When I started playing fantasy football in 1989, all scores were kept by hand using the sports page of USA Today. The scores were never final until Tuesday morning after the big Monday Night Football game. The explosion in popularity of fantasy football in the last several years, however, has sent manual scorekeeping down the same path as the 8 track player, parachute pants, and VHS. Coinciding with the increase in number of fantasy football owners has been the proliferation of fantasy football platforms. There is no shortage of quality fantasy football platforms out there, and this article will provide a comparison of 5 of the most popular platforms, ranked in order from best to worst.
Yahoo Fantasy Football
Like most fantasy football platforms, Yahoo provides 2 forms of fantasy leagues: a free league (Football 08) and a pay league (Football Plus 08). The free and the pay league are very similar, with the pay league adding a little more flexibility in commissioner options and also providing additional materials at a discounted cost if they were to be purchased separately. The biggest advantage that the Plus league features is the real time scoring add-on called StatTracker. This option allows you to track your score and your opponents score at the same time; StatTracker is available in the free version for a $10 charge for the entire year. With the Plus league, you also receive a draft kit worth $10 and weekly scouting reports, also worth $10. The Plus league costs $25 for an individual team, or $125 for your entire league.
Yahoo is the most stable of all the fantasy football platforms. There is very little downtime and I have not noticed many scoring errors. Coupled with the fact that Yahoo is one of the Internet’s largest web portals, signing up for leagues is easier since many people already have a Yahoo ID. You have the option of doing a live online draft or doing an offline draft and uploading your results later. League scoring and rules are completely customizable, as are the amount of teams making the playoffs and how long the playoffs last. You also have the option of making roster changes from most mobile phones. I highly recommend Yahoo Fantasy Football.
ESPN
The Worldwide Leader in Sports really stepped up their fantasy football platform. ESPN features 2 free leagues and 1 pay league this year, and they have some exciting options. From the main page (ESPN Fantasy Football), you can select one of 3 options: Custom Private League, Standard Free, and Standard Prize Eligible. The first 2 options are free, and in addition to the traditional fantasy football draft, they offer an auction option. With an auction, each owner starts off with a set amount of money and bids on players. You must fill out your roster while staying within a budget. If LT is your favorite player, you can spend almost all of your money to get him. Of course the rest of your team will be filled out with guys playing in Arena Football, but the point is you can get whoever you want. It is a great option, but more aimed at advanced fantasy football owners. ESPN had some glitches in their early years, but did a nice job last year. I personally had glitches last year trying to change my roster with my mobile phone, but most people did not have an issue. I highly recommend ESPN fantasy football.
MFL.com
MFL stands for My Fantasy League. This is by far the most in-depth fantasy football platform out there, but it comes with trade-offs. There is no free league option, which rules out many fantasy football owners. Additionally, the platform has so many advanced functions (such as developmental squads, tracking of payroll, etc) that many novice owners will be overwhelmed. The interface is also not nearly as slick as the ones that you get from the large corporations. If you are an advanced fantasy football owner, however, this platform could be just the ticket for you. Every aspect of the league is customizable, and the price you pay for the league is less than the pay options offered by Yahoo and ESPN. You get a real time stat tracking product with the league, but to my knowledge there is not an easy way to access the site with your mobile phone. This is another platform that I would highly recommend, but in this case only if you are not a beginner.
FOX-MSN
Fox does a nice job with their fantasy football platform that they share with MSN (Fox Sports on MSN), but they do not have the same user base as Yahoo Sports nor the wide reach of ESPN. They rank behind MFL because they do not have the depth of options that MFL provides. That said, Fox offers a free league that includes a draft kit, live online draft, real time stat tracking, and the ability to play on your mobile phone. The interface is as slick as you would expect from conglomerates like Fox and MSN, and the league options (scoring, league size, playoffs, etc) are customizable. I’ve only played one year on Fox and did not experience any issues, but one season is not a large sample. I recommend Fox fantasy sports, but typically go with one of the first 3 options listed.
CBS Sportsline
CBS Sportsline also runs the official NFL.com fantasy football league. This is the only “benefit” that CBS offers its users. Sportsline does have an established user base, so if you are looking to join a public league and compete for prizes, you should be able to find something here. Like the other leagues mentioned, CBS offers free and pay options, and there are many options for customization.
CBS is the lowest rated of these fantasy football platforms due to stability issues. In back to back years, I experienced more problems with CBS than with all other leagues I’ve ever been in combined. The CBS servers were not prepared for the influx of new fantasy football owners, and the website would crash constantly. In some instances, lineup changes were unable to be made. The first rule of fantasy football is to have fun, and dealing with this frustration violated that rule. CBS also seems to have more scoring changes than the other websites I mentioned, and trying to access your roster from a mobile phone is like pulling teeth. Things change, and I’ll probably play one free league here to gauge the progress they’ve made, but I can not in good conscience currently recommend using CBS Sportsline over the previous 4 platforms listed.
