Let’s talk for a second about the big announcement from last week. ottoneu Fantasy Football is coming next summer! How will it be different than standard fantasy football?
- Auctions: Like ottoneu Fantasy Baseball, the football game will be based around assigning dollar valuations to players. Players can only be added via auction, either 48-hour blind or during the live auction draft, or via waivers within 24 hours of a player being cut. The roster dynamics will be very similar to ottoneu Fantasy Baseball, basically. It’s worked well for baseball, and there is no reason it will not work for football
- Depth: The test league is launching with 20-man rosters and a $400 cap. The lineups are standard (QB, 2RB, 3WR, 1TE, 1K), so this leaves a lot of bench spots, and a lot of opportunity for both stashing for the future or depth for winning now.
- College Players: College is the football equivalent of baseball’s minor leagues. Stashing elite college talent such as Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota, and Todd Gurley in the hopes they can become elite NFL talent is an exciting difference-maker for ottoneu Fantasy Football, and will allow team owners to use their depth and their scouting skills to build for both today and the future.
What other things would you like to see out of ottoneu Fantasy Football? Which of these features excites you the most? What other questions do you have? Comments are open, so ask away!
Will there be any advanced scoring metrics? I would LOVE to see a scoring option based around profootballfocus.com grades, which would thereby allow integrating defensive/special teams players as well (though I understand there might be some licensing logistics to work out there).
The current starter to bench ratio seems off. Baseball has 22 starter spots to 18 bench. Having 8 starters to 12 bench spots seems like not enough. I’d probably add 3 starters (w, r, t) flex and keep the same ratio. No qualms if anyone disagrees, just feel the current lineup makes for extremely top heavy rosters. The flex spots would allow any position to he used (so as not to force specific player types beyond those already owned) and would incentivize deeper teams. Beyond this, only thing I may want is individual defensive players (could be added to starters instead of flex).
I am glad to hear that you have expanded! A few questions/suggestions/thoughts:
– How expansive will the college player pool be? Is this limited to DI schools or will there be DII and DIII players available? How deep does it go? (TWSS) At what point will players be added to the college football player pool? Rivals goes as far back as ranking highly-touted high schoolers. If there’s a stud athlete who red shirts, when will I be able to nominate him for auction?
– I don’t recall reading anything about scoring. I think fantasy football is best played in a head-to-head format. Will there be any of that or it is straight points? Will scoring be based on traditional point totals or do you have any advanced metrics planned? I’m sure the guys at Football Outsiders could help make a more accurate scoring system that reflects the value of certain actions.
– There’s so mention of team defense and scoring. That is a huge part of fantasy football, I think, because it helps account for elements of the game that would otherwise be ignored. I strongly suggest considering adding team defenses to Ottoneu fantasy football.
– Personally, I would really like to see offensive line play be taken into consideration. I’m not sure if any scoring entity keeps track of this, but things like sacks allowed, pancakes and long runs could somehow factor into offensive line scoring.
– Similarly, I think it would be fun to play with linebackers and defensive backs. It’s much easier to track stats like tackles, sacks and interceptions, so it would be great to have those players incorporated into the game as well. That would make the game much more fun and unique.
Just a few thoughts. I’d be interested in helping test if you need beta testers. Let me know.
I would strongly suggest using 2 QB ‘super flex’ league. The justification for a 2 QB league can be found in this insightful two-part article from Rotoworld on proper scoring balance when setting up fantasy football leagues (see attached). Essentially, the question at hand is how to properly balance the relative value of positions in fantasy football, to avoid the heavy over-valuing of the fantasy football running back. The problem of the overvalued running back manifests itself in a league where marginal running backs such as Chris Ivory get drafted before Drew Brees, which does not reflect any semblance of real-world value. The research suggests an optimal format to bring proportional value to positions is:
2 QB
2 RB
3 WR
2 TE
1 D/ST
1 K
With a two QB league, not only does it bring proper balance to the value of players relative to position, it opens up more drafting strategy, more trades, more depth, and…..more scoring! Also, a second QB reduces the randomness of D/ST and K, which would then have a slightly decreased important to your team’s scoring.
The only drawback for a 2 QB league is when you have 12-teams, and there aren’t always enough backup QB’s to go around. However, that can easily be worked around by having the second QB spot as a ‘Superflex’. Since even the most average QB’s score, on average, more points than any other position, an owner would naturally want to feature a QB at the ‘Superflex’ position. However, it would leave open the possibility that, in the event a backup QB can’t be found for a bye week, a team could earn at least some points. With that in mind, I suggest the following format:
1 QB
2 RB
3 WR
2 TE
1 Superflex (almost ALWAYS a TE)
1 D/ST
1 K
http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/47757/71/to-ppr-or-not-to-ppr
http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/47774/71/scoring-system-balance?pg=1
sorry, the suggested format should be:
1 QB
2 RB
3 WR
2 TE
1 Superflex (almost ALWAYS a QB)
1 D/ST
1 K
sorry, the suggested format should be:
1 QB
2 RB
3 WR
2 TE
1 Superflex (almost ALWAYS a QB)
1 D/ST
1 K
I think roster size should be about 25. Also, why not have a supplemental draft after the NFL draft for just the college prospects. Limit the number of college prospects that aren’t moving to the NFL to like 3 -5.
It’s not really dynasty without IDPs.