FAQ for rec.sport.football.fantasy (Last Updated: 10/07/2001) Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.fantasy Subject: FAQ -- rec.sport.football.fantasy Distribution: world Followup-To: rec.sport.football.fantasy Archive-name: http://www.jt-sw.com/football/fantasy/faq.txt Posting-frequency: bi-monthly (1st and 15th of each month) ** ** ** ** The FAQ can be distributed free of charge, but MUST include the full contents of the master copy. (The six lines of Usenet headers above don't have to be included, but everything must remain intact.) ** ** ** ** This FAQ is intended to help the readers of this newsgroup in starting, run- ning, and playing in a fantasy football league. This will be posted at the beginning and middle of each month and is available via the web at http://www.jt-sw.com/football/fantasy/faq.txt. I am always open to suggestions, but please make sure you put FAQ in the sub- ject so I'll know instantly what the mail refers to. (I can be reached at .) Many thanks to all contributors. Unfortunately there will be too many to name as time goes on, but I do wish to thank the initial contributors who helped with the initial structure: David Gentry and Mark Mickunas. I'd also like to thank Adam Calabrese for digging out a copy of the FAQ he had from before the drive crash. Contents: 1) Starting a League: The Fun Begins 2) Joining a League: Share the Fun (and Misery) 3) Scoring Systems (and Positions in Fantasy Football) 4) Keeper vs. Non-keeper (and Philosophies for each) 5) Books, Software, Etc.: Aids no Commish Should be Without 6) Stats: How to Get 'em and How to Use 'em 7) Conducting the Draft: Watching Your Favorite Players Go Before Your Eyes 8) Auctioning the Players: a [Costly] Alternative to the Draft 9) Running the League 10) Playing in the League 11) NFL Timeline: The Major Events of the Pro Season =============================================================================== 1) Starting a League: The Fun Begins The first two things to do when starting a league are assembling the owners and choosing a commissioner. On the 'net, the commish usually goes fishing for players (with almost guaranteed success); other leagues start as the owners get together and vote one of them into the commissioner's office. The rules follow soon after the owners decide to form a league or are assembled by the commissioner before he looks for players. When creating the rules, the owners/commissioner need to consider scoring method, scheduling and number of teams, and if/how will be money involved. 2) Joining a League: Sharing the Fun (and Misery) On the 'net, most leagues start with a commissioner and a set of rules. From this point on, the commissioner is the driving force behind the league as he gets owners to join the league. This means that owners are getting into a league with no immediate influence over the rules. (Most commissioners should be open to suggestions from his owners during the off-season, so this won't be too bad over the long haul.) 3) Scoring Systems (and Positions in Fantasy Football) The positions: QB,RB,WR,TE,K are all the same as in the NFL. The defense can be combined into one position or separated into the 11 players. The offensive line is rarely, if ever, used in fantasy football. Scoring is as varied as the leagues, but this will give some basis for starting. Basic Scoring: TD: 6 points (scoring it) TD pass: 3 points (throwing it) 2-point conv: 2 points (scoring it) 2-point conv pass: 1 point (throwing it) FG: 3 points PAT/XP: 1 point Sacks: 1 point each Turnover recoveries: 1 point each (Both should be more for leagues that separate the defense out to the individual players -- see below.) DST (Def./Sp. Teams) gets points for TDs scored on turnover re- coveries and kick returns. Optional: Double score if 50+ yards Bonus points for D/ST for a shutout, no TDs, and/or <10 pts against Performance Scoring: Rushing/receiving: 1 point each 10 yds Passing: 1 point each 20 yds Combined Basic / Performance: Uses both scoring methods. Although more time consuming, it gives a better picture of a player's output. Possible Defensive Scoring: Starting: 2 points Sack: 6 points INT or Fum Recovery: 