Beginner's Guide to Fantasy Football League Rules

Playing fantasy football has become a favorite pastime among sports fans, and the recent proliferation of free online leagues makes it easy to jump in. Before you do, though, it's a good idea to build a general understanding of the rules of the game. This quick guide can help you get started on the right foot.

League Set-Up

Although, as a neophyte in the fantasy world, you'll probably rely on someone else to set up your league for you, it's still important that you understand the basic league structures available so that you can manage your team effectively.

In general, a "keeper" league allows you to carry your roster of players from one season to the next, just like a real NFL team. In contrast, teams in a "non-keeper" league are assembled and disbanded on a season-by-season basis, and the leagues themselves often don't persist from one season to the next. Most of the free online leagues you'll find are of the non-keeper variety.

Leagues usually consist of 8-12 teams, and each team builds its roster and competes with the other teams in the league based on what happens to their players in the "real" world of the NFL. How those rosters are assembled and how scoring is done are addressed below.

Building and Maintaining Your Roster

Player rosters are built up through drafts of one sort or another, and each team is assigned a draft position to determine where it will choose players in relation to other teams in the league. A league can choose to hold an automatic draft, during which rosters are automatically filled out by a computer based on each team's player rankings, or wish list. Alternatively, a live draft is held, wherein teams can monitor the draft as it happens and make their individual picks based on current draft conditions. Each league will impose roster templates, requiring you to take a certain number of players at each position and for the bench, and generally allowing you to select one complete team defense.

After the draft and during the season, injuries, suspensions, and performance considerations often make it necessary or desirable to change the makeup of your roster. Leagues generally offer common mechanisms such as player drops, free agent acquisitions, and trades among teams to accommodate these needs. Some leagues limit the number of transactions you can make, or they may even charge a small fee for each transaction.

Some leagues have a salary cap, which can further complicate roster moves. Not only do you need to make sure your team is full and capable, but you have to watch salary levels as well, adding more realism to the fantasy experience.

Scoring

Once teams have been set up, your league is ready to play, applying NFL game statistics to your teams. Most leagues select a handful of offensive, defensive, and kicking statistics to track in order to determine how each team is doing. Common offensive stats include touchdowns (passing, catching, rushing), yards (passing, catching, rushing), and turnovers. Defensive stats usually include totals such as points allowed and sacks registered. Kickers are often tracked by points scored, with field goal yardage figured in as extra fantasy points (more for a 50-yarder than a 20-yarder, for example). Fantasy points can be awarded based on raw numbers (just the value of the NFL stats) or based on some league-determined formula (2 points for a touchdown, 1 point for each 100 yards, etc.). It should be noted that some stats, like interceptions thrown, actually cause your team to lose fantasy points.

Standings

In general, league standings will be determined either by the accumulation of points as described above or by head-to-head competition among the teams. In the former case, teams are ranked each week by the total number of points they have scored. In the latter case, your team draws an opponent each week, and the team who scores more points during weekly NFL action "wins", while the other team "loses". In this way, standings are based on won-loss records.

In points leagues, the league champion is simply the team with the most points at the end of the season. In head-to-head leagues, teams compete to make the playoffs, which usually play out over the last few weeks of the season as a single- or double-elimination tournament.

You've now been primed and are armed with the knowledge to go forth and choose your fantasy football league. Have fun and good luck!