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How to Play Fantasy Football

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
These days, fantasy football is big time. Along with a variety of ways to play the game, there are strategies and caveats to each playing style. Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned pro, it never hurts to get a primer on fantasy football 101 so you don’t end up the one who looks like they didn’t read the instruction manual.

Steps

  1. Standard League: There are basically two different types of standard draft leagues; head-to-head and total points. In a h2h a team matches up against a different team each week with the team receiving the most points declared the winner. At the end of the regular season, teams with the best won/loss records meet in the playoffs to decide an eventual champion.
  2. Auction Leagues: Auction leagues can utilize either a h2h or total points system. The difference is that owners are given a predetermined amount of money to bid on players to fill their roster. Each owner may bid on any player he likes, and individual players can end up on more that one team. If an owner overspends on one player, the rest of his roster might suffer because he does not have enough remaining cash to fill other positions with quality players. So, this format requires you to put your money where your mouth is - kinda like the stock market.
  3. Dynasty Leagues: Dynasty leagues are for the serious fantasy football owner and require a commitment over multiple seasons. After the initial draft in a dynasty league’s inaugural season, a predetermined number of players remain on the same roster from one season to the next unless they are traded or released. Each year after the initial season, a draft is held for NFL rookies, so fantasy owners must be more in tune to the talent in college than an owner in a standard draft league. These leagues drastically change the draft decisions an owner goes through when compared to standard leagues. Owners also het a more realistic experience managing a franchise as they must take into consideration how each transaction affects the future of their franchise.
  4. Keeper Leagues: A keeper league is like a hybrid between a standard draft league and a dynasty league. Each preseason, most of the players are drafted, however, owners are allowed to keep a predetermined number of players on their roster from the year before. Most league rules allow only a handful of players to be retained by each team from year to year.
  5. IDP Leagues: This type of league utilizes defensive players on an individual bases as well as using team defensive units. Other leagues simply use team defenses. The additional players and positions to fill require owners in an IDP league to do a lot more research to determine which defensive players to draft, when to draft them, and makes it more difficult to determine which players and positions are most important. However, these leagues are often more rewarding to win.
  6. Survivor Leagues: Survivor leagues can utilize any type of draft, however, they usually use a standard or auction type. Systems of scoring can vary as well, but what makes a survivor league unique is that the team scoring the least amount of points in a particular week is eliminated for the remainder of the season. So in essence, on a weekly basis, all a fantasy owner needs to do is avoid having the lowest score of all teams in the league. Of course, as the weeks go by and the number of teams drop, it becomes increasingly difficult to do just that.

Tips

  • Having and acting on exclusive, timely information is the single most important difference between winning and losing in fantasy football.
  • Make sure that you know the deadline for lineup changes each week.
  • Know your league waiver wire rules. Are the rosters locked over the weekend? Are pickups and drops allowed at any time? etc…
  • At the draft, you should have a cheat sheet, a copy of the rules, paper, and a pen.

Warnings

  • Just like with the stock market, relying on magazines, hearsay and ‘experts’ will surely get you in trouble. The only use for the magazines is to have a real, physical reference – or to even out a wobbly chair.
  • Know your league's scoring rules before selecting certain players (very important).
  • Don't let favoritism play a role in your player selections.
  • Don’t be a quitter. If you find you are out of playoff contention, play the role of spoiler – it’s almost as fun as being the champion.
  • All information sources are not created equal. Use a free one that will give you all the info you need in a timely manner [1].

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