6 points ea. INT Return: 1 point each 10 yards TD: 6 points Tackle: 2 points Assist: 1 point 4) Keeper vs. Non-keeper (and Philosophies for each) Basics: A keeper league is one in which some of the players are retained between seasons. Non-keeper teams don't retain any players from the previous season--they start new each season. Keeper: This gives a good feel for a long-term franchise. The huge advantage is that the drafts in the following years are shorter since the teams hold on to a core team from the previous season. The biggest challenge here is determining how many players can stay on a team each year. If teams hold on to too many players, you'll end up with teams staying in the same position each year. Too few and you lose the flavor of a keeper league. It's up to the owners (or the 'net commissioner) to decide how many players can be held and what restrictions there are. Non-keeper: Non-keeper leagues are good for owners and commissioners just starting out. It avoids any issues in tackling the keeper league problems, but lengthens the draft to a the full length every year. Another advantage is that every owner needs to start fresh--giving a better picture of how good an owner someone really is. 5) Books, Software, Etc.: Aids no Commish Should be Without Books * Cliff Charpentier's Fantasy Football Digest $13.95 (US) + S/H Available at 1(800)233-9809 or (612)774-8955 or at your local bookstore. * The Sporting News Pro Football Guide & Register $13.95 ea (US) Available at 1(800)825-8508 -- outside US: (515)246-6911 -- or at your local bookstore. Magazines/Newsletters * Fantasy Football Index $7.00 (for delivery in the US) Available at (206) 527-4444 or P.O. Box 15277 FAX (206) 527-4840 Seattle WA 98115-0277 'net contact: www.fantasyindex.com * Grogan's Fantasy Football Analyst $5.95 (US) Available at (303) 795-8292 or (303)979-2545 * Pro Football Weekly (Review and weekly updates) Available at 1(800)FOOTBALL or (708) 272-1237 (let me know if this has changed.) * Fantasy Football Pro Forecast Available at Fantasy Sports Publications, Inc. P. O. Box 14414 Albuquerque NM 87192-4414 (505) 293-0509 (voice & FAX) I found it locally for $5.95 + tax. * Fantasy Football Information Exchange Information brochure can be obtained by mailing a message to info@fantasyworks.com. 'net contact: Edward Girard . * Fantasy Football Insider Newsletter Available at: 320 Thorpe Road Jenkintown PA 19046 (800) 444-0861 Also: http://www.ffinsider.com * Fantasy Football Madness Newsletter March '97 issue is free. Contact theresaal@aol.com for additional information. Software * FLM (Fantasy League Manager) from Sideline Software for Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000 Available at http://www.fflm.com or Sideline Sports 3077 Sunnyside Street Stoughton, WI 53589 (608) 877-5859 You must register your copy to get the updates and stat support. * Fantasy Football 95 for Windows Available from http://www.cybersports.com/cybersports or ftp.netcom.com in the directory pub/se/seidel1 or send e-mail to passoft@aol.com * PEDS - Player Evaluation and Draft Software Info at http://www.fantasyinsights.com or firstplace@ fantasyinsights.com Demo at ftp://ftp.fantasyinsights.com/pub/firstplace/peds/ demo/pedsdemo.zip Contact: First Place Sports Software 15010 Prairie Rose Drive Houston, TX 77070 (713) 827-2562 or FAX (713) 376-9690 VISA/MC/AE orders: 1(800) 394-7038 (24 hours) * Fantasy StatBase '94 (FSB '94) Shareware database containing comprehensive stats for all offensive players on a game-by-game basis for 1991-93 seasons. Available at ftp://ftp.vnet.net/pub/football/SOFTWARE/FSB/fsb94.zip or Triangle Research: 1015 Berkshire Road Dayton, OH 45419-3740 (513) 294-1523 'Net Contact: ThreeSided@aol.com * Fantasy StatBase '95 (FSB '95) Statistic database (similar to FSB '94) with loads of additional tools. Registered users (full version: $24.95) also receive free database updates throughout 1995 season. Info and demo available ftp://ftp.vnet.net/pub/football/SOFTWARE/ FSB/fsb95.zip and fsb95info.txt. Contact info same as FSB '94. * PredMan - Pro Football Edition (for Windows) Available at http://www.predman.com 'Net contact: