Well for those of you who don’t know, or haven’t stayed up to date with the news, the football season will be taking place this year, now that the owners and players have reached agreements on just how many millions each will make!!
With football season comes the annual need for numerous people to join fantasy football leagues…….don’t get me wrong, I know that there are such leagues in almost all sports, hockey, soccer (overseas), basketball, etc. I, however, do not have the slightest clue as to how one takes part in such a league. My better half is quite a fan of these leagues and takes part in one each year, just one…I think??
Due to my lack of knowledge with this topic I have decided to make today’s blog a “How To” blog……..just in case there are any others out there as clueless as I am in these regards.
Of course this blog will be made up of information I have found online, and I am making an attempt to understand.
Fantasy Football
For many pigskin-loving Americans, the ability to control a professional football team is the ultimate dream. Fantasy football allows this dream to become a (virtual) reality. Players can compose a team of athletes to compete against both friends and strangers!
To succeed in fantasy football, you need the business savvy of a general manager, the knowledge of a pro scout, and the strategy of a head coach. In this article, we’ll find out how fantasy football got its start, learn the fundamentals of the game and discover where you can play different types of fantasy football.
League types
There are several different types of fantasy football leagues. The two most popular types are: head-to-head and total points leagues. Type of league is the first thing in which a manager must designate to participate in.
Head-to-Head Leagues
In head-to-head leagues, a team matches up versus a different team each week. The team who receives the most points of the two receives a win for that particular week. Points are dictated by the scoring system that is either standard set by the website or custom set by the commissioner. A team’s total is the sum of all players points in the starting lineup. The win-loss record is the most important statistic in head-to-head leagues, as it directly correlates with the league champion. Teams with the best win-loss record advance to the playoffs. If two teams have the same record, the tie-breaker is then decided by total points scored by each team throughout the season.
Total Points Leagues
Total points leagues are leagues in which teams accumulate points on an ongoing basis. The league standings are determined by the teams’ total points rather than their win-loss record. The teams who accrue the highest total of points throughout the duration of the NFL-regular season advance to the playoffs.
Dynasty Leagues
A dynasty style fantasy football league is a league where you retain most or all of your players from year to year. This creates an environment which is very different from that of a redraft league. By enabling team owners to keep players and build a team over time, there is a much stronger sense of team ownership, and success is achieved with a greater sense of satisfaction.
Salary Cap Leagues
The salary cap football league is a particular type of dynasty league which adds another factor of realism similar to the NFL: the salary cap. Just like in the NFL, this means each player has an associated salary and the total spent on all the players on a team has a maximum – the “salary cap.” This can have many levels of complexity, e.g. a player may be signed for multiple years, etc.
Stock Market Leagues
A fantasy football stock market is a type of sports stock market where users can buy and sell shares of professional athletes, seeing their portfolio value rise and fall based on the players on-field performance. Users can buy shares in as many or as few players as they want, hoping to beat all other users by having the best percentage gain in their portfolio’s. StarStreet allows users to play for real money, the only real money fantasy stock market in the US.
The draft
Just like in real football, each year fantasy football leagues have a draft (note: in dynasty leagues, this normally consists of NFL rookies only), in which each team drafts NFL players. These players are kept unless “dropped” (aka become free agents) or are traded. In most leagues, no player may be owned by more than one team, (although some leagues do allow for this).
There are essentially two types of drafts. In a traditional “serpentine” (aka “snake”) draft, owners take turns drafting players in a “serpentine” method, i.e. the owner who picks 1st in the odd rounds picks last in the even rounds, in the interests of fairness. In an auction draft, each owner has an (imaginary) budget which he must use to purchase all his players in an auction format. Owners take turns nominating players for open bid. The owner who bids the highest on each player receives that player (reducing their remaining budget accordingly). A few leagues use a hybrid of the two styles, selecting a portion of their roster via auction, with the remainder selected through a serpentine method.
Free agents and trades
Free agents and trades are integral components to maintaining a competitive roster throughout the duration of a season. Free agents exist in fantasy leagues that do not allow multiple teams to have any one professional athlete. In these leagues, free agents are professional players that are not currently on any league members’ rosters. You can add, or claim, players anytime during the season.
At the beginning of every week, after the Monday night football game, team owners can claim free agents. The waiver claims are processed later on in the week. If more than one team owner claims a player, a team’s waiver wire position determines who gets the player. A team’s waiver wire ranking is determined by things like team record and the number of free agents already added. The better a team’s ranking, the more likely they will get the best free agents. This helps competitiveness as the season wears on. Usually there are several surprise players that are not drafted by any team and yet become some of the best fantasy players.
Some leagues have trade deadlines that are set, and others have a waiver period before free agents can be picked up. This really depends as to how the league is set up. When a trade is proposed and accepted in some leagues there can be a voting period which will allow the league to decide if the trade is acceptable or not.
Fantasy trade referees
Often within fantasy football leagues trades are made that cause controversy and are considered unfair by many other members of the league. These disputes are often settled by fantasy football trade referees. These third-party sites feature experienced fantasy players who rule on trades and offer an objective third-party opinion.
