I've played season long fantasy football with friends, but this is my first time doing public paid leagues of any kind, so there are some distinct differences. I'm managing nine teams (my previous high in a year was two) in 10-man leagues for $20 USD buy ins.

I'm just curious about other people's experiences in these leagues and see if there are any red flags to avoid going forward. I'll just share some of my findings during the first few weeks of this year.

1. There was already a collusion issue where two managers seem to have been banned/removed from the league for a trade that screamed collusion.

Team A was attempting to trade away:
-Nick Chubb
-Russ Wilson
-Tyler Lockett
-Hunter Renfrow

Team B was attempting to trade away:
-Melvin Gordon
-Allen Lazard
-Robby Anderson
-Brandon Aiyuk
-Bryan Edwards

Just curious how often collusion issues occur, and if this is common in public leagues.

As far as customer service in these leagues, Yahoo did veto the collusion trade that was protested. They renamed and took over the two involved teams, and those two teams have not made a transaction or lineup move ever since. I think that is great, but what is lacking is communication. Yahoo did not send an email or post a message telling the rest of the league what their findings were or what happened. Not the best customer service move in my opinion.

There was also another trade where a guy gave up Derrick Henry for DJ Moore and Clyde Edwards-Helaire. It was not ruled as collusion, but it really looked like either a player dump or one guy totally took advantage of another guy in a trade. Either way, the guy with Henry has a dominant lineup, which locks him in for one of the four playoff spots. If these types of trades are common, that would definitely deter me from these leagues.

2. I've noticed there are some teams that are pretty casual managers at the $20 level, but I have also noticed that some managers are managing 20-40 teams. It seems to be a mix of different skill levels. I am just curious about what the competition would be like at the $50 USD level. Would it be full of more serious players, or would it be the same where there is a mix of newbs/casuals as well as serious players?

3. If I am not satisfied with how this season plays out just based on a number of factors, are there any other good public sites to play season long fantasy for money? I am guessing Yahoo has to be one of the most popular since most of the people I know use it for fantasy football. I think maybe sites like Draft Kings or Fan Duel have season long as well, but I get the vibe those sites would draw in more serious players who use modelling tools. I'm not looking to play those types of players myself. I tried daily fantasy a few years ago, even at the lowest stakes levels, and I found that I was losing consistenly. Too many sharks in the daily game IMO.

Hey guys, gonna be doing my second season of NFL fantasy football on Yahoo public leagues this year. Last year I had 9 teams going. This year, I will scale back a bit and either have 5 or 7 teams. Anyone else play on Yahoo public leagues? I will do a mix of $20 and $50 buy ins most likely.

I don't see why these leagues wouldn't just ban trades, maybe too many people would object to it but like 97.4% of problems that arise from these leagues are out the window if you ban trades.

Completely agree that most problems arise from shady trades. But I'm guessing Yahoo feels like that would take away a big part of the fantasy experience.

I think one good solution would be if they offer that as an option, to join a league with trades vs leagues without trades.