Sergio Valdez * FFC v 2.10 (Fantasy Football Conference) Available from falcon@infi.net or Primetime Sports: P. O. Box 3445, Bozeman MT 59772 (406)585-8251 * Fantasy Football Assistant (FFA 95) Shareware ($25) package for managing leagues up to 16 teams. Stats compatible with FFA are available from FFIE as well. Available (via download) from FFIE: (214) 642-9559. * The Commissioner for Football Available from SportsWare: P. O. Box 984 Boulder Co 80306 (303)442-5314 * The Assistant Coach Available from Potato League Sports: 748 Whaler's Way E-202 Fort Collins CO 80205 (303)229-9606 * The Winning Edge Fantasy Software for DOS Available from KELCO Software Enterprises: P.O. Box 809005-667 Dallas TX 75380 1(800) 388-8704 * Filemaker Pro (Windows and Mac) database Available from bduttonw@gtech.com (William Dutton) * Fantasy Sportspro Football Manager for Windows Available from Easy Chair Sports: Box 111982 Tacoma WA 98411 (206) 759-0201 * Franchise Football League Available at 1(800) 872-0335 * FanStar Football '98 Includes email functions, web publisher, custom newsletters; MAC and Windows versions Additional info and demo available at http://www.fanstar.com Available from FanStar Sports: 602-582-8737 * myfantasyleague.com for all web browsers Available from support@myfantasyleague.com (Kevin Austin) or http://www.myfantasyleague.com/ an on-line customizable league management system - you can run your league from draft through fantasy playoffs on the web, all according to your own league rules. Web/FTP Sites and other 'Net Resources ** Other sites are listed at http://users.vnet.net/troan/ football/other-links.html * http://users.vnet.net/troan/football * ftp.vnet.net (cd to pub/football) (WWW server now has more info than the FTP server) * Depth Charts mailing list To subscribe: send E-mail to ukwp82e@prodigy.com subject: subscribe * ESPNet Sportzone: http://espnet.sportszone.com * The NFL: http://nflhome.com/ * CyberSports: http://www.cybersports.com/cybersports/ 6) Stats: How to Get 'em and How to Use 'em * List Server at Vnet To subscribe -- nfl-stats-join@list.vnet.net * NFL.COM: http://www.nfl.com * ESPN: http://espn.com. * USA Today: print editions have full stat information; also available from web site: http://www.usatoday.com 7) Conducting the Draft: Watching Your Favorite Players Go Before Your Eyes Draft day is the one day during the season that the commissioner has a lot of (possibly overwhelming) work to do. It usually helps to have someone help with the draft. This could be either a non-owner to help with the administrative part of the draft or (as I've found) anyone-- even another owner--to help with the submitted draft lists as I do. As a possibility, owners can vote on rules changes before the draft starts. This usually works best with all owners present in one place (as opposed to an electronic league like RAFFLE). In setting the draft order, you can draft the same order each odd round (or randomly change it each odd round) and draft the opposite order for each following even round. This allows people to have a reasonable chance to start out evenly without having gotten a bad spot in the draft order. There are several ways of conducting the draft: * For leagues in which the owners can get together, pick a date in the last half of August when everyone can get together and do the draft like the NFL does theirs. This can take anywhere from a few hours to a full day depending on your draft's set up, but it's almost always a lot of fun. * For leagues over the 'net (like RAFFLE), everyone sends draft lists to the commissioner and let the commish do the draft. The lists would need to include a lists for each position and a draft order to indicate which position to draft for each position. * One alternative is to conduct the draft by Email over a several weeks. While this takes a long time, it gives each owner a chance to see which players are gone before making the next choice. * Another alternative is to find some time when all the owners are free and use an IRC program. Any players not selected in the draft are available as free agents. 