Get to Know Your Fantasy Football Formats: One and Done

The fantasy football industry is always looking for unique formats and scoring settings to add wrinkles to the leagues. One such league format is One & Done. The concept behind the league format is a twist on DFS with a season-long perspective. In this article, let’s review the One & Done format and what makes it a fun league.

Origin Story

This league format is the reason I joined Twitter and found myself signing as an author for The League Winners. In my home league, a friend and I were trying to place a side bet but were shot down by the commissioner. The bet was that I would make the playoffs by changing my TE, PK, and DEF every week.

The next year he and I started what we called the Player Pick’em League where we tracked selections in Excel. We would score, track, and manage everything manually. I thought this could be a huge niche and wanted to make an app. Dreams of multi-millions fueled my inspiration. Then I joined Twitter only to find others who have already created these types of leagues. However, I got hooked on the fantasy football community and met some great folks within the industry.

The One & Done League Format

So what are One & Done leagues exactly? In this league, you set up a weekly roster of the size set per league. Say the roster is 1QB, 1RB, 1WR, 1TE, 1Flex, 1SF, 1PK and 1DEF. Every manager in the league has access to all the players prior to Week 1. Once the Week 1 rosters are set and games played, the fantasy football players are then removed from the pool of whichever manager selected them in Week 1.

So let’s say you picked Justin Fields in Week 1 as your QB. You no longer can choose Fields for the rest of the season. This is true even for the flex spot.

Each week the roster gets points, and the highest total points by the end of the season is the champion. Each league can be customized to add prizes for the top percentage of high scores at the end of the season. The league could also reward weekly high scores as well to keep everyone engaged. Check out this video I made to promote my own personal One & Done tournament. Also if you would like to play, come play the #BabyBowl.

The Appeal

The reason One & Done is my favorite format is it makes you a better football fan. You learn more about how a particular offense will succeed or struggle against another. Understanding the weakness of a defense helps one play players in boom weeks. If the Baltimore Ravens‘ slot DB struggles against slot receivers on third downs, someone like Cooper Kupp would have a boom week against them. Identifying these patterns helps playing in other fantasy football formats. Sunday football games have more appeal since now you understand the plays a bit better.