Format: Teams and Roster Size
Many commissioners do not give this decision enough thought. Too few teams and you will find that each team is easily able to fill a roster with producing players. Too many teams and the talent pool may not be rich enough to provide for a quality starting lineup.
A quality team/roster balance will work wonders for your dynasty format. The ultimate goal here is to provide enough teams, with enough players on each team, to accomplish the following:
• Start a quality lineup each week
• Ability to have depth at each position
• Ability to have a number of developmental players on each roster
• A somewhat talent-poor waiver wire. Valued players should be rostered
In most formats, we recommend at least three hundred rostered players. The reason for this is three fold:
Firstly, this number of players per team allows for some real customization by each coach towards developing his/her dynasty. While a coach will need to field a team each week, with proper depth to handle injury/bye weeks, they also need enough roster spots to keep the developmental players that may not see the field for a few years.
Secondly, this number finds a vast majority of players (in most systems) on a team roster, as opposed to existing on the waiver wire. Every league has those coaches that do not manage their rosters well and are endlessly cycling players to and from the waiver wire. In a dynasty league, this is against the design. You want all quality players to exist on a roster to avoid this very thing. A coach should live and die by the draft and waiver wire research that they have done. A coach should not be able to bail themselves out on a weekly basis for bad roster management.
Lastly, proper roster sizes increase what most all of us find as the most enjoyable aspect of the game, day-in day-out, and that is . trading. By having rosters talent-rich, and the waiver wire talent-poor, you create an incentive for trading. Note that talent-rich could mean future value of a player that is currently riding the pine. It is all about perception and possibility.