It's My Sports Fantasy

In order to begin playing fantasy sports, you will need to join a league. A fantasy league can be one you and your friends set up, it can be one that somebody else has set up and you join, or it can be a league that has been set up by the website for anyone to join. It’s up to you as to which type of league to join.

The person who sets up the league is known as the commissioner. He is the one responsible for editing and customizing settings for the league, whether it is scoring settings, draft settings, roster settings, or anything else that is customizable. The commissioner has the ability to change anything within the league. Some commissioners will set up leagues with settings the way they want, which may differ greatly from the general settings. It is important to keep track of these changed settings so you know how to draft, and how to keep your team at its peak. Sometimes when the settings are changed too far from the norm, everything can be turned upside down so to speak, and traditional fantasy strategies do not apply. So keep track of the settings before you join a league.

In Yahoo, you have options to create a league or join a league. When you create a league, you become the commissioner of that league. You can customize the settings, and set it up the way you want it. You have the ability to do everything I mentioned earlier. This is great if you want to make a league a certain way, and a league like that has yet to be created.  If you want, you could set up a league where quarterbacks dominate the league, or a league where your starting roster is made up of 20 players instead of the traditional 9-10 players.  Being commissioner allows you to set the league the way you like.

If you do not want to create a league, you can join a league. There are three options here: joining a custom league, browsing leagues, and getting assigned to a public league. When you join a custom league, you have to know what league you are going to join. This is for people who set up leagues with their friends, and then are given a league ID and password. You will have to obtain this information from the commissioner, which you then enter once you reach this point. If you want to join a league that has already been set up by somebody else, you can browse custom leagues. Here you can search through hundreds of leagues that have been set up for people to join by other commissioners. They set a league to their preferences, and then publish the league for others to join; so you can search for a certain type of league that you want. Finally you can be assigned to a public league. This is where the website will assign you to a league, so you don’t have to search for one on your own. It is good because it will get you in a league very quickly.

When joining a league, you should know how you want the league to be set up. There are two types of fantasy football leagues: head-to-head and points leagues. The difference has to do mostly with the competition and how you end up winning the league.

Head-to-Head League

In a head-to-head league, you play against a certain opponent for an entire week. Your team accumulates stats that week, and whichever team has the highest points total at the end of the week wins. For example, if your fantasy team scores 125 points and your opponent only scores 100, you win that week. Then there are league standings that show who has the best overall records.  The final standings go by record, just like in professional sports, and the teams with the best records at the end of the year get into the playoffs, and it determines seeding for playoffs.

Points Based League

On the opposite end, a points-based league is one in which your total points will be added up throughout the season, and if at the end of the season you have the most points, then you become the number one seed in the playoffs, or you win the league (this is depended on league settings). You do not play against any particular team on a week to week basis, but rather you play against the entire league for the entire season. So instead of accumulating stats for one week, you accumulate stats for the entire season, and if you wind up with the most points after the year is over, you win.

There are some leagues that you may join that cost money, and there also some leagues that you may play of which are free.  It is up to you decide if you want to pay for a league, or if you want to play just the fun of it.  A lot of people play with their friends and put up money, which is then split amongst the winners of the league.  Most fantasy leagues that you join are free, including Yahoo, ESPN, CBS Sports, etc.  There are some sites that have money leagues, which require you to pay money up front to create a team in a league, but then the winners split that money that has been paid by all participants in the league.  It is up to you to decide if you want to join a free league, or to try to put your skills to the test and make some money.  If you are just starting out, it would be wise to join free leagues to get an understanding of how it works.  Once you get the hang of how fantasy works, and how to be able to compete with other owners the league, then you should start looking at money leagues.  When money is on the line, fantasy owners will check their rosters more frequently, stay more up to date, and make sure that their team is always competitive.  When you join free leagues with people that you do not know, there is a very high chance that all participants in the league will not continuously check their rosters.  This can lead to uncompetitive and even boring leagues.

So now that you have decided which league you are going to join, you need to figure out what type of draft you want to do.

Fantasy football drafting >>