Fantasy Leagues: The Many Variations

Beyond the standard styles of fantasy leagues, there are multiple variations out there. Leave it to hardcore fantasy fans to get creative. Here is a listing of them, with detailed explanations, "how-to's", and pros and cons. If you have any questions, or know of any other types out there, let us know at fantasysleepers@yahoo.com.

Types of Leagues

1.    Keeper
2.    Survivor
3.    Salary Cap
4.    Total Points
5.    Power Rankings

Keeper
This type of league is becoming more common in terms of fantasy leagues. The general rule for this league is simply this: you may keep a player(s) who was on your roster from the previous year. The decision to “keep” any player(s) is determined before the following year’s draft.   This is done so that everyone has ample time to prepare for the draft and to inform which players have officially become unavailable in the draft. It is usually decided to keep only one player per year, but there are leagues where more players are kept each year.   I will explain how we run this type of league. Feel free to make any adjustments and to add your own twist to the league if you so desire.
Ø    Players that are drafted in the first 2 rounds are not eligible to be kept the following year. Therefore, the only eligible players for “keeper” purposes are all players drafted starting in the 3rd round and through the end of the draft. The purpose of this is to give everyone the opportunity to draft the “high performance fantasy stud players” every year.
Ø    Players also must remain on the roster the entire year. Once dropped from the roster, even if added back the following week, they become no longer eligible.
Ø    No player is eligible to be a keeper that was acquired through free agency or through a trade.

Ok, for the following season, once you have designated your keeper, your draft schedule will now be adjusted. Whichever round your keeper was selected in the previous year, is the round you lose your pick for the current draft. For example, I drafted Travis Henry in the 5th round last year and I designated him as my keeper. This year, I will lose my 5th round pick. Generally, we decided in my leagues, that a keeper could only be kept for 1 year. Therefore, the player goes back into the pool of players eligible to be drafted next year. However, we did decide on one stipulation. If you choose to keep your “keeper” an additional year, you will lose your first round pick for that year. For example, fast forward to next year, Henry was my keeper last year, I can choose to keep him an additional year and forfeit my 1st round pick, or I can choose another player I drafted last year after the 3rd round. This is to benefit those individuals who find the gems later in the rounds who eventually turned into studs. Please note that you are not required to keep a player if you are in this league. If you choose not to keep anyone, you simply will not lose any draft picks.

Pros –1. You get to keep a player from last year’s draft.
          2. If you can assess talent and potential, especially in the later rounds of the draft, your keeper could be a steal.

Cons – 1. If you are horrible at drafting talent, this league will not benefit you.
            2. If any team drops out of your league and you have to add a new team, the new team doesn’t have the benefit of keeping a player at their first draft.

Survivor

Everyone has seen the reality show. If not, I am sure you know the concept. Take that concept and apply it to a fantasy football season. The objective is simple, score as many points as possible during a two-week (or three-week) period throughout the season without getting eliminated.
Ø    No head to head competition
Ø    Every few weeks, the lowest scoring team(s) from the past weeks are eliminated from the season.
Ø    There are “immunity challenges” on weeks prior to the elimination week, which I will discuss a bit later.

I created a table to follow (see below), just find your league size and follow the schedule for the season. As I mentioned, there is no head to head competition, you are competing with everyone in your league. As you can see from the schedule, a team or teams, are eliminated every two (2) weeks. (Except in the 8-team league, the first two elimination periods are 3 weeks). This elimination is based on the total points scored in the previous weeks, prior to the last elimination period (Either 2 or 3 weeks). Sandwiched in between these elimination weeks, are “immunity challenges”. These challenges are predetermined by the commissioner and mentioned at the time of the draft. The challenge is based on fantasy points scored for that week, NOT for the entire period of 2 or 3 weeks. (For the most part, there will be at least 7 challenges during the course of a season) Examples of what could be “immunity challenge” for your league:
Ø    The team with the top producing RB (or WR, QB, TE, K, D/ST) in terms of fantasy points will receive immunity from being eliminated. Have a different position every 2 weeks for the immunity challenge.
Ø    Since most leagues start 2 RB’s and 2 WR’s, the challenge could be the top producing RB (or WR) tandem for the week.
Ø    Can also combine two positions together, (example RB & QB)
Ø    Most total points
Ø    Lowest total points, (be careful with this one, some teams may sit some players, just so they receive immunity from being eliminated)

