Best fantasy football websites? (for private league)

I think if you get people that you know won't flake out in the middle of the season, Yahoo!, for the cost (nothing) is probably the best.

 

As a vet of fantasy football for 4 or 5 years now, I can say that I like yahoo fantasy football a lot. The free version is extremely functional, and it probably has just about everything you would need as far as customizing scoring, playoffs vs no playoffs, lineups, etc. We used sandbox for several years, but switched to yahoo when we went to a keeper format. There is no actual keeper function on yahoo, but we just designate our keepers a week before our draft the next season, and since we do a draft offline in person, I, as commissioner, enter in all the picks with the keepers serving as everyone's first picks. (Each owner keeps 3 players.) I think ESPN has a keeper function that saves the stuff from year to year, but you also pay for bunches of unnecessary crap.

Unfortunately, the free site for research seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur. Kinda sad, really, but not surprising. Sporting News has always been great, but now you have to pay for the best stuff. Fanball.com has some great player updates for free, as well as a pay section. The free content, as far as updates, is really good though. CBSSportsline has some interesting columns, for sure. I find it helpful. Also, I do like reading through the chats and projections on ESPN's fantasy section, including all the Hector and Victor stuff. Also, give www.fftoday.com a try.

All in all, unless you plunk down a little money, there's not a lot of quality out there. However, these sites should get you started.

It's all about how you set up your scoring too. Doesn't help as much to look at rankings set up for a league that scores everything totally different from yours, so pay close attention to that. I've finished 2nd, 1st, 1st, and 2nd the past 4 years in leagues that are between 12 and 14 teams each, so I'd like to think i have a bit of a clue about what I'm talking about. Feel free to email me or post on here if you have a question.

 

There are tons of places you can get free information on the 'Net. Here are a few to start you out :

http://fantasy.sportsline.com/?refcode=shpft_2003
http://games.espn.go.com/cgi/ffl/frontpage
http://www.rototimes.com
http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/default.htm

 

You guys should really check out www.fantasyfootballsoftware.com I used the COMMISH web-version last year and I couldn't imagine running a league without it again! The guy who owns "Fantasy Football" is a guy right here in Houston and is on 610AM during the football season. Take a look and that PEDS software also, and lets just say whoever gets it will have a MAJOR advantage come the draft.

PEDS allows you to put in the scoring system you league runs on and then calculates each players worth in the draft based on what numbers he put up the last three years. However it also takes into account what that player is projected to the upcoming season. It's a pretty sweet package!