IMO, the most important factor in this contest is player selection, not roster size.
Part of player selection is going with studs vs. no studs. IMO, that's the more relevant discussion than roster size.Assuming that the #1 player at each skill position is considered a "stud," here are the ownership survival rates for teams with each of those top studs:Survival Rate Overall Contest Survival RateAaron Rodgers:Still Alive 2152 72.31 65.24Chris Johnson:Still Alive 1282 69.33 65.24Andre Johnson:Still Alive 1994 69.82 65.24Antonio Gates:Still Alive 388 82.55 65.24All 4 combined:Still Alive 38 88.37 65.24So for each top player, the survival rate is higher than the overall rate, and highest when you combine all 4, even though the rosters with these players are likely shorter, and shorter rosters have a lower than average survival rate. Taking out the crappy rosters without any depth at all, these survival rates would be even higher.A larger % of teams with these players will get eliminated during their bye weeks (though I have 3 of these guys, and have used none of them every week), and of course if they get injured and miss time, but if they can survive until the finals, they likely will be able to outscore teams without studs, if weeks 14-16 are like weeks 1-3. Considering that only Gates has performed as the #1 at his position so far, there's also lots of upside for these studs.I think this type of analysis is much more effective in determining if a stud/smaller roster strategy is viable than just lumping all the smaller rosters together.