Best site to run a casual fantasy NFL football league for 2009

August 11, 2009 3:25 PM

What's the best site to host my fantasy NFL football league?

I'd like to setup a fantasy football league for the upcoming NFL season. I'm a fantasy virgin (insert joke here) so would like a system that is free; easy to setup and administer; and allows for live or automated drafting. Some sort of iPhone integration would be a bonus. Recommendations? Thanks!

posted by docgonzo to sports, hobbies, & recreation (14 comments total)

I've used ESPN, NFL.com, Sporting News, and Yahoo. My fave of these is definitely Yahoo. It has free live scoring and either live drafts or auto drafts. Not sure about iPhone integration. ESPN was passable, but the other two were fairly awful.
posted by curlyelk at 3:46 PM on August 11

I've been in leagues on both Yahoo and ESPN, and ESPN is far better, IMO. The main reason is that they offer live scoring for free. Yahoo makes each user pay $9.95/season for its 'StatTracker.'

I heard a promo recently saying that Fox was starting league hosting this year, also with free live scoring. Haven't checked it out, though.

Live scoring is a huge bonus for those of us who get really obsessed and competitive and sweaty about the whole thing. Yahoo only charges because it can. So why not go with someone who doesn't?

Can't speak to iPhones.
posted by mudpuppie at 3:54 PM on August 11

I've done a lot of Yahoo and ESPN. Definitely, definitely favor the ESPN user experience. Also, use an auction draft. IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO GO. And I don't think Yahoo offers it.
posted by xmutex at 3:55 PM on August 11

I've done both Yahoo and ESPN and put me in the ESPN camp. A lot more control and live stats plus easy to manage teams and rosters are great. Also keeper leagues so you can choose to keep 5 players (league set) every year and keep all the league stands and trophies from previous years.
posted by lilkeith07 at 4:02 PM on August 11

I favor ESPN as someone who has been in leagues on both ESPN and Yahoo. My husband administers ours on ESPN and it always takes him about 10 minutes to set up every year.
posted by questionsandanchors at 4:13 PM on August 11

Yahoo is offering free live scoring this year according to the radio ads I've been hearing all week.
posted by baho at 4:29 PM on August 11

That is a definite plus, baho. It's about time.

Just another note -- Yahoo has had a few problems this year with temporarily losing fantasy baseball scores. They recover them after 8-12 hours or so, but it's been really annoying.
posted by mudpuppie at 4:40 PM on August 11

I've been using the creatively-named "OfficeFootballPool.com" for years and everyone seems to like it.
posted by GatorDavid at 5:00 PM on August 11

*doh! sorry, officefootballpool.com is not free. it is pretty easy, though.
posted by GatorDavid at 5:02 PM on August 11

we have used http://www.myfantasyleague.com/ its a pay league but we have used it for 3 years and love it!
posted by Country Dick Montana at 5:09 PM on August 11

Yahoo had a shitload of downtime a couple years ago which scared me off. I used to use cbssports (formerly cbs.sportsline.com) but this yr I have switched to ESPN since CBS inexplicably got rid of the option to choose which position to draft in which round. ?!?!!?!?!!!
posted by CwgrlUp at 7:49 PM on August 11

I love Yahoo and have used it for the last 7 years. Hell, it's where I set up the MeFi football league there.

With Stattracker free this season, it's even better.

I played in a CBS league a couple of years ago, and I hate their interface. It's unintuitive and it's a pain in the ass to add and drop players.

I've never played in an ESPN football league, but I found their interface for baseball to be far less usable than Yahoo's.
posted by reenum at 7:12 AM on August 12

I've always found Yahoo pretty great, but we end up getting a paid league so we get Stattracker included in the league fees.
posted by graventy at 7:01 PM on August 12

Thank you v. much to all who answered. Based on all the responses I was going to go with ESPN -- unfortunately my co-commisioner jumped the gun and signed us up with Yahoo. However, I am sure this thread will be useful to others looking to start up a league.
posted by docgonzo at 11:06 AM on August 25