Choosing a Free Fantasy Host

Five years ago the fantasy football commissioner had a simple choice: create a simple league and play for free at Yahoo!, or make a more unique league and pay for a league host. Since then, new free fantasy football sites have appeared, and even Yahoo! has evolved into a customizable league host. There are many more choices, but I still see stubborn fantasy leagues adapting their rules to fit Yahoo! instead of switching their host site to meet their needs. So in order to inform the fantasy community of the benefits and drawbacks of these newer free sites, I’ve done the research and compiled what I believe to be an accurate overview of the free fantasy football options. I’m not going to give each site a score or anything too fancy, but I will mention what I consider to be the essential features of a fantasy host site, along with any extras that might be appealing. I tend to point out where each host site differs since they all share many basic features. Anyways, here’s the skinny…

Yahoo!
Yahoo.com, the bread and butter of free fantasy, remains a viable option for many leagues. With so many leagues already committed to Yahoo! it can be nice to set up a new league on Yahoo! so that you won’t have to jump back and forth between sites to manage your fantasy squads. Overall, Yahoo! is an excellent choice if your league rules and settings align with their system.

Fantasy Features:
Of all the thrills of fantasy football, nothing tops a live draft for me. If you can’t meet in person, an online draft comes in at a close second. Yahoo! excels at live drafting, and I’ve never had any problems in my many online Yahoo! drafts. They even let you test your system to see if it is compatible with the draft software. Yahoo! also offers an autopick draft for those leagues that can’t seem to organize a live or online draft. For those who draft offline, inputting the draft into Yahoo! is a cinch.

The customizable options for Yahoo! rules and settings are extensive, but not completely inclusive. They support individual defensive players (IDP), as well as some ever so popular flex positions (WR/RB and WR/TE). In fact, Yahoo! flex options seem to have made the WR/RB position standard in starting lineups. Yahoo! does not support a QB/RB/WR position, or any other offensive utility position. Yahoo! scoring allows for many options including yardage, base TD points, and bonus points for yardage milestones. It doesn’t support performance TD scoring, in which TDs are awarded different point values based on the length of the TD. Fractional scoring to two decimal places is supported (and recommended) and helps to eliminate pesky ties. Waivers and free agents are easy to manage, but there is a lack of options that pertain to free agent acquisitions and waiver priority. Basically you are stuck with a rolling waiver list, or no waivers at all, and a free for all at the free agents.

Layout/Ease of use:
While Yahoo! doesn’t have the most customizable rules or settings, the layout and flow of the site is perfect. Setting and managing your lineup is a breeze. Transactions like trading and add/drops are equally easy. Free agents are organized by the default Yahoo! rankings, but can be sorted by position, and again by statistical categories such as yardage or fantasy points. In addition to being easy to use, the layout of Yahoo! allows the manager to update and manage his team effectively and efficiently. For instance, when browsing other teams’ rosters, the transition from browsing to actually proposing a trade, is seamless. Relevant statistical categories always accompany the player’s name when adding, dropping or trading a player. Setting your lineup is probably easiest on Yahoo! as well. Perhaps I’m just used to the Yahoo! layout, but the process just seems more natural than on any other website.

Extras:
Yahoo! doesn’t throw any enticing free extras at the fantasy player, but if you have a bunch of leagues on Yahoo! the live scoring may be worth the ten dollar fee. Other than some basic player information, which is also conveniently located next to each player, Yahoo! has no extra features worth mentioning.

Final Verdict:
If your league fits into the Yahoo! mold I highly recommend you use it.

AOL
Easily the most customizable fantasy host, AOL is actually a modified version of a pay site known as Fanball. With live scoring being standard, and some other nice extras, AOL might poach some of the Yahoo! faithful. AOL especially lends itself to keeper and dynasty leagues since it appears to run year round! Apparently AOL is big enough to have a bunch of extra server space to support these leagues all year.

Features:
AOL offers every customizable option and feature needed, for all but the most complex leagues. Though I’ve never actually used the online draft room it offers even more options than Yahoo! by including player queuing, which allows you to set up a mini cheat sheet mid-draft, and tradable picks for the wheelers and dealers among us. As far as options and settings go, AOL offers everything. The lineup and roster is completely customizable with any number of flex position possibilities. You could do a QB/K if you wanted to. Just set the max and min starters at each position, the max overall starters, and you’re all set. They also offer a team QB option. Free Agency options, such as when claims are allowed, and when players are placed on waivers, are much more customizable than any other host. Trading deadlines, and other trading rules, are also expansive. AOL offers an infinitely customizable scoring system with up to 3 decimal places, and if you somehow manage a tie, you can even set the tiebreaker rules (designated overtime player anyone?), or simply choose to allow ties. Come playoff time, you can also designate how ties in record will be decided. For leagues with multiple divisions, AOL supports two divisions and can support two player pools for each division. Lastly, you can fully customize the schedule of your league. This essentially allows for more than two divisions if you’re willing to manually input the schedule. There are some lesser options and details that I haven’t covered, but clearly AOL offers the most diverse set of options and rules. A final tip: when setting up your league on AOL, just set up a skeleton with the teams and most basic rules. Click the option to set scoring and lineup options later, since it is far easier to navigate once you have a skeleton league set up.

