Enhancing your Fantasy Football League

Here at SnoTap, we are working on expanding our Fantasy Sports coverage. Since this effort is beginning during football season, we will look at fantasy football for the upcoming season, but fear not, we will also look in depth at baseball and basketball as their next seasons begin.

The first step is to discuss how to spice up the average fantasy football league. One of the great things about fantasy sports is how flexible it is for each league. There are endless opportunities for commissioners to adjust their league’s rules. What are some things you could do to make your league more fun for you?

Change the Members in Your League:  One of the most important things that create the identity of the league is who is actually in the league. This will decide how people play, how much knowledge they have, and how long they will pay attention. For example, if you want a more casual league that is an introduction into fantasy sports, create a family/work league. This will allow everyone to run a team, but it won’t be overwhelming in terms of commitment or competition. If you want something potentially more intense, find a group of friends that know a lot about fantasy sports and want to play. A friends’ league will usually create more smack talk. The competitive level of the league will always center on who is in the league, and what their knowledge is.

Amount of Teams: Most leagues will just add as many players as they can until they get to the limit of 10-12 teams. However, changing the amount of teams can change the experience as a whole. For beginners, a smaller league in the 8-10 range will allow everyone to have players that they recognize without a lot of research required. However, players with more knowledge might want to play in a larger league, which creates more separation between the true star players in the league from the rest of the pack. Generally, a larger league will mean more competition over NFL players, and thus a deeper, more difficult to navigate talent pool.

Auction: Tired of the draft going back and forth in the same order? Frustrated with getting the fourth pick in the draft and never having the opportunity to take the best overall player? Push your league to be an auction league. It allows each team owner to select their own strategy and go with it, without someone being snatched off the board right before they get to draft. Each team gets a set budget heading into the draft. From there, members of the league will nominate a player up to auction, and then the member of the league who is willing to pay the most for that player, gets the player.

PPR: Point per Reception, or PPR, leagues are a great way to increase scoring for those leagues that like having more points in each matchup. The PPR format gives more importance to the wide receivers, especially the Wes Welker type players. Each reception is given a point value, usually 1 or .5, and awarded for each catch a player has. This is also a great way to reward players who are a large part of the offense more consistently, rather than just waiting for the weeks with touchdowns.

Defense: One of the biggest complaints about fantasy football is it relegates 50% of the game, defense, to one specific player. There are leagues out there that allow players to draft individual defensive players and collect their stats for points. These leagues can be customized to include points for tackles, fumbles, interceptions, sacks, and more if necessary. It’s a good way to allow fans of both sides of the ball to play fantasy sports.

Keeper/Dynasty: Once a league has decided to play every year, it makes sense to make it a keeper/dynasty league. This allows teams to keep players from season to season, making it a bit more fun to build around certain players. It will also alter strategies a bit to make sure people are thinking about the future. The fact that teams are playing for next season allows those that are eliminated from playoff contention to still work on their roster for the following season. A keeper league usually means teams keep somewhere in the range of 2-4 players, where a dynasty league has a lot more keepers, usually close to a full roster.

Waivers/Free Agent Bidding: It is important for leagues to not just give all the good free agents to whoever is able to log online first. It’s beneficial for leagues to institute a Waiver or Free Agent Bidding System. In a waiver system, players are locked until Tuesday/Wednesday of the week, and teams are allowed to place claims on players. The league has a waiver priority order, where the best rank is awarded the player, similar to the process professional sports uses. Once a team is awarded a player off of waivers, they jump to the back of the line. It allows all of the transactions to process at once, spreading out the week to week talent. Free Agent bidding is similar to waivers, where the process pushes through all of the transactions on the same day, but instead of a waiver priority, each team has a budget for the season, and they bid on each player. The owner who bids the highest is awarded the player, but loses the money they bid for future players.

These are some great ways to add even more fun to your fantasy league. At SnoTap we will keep looking into the start of the fantasy football season. Next week, we will look into some general strategies for drafts, including some insight from Bryan Reynolds. If any fantasy players have questions for the upcoming football season, or current baseball season, send your questions to Snotap12@gmail.com, and Bryan and I will make sure to answer them in the following week’s column.

Adam