Innovation comes slowly to fantasy football. Since I started playing, the two major, industry-wide additions to the standard format are PPR and Superflex. It’s not hard to find TE-premium scoring, and your league might employ a point-per-first-down element, penalize incompletions, or dozens of other small scoring tweaks. But you’re still playing the same essential game. Franchise League Football aims to change that.
The Origin Story
Decades ago, a group of friends from MIT — including some of the card counters of Bringing Down the House and 21 fame — started a fantasy football league. They called it League of Minerva, a nod to the Greek goddess of wisdom. LoM evolved over the years as these self-described fantasy addicts craved more strategy and harder decisions in their game. They were guided by two key principles: does it more closely simulate the NFL, and is it more fun to play?
The 12-plus members of LoM (several teams are co-managed) have long believed that everyone should play their style of fantasy football, and discussions about the game with friends and family confirmed that belief. Finally, in late 2024, they were in a position to build it for the masses. When I heard about the game, I was immediately and fully invested in helping make it a reality. Partnering with tech innovator Scope Labs, we’ve done just that.
Franchise League Football (FLF) is a contract-based keeper league that brings you the most realistic NFL General Manager (GM) experience you’ll find. Let me introduce you to the game and some of its key strategic differentiators. As a trained and practicing neuroscientist, I know that the decisions that this game forces us to make are fraught with potential bias and lasting implications. Throughout the off-season, I’m partnering with RotoViz to provide context and clarity, as well as strategic advice based on RotoViz’s suite of advanced tools, to help you navigate FLF successfully.
What Makes Franchise League Football Different?
When you join FLF and fill your league, you are essentially buying a fantasy franchise in the form of a seasoned roster of 14 players with various contracts. This alone is a novelty in the fantasy industry. No snake draft! No ADP! But also, a mix of amazing deals and cumbersome contracts for you to sort through, because you must keep between six and nine of those initial players you got. Each GM has to be under a $100 million salary cap at the start of the season, making the off-season much more interesting and challenging than simply selecting players based on rank and projections for the upcoming season.
The LoM has found that their format leads to more trades and more member interaction throughout the year than any other fantasy league they participate in. Based on our early adopters’ feedback, this is also the case with FLF. Before making your final keep/drop decisions, trade at will. Player contracts remain the same before/after being traded. You only have to be under the salary cap to start the regular season, so use this summer to craft the foundation you will build into a future dynasty. This is also the time to make contract extension decisions. Players on expiring contracts (a regular contract is three years) may be extended up to five years, but at an additional cost per year. You decide who’s worth it and for how long.
The Pre-Season Auction
In August, your league will hold its main pre-season auction, where restricted free agents (RFA) and free agents (FA, any players not on rosters once the keep/drop deadline passes) are bid upon. This is where the salary cap matters; the minimum contract is $2 million, so you must be savvy to fill your empty roster spots without going over the $100 million cap. LoM managers have found that it really pays to know what positions the other franchises need/want heading into the auction, so we have a two-day “study period” between the keep/drop deadline and the auction start time. Use it wisely!
This fantasy format closely parallels the real NFL GM experience. Unlike a traditional dynasty league, you have a lot of flexibility in rebuilding your franchise year over year. There are always interesting players becoming free agents, and the mandate to drop at least five players each summer ensures each franchise has the opportunity to capitalize on the open market. Think about a high-salaried player dropped after a bad year who will likely be dropped (Tyreek Hill, Christian McCaffrey, etc.). Unlike in a standard redraft league, you are rewarded for your good team management, keeping your best players year after year. And you’re not at the mercy of your draft position. The salary cap is yours to spend however you see fit.
The College Draft
One of the coolest features of FLF doesn’t exactly align with NFL regulations, but does add more fun to the game. After your main auction, you’ll be able to draft a current college player to your reserve roster. If you choose wisely, you could be heading into 2026 with the next Omarion Hampton or Ashton Jeanty on a minimum salary contract for three years ($2 million in Year 1, $4 million in Year 2, and $6 million in Year 3). If you choose a dud, you can drop the college reserve player at any time, no penalty. For those who like to speculate,[1] this element of FLF can be a real difference maker in franchise building.
An Exciting Option for Sharp Players
We’re building the app in real time and welcome early-adopter feedback on Discord, socials, or via email (renee@franchiseleaguefootball.com). Ordinarily, it costs $10 to buy your franchise at FLF, but you can take advantage of our special offer to RotoViz readers and listeners to get 50% off using code RV50. That’s just $5 per franchise for a full year of intense fantasy fun. Join us today and check back for more in-depth analysis of our starting rosters soon! In future articles, I’ll analyze a real pre-season auction and talk through some winning strategies and tactics.
Footnotes
| ↑1 | And who among us doesn’t? |
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