Local revolution in fantasy football – The Sun Times News

By Trevor Sullivan

Todd Bailey, a local from Ann Arbor and Dexter, has created a fantasy football experience unlike any other. After starting to play in the 1980s, he grew bored with the standard structure, leading him to take matters into his own hands in 2018 and found the Extreme Fantasy Football League, or EFFL.

A competition for everyone

Within the EFFL there are four different competition structures:

1. Private
   • Structure: Privately established for friends, open to unlimited number of members
   • Cost: $100 fee to set up a league, $25 for each team
   • Top 4 teams receive payout
2. Sponsored
   • Structure: Choose 1 of 5 sponsored competitions with a maximum of 32 teams
   • Cost: $25 per team
   • Top 4 teams receive payout
3. Platinum
   • Structure: Single competition, unlimited number of teams
   • Cost: $100 per team
   • Top 4 teams receive payout
4. Elite
   • Structure: Requires qualification to become a member
   • The winner takes it all
   • Cost: $250 entrance fee

Unique gameplay mechanics

One of the biggest differences the EFFL has compared to other fantasy football programs is that there is no draft: instead, members can select a team each week everyone to play in their team. However, they can only select each player once per half season (9 weeks), which adds new strategies to the game.

This allows EFFL members to have overlapping players, eliminating the disappointment of not being able to use a player you want. “It requires the ability to make your decisions even more independent of what (other league members) are doing,” Todd says.

The season is divided into two halves of 9 weeks, with the top 2 members from each half going to the play-offs. If there are more than 50 teams in a league, the play-offs are expanded to a total of 8 members. If you finish in the top 2 in both Before half of the season, you will receive a full refund of your registration fee.

“You have the ability in our league to have a two-person, head-to-head dual for 18 weeks,” Bailey said. “You can also have thousands, tens of thousands of people that can play in a given league, not just the 12, 13, 14 that you would have in your normal league.”

All leagues have a 2 week full refund if members are unhappy. Members can even join a league for the second half of a season.

Extreme exchange

In addition to the leagues, Bailey created the Extreme Exchange, a stock-market-inspired platform where members act as a team’s general manager. For a $50 fee, members get $1,000 in wallet money, which they can spend however they want. “If you want to buy (Christian) MccAffrey and spend ⅕ of your budget, you can do that. Or you can take that money and spread it out to any player you want.”

As the season progresses, the player’s value will fluctuate based on real-world performance, allowing members to buy and sell players as they see fit. Bailey also says, “There are no restrictions on who you have to have. You don’t have to have a quarterback or a receiver.”

Register for EFFL today

For more information or to register, visit their website at extremeffl.com where you can use promo code “EFFL2024” for 20% off one league. You can find them on all social media by searching for ExtremeFFL or Extreme Fantasy Football League.