Fantasy Football 2018: 3 Reasons to Try Best Ball This Weekend

Getty Best Ball leagues are the first fantasy football contests of the season.

ESPN has started running ads for fantasy football, and to me at least, that’s the official sign that fantasy season has arrived.

Or it could be that training camps open on Monday. Either one.

Regardless, we’re slowly reaching the point in the calendar when it’s socially acceptable to start talking fantasy football. On places like Twitter the conversation hasn’t stopped, as dynasty leagues and draft analysts have been working since the end of February to prepare for the upcoming season.

What about you? Have you begun your preparing for 2018? Do you know who the new coach of the Bears is? Do you know where DeMarco Murray signed? The answers, respectively, are former Chiefs OC Matt Nagy and nowhere, because DeMarco Murray retired last week.

The point is, there’s a lot of information needed to soak in to become an effective fantasy player. That’s where a format like Best Ball becomes a great way to get acclimated to the 2018 season.

What is Best Ball?

I thought you’d never ask! Best Ball is a format of fantasy football in which you don’t submit rosters, make trades, or add and drop players to your roster. You simply draft, and every week your best possible lineup is selected and scored.

There are multiple places to try Best Ball, and they all follow pretty much the same format. If you’re still on the fence, here are a few reasons that make Best Ball worth the investment.

Quickly Get Back Into The Fantasy Mindset

It can be tough for the average fantasy player to keep track of all the changes headed into 2018. Free agency, coaching changes, players recovering from injuries, and players starting the season on suspension are just a few of the things to track heading into the new season.

Best Ball gives you a hard look at the league before your season really starts, giving you a bit of experience before your friends or co-workers. Because in the end, that’s where the best fantasy experiences come from- beating down people you see in your everyday life and taking their money.

It’s a Way to Practice Draft Early

This. This is the best reason for spending a few bucks in Best Ball leagues.

No matter how many ESPN mock drafts you fire up, you’ll never get a realistic draft experience in a mock setting. Best Ball is for real stakes, and that means every entrant is taking this draft seriously. That makes Best Ball a low-cost option at seeing how fantasy drafts will shake out this year.

Wondering how late you can take a rookie like Rashaad Penny? Fantasy Pros has him as RB23 in Best Ball format.

The only downside is that in Best Ball, the format allows for more risk-taking in picks. Boom-or-bust players are more likely to be taken in Best Ball, and that can slightly throw off your draft. But in an 18 round draft, you’ll more or less get a picture of how things could shake out this year.

There Are High-Stakes Options

So you’ve had a few Best Ball drafts under your belt, and you’re feeling confident about your rankings in 2018. Why not make things more interesting?

At the Draft app, there’s currently a Million Dollar Best Ball tournament gearing up for the season. It’s a $25 entry fee, and after 12 weeks the entrants will advance to three one-week playoffs. If you finish in the top three each of the next three weeks, the top 60 will compete in Week 16 for a $100,000 top prize.

It might sound daunting, but remember- it’s set it and forget it. Draft a team, take some risks, and you could end up with a giant check in December without ever facing a lineup question.