Please remember the immunity challenge is ONLY for the scheduled week, NOT over two weeks. Going into the elimination week, the league will know which team will be immune from elimination that week. After each elimination week, points, immunity, etc. starts fresh. In other words, if your team was horrible in the previous two weeks, but you were able to survive elimination, you can redeem yourself, since the points do NOT accumulate over the season. Continue to eliminate the lowest scoring team(s) in each of the two-week periods that follow, until only one (1) team is left.

Pros – Any team can win; not always the best team will win, which helps to give everyone in your league a fighting chance.

Cons – Your season can be over EARLY, and then what will you do with the rest of your time? This league would be best served as an “addition” to your current league and have a different $$$ pot for the survivor of this league. This way, your season will NOT be interrupted or ended early, only the survivor portion of the league is over, your season still continues toward your main objective – The Fantasy Bowl.

Week #	8 Teams	10 Teams	12 Teams	14 Teams	16 Teams
1		immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge
2	immunity challange	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)
3	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge
4		eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)
5	immunity challange	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge
6	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)
7	immunity challange	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge
8	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)
9	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge
10	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)
11	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge
12	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)
13	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge	immunity challenge
14	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest team (1 team)	eliminate lowest teams (2 teams)
15
16	eliminate final team	eliminate final team	eliminate final team	eliminate final team	eliminate final team

Salary Cap

I think this league was created for accountants and financial individuals because it is based strictly on given salaries of all the fantasy players and budgeting those players under a salary cap. You are given a salary cap for your team, and you draft players based on their salaries. In the end, you should be within your budgeted cap. Sounds simple? Not really. Your stud fantasy players will draw the most salary, and creating a team surrounding such a player within the budget constraints is not so simple. Weekly drop/adds during the season will be a difficult task as well, since the free agent must fit into the budget. Any team submitting a lineup where the team is over the salary cap will forfeit his game for that week and should receive a penalty, either a monetary, and/or the team must be forced to make a trade or a drop/add to become under the cap.

There are two types of leagues
Ø    A league where you can create a team using every player available within the budgeted constraints, but NOT limited to duplication in your league. In other words, I can build my team around Marshall Faulk, but someone else in the same league may also build his team around Marshall Faulk as well. Duplication of players is allowed in this type of league, as the entire pool of players is available to all teams. The only rule is to remain under the salary cap. Provide everyone in the league a compiled list of salaries for fantasy players. You can find these types of lists in any fantasy football magazine, or you can use ours. (Salary Cap '03 - Right Click and "Save Target As") (Our salaries are based on 12 players per team – $12,000 or 14 players per team - $13,500) Set a date for everyone to complete his or her team. This league is the most common and popular on Internet salary cap leagues.

Pros – 1. Every Fantasy Football Player is available to create your team and also gives each team more possible options since players do NOT become unavailable, as in, if this was an actually draft.
          2. If you excel at budgets and working with numbers and are a HUGE football fan, you should do well in this league. It’s just a matter of assessing the salary provided to the players fantasy potential.

Cons – The only thing I do not like about this league is simply, the duplication. If I choose to take a chance and build my team around a high salary stud fantasy player, I do not want his production negated when I oppose a team in head to head competition that has the same high salary stud fantasy player. Especially when they have a HUGE fantasy performance in that given week.

Ø    The other league is simply, a sit down draft. Once a player is drafted, he becomes unavailable to the other teams in your league. Salaries can be found in any fantasy football magazine, or you can use ours. (Salary Cap '03 - Right Click and "Save Target As") (Our salaries are based on 12 players per team - $12,000 or 14 players per team - $13,500)

Pros – 1.Staying within the salary cap should be easier in this league, since the options become less as each team drafts a player and they become unavailable.
          2. No Duplication. No worries about another team negating your player’s HUGE fantasy performance, since no team in your league can have the same player as on your team.

