A survival league is where each week managers pick a team to win over another team. Straight up. Once you pick that team, you can't pick it ever again. If you pick wrong, you're out for good. Most picks at the end of the season wins.
A pick-em league is picking teams based upon the spread. Every week the over under is listed for the odds of which team will win, and you just pick which team will cover the spread.
The spread league would look something like this:
Dallas Cowboys -2.5 @ New York Giants +2.5
This means that the Cowboys are a 2.5 favourite to win. The Giants would be considered underdogs. So if you think that the Cowboys would win the game by more than 2.5 points you pick them. If you think that the Giants will lose the game by 2.5 points or less, or just win the game outright, pick the giants.
I'm a big fan of pick-em leagues, it's a lot of fun when some team kicks a meaningless field goal at the end of game to cover a spread.
Also, I'd rather it was free, I'm in 3 other leagues right now and spending more money than I would like to on fantasy football.
I made the pick-em league already. It's on yahoo. My team name is Pickachu.
Group Name: tlfree
Passowrd: tlfree