There are many, many ways to play fantasy football, and while we’ve been focusing mostly on the traditional H2H/Roto league based fantasy fare, we don’t want to neglect some of the other great fantasy football formats. With that in mind, throughout the season we’ll be offering up our 3 cents(because 3 is more than 2, you see?!) of advice on Suicide-Pools, Pick ‘ems, and Salary Cap leagues, all because we like you…and we have nothing better to do because our mom’s basement is cold and scary and dark and lonely…
Anyways, what was I saying? Oh yeah, other ways to play fantasy football. If you simply can’t get enough fantasy football, or if your current league is full of ESPN abandoners, check out some of the other ways to play:
Suicide Pools – The premise here is simple, pick one team per week to win their game, if they win you survive, if they lose you die a horrific death that may or may not include crapping oneself (<- hyperbole much?). Actually, you’re probably just out of the running for the grand prize. Easy enough right? Oh did I mention once you use a team, you can’t use them again for the rest of the season? Damn, there goes your strategy of only picking the Lion’s opponents (b/c they “get to” play the other NFC North teams twice yo!). ESPN Eliminator
Pick ’Em – Probably the easiest and funnest (shut it, word police!) ways of adding some competition to your Sunday routine. Just pick the winner of each game for the week, some leagues use a spread, others are straight up. Either way it only takes a few minutes, and because of the weekly nature most leagues or sites offer lots of opportunities to win cash and/or prizes. This means you don’t always have to be on your A game to reap some rewards, which is nice because unlike us you probably have better things to do other than endlessly peruse the waiver wire like Rob Reiner at an all you can eat buffet. ESPN Pig Skin Pick ‘Em
Salary Cap – This format was actually my first introduction to fantasy sports, and I still play it today. The basic premise is that you’re given a budget and must field a team of players under that threshold. Your team scores points much like they would in a standard fantasy league. As the season progresses, a player’s performance dictates their value, and their prices fluctuate accordingly. The strategy here is more like the stock market: buy low, sell high. Use your profits to reinvest and make your portfolio of players better. Razzball does not make specific asset class or security recommendations. Users enter criteria including desired retirement age, income and planned expense information, plan end date, and current value and allocation percentages of stocks, bonds and cash. The tool classifies a user into one of five portfolio strategy/risk tolerance models. These models, combined with time horizon, determine the return and risk assumptions used in the calculations. The tool runs multiple simulations to determine the likelihood of plan success, during average and poor market conditions. Results may vary with each use and over time. IMPORTANT: The projections or other information generated by Razzball regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results.
That joke sounded better in my head. ESPN Gridiron Challenge
Other fun options: Pay The Fan, ProTrade, OneSeason, The Sporting News
