster moves — don't clog things up for those in contention if you're eliminated already. It's just rude, and insanely frustrating for anyone who's ever lost a league title as a result. Fantasy football is about class, after all.

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