Cons – There is more planning involved prior to the draft. Since not every player is available, you need to plan ahead in your draft, and this will affect your budget when players become drafted.

Total Points

This league has NO head to head competition. It is strictly based on the points you scored for the week and accumulates throughout the season. The team with the most points after the final week of the season is declared the champion.

Pros – No more of those losing heartbreaks of scoring a ton of points and finding out you lost your game by 1 point, and finding out another team in your league scored half as many points as your team and still won their game. In other words, you score a lot of points; you remain in the hunt for champion, no worries about a win-loss record. I always felt a true champion is the team that does score the most fantasy points in the year. W-L records and playoffs do not benefit someone who scores a lot of points every week, since one bad week can ruin a terrific season.

Cons – No head to head competition. If your team scores only an average amount of points, your chance for being at the top come the end of the season is slim. Teams lose interest a lot earlier and teams can become abandoned. Head to head competition gives everyone a fighting chance regardless of the average number of points they score.

Player Rankings

Does the commissioner have a lot of time on your hands? Then this is the league for you if you want something completely different. This league is based on player rankings of the 6 positions in your weekly lineup (QB, RB, WR, TE, K, and D/ST). It makes no difference which scoring method you choose, because this will be the method that determines your players ranking among the rest of the competition within your league. There is head to head competition weekly but each position on your team will be evaluated and compared to the other teams in your league and therefore ranked and assigned a point value (see table below). This ranking is done weekly and is based solely on that week’s performances. It will NOT be based on the accumulative points the player has scored to date.

For example, assume I was in a 10-team league and my QB was Rich Gannon. Gannon will be compared to the other 9 QB’s that played in your league. If Gannon had the most fantasy points based on the scoring method your league uses, his point value for that week will be 10 points. If he was the worst QB in your league for that week, he will receive only 1 point. This process continues through every position. Therefore, for a 10-team league, the most points a team can receive will be 60 points and the fewest points received are 6 points. Tiebreaks will be settled by the actual fantasy points scored based on your scoring method. Please note, when ranking the RB’s and WR’s, if your league starts multiple players at those positions, you must rank based on the combined RB’s or combined WR’s started that week for their respective teams.

Pros – 1. Much easier to see where your team’s strengths and weaknesses are compared to the other teams within your league, and therefore make they required adjustments.
          2.This method of scoring makes the league unique, so, if you are looking for something completely different besides the regular, run of the mill leagues, this will be ideal for you.

Cons – For the commissioner, its A LOT of work. Not only do you have to calculate the scores, but also now, you have to rank all the positions for that week. It may not be so terrible if you use Excel, or you use an internet site, such as CBSSportsline.com, to calculate your scores. Then it’s just a matter of downloading the information into a spreadsheet and sorting the information. Whichever way you decide to handle the task, it will be additional work.

Rank	8 Teams	10 Teams	12 Teams	14 Teams	16 Teams
1st	8 pts	10 pts	12 pts	14 pts	16 pts
2nd	7 pts	9 pts	11 pts	13 pts	15 pts
3rd	6 pts	8 pts	10 pts	12 pts	14 pts
4th	5 pts	7 pts	9 pts	11 pts	13 pts
5th	4 pts	6 pts	8 pts	10 pts	12 pts
6th	3 pts	5 pts	7 pts	9 pts	11 pts
7th	2 pts	4 pts	6 pts	8 pts	10 pts
8th	1 pt	3 pts	5 pts	7 pts	9 pts
9th		2 pts	4 pts	6 pts	8 pts
10th		1 pt	3 pts	5 pts	7 pts
11th			2 pts	4 pts	6 pts
12th			1 pt	3 pts	5 pts
13th				2 pts	4 pts
14th				1 pt	3 pts
15th					2 pts
16th					1 pt