Yeah, not too much activity yet. I usually wait until preseason games start to even begin thinking about the FF draft.

Right now is the time to be studying and catching up on who went where.

Huh, what?
Oh, well I already have draft sheets done. Subject to much change.

Bah, it's all luck. This year I'm drafting in alphabetical order.

We established a pair of leagues last season - one which was seeded by invites, the other which was open to all comers.

The idea was that the top players in the "open" league would be invited the next year to fill in the gaps of the "invite" league. (Which makes it sounds like much more of an exclusive boy's club than the setup really is)

I obnoxiously called the leagues I-A and I-AA, to commissioner Grumpicus' silent chagrin.

Although the original relegation plans were a bit more codified (and probably budding with that right-before-the-season, everything-will-go-as-planned optimism), I think the idea will be that everyone that wants to return to I-A will be invited to do so, and the top performers in I-AA last year will get invited to fill the gaps. And then the doors will be opened for anyone else that wants to join to take the vacated I-AA spots (which, I'm sure, will be plentiful enough for everyone that REALLY wants to play to get in. After all, last year, a number of us in I-A also fielded a I-AA team in order to fill all of the extra empty slots)

What? Not on espn?
Well, I want in. Call it the Oklahoma City steal a team from...I mean expansion initiative.

Thanks, Grump. To be honest, I think I was in the second AOL league, but forgot all about it. So if you are basing it on that, I'm kind of screwed. The AOL site was really off-putting, and I kind of forgot about it. I was second in the GWJ pick'em, not FFL. I was in another FFL with friends from the Poker Academy forums, and finished 5th out 8 there.

That said, I'd still like to give this season a go. Especially since it sounds like the AOL site might be out?

Where is the best place to get a good rundown on the rules for this? I do not have any experience in a league where we bid for players So any explanation on how that works would be helpful as well.

I think the best plan at this point in time is to follow the AOL leagues to FleaFlicker, which is (lack of bidding aside) the best of the free fantasy league sites.

It'll eventually get blind bidding, and it should be a hit with everyone that hated the AOL league interface.

We can use a more standard, weekly-processed waiver system, which would still help eliminate the "rush to your computer" issue of the Yahoo leagues, but removes the wonderful bidding strategy aspect of free agency.

A decent free agency system. Any player who isn't on waivers (meaning, someone who wasn't JUST cut from someone's fantasy team) is available for immediate pickup.

Meaning, whomever gets to their PC first, wins.

It's a bad system that no serious league uses, and it's even worse for casual ones.

But going beyond that, Yahoo's (free) service is badly under-featured. FleaFlicker has SO much more functionality, it's not even a comparison. Once they get their asses in gear and get blind bidding online, even my pay leagues on sites like MyFantasyLeague (probably the very best pay service around) will transition to FleaFlicker. FleaFlicker is a bit... spartan in appearance currently, but it is simple to use.

Legion said AOL is replacing their service with FleaFlicker this year.

Legion, how much is that "for pay" site you mentioned?

Each, or total?

That's only eight bucks each in a ten person league! If the site is a lot better than a free service, maybe that is feasible for us. I really don't know anything about them to compare though.

Aye, we looked at the site, but we have a couple of dingles in our league. We went with www.rtsports.com, which is a pretty easy site that has plenty of nice whistles attached to it.