Discuss 8 team leagues

[rai]

I am usually in 10 or 12 team league, actually 20 or 24 with two drafts and so its 10x2 and one championship game at the end for all the marbles.

 

This year was supposed to be 10x2 but 4 people dropped out at the last minute and so we were stuck with 8x2

 

I suppose we could have done one 16 team mega-league but I'm not in charge and this happened at the last minute anyway and we have 2 different times for the draft and not enough room for such a large draft. So we went ahead with 8x2

 

OK, whats wrong with 8 teams? We have so much depth and so much talent on the waiver wire. See my team below.

 

I think having only 8 teams makes it easier for weak drafters to draft, if they mess up their 2nd roud pick and enough other people mess up as well then there is 2nd round talent availible in the 3rd and 4th rounds

 

The problem is with only 16 RBs starting every week, then everyone has 2 of the top 20 RBs. This can cover up a poor draft, I mean I can only taks so many on my team and so when I start on my WRs there is still enough people like Edge, Jones-Drew, Barber, R.Brown, Portis (etc..) still left over for people to take in the 3rd, 4th and 5th round

 

I suppose it may make it a lot more intense week to week where I have to keep a sharp eye on the WW and on my matchups more-so than when there was not much talent on each team.

 

To give an example of who was not even draftedd in my league:

QB: Cutler, Eli, Garcia

RB: Amahn Green, J Jones, F Taylor, Lamont Jordan

WR: Curtis, Santanio Holmes, B Edwards, Coles

TE: Winslow

Edited August 30, 2007 by rai

[The Irish Doggy]

My preference is 12 - 16 team leagues. 8 and 10 just seems like everyone has a great lineup.

[jjwbean]

Ditto - 8 team leagues have little if any trading activity - everyone is stocked 2 deep

[The Misfit]

I don't think they are easy or hard -- just frustrating and a little boring.

 

Everyone pretty much has an all-star team, which methinks makes the luck element -- always a big part of fantasy football -- even more of a factor.

 

I commished an 8-team local team for years. I finally gave it up a few years ago (they were adament that we not expand the league, because they liked the all-star format because it was low-maintenance and drafting mistakes were easily corrected, as you point out) because it just took up too much time for too little satisfaction, compared to my more competitive leagues.

 

It's great for noobs and very casual players, because you can literally ignore the waiver wire, and even not worry about the bye weeks all that much, and you still have a shot at winning the league.

 

But intensity? No. I mean, you could start out drafting Manning and Steve Smith and Antonio Gates in the first three rounds and still find good RBs. Heck, you still have some decent RBs on your waiver wire.

[Last Plane Out]

Ditto - 8 team leagues have little if any trading activity - everyone is stocked 2 deep

 

that all depends on roster size

[i_am_the_swammi]

I am in an 8-teamer, and yes, all of the above comments are true. Here is my roster (we must draft 5 players at each position, except only 2 TEs, Ks, and DEFs). It is a 3-player keepr format, with only 1 keeper from any positon:

 

QB: Bulger, Kitna, Delhomme, McNair, Grossman,

RB: Jackson, Alexander, MBIII, Green, Jordan

WR: Holt, Walker, Driver, Holmes, Chambers

TE: Watson, Smith

 

And though I look stacked, so does everone else. It ends up being more a factor of luck, in that the teams that suffer injuries to key players are the ones that suffer the most. There is very little skill in a league like this, and as someone said, very little trading, since everyone has a super-solid starting line-up.

 

The upside: it is a fairly friendly league, and some owners can't spend a lot of time on the league. This makes it easy for them to succeed and have fun, and be competitive.

[Furd]

Only under rare circumstances would I play in an 8 team league.

 

As several have already pointed out, it deemphasizes skill and knowledge (particularly with respect to the draft) as everybody ends up with a boatload of studs and near-studs that everyobdy knows about.

[gasface]

i really only do 16 teams leagues...

 

BUT if i did an 8 team league id probably do something like this...

 

rb

rb

qb (id try to get one of the top 4)

wr

te (id target gates here)

def (again youd be picking d early here but every edge counts)

wr

wr

wr

wr

 

 

get your two stud backs..

i think after that you need elite players at other spots

most teams will be stacked across the board so having an elite qb/te/d should make the difference

id hope to get one stud wr in round 4 and then load up with a bunch of breakout potential wrs after

[Bricktop]

that all depends on roster size

 

I agree totally. A friend of mine started up an 8 man league 3 years ago. It is the most forked up league ever, but it is a lot of fun because of our roster size.

2 QB's (use to be 3)

3 RB's

4 WR's

1 TE

3 Flex (RB,WR,TE)

1 K

1 DEF

 

There is always a ton of trading. You can build your team however you want (start 7 WR's, 6RB's). Good times.

[McBoog]

I agree totally. A friend of mine started up an 8 man league 3 years ago. It is the most forked up league ever, but it is a lot of fun because of our roster size.

