The easiest way to ensure that you have almost no shot of winning your fantasy football league is to go into the season not understanding the scoring system that your league has chosen to employ. This is especially true for beginners, particularly beginners who have been invited into long established leagues. If you're joining a league that has been around for years you're probably not going to have any say in the scoring system, and should never assume that they use any of the "normal" systems described below. So do your homework, or find yourself left behind.

Standard Scoring

If you're reading this because you took the advice I gave in the post, Where To Play Fantasy Football, and found some friends to start a league with, I'm going to recommend that you use the Standard Scoring System. I doing this for a few reasons.

1. When you create a new league on any the sites that I mentioned, the scoring system already configured in their system is the Standard Scoring System. No need for you to do anything to set it up.

2. Before and during the season, you will be scouring hundreds of websites, popcasts and magazines trying to find the list of players that you'd like to draft, trade for, or pick up on waivers and most of these sources are going to rank players according to how they would perform in a Standard Scoring System.

3. It is easy to understand and well documented. This system is used by the vast majority of people who play fantasy and therefore is likely to be familiar to those in your league who have played before. And because it is so well documented, there should be no confusion amongst the members of your league.

Here is a link to the ESPN page that describes the scoring numbers associates with this system. http://sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/football/ffl/story?page=fflrulesstandardsco...

Point Per Reception (PPR)

Point Per Reception leagues have grown extremely popular over the past few years. The premise is simple; In addition to rewarding points based upon the yardage a player accumulates, players are also awarded a point (or half point) for each time they catch the ball. Doing this can help level the playing field between the points scored by running backs (who touch the ball many more times during a game than wide receivers) and wide receivers and tight ends.

Playing in this type of league can be a lot of fun, but be warned it vastly changes the fantasy value of players, and can require a deeper knowledge of various teams' depth charts. That being said, it is the scoring system I greatly prefer due to the parity it can great.

Touchdown Only

This one is pretty self explanatory. Points are only awarded to players who throw, run, or catch a touchdown.  These leagues are rare and in my opinion force their participants to rely to much on luck.  And if you're playing for money, who wants to involve luck?

Well that's it for now. Hopefully by this point you're considering making the plunge into the entertaining world of fantasy football. If so, keep checking back as I have lots of advice to help you get to the top of your league.