Commissioner Guide: Setting Up Your League

Running a rec league is a lot of work, but it doesn't have to be disorganized. Rosterlytic gives commissioners a full web dashboard at app.rosterlytic.com to manage everything from team registration to final scores. Here's how to get your league up and running.

Creating your league

Head to app.rosterlytic.com and sign in. From the dashboard, click Create League and fill in the basics:

• League name — Something your players will recognize (e.g., "Thursday Night Hockey League")
• Sport — Choose from hockey, basketball, soccer, volleyball, flag football, softball, kickball, pickleball, or tennis
• Scoring system — Configure how standings points are awarded (e.g., 2 points for a win, 1 for a tie, 0 for a loss)

Every Rosterlytic account can create one league for free. If you need additional leagues or want access to the full commissioner toolkit, the League tier ($9.99/month) unlocks everything.

Adding teams

Once your league is created, you need teams. There are two ways to get them in:

Invite captains directly

Share your league's join code with team captains. They can enter it in the Rosterlytic mobile app to register their team. This is the easiest approach because captains handle their own rosters and player invites.

Create teams yourself

From the league dashboard, click Add Team and enter the team name. You can assign a captain later or manage the roster yourself.

Either way, each team gets its own roster, schedule view, and stat tracking once they're part of the league.

Setting up a season

Leagues in Rosterlytic are organized by season. To create one:

1. Go to your league's Seasons section
2. Click Create Season
3. Set the season name (e.g., "Spring 2026")
4. Choose meetings per matchup — this controls how many times each team plays every other team in round-robin scheduling (1, 2, or 3)

Seasons keep your standings, stats, and brackets organized. When a season ends, you can complete it and start a new one, carrying over your teams and settings.

Generating the schedule

This is where Rosterlytic saves you serious time. Instead of building a schedule by hand:

1. Open your active season
2. Click Generate Schedule
3. Rosterlytic creates a full round-robin schedule based on your teams and meetings-per-matchup setting

The system handles bye weeks automatically for odd numbers of teams. If you have 2 meetings per matchup, the second cycle swaps home and away so every team gets balanced hosting.

You can also create individual games manually if you need to add makeup games or special matchups outside the generated schedule.

Importing a schedule from CSV

If you already have a schedule built in a spreadsheet, you can import it instead of generating one:

1. Open your active season
2. Tap Import Schedule (or use the overflow menu)
3. Upload a CSV file with columns for home team, away team, date, time, and location
4. Rosterlytic validates the data and shows a preview before importing
5. Confirm to create all games at once

This is useful when your league has a custom schedule format, venues with specific availability, or when you're migrating from another platform. After import, you can still edit individual games as needed.

Entering scores

After each game night, enter scores from the web dashboard:

1. Find the game in your season's schedule
2. Enter the home and away scores
3. The game automatically marks as completed once both scores are in

Standings update instantly. Wins, losses, ties, and points are all recalculated the moment you save a score. No manual standings spreadsheets, no formulas to maintain.

Entering player stats

If your captains are tracking player stats through the mobile app, those stats flow into the league automatically. But commissioners can also enter stats directly:

1. Open a completed game
2. Navigate to the stats entry section
3. Enter sport-specific stats for each player

Stats are fully sport-specific. Hockey tracks goals, assists, plus/minus, penalty minutes, saves, and goals against average. Soccer tracks goals, assists, shots, saves, and clean sheets. Every sport has its own set of relevant metrics — see our sport-specific setup guide for the full breakdown.

Setting up branding (optional)

Upload a league logo and pick accent colors from the Admin page's Branding section. Your branding applies across standings, schedules, and embed widgets, giving your league a professional identity without any design work.

Enabling overtime tracking (optional)

If your sport uses overtime, enable it from the Admin page. Choose a preset that matches your rules (NHL, IIHF, Soccer PK) or configure custom point values. Once enabled, standings will gain OT and SO columns, and every game score across the app is labeled with how it ended.

Enabling public embeds (optional)

Toggle public embeds on from the Admin page to generate embed codes for your league's website. Five widget types are available — standings, scores, schedule, stat leaders, and stats table. Copy the snippet and paste it into any webpage for a live view of your season.

Tips for a smooth season

• Let captains own their rosters. Share the join code and let them handle player invites. It saves you time and gives captains ownership.
• Enter scores promptly. Players check standings constantly. Keeping scores up to date keeps engagement high.
• Use the free tier to test. Set up your first league for free to make sure Rosterlytic fits your workflow before upgrading.
• Configure your point system early. Changing it mid-season recalculates everything, but it's cleaner to set it before games start.

Running a rec league should be fun, not a second job. With the web dashboard handling schedules, standings, and playoff brackets, you can spend less time on spreadsheets and more time on the ice, field, or court. For more practical tips, check out our guide on how to run a rec league.