Fantasy Football League Scoring Recommendations and Advice

The WCFF is an $1850 buy-in fantasy football league that hosts 900 of the best fantasy football players in the world.  Entrants are divided into 75 leagues of 12, play an 11 week season, and then league winners are placed into an end of year tournament for an enormous $300,000 top prize.   I’ve had the honor of playing in the WCFF twice and I must their scoring system is my favorite.  They offer a PPR league that heavily de-emphasizes QB and Defensive scoring.  You must start 3 WRs, 2 RB, 1 TE, and one WR/RB/TE flex.  The full scoring system is listed at the bottom of this post, format courtesy of MyFantasyLeague.com

QBs: 4 pt passing TD leagues are a big time knock on QB value because that is the stat where a single QB can really put a distance between himself and the crowd.  For example, in Brady’s monster season he averaged a full TD more per game than his closest competition.  In 6pt TD leagues that is an extra 6 points per game game, or 96 points, above the next guy, which is disgusting.  4 pt passing TDs knock that down to a more manageable 64 total points difference.  If you could bet on a QB scoring 50 TDs every year then I would still take one early in a 4 pt league, but that is a bad bet.  Add in PPR and starting 3-4 WRs and sacrificing QB for WR becomes the proper strategy.

WR/RB/TE: WCFF is truly a WR league.  Unfortunately I didn’t realize that my first time through and got dusted.  I never felt like I was getting “value” at WR so I kept passing over them.  I ended up with the worse WR corps with little depth in a league that emphasizes that position.  Needless to say I lost badly.  Now I understand that the combinations of depth, scoring dropoff, and de-emphasis on QB means WRs need a major boost in my WCFF predraft rankings list.  TE’s are no joke in this league either.  With depth at WR an issue for everyone and TE an option in the flex I’ve often seen teams starting two TEs.  RBs with little PPR value tend to fall very far in this league.  I’ve made the mistake of not passing over the big name guys that don’t catch passes when they fall further than I thought they would.  Remember this: The reason they are falling is that they should be falling.  Everyone may be singing Michael Turner’s praises, but in his career year he was only 12th in this scoring system in average fantasy points per game.  You gotta reach higher in this league.  The WR Fantasy Football Rankings (PPR) at FantasyFanatics.com is your best resource for preparing for a scoring system like this.

DEF: While I say defense is not important in this league, I don’t mean that it isn’t high scoring.  The WCFF includes Punt and Kick Off Return TDs in it’s system.  That changes up the rankings a bit, giving a boost to teams like the Jets and the Raiders, who have return man with a nose for the end zone.  There is very little bonus for holding your opponent to low point totals, so don’t go drafting Pittsburgh in the 9th.  Just find a second or third tier D that has a good return man and the most potential for turnovers and you’ll be fine.  I like this approach to DEF, which can be such a random position.  My only knock is that they count Return and KickOff Tds, which can really swing a matchup on the right weeks.  Taking those out, or allowing 4 points for defensive and special teams TDs, would really help reduce the variance at this later rounds position.

As I said earlier, I love this format.  It was developed based on feedback from the best/most serious fantasy footballers.   Here it is in all it’s beauty:

In my opinion, PPR should be the fantasy football norm.  The added points evens out the RB/WR fields, create higher scores and more scoring, and contributes to an overall more exciting fantasy experience.  Big dogs like Yahoo and ESPN do not agree, though.  Their standard leagues do not include PPR scoring.  They go with the standard 1 point for ten rushing/receiving yards, 6 points per rushing/receiving TD, 1 point per 25 passing yards, and 4 points per passing TD.  No partial points, no return yardage points – sooooo boring.  This is a shame because newer players are more likely to use the standard options.  I’d like for new players to be exposed do the most exciting game possible to increase the chances that they fall in love with fantasy football and come back for more each year.

Choosing Point Per Reception scoring makes an enormous difference in fantasy football player rankings.  Take Reggie Bush, for example.  He is the player most affected by adding a point per reception.  If he could stay healthy for a full season he could catch 80-90 passes, almost all of them under ten yards.  If he rushes for 800 yards and scores 5 TDs, then PPR scoring increases Bush’s score by over 25%.  He could be ranked as many as ten spots lower when comparing PPR and NonPPR RB rankings lists.

PPR rankings among WRs are also jostled.  Possession guys that catch a lot of short passes get a big boost.  Wes Welker is the best example of this.  He is a borderline top 10 fantasy WR in PPR leagues.  TE, perhaps the most boring position is fantasy football, is much more fun with PPR scoring.  When Chris Cooley, who you probably drafted in the 8th round, catches 5 passes for 30 yards you actually get some decent points in PPR leagues.  Believe me, eight points feels a hell of a lot better than three.

PPR leagues have a significant affect on draft orders.  Larry Fitgerald and Andre Johnson are going to get 100 extra points out of PPR.  Top receivers usually come into play at the end of the first round, beginning of the second round.  Guys like Clinton Portis, Brandon Jacobs, and Frank Gore will be in that same area in 2009.  Those guys are going to catch 50 passes or (in Jacob’s case) much less.  That gives an extra 50 points or more to the elite WR’s scores, which makes a HUGE difference when making that late round 1, early round 2 draft decision.  You see RB/WR and even WR/WR first two round combos much more often in PPR leagues, and rightly so.

If you’re trying to decide between PPR and standard scoring, take a chance on PPR.  Keep in mind that the PPR impact is significant.  If you want to slowly adjust to it try adding only .5 points per reception.