2025 Fantasy Football: NFFC Gladiator

Tonight. I’m drafting an NFFC Gladiator team via a live stream with Greg Ambrosius. It’s my first venture into that contest, so I conducted some research and documented some ideas along with their contest rules.

The National Fantasy Football Championship continues to develop season-long fantasy games, with an eye on striking a balance between hardcore waiver wire enthusiasts and casual fans who want to draft and drive their teams.

In today’s fantasy market, BestBall formats require drafters to select multiple roster positions, but the top-scoring players each week filter into their starting lineups. This eliminated the decision-making process, which is highly challenging in season-long contests. In addition, there is no in-season maintenance for the waiver wire.

The NFFC Gladiator Championship is a “best team” draft. Each player selected will score points each week, and their league season lasts 17 weeks. They are 12-team drafts with 14 roster slots to fill. Here’s the lineup structure:

· Quarterback (1)

· Running Backs (2)

· Wide Receivers (3)

· Tight End (1)

· Flex – RB, WR, TE (4)

· Super Flex – QB, RB, WR, TE (1)

· Team Kicker (1)

· Defense/Special Teams (1)

This event utilized KDS (Kentucky Derby Style) and 3RR (Third Round Reversal) for selecting draft slots, which allowed more teams to choose from their desired area of the draft, while offsetting the early imbalance on the 2/3 and 4/5 turns. The back end of the drafts gets some advantages in rounds three, five, and seven, while the early teams regain some value in rounds four, six, and eight. By the end of round 8, most teams will have the core of their rosters.

Again, every player selected will score points each week, and the roster with the most points after 17 weeks wins the league. Here are the league prizes (the entry fee is $50):

· First Place ($200)

· Second Place ($100)

· Third Place (a free entry for the following season)

The goal is to get 2,100 entries or fill 175 leagues. There are an additional 25 overall prizes (listed below) that will be awarded to about 14.3% of the entries if the event sells out. These extra winnings are guaranteed, so the odds could be higher if the NFFC doesn’t reach its projected total of leagues.

· 1st ($7,500)

· 2nd ($1,500)

· 3rd ($1,250)

· 4th ($1,100)

· 5th ($1,050)

· 6th ($1,000)

· 7th ($950)

· 8th ($900)

· 9th ($850)

· 10th ($800)

· 11th ($750)

· 12th ($700)

· 13th ($700)

· 14th ($600)

· 15th ($550)

· 16th ($500)

· 17th ($450)

· 18th ($400)

· 19th ($350)

· 20th ($300)

· 21st ($250)

· 22nd ($200)

· 23rd ($150)

· 24th ($100)

· 25th ($50)

Game Thoughts:

If you win your league, your team has a 1 in 175 chance of winning this event, or approximately 0.057%. No team in second place or lower can win the overall first prize. There will be some leagues where three, possibly four teams, could finish in the top 25. Ultimately, injuries and league strength will dictate the winner.

There should be 28 quarterbacks drafted, given the use of a Super Flex position.

· In 2024, 12 quarterbacks scored between 559.10 and 372.10 fantasy points in NFFC scoring. The only skill player (RB, WR, and TE) to rank in the top 12 in scoring was Ja’Marr Chase (403.00).

· Quarterbacks 13 to 24 had a scoring range between 353.55 and 233.60. For reference, 17 running backs, 16 wide receivers, and three tight ends scored higher than QB24.

Based on previous research in PPR formats, the following are the target ranges for the average 12 players in each position category. (Note: I don’t have data for 2023 and 2024 for these reference points, but I’ve been tracking them since 2012.) Here’s a link to my Target Points Series from 2019 to 2022:

· RB1 (18.22, 16.57, 16.87, and 17.68 fantasy points)

· RB2 (12.65, 11.73, 12.50, and 12.68 fantasy points)

· RB3 (9.66, 9.44, 9.55, and 9.80 fantasy points)

· RB4 (7.42, 7.14, 7.61, and 7.19 fantasy points)

· WR1 (16.78, 17.80, 19.02, and 18.18 fantasy points)

· WR2 (13.99, 14.31, 14.65, and 13.75 fantasy points)

· WR3 (11.87, 12.15, 11.80, and 11.37 fantasy points)

· WR4 (9.80, 10.26, 9.62, and 10.04 fantasy points)

· TE1 (11.57, 11.43, 12.08, 11.08 fantasy points)

· TE2 (6.65, 7.66, 7.93, and 7.37 fantasy points)

· FLEX1 (10.17, 10.49, 10.09, and 10.39 fantasy points)

· FLEX2 (9.29, 9.54, 9.20, and 9.47 fantasy points)

· Kicker (9.23, 9.93, 10.37, and 9.99 fantasy points)

The tracked data for defenses has different scoring from the NFFC. Last year, the top 12 defense scored between 200.00 and 135.00 points in their scoring (191.00 to 149.00 in 2023 and 207.00 to 127.00 in 2022).

Game Improvement Ideas:

The quarterbacks get injured at a high rate, so I would like to see team QBs in this contest. My outside-the-box thinking, due to bye weeks, is that the remaining four team quarterbacks that don’t get drafted should work as a BestBall filler for all teams that have a quarterback on a bye. There is no helping the teams that mistakenly drafted two quarterbacks on the same bye week, but they would still get one QB score when both quarterbacks are on a bye.

Reason: Fixing zeros in starting lineups of fantasy teams should be an issue addressed by game providers. In this case, Team quarterbacks are common in some leagues, so the data should be available to make this type of adjustment.