Fantasy Football Scoring: What is the "fairest method"?

[Kosta]

A group of friends and I (the friends are in Nth America) play a fun league on Yahoo.

There is some debate this year on a fair scoring system. We have a new commish who wants to introduce bonus points and the like (eg. 5 pts extra for 400 yards passing). I am against this.

Just wondering - with so many statistically minded peeps on this board - what you guys think is the fairest and most balanced fantasy football scoring system.

It is just a standard no-keeper yahoo league that we are in - starting group is QB, 2 RB's, 2 WR's, TE, another RB or WR, K and DEF TEAM. There are 6 bench spots.

Thanks
Kosta

[Maple Leafs]

My best advice: forget "fair" and just go with a standard system. With all the fantasy information available in magazines and the web, there's nothing worse than not being able to use it because your commisioner has come up with some fancy scoring system that nobody else uses.

The standard fantasy rules aren't fair at all -- they're pretty dumb, actually. Why do we start only one QB but two RBs? There's the same number of starting QBs and RBs in the NFL, but we use twice as many RBs. Why? Because that's the way we've always done it. It drives the value of RBs through the roof for no really good reason, which isn't fair at all. But at this point it's the standard, so you should stick with it.

One of the laws of usability also applies to games like fantasy football: if 90% of the rest of the world is doing it one way, you should too, even if that one way is completely dumb.

[Vince]

Maple Leafs is right...fair is in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I really like ESPN's scoring system -

25 yds Passing = 1 pt
1 TD Passing = 4 pts
1 INT = -2 pts
10 yds Rushing/Receiving = 1 pt
1 TD rushing/receiving/returning = 6 pts
1 Fumble = -2 pts
1 2 pt Conversion Rushing, Receiving or Passing = 2 pts
1 TD of 40+ Yds = 2 pt bonus

Extra Point = 1 pt
FG, 0-39 yds = 3 pts
FG, 40-49 yds = 4 pts
FG, 50+ yds = 5 pts
Missed FG, 40-49 yds = -1 pt
Missed FG, 0-39 yds = -2 pts
(misses INCLUDE blocks and tips)

Defense -
0 pts allowed = 10 pts
1-6 pts allowed = 7 pts
7-13 pts allowed = 4 pts
14-17 pts allowed = 1 pt
18-21 pts allowed = 0 pts (Defense is responsible for ALL points allowed...including defensive TDs by the opposing team)
22-27 pts allowed = -1 pt
28-34 pts allowed = -4 pts
35-45 pts allowed = -7 pts
46+ pts allowed = -10 pts
Defensive/Special Teams TD = 3 pts
Interception = 2 pts
Fumble Recovery = 2 pts
Safety = 2 pts
Any Blocked Kick = 2 pts (does NOT include deflections)
Sack = 1 pt

I've played this way for years, and I really like the balance that penalties for offensive turnovers gives the league. I kind of don't like the 2 point bonus for TDs of 40+ yards...but they're quite rare, so they hardly come into play.

[Passacaglia]

FYI, you can only use those bonus features on the pay version of Yahoo.

This got me, too -- I accidentally started up my league in the pay version, and was all excited by those new features, then they wanted to charge me, and I realized I was in the wrong section.