Tue Jun 30th 2026

My Favorite Dynasty League Settings

• My favorite league size is twelve-team leagues. I am in 6 twelve-team leagues, 3 ten-team leagues, and 1 fourteen-team league. They’re all enjoyable leagues, but twelve-team leagues are my favorite. I find that in ten-team leagues, few teams have terrible or elite rosters. There may be a top tier and a bottom tier of teams, but most of the league is in the middle of the pack. Thus, teams rarely go into full rebuild mode, which is part of the fun in dynasty leagues. Instead, every team had a decent chance of making the playoffs, and we all know anyone can win or lose in the playoffs. More middle-of-the-pack teams result in less trading, which is the best part of dynasty leagues. In twelve-team leagues, there are more haves and have-nots, which results in more trading and rebuilding. The same is true in my one fourteen-team league, but in leagues that large, the disparity is even greater, and rebuilding can be difficult and take too long. I should know because I am starting year three of a rebuild in that league, and I still need one more year to rebuild my roster. I’d still likely join a dynasty league of any size, but my preference is for twelve teams.
• Additionally, I prefer leagues with no divisions and a completely randomized schedule.

Roster Size

• I play in leagues that roster as few as 300 players and as many as 396 players, including taxi squads. I enjoy leagues with the most players rostered, but ideally would like a league with 360 players on the roster. That’s 30-man rosters for twelve-team leagues. I like the waiver wire to have some interest and activity throughout the year, with a few diamonds in the rough to bid for, but not too many.
• I prefer superflex leagues over one-quarterback leagues because I hate seeing valuable dynasty quarterbacks sit on my bench each week. In one-quarterback leagues, there’s rarely a team that would say that the quarterback is the weakest part of their team. Every team has a viable starter, if not a top-twelve scoring quarterback. Whereas in superflex leagues, many teams will have weak quarterback rooms. Best of all, in superflex leagues, rookie drafts are significantly deeper, since many quarterbacks get drafted in the first round.
• I enjoy having a taxi squad, but I’m not a diehard proponent of it. If rosters are deep enough, taxi squads are not really needed. But even so, it is fun to have a taxi squad to place prospects for their rookie year. If I have taxi squads, I would prefer that players not rotate on and off them. Most of my leagues allow for this, but my favorite is the one league I’m in, where once you promote a rookie from the taxi squad, he cannot go back on it.
• My favorite starting lineup is to start ten players: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 SF, 2 Flex. Though I also enjoy a few leagues where you only have to start a minimum of one running back and two receivers, and then have up to six flex positions. More flex positions in dynasty leagues allow for more strategies and opportunities to win, like being a running back-heavy or wide receiver-heavy, or even tight-end-heavy in tight-end premium leagues. But having more mandatory positions on rosters creates more trades because teams with one strong position group can trade with teams that are weak in that position group, and vice versa.
• Yes. I still play in leagues with kickers and defenses. I have more no-kicker leagues than no-defense leagues. Believe it or not, I do not have strong takes on kickers and defenses. I enjoy my leagues, whether they have them or not.

Scoring Setting

• I am a proponent of 4-point-per-touchdown passes in superflex leagues, but like 6-point-per-touchdown passes in one-quarterback leagues. 6 points per touchdown pass in superflex leagues makes quarterbacks too valuable and high-scoring. Whereas in one-quarterback leagues, 6 points per passing touchdown is needed to create more separation between quarterback scoring.
• I play in half-PPR leagues and PPR leagues. I enjoy them both and don't have a hot take on one over the other, but if I had to decide, I’d lean toward half PPR. When PPR formats became the norm, wide receivers were favored more than they should be, so I preferred half-PPR leagues to balance out running back and wide receiver scoring. However, after running backs dominated receivers last season, while the NFL went more run-heavy in its offensive schemes, the tables may have turned. I may want more PPR leagues to balance our running back scoring if this trend continues.
• To balance out all of the positions, I highly prefer some sort of tight-end premium scoring. I play in leagues that give 1.3, 1.5, and 1.75 PPR for tight ends. My favorite leagues are the ones that give .5 more points per reception than other positions. It’s the perfect balance for making tight end scoring more balanced with other positions, which gives managers different ways to build out their rosters to win.
• I know some people like it, but I highly dislike bonuses for yardage markers, like a bonus at 100 yards rushing or receiving, or 300 yards passing. For me, every yard should count the same.
• In my most recent league I started, I added .5 points per first down. I’ve played in one other league like this and enjoyed it, but I’ve not yet decided if I prefer it to other leagues.

