Hi MikE,
This year, I'm in four leagues. It's a blast! Ok, perhaps it's a bit tough to keep track of who's on which team...but that what I have the stat-tracker for
This year was the first time I participated in an on-line draft, and it really made sense. If you didn't want to participate you didn't have to. Each person had 90 seconds to pick their choice. If they didn't pick within the 90 seconds provided, the computer (yahoo) would pick for them from the same pre-season draft list that we used. If you like, you can also choose to edit the pre-season draft order and still not show up on "draft day." The last option is the one that made the most sense, for me at least. This was to participate in a draft that took, maybe, 20 minutes or so. You can see exactly who you have/what positions and you can also see who (and what) is left. You can adjust your picks accordingly.
It's really quite easy to do...and you can become as involved (or not as involved) as you want.
Another nice feature in the same league I'm in is something that I really didn't appreciate at first. The commissioner set the teams to only two WR's and cut each team back one bench spot He also adjusted the scoring just slightly to try to make up for the lower scores, from missing one WR. But the adjusted score is adjusted evenly across the plane for all positions and scoring.
I still didn't understand why in the world he would stray from the default yahoo team settings. I later seen him explain that the league he set up was by invitation only of people who wanted to "play" fantasy football. By cutting each team back by two spots teams will have more options in the FA pool from weak to weak. There's really some nice free agent pick ups in the free agent pool. But you have to pay attention to not only who they are...but how they're performing and who their playing against a little more than in a default league.
he described it by saying
This league isn't one you just set your lineup for the 14 weeks and don't look at it again until the playoffs start. You need to be looking at your team and available players each and every day.
But again...all the people in this league want this level of participation. It's something different and requires a higher level of participation. It may not be to everyone's liking. But it is to mine
have fun!