Why No Roto Fantasy Football?

[nebgib5]

Don't hang around the Football Cafe much, so my apologies if this has already been covered extensively.

Why do no fantasy football leagues (or ones I've heard of, anyways) use some form of rotisserie scoring? I understand that many of the people who are drawn to fantasy football are attracted to it because of the crazy nature of H2H, but surely there is room for a competitor, no? Baseball has H2H, despite the fact that one week baseball matchups are statistically worthless.

The premise would be simple. 6 categories: Rushing TD's, Rushing Yards, Passing TD's, Passing Yards, Receiving TD's, Receiving Yards. Get rid of kickers and defenses; neither are important enough to be given 1/7 weight.

Football is already crazy enough with injuries and quick player turnaround. H2H is fun, but if you want a saner method, why not roto? Only 16 games would dictate that leagues would be interesting and unpredictable anyway; since the sample is small, you would likely see pretty significant movement each and every weekend. You'd still have the same interesting start and sit decisions to make based on match-ups, history, etc. One argument against roto is that players fall out of the race quickly, and become inactive. I don't think this would be the case in such a league. 3/6 of the categories would be TD-related. TD's are a streaky enough category that teams could make up ground fast in these categories. And if a team is bad enough that it's truly in the cellar, it would be entirely out of the race in H2H as well. The variability of H2H must be frustrating to at least a few people here. Why hasn't some form of roto been established?

[beanoX3]

For roto scoring to work well, the stat categories need to apply to all the players involved. RBs and WRs will have pretty much zero passing yards, QBs will have literally zero receiving yards, WRs will have little rushing yards, etc, etc. Only stat categories I can think of that could work is total yards and points, and well, two cat roto scoring sounds pretty boring to me.

[nebgib5]

For roto scoring to work well, the stat categories need to apply to all the players involved. RBs and WRs will have pretty much zero passing yards, QBs will have literally zero receiving yards, WRs will have little rushing yards, etc, etc. Only stat categories I can think of that could work is total yards and points, and well, two cat roto scoring sounds pretty boring to me.

Porque? Baseball seems to work okay having 5 hitting cats and 5 pitching cats. In basketball, many categories are mostly exclusive to specific positions. Why couldn't football have a similar concept? Why is it necessary to have categories that are universal across the position pool?

[34=Sweetness]

Yes, but every hitter is capable of scoring in those 5 categories, and most pitchers score in 4 out of the 5, if not all 5. Even in basketball, your players can contribute to any category because of the nature of the game. Yes, Kobe Bryant won't get you many blocks, but the potential is there. In football, QBs will never get receiving yards or TDs, RB and WR will never get passing yards/TDs. There is just too many player specific categories for it to work. Plus, H2H captures the spirit of football more and is, frankly, more fun.

[nebgib5]

I agree that many will enjoy H2H more (myself probably included). But I can't help but feel that by eschewing roto leagues entirely, fantasy football is really missing out on something. A strictly points based system is an oversimplification; there is no ability to tailor a team to certain strengths, or to build a team with the objective of outdueling another specific team, part of what makes fantasy sports so interesting. There are only points.


I still fail to see why players must have the ability to contribute across the board in any potential rotisserie league, other than the fact that fantasy football's point-based history would dictate that this should be the norm. Perhaps I'm missing something.

[ttwarrior1]

roto football would be awesome and if anyone ever invents a good way to do it they will be rich

[dream_017]

Because then it would be fantasy baseball

and yes, there have been many threads on it...here is the most recent

[Patchell]

...because roto sucks..

oh and seriously... roto sucks

[nebgib5]

Okay, pretty much the replies I was expecting. I guess the demographic that plays fantasy football simply wouldn't be that interested in such a format.

[Cornbread Maxwell]

Okay, pretty much the replies I was expecting. I guess the demographic that plays fantasy football simply wouldn't be that interested in such a format.

I think you may have missed the point a bit.

There are about a half dozen threads that address this exact topic every yr here, and the most common answer has been given above. Thats probably the reason you didnt get much of a response.

The main reason roto doesnt translate to football very well is because the positions in football are too statistically joined. You indicated above that you didnt understand this by saying roto works in baseball and basketball. In baseball, whoever is up to bat isnt the shortstop or outfielder while he is in the batters box - he is simply a hitter, so having the 5 hitting catagories works. Similarly in basketball, players positions dont have AS much of an effect on thier statistics as they do in football.

If you did play roto football, it would essentially end up being QB vs QB, RB vs RB, WR/TE vs WR/TE, K vs K, and D vs D because each of those positions are statistically different (pass yds, rush yds, rec yds, FGs, DStats). This is not the case in roto baseball or basketball is it?

Dont get me wrong, I play roto baseball - a bit of a purist in that I wont play H2H baseball - but it simply doesnt tranlslate to football very easily at all.

I hope this helps