If you haven’t joined the crazy already it’s never too late to join a fantasy sports league. It’s something I’ve been playing over the past 15 years and I’m still not board of playing. The first fantasy league I joined was fantasy football and when I started it was much simpler than it is today. So, before you get started figure out what type of league you would like to join and then start thinking about rules and regulations, and a scoring system.

Standard or Redraft Leagues

Standard or redraft leagues are the most common out of all fantasy football leagues. The league can have anywhere from 8 to 14 members/owners drafting from all available players in the NFL, both rookie and veterans included. In a standard or redraft league new players are drafted each year by the owners. Players are selected in rounds with each owner selecting one player per round. The format for the following rounds can be structured however the league likes, but usually follows a serpentine style draft. A serpentine style draft is a draft where the last person to pick in the round before picks first in the next round.

In a standard or redraft league, but not limited to, there are two types of league formats. The more popular of the two is a head-to-head and the second is called rotisserie or “Roto” for short. In a head-to-head league each owner has a set of active players that score them points based on a combination of statistics. This combination of statistics which can be points based (a touchdown) and/or yardage based  (receiving yards) equals a point value. The team with the highest total of points wins for the week. The team(s) with the most wins goes to the playoffs or wins the league. In a Roto league if your player has the best statistics, for example, most passing touchdowns, they get a point value based on their ranking. For example in a ten team league if you have the best player per category statistic then you get the rank of 10 and the worst get a 1. Total the points at the end of the season and the one with the highest total points wins for the year.

Keepers League

A keepers league is a lot like a standard or redraft league but owners are permitted to keep players from the year before. There are variations to how many years you are allowed to keep a player and the total of players kept from the year before. My suggestion is to keep a player for no more than three consecutive years and no more than five players a year with restrictions. For example if you keep 3 players then you can start your draft in the first round. However, if you keep 5 then you start your draft in the third round.

Salaried Capped League

A salaried capped league works with most league formats. In a salaried capped league a player is assigned a value. Each owner is given a total amount of points/money to spend on a team of players. The goal here is to keep your team’s salary under the total value given to each owner. Combining a salaried capped league with a keepers league is my favorite format. Mixing in lower value players with your higher value players is challenging. I’ve had to draft lower value players sooner than higher value players to make sure I get the best player for a price at a certain position. Drafting this same type of player at this position in other league formats is unheard of. Using a salary cap in a league helps with player hoarding and team leveling (making the teams more equal).

Dynasty Leagues

A dynasty league is a longer term keepers league. Instead of keeping a group of players for a certain time period players are kept until traded or retired from the game. At a dynasty league draft, owners will draft from the new pool of rookies entering the league. A dynasty league is a greater time commitment and is a lot more fun if you can get the same group of owners to return year after year.

Auction Draft Leagues

An auction draft league is a lot like a salaried capped league the main difference is each owner bids (like an auction) on players from a predetermined pot of money given to each owner. If an owner spends too much money on one player then the owner runs the risk of not having enough money for the remainder of their roster. Also, it is possible to have the same individual player on multiple rosters.

IDP Leagues

An IDP league is another dimension of playability that can be added to any of these leagues mentioned in this article. IDP means instead of using a NFL team’s defense to score points for defensive category statistics and special teams (special teams and defense points can be separated as well) individual defensive players from multiple teams are used instead. When adding this dimension to your league consider the extra time for research and additional roster spots.

Survivor Leagues

I have seen many different ways to run this type of league. Whatever way you choose as the format or score system to run this league the basic principle is to eliminate an owner/team per week or time period. For example, the team with the lowest score for the week is eliminated until one team remains, thus crowned the champion.

I’m sure there are many hybrids that have and will evolve from the leagues within this article. Finding the fantasy league that works for you is the first step to having fun both short and long term. Do you have any tips or questions concerning fantasy football or any other fantasy sports team? We would like to hear from you, please feel free to submit a post.