# SDMB Salary Cap Fantasy Football (different from regular FF) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 10, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192 "2007-08-10T23:46:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/1 "2007-08-10T23:46:36Z")
I put “(different from regular FF)” in the title to interest people who might not normally partake in fantasy football. Salary cap fantasy football works differently. There are not a limited number of teams because teams do not exclusively own players like in traditional fantasy football. Which means, like pick 'em and survival leagues, the more the merrier. How it works is that based on past and projected performance, each player in the NFL is assigned a salary. When you add someone to your team, you buy them at this salary. As their performance changes, their price can go up or down - in the event that it goes up, you can retain them at the price you originally bought them for - and if it goes down you can recover the money. You have a limited amount of cap space to work with, so if you sign LaDainian Tomlinson, he’s going to cost enough that you’ll have to go for some cheap players at other positions. In effect, you’re trying to get the most value of your players rather than necesarily having the best in raw production at any given position. You can find sleepers who you feel are about to break out and buy them up early for cheap, benefiting from their later better performance for the same price, or you can switch out your players every week based on who you feel has the most favorable matchup relative to their cost, or any combination of strategies. The scoring rules and roster positions of the league are fixed, and salary updates are automatically provided weekly. There’s no head to head format, the winner is the person who scores the most overall points. As I said because of the nature of the league we can have practically as many players as we want. The league isn’t hurt by people leaving in mid-season like a normal fantasy league is, so there’s no commitment in order to sign up (although it’s always nice when everyone keeps playing till the end). So if you’re interested, give it a try. The sign-up process is a little unusual, in that you first create a team, and then join a league with it. That’s why I didn’t create this league at the same time as the [pick 'em and survival leagues](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=432021) - when I saw that the sign up process didn’t involve creating or joining a private league, I thought that you couldn’t, and that the only way to play this type of game was in a giant public league. If you want to sign up, go to [this](http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/salcap) page, create a team, and then when you’re done creating the team you’ll have an option to join a private group. Group ID# 4245, password cecil ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2007, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/2 "2007-08-11T12:27:01Z")
I’m in. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2007, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/3 "2007-08-11T12:36:15Z")
If anyone wants to try a lame autodraft league, here’s one. If anyone is curious about how certain things like IDP, PPR, 2 QBs, etc can change the way you play FF, come join. This is an extra league, mostly for fun, to see if any of these different ways of playing are to your liking or not. (I’ll link back to this thread, too) ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2007, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/4 "2007-08-11T13:30:43Z")
[QUOTE=NoClueBoy] If anyone wants to try a lame autodraft league, here’s one. [/QUOTE] :smack: > **[Lame Yahoo autodraft IDP Fant Football league for any curious](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=432354)** > > I have one set up already. My regular league doesn’t want to do IDPs, but I wanted to see what it was like. I also wanted to experiment with some other ideas, but realise that this is an extra league. I would like it to be competitive, but how much... I’m an idiot… ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2007, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/5 "2007-08-11T14:38:18Z")
I might join it, I’ll have to think about it. I wouldn’t mind joining a second league with a different ruleset/playstyle than my main one, but the autodraft part really turns me off. A live draft is the funnest part of FF season, perhaps besides hoisting the gold trophy in every SDMB league I’m in. As far as salary cap goes, I’ve never done it before. There are a lot of good preseason good values that unfortunately simplify picking them a little bit - because it’s based strictly on stats over the last 2 years and no sort of projection at this stage, it looks like. So a player who was really productive 2 years ago, but was injured last year, and is healthy again this year will have a low price out of line with his actual performance. And rookies seem to be at the league minimum. I was hoping there’d be more projection involved, like how you can look up projected scores on regular fantasy football, rather than basing salary solely on past stats. Still looks interesting, though. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2007, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/6 "2007-08-11T15:17:48Z")
I could change it to a live draft. My main concerns were timing, not wanting to upset anybody’s main league. I’ll get back to y’all. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2007, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/7 "2007-08-12T03:54:20Z")
[QUOTE=NoClueBoy] I could change it to a live draft. My main concerns were timing, not wanting to upset anybody’s main league. [/QUOTE] Like **SenorBeef** , autodraft is a deal-breaker for me. I’d love to join a live draft one though. I believe the evening of Wednesday the 29th is available. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/8 "2007-08-14T17:05:32Z")
I’m in. The last time I did one of these it was an absolute disaster. So things can’t get any worse. ---