Record Settings

• All of my leagues are head-to-head scoring compared to total points, and I would not play in a total points league. But my favorite leagues make total points a part of a team’s record in a few different ways. My preferred way to play is for each team to have two “games” a week. One is their head-to-head matchup. The other is against the median of the rest of the league. Meaning, if you’re a top-six scoring team on the week, you get a win. If you’re not, you get a loss. This setting removes some of the good or bad luck that comes with a head-to-head matchup. If you get unlucky and lose while scoring the second-highest points of the week, at least you still get a win. And if you get lucky and win a game with a low score, you still get a loss. I don’t think I will ever join a league that doesn't have some sort of median-scoring component again. It’s way more fair by eliminating some of the luck that we all know happens in fantasy games.

Playoff Settings

• My favorite way to seed playoff teams is to have six teams make the playoffs (50% of the league), with the top two teams receiving byes. In my tem team leagues, I do not like that six teams still make the playoffs because that 60% of the league. One of my ten-team leagues only allows four teams to make the playoffs, and I much prefer that. We all know anything can happen in the playoffs, so I want only the best teams to make the playoffs and the very best to get bye weeks.
• In many of my leagues, the sixth playoff spot is offered to the highest-scoring team that does not finish in the top five. I don’t hate this feature, but if the league has a median scoring setup, the problem takes care of itself,, and the top teams all make the playoffs.
• I’m also a big fan of reseeding in the playoffs to make sure the top team is playing the lowest seed.
• I only have one league that does this, my FFPC league, but their playoffs are not head-to-head until the championship game. Meaning that in rounds one and two, all four teams play each other, and the top two scoring teams advance. I love this feature, and wish most platforms had it as an option. Though if written in the bylaws in leagues without the option, commissioners can advance the top two scoring teams manually, so that’s an option for doing the playoffs this way, though it is more work for the commish.

Payout Settings

• My favorite way to handle payouts is this: The highest-scoring regular-season team and the runner-up get their buy-in back, and the rest of the pot goes to the champion. I play in leagues that give more money to the runner-up and to the highest-scoring team, but I think getting their buy-in money back is fine and awards the champion with a bigger prize.
• There are two other payout settings I’ve added to leagues that I really enjoy. I give a $5 award to the highest-scoring team each week. It gives every team in the league a chance to get a little money back and have something to root for each week. The other payout setting I added in my most recent league is a “rollover pot.” In this league, the buy-in is $40. Every year at the end of the season, $40 is saved for the rollover pot, and the first team to win back-to-back championships takes home the rollover pot. We’ll see how long it takes for a team to win back-to-back. Maybe the pot will just be $80 a year from now, or maybe it will be $400 if it takes ten years to do so. I’m excited to see how this ends up.

Rookie Draft Settings

• I prefer to have the rookie draft order set in reverse order of the standings, with the caveat that the same applies to how far teams advance in the playoffs. Meaning if the #6 seed in a 12-team league advances to the championship and loses, they will not have the 7th pick in the rookie draft but would have the 11th. This is how the NFL allots its draft picks, so I like to do the same in my dynasty leagues. All of my leagues have strict no-tanking rules, so I don’t have to worry about teams tanking. I am totally against determining draft order based on potential points because it does not fairly account for teams’ rosters, let alone their injuries. Finally, I prefer five rounds in a rookie draft, though I am in leagues with four, and I enjoy those, too, mostly because of the opportunities to add late-round rookies with FAAB, which is fun.

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