2 QB's (use to be 3)

3 RB's

4 WR's

1 TE

3 Flex (RB,WR,TE)

1 K

1 DEF

 

There is always a ton of trading. You can build your team however you want (start 7 WR's, 6RB's). Good times.

 

Something like this with two Def and maybe a couple of IDPs as well. You have to give the better managers something to manage. Expanding roster size makes you #3 and #4 guys so much more important and you have to play the match ups better. They can be fun if you are creative. They are not realistic, but can be done so that the better players get an edge.

[Skilly]

The tricky part about playing in an 8-team league is deciding who to start and who sits. Say you have to decide between Chad Johnson and Roy Williams one week. The mantra "always start your studs" can't always apply in this kind of league.

[MikesVikes]

I play in a 8 X 2 league just like this one. I didn't make the rules either, but a friend of mine asked me to join so I did.

 

I think that if you screw up a first or second round pick, you don't have much of a chance to win. It seems like you have a better chance to win if you have a pick early in the draft, too. I only won the league once but have always had very strong teams. The top ranked team going into the playoffs has gotten beaten in the first round of the playoffs more often than not. That is getting beat by the #16 ranked team in my league. I had tw of those top teams and it's happened to others as well.

[kcmast]

My league with college friends dropped to 8 this year and I've lost most of my interest in it. We bumped starters up to 2rb, 2wr, 3flew, but even that doesn't seem enough.

[TDFFFreak]

Another little discussed factor in ease of fantasy leagues is how many roster spots you draft and how many weekly starters there are. I am in a mix, but needless to say, I wish all of my leagues (12 team) had 1QB, a total of 7 RB/WR/TEs plus the kickers and defenses. It rewards teams who draft good mid and late round players and also eliminates more of the luck factor.

 

No matter what, luck will be a part of fantasy football. I just like it to be as minimal as possible when it comes to the draft.

Edited August 31, 2007 by TDFFFreak

[detlef]

i really only do 16 teams leagues...

 

BUT if i did an 8 team league id probably do something like this...

 

rb

rb

qb (id try to get one of the top 4)

wr

te (id target gates here)

def (again youd be picking d early here but every edge counts)

wr

wr

wr

wr

get your two stud backs..

i think after that you need elite players at other spots

most teams will be stacked across the board so having an elite qb/te/d should make the difference

id hope to get one stud wr in round 4 and then load up with a bunch of breakout potential wrs after

Well, you'd miss Gates by about two rounds and you would have likely already missed out on Chi or Balt D when you picked D in the 6th. Going QB in the 3rd would get you the top 4 but you can rest assured that you wouldn't be taking it sooner than you had to. By the 3rd pick in the 4th, all of them were taken in my old school 8-team league.

 

The only league I'm in now is an 8 team league. Like another mentioned, it's with old friends and they shutter at the notion of expansion. Ironically, it's not because they don't want to do the work because the waiver wire is crazy active in our league. I actually had to fight to install a rule where, while the guy in last got first crack at the FAs, he only got to choose one before everyone else who wanted a player got to go. Prior to that, the guy who had first pick in the waivers would grab like 4 guys.

 

At any rate, these guys want to have nothing but all-stars. When I talked about other, larger leagues I was in, they'd give me crap about having to start dudes that would be back-ups in our league. The notion that, everyone in a 12 player league has to do so just didn't resonate.

 

I certainly prefer 12 team leagues because, like everyone is saying, there's less luck. Not the least of which is the fact that you have guys on your bench that could easily out-score your starters. So, there's the whole starter roulette issue to contend with. It's hard to stick with ASYS because your whole freaking team is filled with them, so you're gonna have to bench some of them.

 

At any rate, the only reason that I'm even playing FF again this year (after taking the last few years off) is because these dude talked me in to rejoining. So that's cool.

[chaz13]

I've been in an 8 team league for 14 years. What makes it different is the number of players we start ( 2QB 3RB 4WR 1TE 1K 3DL 3LB 3DB). If you start this many players you do not have an all star team. 2 QB mean that 16 start a week and 24 for RB, 32 for WR. So it is similar to larger leagues that only have 9 starters. The best part about it is that just b/c 1 player has an amazing week doesn't mean you will win. With so many starters you need to have a solid team top to bottom. Other owners in our league have played in larger leagues w/ the standard amount of starters and every one of them says they prefer this league w/ less teams and more starters. Just b/c you have LT doesn't mean you are going to win the whole thing or even make the playoffs for that matter. Also our scoring system especially for QB is different. Qb get +1 for completions -1 for incom. and 5 for TD and -5 for INT's. It happens often for a QB to score in the negatives. I have seen a QB score -26 for a week. So it is important to get 2 good QB's so you don't get hurt by getting negative points. You can't just get a mediocre #2 and figure I'll just get points for yds. and TD's, b/c what if they throw 4 INT's. Anyone that has an 8 team league and wants to tweak it to make it more challenging, you can PM me and I will give you more info. Also we keep 3-5 players every year.