Fantasy Football is a simple game. A game where 10 or 12 of your friends put 10 bucks into the pot and see who can form the best roster made of real NFL players and maintain it throughout the season.
But what if it wasn’t that simple? What if instead of 10 or 12 players you had 32? What if instead of 10 bucks you put in 200? What if you needed to construct the best roster, but had nothing to construct it from? The answer to all of those questions is here.
The 32-team fantasy league I’m going to talk about is a theory of how this huge league would work, and what the best strategies for winning it would be, but this can be more than just a theory. It can be a reality, and here is how. Buckle in folks, this is gonna be a long one.
The fantasy draft
The warning blinkers should already be going off when you see that this draft would include 480 picks, which is 300 more than a standard 12-team draft.
For our purposes, let’s assume that each pick has a 90-second timer. With 32 teams, 15 rounds, and 90 seconds each, we can use simple math to know that (not including pauses or managers taking under 90 seconds) the draft would take 43,200 seconds, 720 minutes, or 12 hours.
A draft this long would be insanity. If this were to be done in one sitting, you would most likely be drafting from 10 AM to 10 PM, which is a full day’s commitment. To some, it would be frustrating and silly to spend a full day preparing for a fantasy league, while to others it may be a dream. But outside of the hardcore fantasy footballers, the majority won’t be able to sit at a computer all day for such a draft.
How would a league go about this?
One possibility would be to do part of the draft manually, and another automatically. The point at which the draft switches to auto is certainly an important question. A quick answer would be to go until all starting roster spots are filled. On one hand, this could work, because, with such scarcity in value players, you would need to choose your starters carefully. On the other hand, there are going to be rosters so abhorrent that many won’t even recognize some of the starters.
Using an online mock draft simulator, I found one roster which was particularly bad. The RB core consisted of Tyler Allgeier, Mike Davis, Snoop Conner, Benny Snell, Trestan Ebner, and Pooka Williams. If you recognize the majority of those names, kudos to you.
The point is, there will become a point where you begin to draft irrelevant players even to your starting lineup, which at the end of the day won’t be very enjoyable for most, and potentially a waste of time. The point of switching to automatic in this case would be one easily debated, as some could be filling their benches with notable players while keeping other spots in their starting lineup empty.
Another possibility would be to stray away from the classic 90-second timer and go down to 45 seconds, or maybe even 30. Doing so would mean a lot more pre-draft research would need to be done so that you are at least somewhat familiar with your later-round picks. A 30-second draft would take roughly 4 hours, which is significantly closer to that of a regular draft. This would most likely require all members of the league to be fantasy football veterans who are comfortable enough with players to draft them quickly, and do their minimal research between picks.
The buy-in and prize pool
With 32 teams in the league, a buy-in as small as $5 already has a decently sized prize pool. However, 32 teams is a lot, and the only way to ensure that all managers pay attention (because more is needed, you’ll see why) to the league is via the buy-in. Many leagues may set their buy-in at $20-$25, although I still find managers in those leagues that ignore their players by Week 3.
A more significant buy-in of $50 would certainly spice up the prize pot, bringing it up to $1,600. However, I think to ensure the integrity of the league, the buy-in would need to be $75 at the very minimum.
Now as I stated earlier, this would be a league completely comprised of fantasy football veterans, and probably many hardcore managers, so we can safely assume a buy-in would be set somewhere in the $100-$200. On the assumption that such buy-in is set at $100, the total prize pool would be $3,200. Now that’s a lot of money. How would it be divided? Well, with such a large pot, some fun bonuses could be given out, such as most regular season wins, most points scored, longest win streak, etc. Many of these bonuses could in theory go to the same person, but it’s worth having them for the fun of it. Here is my mockup of how prizes would be given:
- 1st Place: $1,500
- 2nd Place: $700
- 3rd Place: $200
- Playoff Berth: $50 (x12)
- Most Regular Season Wins: $50
- Most Points Scored: $50
- Longest Win Streak: $50
- Trophy: $50
League formatting and schedule
The easiest way to go about setting up a 32-team league would most likely be formatting it as the NFL did from 2002 to 2019. This would imply a 12-team playoff, with four teams receiving a bye week. In terms of the standings, two routes could be taken.
Option A: Set up the league with 8 divisions and 2 conferences, like the NFL, and use that to create rivalries and an interesting schedule.
Option B: Have a singular, 32-team standing where the 12 best teams advance to the playoff, with a completely random schedule.
I don’t think either option is the wrong way to go, as both have positives and negatives. Pros for Option A would be the organization and competitive schedule. A major con would be some teams with worse records advancing to the playoffs while teams with better records can’t clinch a Wild Card spot, but some leagues may find the idea of a more realistic approach intriguing. Option B would be much more chaotic in the standings (and potentially more fun), as well as more randomization and fairness.
Different options could also pave the way for different types of prizes, although that’s a minor factor. At the end of the day, I find both options very interesting and both would lead to enjoyable fantasy seasons, so whichever route is taken should be left to the league managers’ preference.