Layout/Ease of use:
Layout wise, AOL is a pain. At times the AOL setup is manageable, but sometimes it takes some searching to find the page you’re looking for. Strangely enough, your team roster page is separate from the page to set your lineup. Why they even bothered with a team roster page is beyond me. I used AOL last season, and although I got used to it, it did seem like every time I went to add a player, I did it a different way. One time I used an alphabetized list, and another time I was browsing available free agents. The transitions between browsing, and trading/adding are lengthier than Yahoo!. There are certainly reasons to switch to AOL, but the ease of use is probably not one of them.

Extras:
AOL offers free live scoring. For some, that might be reason enough to ditch Yahoo! and jump on the AOL bandwagon. When I say live, I really mean 2-30 minutes later, your scores show up. Sometimes it runs about even with the NFL.com game centers, but other times it lags a little behind. All in all it is a nice feature to have. AOL also offers some in depth analysis into the fantasy matchups and teams. Sure, Yahoo! might predict a winner for each matchup, but those are never close. The AOL features are more about looking back to see how your team won. They offer a quality of win analysis, as well as power rankings for the league. The weekly results page has an overview that covers each team, along with their starting lineup for the week. These were extras that I tended to look at each week because they were useful and interesting. As usual, AOL offers limited player information and news, but you might have to do some searching to find it.

The Final Verdict:
Use AOL if your league doesn’t fit Yahoo!’s limiting options, or if you want some extra features and don’t mind the mildly bothersome layout. It’s great for a keeper/dynasty league. AOL can replace many pay sites, so consider moving a more complicated league to AOL if you want to save on costs. The lingering question: “How long will it remain free?”

ESPN
Located on a website full of information useful to a fantasy football manager, ESPN could be a prime location for a fantasy league. Slightly more customizable than Yahoo!, and slightly easier to use than AOL, ESPN fantasy football is a solid option for those not already attached to other Yahoo! leagues.

Features:
ESPN is basically a Yahoo! clone when it comes to options and settings, with a few exceptions. One notable exception is an offensive utility player, which allows any offensive player to be inserted into the lineup (QB/RB/WR/TE). ESPN also introduces some IDP flex positions like LB/DB and others. Live drafting is an option with many available times, and a variable pick time (from 30-120 seconds). Two divisions are also supported. ESPN introduces some interesting new options as well. The doubleheader playoff option is unique to ESPN (though you could manually set it up on AOL), in which you play your opponent twice, and the sum of the scores determines the victor. Another interesting option is a home field advantage that tacks on a certain number of points for the home team. It’s strange, but I’m sure someone will like the idea. ESPN offers a few more scoring options than Yahoo!, in that they support performance TD scoring, and multiple bonuses for reaching yardage plateaus. Decimal scoring is limited to one decimal place.

Layout/ease of use:
Keeping with the Yahoo! clone trend, ESPN offers a similar layout to Yahoo! Unfortunately, ESPN falls a bit short in the ease of use department, simply because the transition from browsing to trading is not as streamlined. On the plus side, it’s still better than AOL.

Extras:
ESPN offers no extra features outside of limited player information and news. Note that it won’t take much effort to browse around ESPN if you need more information.

The Final Verdict:
ESPN is a decent host site that gave me no problems at all last season. It works well for a redraft league, and it could be fun to try some of their unique options.

Foxsports.com
Foxsports.com will definitely have a bad reputation coming into this season due to the massive failure last season. Almost every owner had problems accessing their league at some point last year, and Foxsports will be hard pressed to regain their trust. That said, Foxsports.com fantasy football has a nice blend of options, and along with free live scoring, they’re my “sleeper” for the fantasy football host sites.

Features:
A live draft room with player queuing is a nice benefit. Foxsports has some flex options (WR/RB and WR/TE), but not a ton. What they lack in lineup versatility, they make up for in scoring options. Offered categories are yardage, bonuses at yardage milestones, TDs, TD length ranges (performance TD scoring), along with the normal slew of other options. Hidden in these sometimes overlooked options lie more obscure categories, such as “first downs made”, and negative points for times sacked by defense. Fractional scoring is available to two decimal places. Two divisions are available, and allowing ties is also an option.

Layout/Ease of Use:
Foxsports offers a pretty standard layout that doesn’t look too confusing. Note that major problems occurred last season. This could cause them to be extra cautious this year, and I would hope that there isn’t a chance for a repeat. That said, if it does happen again, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Extras:
You have to love free live scoring! Having never played Foxsports.com fantasy football I can’t say whether there’s anything especially useful or interesting, but there doesn’t appear to be much outside the norm.

The Final Verdict:
For those who want free live scoring you have two options: Foxsports.com or AOL. AOL has some minor layout issues, but Foxsports.com has had major issues in the past. It’s a risk/reward pick. I wouldn’t move my big money league to there, but it could be a fun site to try a casual league for bragging rights.

 
Other Options:
There are other league sites out there such as Sportingnews.com or Cbssportsline.com, but these offer little to no customizable options. They’re more of a fantasy games site, than league host sites. Don’t be fooled by the “create a league” options; they really mean “Look at your friend’s teams too!” One perk they do offer is prizes for the overall top teams. They could be fun, but they’re outside the scope of this article.

 
You can catch up with Brett and discuss various league host site in the Cafe Forums, where he posts under the name of skibrett15.
 

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