Myself and jimmy m started an in-house league here in AZ last year. All in all, it was pretty easy to do and ultimately successful. We had 24 players, which the room could accomodate, but perhaps ideally would have been around 16. A few things:
(1) Most important thing is devising the handicap system. We decided to use our local AZ ratings as simply a starting point, and assigned initial ratings ranging from 125 (top players) to 60 (lowest players). Another way to assign initial ratings, as others have done or suggested, is have everyone run 10 racks or so of equal offense. We didn't want to spend the time to do this, though it probably would have been a bit more accurate.
The matches were always played to the higher rating, with the "spot" being the difference b/t the ratings. From that point, we simply adjusted the ratings after every match: +3 points for a win and -3 points for a loss. By the end of the season, the ratings ranged from about 170 to 45. I think most agreed they had a shot to win every match, with the spot.
(2) Devise the fees and payouts. We decided to pay everything back 100%, and collected $20/player as a "membership fee" and $10/week league dues. All membership fees went back into the end of the session tournament, and all league dues were paid out either in nightly high run awards or proportionately to each player at the end of the session based on # of wins. As a group we voted and decided not to have "playoffs" at the end of the session, but just an end of session tournament.
(3) Once the handicap system and fees/payouts are figured out, just make a schedule and get started. You can get basic schedules off
www.playbca.com (click on downloads) for basically any # of players you have. Real easy.
We had a good deal set up w/ our host room (Kolby's here in Tempe) where they would give us the tables at 7:00 every Monday night until the matches were finished. We also had it set up where matches could be made up at any time -- the player that couldn't make it any given week simply had to call their opponent ahead of time and set something up.
(4) I did everything by email list -- schedule, standings, scores spreadsheet, etc. It was pretty easy and didn't take much time, but a simple website that everyone could access would probably be best.
Hope this helps --
Al
