This is the League of Leagues, the triathlon of fantasy sports. It’s not enough to be good at just one fantasy sport, or even two. You’ve got to run the gauntlet; to be crowned champion of the League of Leagues is to dominate in three sports. And we aren’t talking three separate leagues either, no, this is one gigantic combo league. Ever wanted to trade Mike Trout for LeBron James? Now you can do that. On Tuesday, February 25th, we’ll be kicking off our inaugural Pitcher List League of Leagues draft, and I fully expect the first round to not just include Trout and Ronald Acuna Jr., but also Giannis Antetokounmpo, Christian McCaffrey, and a slew of other studs from all three major sports (apologies to the NHL, but we felt three sports was already crazy enough).
How Does the League of Leagues Work?
The League of Leagues is a 12 team league, encompassing three major American professional sports. We will have three fantasy leagues, one for baseball, one for basketball, and one for football, and how you perform in each sport will be aggregated into one final score that will determine who is the overall winner.
Say you finish in first place in baseball, 3rd place in basketball, and second-to-last in football. You will earn 12 points for baseball, 10 points for basketball, and 2 points for football, accumulating a total of 24 points, and that final point total will determine how you finish in the overall standings. The more points you have, the higher you’ll rank. Due to the absolute marathon of a league this is, each team will be co-owned, as a 12-month, 3-league commitment is quite the tall task for even the best of us.
All three leagues will be Head-to-Head leagues, so the playoff results will determine the number of points each team receives. So regardless of what place you finish in during the regular season, if you make the playoffs and win the championship, you’ll earn the maximum points for that sport. Similarly, if you lose out in the consolation bracket, even if you were the highest-seeded team coming into it, you’ll earn the minimum points. Gotta perform when it counts!
We’ll be drafting for all three sports at the same time, starting on February 25th and probably encompassing a few weeks of March. Since we’ll be using the standard Yahoo rosters (23 players for baseball, 15 for football, 13 for basketball), we will end up drafting a total of 51 players for each team, good for a total of 612 players total. We’ll also hold a two-round supplemental draft in early August that will be comprised of the NFL and NBA rookies that haven’t even been drafted by their professional teams yet.
Where you draft in the supplemental draft will be determined during the start-up draft, as you’ll draft your spot in the supplemental draft. What that means is, your 10th round pick could be you drafting your slot in the supplemental draft, as opposed to picking an actual player. You could even pick your two slots before anyone else does, ensuring you get the top two rookies come August. It’s entirely up to each team how they want to approach this.
Why On Earth Are You Doing This?
That is an excellent question that I ask myself every day, especially since I started trying to do my rankings. You think it’s hard to figure out where to start ranking starting pitchers? How about where to rank running backs against point guards against pitchers? Or what about tight ends and catchers? Kickers, closers, and three-point specialists? It’s incredibly daunting and every time I start I can barely get through a few rankings before I have to consider the absurdity of what I’m doing. I mean, how would you rank Luka Doncic, Ronald Acuna Jr., and Michael Thomas?
For me, this is a true test of how well I know these sports. This is the ultimate gauntlet. I grew up a huge fan of all three sports and have played fantasy for all three for over a decade now. But how well can I prioritize and stack up these different sports against each other? What is the trade value when trading across sports?
Social Media Manager Mary Ankenbrueck: “I think it’s a very unique challenge that highlights our tremendous dedication to fantasy… and hopefully an opportunity to assert total dominance as well.”
PL Writer Alex Clark: “I’ve been champion of fantasy baseball, basketball, and football, but never all at the same time. This league gives me a chance to be the champion of all.”
PL+ Member Ryan Jordan: “My family, friends, and girlfriend staged an intervention. They said I have a problem and that I can’t join any more fantasy baseball leagues. I figure a three-sport league is totally different, right?”
PL Writer Ben Brown: “Working with a co-owner will present a unique challenge that I’ve never dealt with before. The League of Leagues could probably be managed by 12 individual owners but it does require an extensive amount of knowledge for 3 sports and that’s not something everyone has. Every league usually has a few strong owners and a few owners who aren’t really always paying attention – this league, with 24 owners for 12 teams, will be especially challenging because of how many incredibly smart brains will be involved 24/7 for 12+ months.”
QB List Manager Mike Miklius: “I’ve purchased an 18,000 piece jigsaw puzzle, eaten 63 Wendy’s chicken nuggets in one sitting to break the non-steroid home run record, and I’ve run an Ironman triathlon. This league felt like the next logical step in my life.”
PL Writer Paul Brendel: “Why did I join the League of Leagues? It seemed like the natural next step in my progression from reality to fantasy. Or, on a more serious note, I think this kind of league plays well for me because I tend to focus more on macro decisions (e.g. evaluating player tiers) as opposed to more micro-decisions (e.g. is Trout better than Yelich?). This brings the macro-level strategy to a whole new level.”
PL Writer Darrin Ambrose: “I became tired of winning only once per fantasy league… the League of Leagues will allow me to realize a 300% increase in my winnings!”
This is Certifiably Insane. Where do I Watch the Draft Madness?
We’ll be streaming over at www.twitch.tv/pitcherlist LIVE on Tuesday, February 25th, from 7PM to 10PM EST. You’re not going to want to miss this, I mean, just think of all the heckling and judgment you can pass in the comments. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tell someone they screwed up by drafting their quarterback when they could have been getting their point guard! We hope to see you on the stream!
Featured Image by Justin Paradis (@FreshMeatComm on Twitter)