**Author:** ![Spiritus\_Mundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Spiritus\_Mundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiritus_Mundi)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/9 "2007-08-17T05:08:49Z")
I am in. And I am impressed that a couple of you managed to spend every last cent of your cap room. (At least I am impressed right now - when teh rosters are revealed and it turns out you have Michael Vick, Corey Dillon, and Priest Holmes I reserve the right to chuckle condescendingly.) ---
**Author:** ![Spiritus\_Mundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Spiritus\_Mundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiritus_Mundi)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/10 "2007-08-17T05:10:00Z")
Oh, and I too would consider another league if it were a live draft. I despise pre-ranking. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/11 "2007-08-17T16:34:12Z")
I’m in. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/12 "2007-08-17T16:59:57Z")
Sure! ---
**Author:** ![Mullinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@Mullinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mullinator)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/13 "2007-08-17T17:12:02Z")
Count me in. Count me in last place, but count me in. ---
**Author:** ![garius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/14 "2007-08-20T12:56:31Z")
Interestingly this is how 90% of fantasy football works over here in Blighty (for “proper” football that is :D). Think I’ll knock up a team - there’s a narrow generation of Brits my age who who got caught up in the American Football buzz of the late 80s and have had an affection for it ever since (despite the impossibility of watching games over here) and ready access to American Football is one of the things i miss from my spell in New York. Be warned my team will be hopeless - its still tricky to follow it over here despite the advent of the internet (although i am one of the lucky few that managed to get tickets to the Giants vs Dolphins game in October). ---
**Author:** ![meek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce73a5/32.png) [@meek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meek)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2007, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/15 "2007-08-26T03:29:33Z")
Meek’s geeks are in! Thanks **SenorBeef**! . ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/16 "2007-09-01T20:33:23Z")
In case some of you didn’t notice, they use an unusually touchdown heavy scoring system for salary cap football. I don’t know why they don’t just use their default scoring system, it’s better. ```auto Touchdown 6 points Passing Yards 1 point per 50 yards Interception -2 points Rushing Yards 1 point per 20 yards Receiving Yards 1 point per 20 yards 2-Point Conversion 2 points Fumble Lost -2 points Kicking Field Goal 0-19 yards 3 points Field Goal 20-29 yards 3 points Field Goal 30-39 yards 3 points Field Goal 40-49 yards 4 points Field Goal 50+ yards 5 points Point After Touchdown 1 point Defense Sack 1 point Interception 2 points Fumble Recovery 2 points Touchdown 6 points Safety 2 points Blocked Kick 2 points Points Allowed Shutout = 10 Fan. Pts. 1-6 points = 7 Fan. Pts. 7-13 points = 4 Fan. Pts. 14-20 points = 1 Fan. Pt. 28-34 points = -1 Fan. Pt. 35+ points = -4 Fan. Pts ``` I only discovered this after I signed up and picked my roster, although I should’ve mentioned it on the thread earlier. This might change some of your choices. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2007, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/17 "2007-09-04T03:01:54Z")
That’s weird…choosing to use the old Yahoo default settings. That might change things a little bit. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2007, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/18 "2007-09-04T06:03:23Z")
OK. I have a question. I sat down and picked my team, and I gather that we are able to adjust our rosters every single week of the season. Some of the players I am starting this week I chose more based on matchups than on my faith in them being great all season long. Is there any reason why I would want to add a player for week 1 that might have a bad matchup this week? ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2007, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/19 "2007-09-04T06:15:14Z")
[QUOTE=Omniscient] OK. I have a question. I sat down and picked my team, and I gather that we are able to adjust our rosters every single week of the season. Some of the players I am starting this week I chose more based on matchups than on my faith in them being great all season long. Is there any reason why I would want to add a player for week 1 that might have a bad matchup this week? [/QUOTE] I’m just guessing here, but it would be good to pick him up now if you think his value will go up. If he has a bad matchup week 1, I can only imagine his value will go down, so you’d be better off waiting. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2007, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192/20 "2007-09-04T06:59:47Z")
[QUOTE=Kid\_A] That’s weird…choosing to use the old Yahoo default settings. That might change things a little bit. [/QUOTE] Yeah, I don’t get it. Those are pretty archaic fantasy football rules and their standard ones are much better. Oh well. Adjust your roster appropriately. [QUOTE=Omniscient] OK. I have a question. I sat down and picked my team, and I gather that we are able to adjust our rosters every single week of the season. Some of the players I am starting this week I chose more based on matchups than on my faith in them being great all season long. Is there any reason why I would want to add a player for week 1 that might have a bad matchup this week? [/QUOTE] No, you did the right thing if you’re right about them having bad matchups. It would be perfectly a valid strategy to change your entire roster week to week based on matchups. If you’re correct and they perform badly relative to their value then their value should go down, letting you snatch them up even cheaper the next week (although if a player you currently own goes down in salary you can recoup the salary without having to resign him, there’s a button for it somewhere). On the other hand, if you think they’ll do horribly and then they have a 4 touchdown game, you’re going to have to pay for it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-salary-cap-fantasy-football-different-from-regular-ff/415192.md?page=2)