After becoming addicted to Fantasy Football a decade ago, I think that I've come across the best league format that I've seen. Ten years ago, you played in a TD only league, where results were mailed to you and you called your lineups in by phone. Then things expanded to…yardage, for those who almost won every year with players like Barry Sanders…season stats-3 TD's & 2 kazillion yards. Things in fantasy world then went to keeper leagues, auction leagues, and then came computer leagues. With every league, there usually came some sort of problem. In keeper leagues, some guys won for a decade with Emmitt Smith. Auction leagues, the question was…do I spend $100 of my $150 cap for Marshall Faulk & live with no-name QB's & WR's or do I try to spread my money out to have good players at every position and backups for my off week? In computer leagues, the first guy who went 0-5 bailed and was never heard from again, or his #1 pick got injured in the last preseason game and he didn't even finish the draft. Although each of these leagues are still great, (& I still play some of these ) I finally found a league that incorporates most of these principles into one package.

This league starts with an auction draft, which is inherently more fair than any serpentine draft. Serpentine drafts are always unfair to someone. Have you ever heard of anyone (who won) that volunteered to pick last? And auction drafts are always more fun. …The Green Snotdragons bid $35 for Ricky Williams…pause…, going once …, going twice…, The Razorman bids $36, and The Razorman has screwed the Green Snootdragons again. In our league, you bid on 2 QB's, 4 RB's, 5 WE/TE's, 1 K , 1 Def, and 1 Flex player. The Flex player can be any of these. The kicker & defenses are teams, not players. This solves the problem of a Gramatica tearing up his knee in a post-kick celebration. You have whatever kicker that team has.

This league is also a keeper league. Here's where there's a difference. You keep any 2 players at the price you got them for last year. If you had a rookie who exploded like Clinton Portis for $10 in the first year, you can keep him for one more year at that same price. If you spent $65 for a Marshall Faulk, you got him again, if you want him at that price. Decisions, decisions. Once you've had a player for 2 years, he goes back in the pot.

The next thing that is different is what is called a bank week. In most leagues, off weeks are nightmares. Team managers have to make sure that your top 3 stud players weren't off in the same week. Because if all your stud players are off in the same week, without a doubt, you'll be playing the best team in the league that week. Bank week is the first week of the season. No team is playing another team. You "bank" the points to use in the off week. If Plaxico Burress scores 2 TD's & has 100 yards receiving in the "bank" week, you can use these points in Pittsburgh's off week. If, however, Plaxico has 15 yards receiving, you can use a different player during Pittsburgh's off week. This does a couple of things. First, the obvious, it covers your off week a couple of ways. Use the banked points or another backup player. Second, not so obvious, it puts more emphasis on your good players and less on your backups. Last year, worried as always about good solid backups, I spent way too much of my cap money on backups and not enough on starters. Not good. In this league, with banked points, you can go all year and never use a backup. The only time you have to use a backup is when Marshall Faulk goes down with a bad knee. And you can still pick up someone off the waiver wire.

For the rest of the season, it's head to head. We play all 17 weeks. Top four teams go to the playoffs and are rewarded for finishing in the top four. Here's where there is another difference. The top four teams will draft again…using only players from playoff teams. Auction rules apply again. However, now you're bidding on players that will go the deepest in the playoffs. Player points are carried from week to week and all 14 player points count during the playoffs. Obviously, players from Oakland & Tampa Bay were the most valuable last year. Also, you must have players from Wildcard teams. Otherwise, you miss 4 games on the first weekend of the playoffs. After the Super Bowl, the manager who really knows football has predicted correctly that Tampa would beat Philadelphia and drafted a guy named Johnson for his QB, instead of some guy named McNabb.

This league combines the action of auction leagues & keeper leagues, and you play not only into the 17th week, but play all the way through the Super Bowl. Most leagues are finished by the 16th week of the regular season. We play another 5 weeks. More bang for your buck. Try this format, it's a better mousetrap.