How Leagues Work

You can't have a fantasy football league without teams. You can't have teams without players. Therefore, the first thing done in all fantasy football leagues is determining which players are on which teams. This is typically done with a draft.

The draft can be either an autopick draft, or a live draft. In an autopick draft, the owners rank available players, from most valuable to as far back as they care to rank, and then, once an owner's turn comes up in the draft, the highest-ranked player available is chosen. If all of their ranked players are already taken, then the league will give them the highest-ranked player based on the league's default rankings.

In a live draft, the owners come together in either real life or a live chat room, and choose their players in turn. If a particular owner is unable to attend a live draft, they can supply rankings ahead of time and their turns will be handled as they would in an autopick draft.

Once the teams are fully formed, the games begin. Each drafted player's stats for every week is worth a certain amount of points. For example, in a league where all touchdowns are worth six points, passing yards are worth one point for every 30 yards, and running/receiving yards are worth one point for every 20 yards, you would calculate your quarterback's fantasy points for the week by adding this number and this number, and your other offensive players' fantasy points would be calculated by adding this number and this number.

If a player becomes injured or is not worth keeping on the team, an owner can release them in return for another player who was not drafted or previously released by another team. Trades are also allowed between teams, with the only restriction being that no team can go over a set number of players on their roster.

That number, as well as the form of draft, the size of teams, the value of each statistic, and other smaller details, is determined by either the provider of the league in the case of a public league or a commissioner, who is usually the member of the league who registered first, in a private league.