Fantasy Football will be much different in The XFL and AAF

[MikeMitchell]

Fantasy Football can work in an 8 team football league but it's going to be vastly different than fantasy football in college or the NFL.

First off, you can't have 10 team leagues in an XFL or an AAF fantasy league. The number will probably have to be 4, 5 or 6 tops. With 8 teams, you only have 8 starting quarterbacks and 8 starting running backs in the league.

In a standard NFL fantasy league. Teams usually start 2 RB's and sometimes another RB at the flex position. No need for this in an 8 team football league. There will be some teams that have two backs that are worthy of "rostering", like The Pats for example who have Sony Michel and James White, but with only 8 teams. That number of weekly starters is probably 12 tops. That's why I would probably join a 5 team XFL fantasy league, so that you can start two weekly runners. That has a trickle down effect. 5 teams mean. 5 pick rounds etc... It has to be done because of the size of the league. Otherwise, you have no reason for bench players.

One of the draws to weekly fantasy football is deciding who will sit on your bench and who you will start. Gameday mornings are loaded with anxious fantasy football players stressing over whether they should start Alshon Jeffrey or Julian Edelman. You only attain that weekly fantasy football decision making in The XFL or AAF if you have a smaller fantasy league. If you have a standard 10 team league. One of the team owners will be starting a backup quarterback who is not even slated to start because there are only 8 starting qb's in the league.

At positions like WR, TE, K and Defense, you should be ok. There are no bye weeks in The XFL or AAF so you won't have to worry about dropping a player to start someone else. Most football teams have at least 3 WR's that you can consider starting or rostering in Fantasy. So that puts the math at 24 total wr's. This is only an issue in 10 team fantasy owner leagues.

Smaller league means smaller playoff field as well. If you are in a 6 team league. You could have 8 regular season weeks and then start your league playoffs in week 9, with the championship in week 10. The final week of the regular season.

It goes without saying that to get people interested in fantasy football. You need to know who the players are. The leagues have to do a good job of creating awareness heading into the season of who the team's projected starters are. In the AAF for example, if fantasy players had a draft today. They would probably draft Trent Richardson first but could be you name a top 5? Their league website doesn't even allow you to click on player bios.

[Andibald]

I don't play fantasy anymore, but the last league I was in was a bit different. There was no draft as you got to pick a new team every week...but only play a player once per year. This made for some interesting decisions. The good thing about this format is you really get to know all of the players rather than just the ones on your roster.

For that to work in the XFL, you could have each player used twice per year rather than once.

Edit: If I remember correctly, we didn't have a playoff and instead had a total point champion.

[MikeMitchell]

I don't play fantasy anymore, but the last league I was in was a bit different. There was no draft as you got to pick a new team every week...but only play a player once per year. This made for some interesting decisions. The good thing about this format is you really get to know all of the players rather than just the ones on your roster.

For that to work in the XFL, you could have each player used twice per year rather than once.

That's a unique way to do it.

I would do a 6 team league. 4 teams make the playoffs. 8 week regular season. Weeks 9 and 10 are the playoffs. You start 1 QB, 2 RB's, 2 WR's, 1 TE, 1 K and 1 D. It's really the only kind of fantasy league you can do for an 8 team league. Otherwise, you are starting backup players on your fantasy team.