You may not need to use trade referees if your league uses the voting system in which the league can approve or decline the trade that has been placed. In some leagues if there is a voting period and a trade referee in place, the trade referee can overrule the league voting and this can cause controversy as well.
Team rosters
Each team is allowed a pre-determined number of players on its team, as well as a specified number at each position that can or must be used in each game (the “starters”). Owners for each team then determine each week which players will start (within the rules) and which will be “benched”. Just like in real football, bench players can become starters for various reasons: due to other players’ injury, poor performance, or if another player’s team has a bye.
Each week, owners choose their starters for a game before a certain deadline. Whether to sit or start a player is usually based on strategic considerations including the player’s past and expected performance, defensive match ups, and so on.
Starters
Each team owner must designate which players from the team roster will be starters each week – i.e. the only players who will “score” any points. The following example is similar to many common formats required for a starting lineup:
- 1 Quarterback (QB)
- 2 Running Backs (RB)
- 3 Wide Receivers (WR)
- 1 Tight End (TE)
- 1 Placekicker (K)
- 1 Team Defense/Special Teams (DST)
- 6 Bench (BN)
There are many variants on this. Some leagues use individual defensive players (IDPs) (and in some cases a punter) instead of or in addition to a combined Team Defense/Special Teams. Some other leagues use separate Defense and Special Teams. Another variant is the “flex” position, which can be filled by a player in one of several positions. Flex positions are often limited to “WR/TE”, “RB/WR”, or “RB/WR/TE”. Traditionally, this flex was required to be an RB, WR, or TE, however, some leagues allow any position to fill this flex slot as an “OP” (any Offensive Player). Some leagues do also have a 2 quarterback requirement for a starting lineup, yet providing another twist into the complexity of different scoring systems and lineups (Hendricks, 2007 Fantasy Football Guidebook pg 21-44).
Scoring
Players earn their team points based on their performance in their weekly games; for example, each touchdown counts as 6 points, a certain number of yards gained counts for points, and so on. In almost all cases, players earn points for passing, rushing, and receiving yards. Passing yards (sometimes touchdowns as well) typically earn about half as many points as rushing/receiving yards, since QBs normally get many more. Negative points are also usually given for turnovers, and kickers earn points for field goals and extra points (sometimes negative points for missed kicks). Bonuses can also be given for exceptionally good performances, like a QB throwing for over 300 yards, or a kicker making a long field goal. Team defenses earn points for things like sacks, turnovers, safeties, etc. Individual defensive players typically do not earn points for team-wide stats such as keeping the opponent under a certain score or yardage total, but rather for tackles or turnovers made.
A typical scoring format follows. Again, there are many variations used:
- 1 point for 30 passing yards
- 1 point for 20 rushing yards
- 1 point for 20 receiving yards
- 6 points for a touchdown
- 4 points for a passing touchdown
- -2 points for every interception thrown or fumble lost
- 1 point for each extra point made
- 3 points for each 0-39 yard field goal, 4 points for each 40-49 yard field goal, and 5 points for each 50+ yard field goal
- 2 points per turnover gained by defense
- 1 points per sack by the defense
- 2 points for a safety by defense
- 6 points for each touchdown scored by defense
- 2 points for each blocked kick
An alternate scoring format is the “pure yardage” league, in which touchdowns are ignored, and each player’s passing, rushing and receiving yards are totaled. Some yardage leagues also convert defensive stats into yards (ex., 50 yards for an interception, 20 yards for a sack), whether for a team’s defense, or individual players. Another scoring system counts only touchdowns, touchdown passes, and field goals for points. Many leagues also count points per reception (PPR). In PPR leagues your team scores points for every reception made by a player, usually a TE, RB and WR.
An alternative method for scoring defense is Individual Defensive Players or IDP fantasy football. The main difference being that players typically draft anywhere from 3 to 7 individual defensive players during a draft as opposed to just one team defense. Sometimes there are required positions to fill like 2 Linebackers, 2 Defensive Backs and 2 Defensive Linemen and sometimes it’s just 5 defensive players of any position you choose. There are many different ways to draft IDPs and many have found this makes the later part of the fantasy draft more exciting. For instance, instead of drafting a 5th wide receiver in the 16th round that will typically be on your bench or dropped part way through the season, you are instead drafting a “full-time” starting defensive player that can help you win your league.
Individual defensive players
Many leagues have now incorporated Individual Defensive Player (IDP) play into their scoring systems. IDP play typically has roster space for three groups of defensive players: defensive linemen (DL), linebackers (LB) and defensive backs (DB).
One possible scoring system:
- 2 points per solo tackle
- 1 point per assist
- 6 points per defensive touchdown
- 2 points per safety
- 1 point per pass defended
- 2 points per half sack
- 2 points per fumble recovered
- 2 points per forced fumble
- 2 points per interception
There ya have it!!! Well I hope it is all clear now…….for me it’s as clear as MUD!!! Please realize that this is truly just a snippet of what information is out there, there was more to read then I had time for, so I selected just the above info.
I hope that Jeanna has a great season and a lot of fun doing it, I think I’ll stick to the studying, blogging and general addiction to social media!!