The roster
Many might believe that in a 32-team league, the scarcity of top-notch players requires smaller rosters with superflex, however, I think that scarcity is what makes the idea of a 32-team league so fun. The idea here is to make the 32-team league idea as standard as possible, which means the roster format would be as follows. (Personally, I’m also in favor of IDP, but that could complicate things too much for now)
- 1 QB
- 2 RB
- 2 WR
- 1 TE
- 1 W/R/T
- 1 K
- 1 D/ST
- 6 Bench
Positional value
The biggest factor in the positional value conversation is obviously the three roster spots where only one player per team would play, the quarterback, kicker, and defense/special teams. Let’s start with a preview of each position before I bring up the main point.
To me, the quarterback’s spot is the most interesting. Of the three positions I mentioned, the quarterback will easily outscore them pretty much every week, right? Well, not quite. For the example I’m about to give, I’ll use ESPN’s standard scoring. In 2021, Baker Mayfield was the QB26, notching about 181 fantasy points on the year, while Daniel Jones was QB27 who scored just under 168.
Daniel Carlson and Nick Folk, the league’s top kickers from last season, both scored within that range. In turn, this would mean that if the two kickers were under the quarterback’s category, Carlson would be QB27, and Folk QB28, placing them ahead of the likes of Sam Darnold, Davis Mills, and Justin Fields.
In fact, 19 kickers scored better than the league’s 32nd-ranked QB last season. Nevertheless, this is because of injuries or midseason QB changes, so quarterbacks should still be valued more than kickers due to their much higher upside, but it still is something interesting to note.
In terms of the D/STs, I’ll save you some time. They don’t compete with the other two. The value of D/STs still skyrockets in a 32-team format but should be valued a bit less than kickers because of their lower total points scored and increased chance of scoring negative points.
The main reason why I bring this up is, you guessed it, exactly 32 starters at each position (one for each team), meaning that in theory, if someone is cruel enough to take two D/STs in the draft, there will be a team in the league who does not have a D/ST.
The idea of figuring out how the beginning of the draft would sort out because of this is my favorite part of the 32-team theory. When I first realized the scarcity of these positions, especially the quarterback, one name immediately flashed through my mind. Taysom Hill. I’ll touch up some more on that later.
According to what we figured out earlier, the smart way to approach a draft would not be to draft the likes of Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, or Cooper Kupp early on, but rather to take the top QBs to ensure you have the position filled.
Following the quarterbacks and maybe a few elite FLEX players, one must assume that kickers would begin to come off the board in the second round, followed by D/STs after the top 50% of kickers are off the board. Although it sounds silly, kickers and D/STs coming off early isn’t such a bad idea considering that being disadvantaged by 8 points every week could result in some devastating losses.
One final thing on these three positions, which you probably already thought of. With only 32 players at each position for every given week, bye weeks would create an issue, but an issue that I believe makes the 32-team theory even more interesting. This is partially where a Taysom Hill-type player would come in, as they could put up points as a QB without being a starter.
If I were in such a league, my goal would be to align the bye weeks of my QB, K and D/ST to be the same week, so I suffer the loss in one week as opposed to being disadvantaged in multiple weeks. The possibility of aligning the bye weeks however would not be nearly as important with a bottom 5 QB, as the amount of PPG lost would be lower.
The ideal draft spot
Normally, fantasy managers would rejoice with a top 5 pick in their draft, but the idea of picking first overall, and then letting 63 players be taken before your next pick (because of the snake) is really scary.
However, quarterbacks are easily the most valuable position in a 32-team league so getting a good one is more than ideal. When looking at a list of the top projected QBs in 2022, which by the way is a particularly deep QB class, there is a significant dropoff around the QB12 area. Therefore, you would probably want to pick somewhere in the 10-15 region.
Another interesting idea is if multiple people skip on quarterbacks by pick 20, teams could start taking two QBs and have immense trade value, although they would be set back in other exclusive position groups.
Here are some different scenarios based on different pick slots.
- Pick 1: If you don’t take your highest-ranked QB here, you most likely will not have a starting quarterback on your roster because of every other team in the league getting to pick twice before your next selection.
- Picks 2-12: These are also places where QB selections are absolutely necessary. With at most 62 picks between each of your selections, you cannot bet on any one player being available at that time, because, in a 32-team league, anything can happen.
- Picks 13-16: This is the prime time to take a QB. You aren’t too far away from your next pick, and you also are still able to take a solid QB before the position’s dropoff.
- Picks 17-20: This is the stage where taking a quarterback is highly recommended, but not 100% necessary. If the top FLEX players available could score more than the best available quarterbacks, you might want to take them. Kickers should be considered with your next pick based on whether you took a QB in round one or whether QBs are still available.
- Picks 21-31: At this point, all of the consistent QBs are off the board, and choices need to be made. There’s a decent chance a quarterback is on the board by your next pick, and some of the W/R/T players available might score higher than the available QBs on a weekly basis. If that’s the case, you might want to go FLEX here, and Quarterback next. However, going with a FLEX in this round means you’ll need to pray that Kickers and D/STs remain on the board by your next few picks.