8) Auctioning the Players: a [Costly] Alternative to the Draft Another way to get a roster built is through an auction. From a contribution: - Draft from a 34.6 Million cap, like the big boys! - All bids in increments of $100,000 - Will draft 20 players, can keep up to 10 to next season however... - Any player you keep you must give a 10% salary raise - A player may not be kept for more than 3 seasons - Determine random order as in regular draft. Owner has option to pass on their turn. The current owner announces the player, team, position, and opening bid. Raises are then accepted from whomever (as long as the Commish acknowledges them), and the players goes once, twice, sold to the highest bidder. - Any player picked up from waivers during the course of the season costs 0.1 million. You must continue to pay a player's salary even if they get injured or you cut them. The only way you can get more money to play with is to trade for cheaper player(s). Therefore it behooves you not spend ALL your money during the auction, leaving adequate amounts for waiver wire and injury replacements as the season progresses. 9) Running the League Each week, the commissioner and owners participate in: - trading between teams - signing and waiving players (waiver wire) - lineup submissions Player transactions can be handled any number of ways. These include trade windows (like RAFFLE does), first-come first-served, and charges for acquiring these players (monetary leagues only). When some order is needed, the record and points scored are typically the first two factors considered. During the games, the commissioner (and any owners wishing to do so) record the players' performances. (See below for further details.) After the Monday night game, the commissioner totals the points earned by each team and awards wins, loses, and ties. He then reports the results along with the previous week's player transactions and in what order the transactions the following week will be. Winners are either determined by playing in the above fashion until the end of the NFL season, or by taking the last two or three weeks of the NFL season and holding a fantasy league playoff. 10) Playing in the League Fielding a Team Some people play their whole roster every week. Most leagues allow you to submit a predetermined distribution of positions as your starting lineup for that week. Rosters can be altered through trades and waiver wire transactions. Some leagues allow injury substitutions from the waiver wire for those roster players appearing on the weekly NFL injury report. Due to many injuries, some include the backup QB as well as a starting QB. Weekly Play There are leagues which just accumulate all the individual roster player's scoring and rank owners that way (ala baseball rotis- serie). Most however match the owner's fantasy teams against each other every Sunday in a round-robin format (resulting in such real- life anxiety as winning by 60 points one week and losing by 2 the next!). Some allow ties to stand while others will break a tie using the longest TD scored, etc. 11) NFL Timeline: Major Events of the 2001 Pro Season. The detailed timeline is at http://www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/2001/timeline.txt. Feb 8 Deadline to designate franchise players. Feb 22 Scouting Combine: Indianapolis, IN (ends Feb 23). Mar 1 Beginnings of veteran free agency and trading. Apr 16 Signing period ends for restricted free agents. Apr 21 Draft (ends Apr 22). Jul 22 16:00 ET Signing period ends for unrestricted free agents who received Jun 1 tender. Aug 6 Hall of Fame Game: Miami Dolphins vs. St. Louis Rams at Canton, Ohio. (Induction ceremony on Aug 4.) Sep 9 Week 1 of 2001 NFL Season -Week 1 Byes: ARZ Sep 23 Week 2 Byes: NO, PIT, TB Sep 30 Week 3 Byes: CHI, DET, TEN Oct 7 Week 4 Byes: DAL, IND, OAK Oct 14 Week 5 Byes: BUF, JAC, PHI Oct 21 Week 6 Byes: MIA, SF, SEA Oct 28 Week 7 Byes: ATL, CLE, GB Nov 4 Week 8 Byes: CIN, MIN, STL Nov 11 Week 9 Byes: WAS Nov 18 Week 10 Byes: KC Nov 25 Week 11 Byes: NYJ Dec 2 Week 12 Byes: NYG Dec 10 Week 13 Byes: BAL Dec 17 Week 14 Byes: CAR Dec 24 Week 15 Byes: DEN Dec 31 Week 16 Byes: NE Jan 5 Week 17 (end of regular season) -Week 17 Byes: SD Feb 3 Superbowl XXXVI: New Orleans