A cure for lockout blues

With the NFL lockout presumably bumming everyone out, it's refreshing to see certain things carry-on as planned. "Yahoo Fantasy Football is open for sign-ups" was found in my in-box today. Exciting! I plan to reinstate my league this evening. Let's stay optimistic. Believe that, this fall, we will be playing fantasy football and not fantasizing about football.

It's game time!

Every year I'm excited for the new features in Yahoo FF. It seems they always add about a dozen new things. Many end up being quite useful. Like they were reading my mind. Here are some this season's new features that caught my eye.

New Live Auction Draft App
Draft your team by bidding on players with a fixed auction budget
Stay organized and nominate wisely with our Roster Grid
Use commissioner controls to pause the draft and undo picks

I do a standard draft but I'm really interested in trying out the auction method. It seems more intuitive. For more info on Yahoo's Live Auction App go to:
What is the difference between a Standard and Auction live draft?

Android App
Set your roster from your Android device
Get real-time fantasy score updates
Add and drop players

Updated iPhone App, iPad (coming soon)
Set your roster from your iPhone
Get real-time fantasy score updates
Add and drop players

Every year the mobile fantasy apps get more capabilities, which makes me think, "I need to join the 21st century and get a phone with internet access."

New Scoring Categories
Award bonuses for long passing, reception, rush plays and touchdowns
Penalize quaterbacks for pick sixes thrown
Add defensive stats for yards allowed, 4th down stops, tackles for loss, 3 and outs, and more!

I pretty much have a lock on the scoring system for my league but if I were to make changes, it would be to spice up the defensive teams scoring a bit.

Franchises
Invite league members to manage their teams from last year
Invite new managers to run one of last year's teams
Finalize your league's team list for easier draft and keeper management

With this new capability, allowing one or two keeper players may end-up being a reality.

Upgraded Message Boards
View messages by topic, upload images, format text, and post unlimited messages

Cool.

Transfer Team Ownership
Change the manager of a team so that teams can continue to be actively managed throughout the season

Where has this been?

Configurable Draft Pick Times
Change the time allowed per draft pick to speed up or slow down your live draft

Finally! This one is very necessary.

I can't wait to get started!

Yahoo Sports Fantasy Football
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