Dynasty League Settings & Format: The Fantasy Footballers
The Footballers get asked all the time what our opinion is for the best league settings. We’ve shared before about the League of Record keeper format which spawned the beginning of the podcast.
For dynasty leagues, we wanted to provide a simple overview of the Ballers Main Dynasty League. As we discussed recently on the Fantasy Footballers, there are mistakes dynasty managers make but what makes dynasty so dang competitive and life-giving is the people in it. It is the back-and-forth trash talk and annual traditions from league members.
This information is also available over at BallersDiscord.com where we host a continuous conversation to bring fantasy football fans together to join great leagues. There are also tons of other great dynasty articles on the site if you want a deeper dive from a commissioner’s perspective:
- Dynasty 101: Five Tips for Beginners
- Dynasty 101: Five Tips for Beginners: Part Two
- Dynasty 101: Rules and Formats Plus Salary Cap Leagues
- How to Commish a Dynasty Fantasy Football League
Ballers Main Dynasty Format
The Fantasy Footballers want to reiterate that we enjoy every kind of league format and personally play in SuperFlex, Dynasty, Best Ball, leagues with weird settings (we see you Scott Fish Bowl), charity leagues, and ones we can’t even remember right this second.
Settings do not determine the success nor difficulty of a league if the people in it are not participating. No one wants to be in a league where 4 or 5 people take it seriously and half the league is unengaged.
The main “Ballers Dynasty” league is currently played on Sleeper but in the past, Jason’s “Skeleton Key” spreadsheet was something we also worked with as a proxy in the off-season. It involves laying out “The Grid” for your league’s draft, filling in any players, and running your own league-specific mock draft where you draft each team as you’d expect every particular owner to draft. This gives you an idea of targets, trade value, and pick value. You could say it’s the key to unlocking your draft.
Roster & Scoring Settings
- 1 Quarterback
- 2 Running Backs
- 2 Wide Receivers
- 1 Tight End
- 2 Flex (RB/WR/TE)
- NO DST or KICKERS!
- 18 Bench Spots
- 2 Injured Reserved Spots
- FAAB Waiver system with $100 budget for off-season resetting to $100 in-season
Deeper Details
If it is a 12 team league, we like splitting it into 3 divisions of 4 teams where we play each division mate twice and everyone else once. We have also passed the motion to realign divisions every couple of years. We did a drawing for new divisions at the rookie draft.
Rookie Draft: We participate in our annual untimed 3-round rookie draft starting the Monday after the NFL Draft.
Lineup Changes: Lock Individually at Scheduled Game time
Season Acquisition Limit: No limit! More participation and more moves = more fun and more banter
Waiver system: Free Agent Acquisition Budget (continuous) with $100 as the budget. Players stay on waivers for 1 day.
- Monday – Waivers (Processing Time 9:00 AM PST
- Tuesday – Locked
- Wednesday – Waivers (Processing Time 9:00 AM PST)
- Thursday – Waivers (Processing Time 9:00 AM PST)
- Friday – Waivers (Processing Time 9:00 AM PST)
- Saturday – Waivers (Processing Time 9:00 AM PST)
- Sunday – Waivers until 9:00 AM PST, then Free Agents
FAAB Tiebreaker: Resets each week to inverse order of standings
Trade Limit: No Limit
Trade Deadline: Week 11
Playoffs: 6 Teams (3 rounds, 2 Byes) from Weeks 15-17
SuperFlex Note
For those wanting 2QB/SuperFlex settings, adding a SFLEX spot allows managers to start a second QB alongside the regular positions in their lineup. It is not required to start a second QB – you can still start a WR, RB, or TE in that spot just as you would do in a traditional redraft league, but traditionally QBs are the highest-scoring position. The purpose of this article is to highlight the main Ballers Dynasty league that was started over a decade ago.
We get asked this question all the time: why don’t you talk about SuperFlex more?
We play in lots of of different dynasty formats including an incredibly competitive SuperFlex Best Ball one with some of our staff writers. Some claim SuperFlex is the ONLY way for dynasty or others that it is the best form of fantasy. We come back to a common refrain: it comes down to the competitiveness of your league and league mates, not the specific scoring settings. 75% of the NFL QBs will be starting in a 12-person SuperFlex league. Effective rosters in Superflex dynasty leagues not only recognize the value of QBs but also the opportunity cost of not having one. We are all for SuperFlex leagues!
But, it does not change everything. 90 % of the game we play remains the same (across most formats) and the discussions on our podcasts can be tailored to whatever specific scoring you have. You still are playing fantasy football and valuing players in dynasty based on what players are perceived to be.