- Pick 32: The 32nd pick is one of the most interesting because there are many possibilities of things you can do. You can take two elite FLEX players, or take two quarterbacks and have immense trade value if another guy goes down, or go QB and also take the best kicker or FLEX available. At the end of the day, this pick sets the tone for the rest of the draft because this team would be the first to make its second selection, meaning that it’s also a fairly risky spot.
Obviously, this is mostly preference on where you would like to pick, but to me, the best spots would be either pick 14 or pick 28. The worst spots would be pick 2 and pick 17.
Backups and handcuffs
In a 32-team league, not everyone on your roster will be an everyday starter in the NFL. The value of backups would be very high, especially for the running back position, as well as some special cases for quarterbacks.
For the running backs, I would expect pretty much every single second string to be starting, let alone rostered. The majority of 3rd strings would be rostered as well, with a mix-in of fullbacks. There won’t be a lot of fantasy depth at the position, so stacking up on 2nd string guys could prove to be the league winner. Not only does it provide a strong backup plan in case of injury while providing you with deep options, but it also brings a lot of trade value to the table if another team is struck by the injury bug. Outside of the elite running backs, the RB handcuffs must be considered one of the most valuable groups in the league.
To use the 2018 Le’Veon Bell-James Conner situation as an example, Conner, who at the time had never started an NFL game before but was listed as his team’s RB2, was named the starting running back due to Bell’s holdout. Out of nowhere, Conner owners rejoiced as he burst onto the scene with a Pro Bowl season, reaching almost 1,500 total yards in just twelve games. Yes, fantasy drafts were still going on when Conner’s starting was announced, but the point is that all it takes is one injury and a backup running back can thrive.
Drafting the backups to injury-prone elite running backs would be the key to success in this type of league. This doesn’t only go for running backs too. Any player who is either injury-prone or is dealing with another issue that could result in them missing time has one of the most valuable backups in a 32-team fantasy league by default.
As for the quarterbacks, there are two cases that I would consider exceptions to the 32-team, 32-starter case. The first should be fairly obvious, which is when a rookie QB starts the season on the bench as they learn from a veteran leading the way.
As an example for this case, we could use the 2019 circumstances of Eli Manning and Daniel Jones. Jones was drafted sixth overall by the Giants to be the successor to Manning, who was the starter for the 2019 season. Everyone knew that there was a good chance that Jones would take over for Manning at some point that season, but the real question was when that would happen. The context for this in fantasy is that the backup quarterback would be of value because of their eventual starting role, and could technically be considered an additional starter for that season.
The second case I would consider an exception is what, or rather who, I mentioned before– Taysom Hill. Hill is known throughout the NFL as what some would call a “fake quarterback”. Able to play both tight end and quarterback, Hill’s versatility could prove useful in such a league. Hill is often used in trick plays and is sometimes the backup quarterback for New Orleans. I’m not quite sure how exactly Hill would be used, but I’m sure some way would prove useful in a 32-team league, as I think there would be more than a “33rd QB” role in store for him.
The waiver wire
It’s a well-known fantasy football idea that seasons are won on the waiver wire. However, in a 32-team league with 480 players already rostered, that’s just not true.
In a normal league, the waiver wire is where you can find breakout stars and FLEX players, along with some streamer options. In a 32-team league, all of those things would only be found on the trade block. To win such a league, a manager would need to outsmart their opponents via the trade, and truly internalize the idea of “no risk it, no biscuit”.
One must expect that during the season the waiver wire would be relatively quiet with the exception of some injury moves. While waivers are practically irrelevant, trade buzz would be loud, as a league full of active managers would be aggressive with their offers.
Because of the weak waiver wire, significantly more pre-draft scouting on depth players would be needed. Breakout players would need to be traded for, in addition to injury replacements and even streamer options. And oh boy, the thought of a trade deadline day sure does get me excited.
Final thoughts
The 32-team league idea is already one of much depth and strategizing needed. Now, what if this were a dynasty league? I’m not gonna go into that now, as that deserves an article on its own, but if I were to do a 32-team league, I would definitely want it to be a dynasty league. It could have expanded benches (maybe a multi-day draft as well) and could also be publicized across social media platforms.
Some might see that idea and tell me to just go play Madden Franchise mode, but that has a completely different feel to it, and let’s be honest, Madden isn’t as good as it used to be. Either way, a dynasty league so large could be living the dream to many, as you get a real chance to feel like a GM, but with 32 of your friends.
This theory came to mind when I was originally thinking of starting a league like this just a few weeks ago but was not able to get it organized well enough. If anyone reads this article and is thinking of starting a 32-team league, please let me know. I’d love to hear how the experiment plays out.
If you made it this far in the article, thank you, as this article took me by far the longest to write of any before, and with that, it becomes the longest to read as well. I hope a league like this could be done soon, not just because it would be an interesting experiment, but because I believe it could bring a new era of fantasy football. After all, the idea isn’t that unrealistic. All it would take is 32 committed teams, and one, smart commissioner.
