‘Tis the season to bring back your fantasy football league! If you haven’t started planning your season by now, you might be behind schedule. However, that means there’s still plenty of time to spice up your league . If you don’t want to play in a “regular” league this season, consider changing these settings to take your league from standard to stellar.
Settings to Change to Spice Up Your Fantasy Football League
Scoring Settings
Point Per Reception (PPR) leagues have now become more “standard” in fantasy football leagues than Standard scoring. This has really put an added emphasis on Wide Receivers and pass-catching Running Backs. And while Tight Ends also catch passes, unless you have Travis Kelce, George Kittle, or Mark Andrews in recent years, it’s usually at a much lower rate. To even out the value, try 1.5 PPR for Tight Ends.
No one would deny that the most valuable position on the football field is Quarterback. Let’s accurately reflect that value on the fantasy football field. Standard scoring is four points per passing touchdown, but a rushing or receiving touchdown gets you six points. By increasing the passing touchdowns to six points, you make Quarterbacks even more important.
Roster Settings
If you’ve read any of my previous Commissioner’s Corner articles, you might remember I’ve mentioned starting/drafting more players as a way to increase competition. I am a full proponent that the more players in the starting lineup, the better. Most leagues operate with zero or one FLEX spot in the starting lineup. My preference is to have two FLEX spots.
Another way you can mirror the change that has taken place over the last decade in the NFL is to start three Wide Receivers. Most NFL teams keep at least three Wide Receivers on the field at all times, so why not do the same for your fantasy team?
Have you ever lost a game because your Kicker missed a Field Goal? Or have you been eliminated from the playoffs because your opponent’s Defense/Special Teams had eight sacks, four turnovers, and a touchdown? We’ve all been there, and there are not many things more frustrating in fantasy sports. So how do we avoid that heartbreak? Eliminate them! Take out Kickers or Team Defenses, or both.
This last suggestion isn’t for the faint of heart, but it is definitely extra spicy. I wish I could take credit for the idea, but it was not my own. I just got done suggesting adding extra FLEX spots in your starting lineups. What if every position in your starting lineup was a FLEX spot? That’s right, just imagine starting an entire lineup of Wide Receivers, or Running Backs. Not being confined to fill specific positions truly opens up the ability to start the best players on your roster. You might need to add some guidelines here, like only allowing one Quarterback, or something like that. But the anarchy of an entire lineup of FLEX spots would definitely spice up your fantasy football league.
Playoff Settings
It seems like every season there is one team that just gets unlucky. One team that is spited by the fantasy gods. This team might finish the regular season with the fourth most fantasy points scored, but the seventh-best record in the league, and therefore miss the fantasy playoffs. Conversely, there’s always a team that sneaks in with a low point total because they just happened to play every team during the right week and finish with a record that is not representative of their roster. So how do we fix this?
Instead of having the top six teams (or five, or whatever number of teams you choose) based on record make the playoffs, decide the final playoff spot based on fantasy points. If your league normally has six playoff teams, the top five records automatically qualify. The sixth-best record might also make it, but it’s not guaranteed. Once you establish the top five records, whichever team scored the most fantasy points out of those remaining gets the final playoff spot. This is essentially the most “fair” as the best teams in your league should make the playoffs.
The last suggestion to spice up your fantasy football league this season is to allow the higher playoff seed to choose their opponent. This is great for multiple reasons. First, it rewards the top teams in the league for having the best regular season. We all know that sometimes the lower seed is not necessarily the worse team come playoff time. Allowing the higher seed to choose to avoid a certain team is a bonus they have earned.
This also creates fantastic levels of engagement. In my last article Keeping Your Fantasy Football League Engaged, we discussed how a group chat is the easiest way to increase league engagement. What better way to get the league talking than to allow teams to personally call out and challenge another team in the most important games of the season?
Try some of these alternative settings this season to spice up your fantasy football league, and take your league to the next level.
For more great rankings and analysis, make sure to check out our 2023 Fantasy Football Draft Kit!
GIVEAWAY ALERT! 🚨🏈
We are excited to be launching another giveaway, where ONE lucky winner will receive an Official NFL Travis Kelce Signed Jersey!
Giveaway Details Below 👀 pic.twitter.com/9SOB29Q3yp
— Fantrax (@Fantrax) July 4, 2023