I'm brand new to the game and rather than joining a private league that has been playing together for several seasons, I'm looking to join a new Public League.  It doesn't appear that there are any available?  Is that normal?  How often do new public leagues form or are they all private leagues?  

New leauges are very rarely formed.  I'd love to join one too, but I've only seen one new world created in the year and half I've been here.  Someone correct that stat, if wrong.

I think you'd enjoy a private world as a new owner - perhaps more than a number of the public worlds.  Check out the classifieds and sitemail one of the commissioners of the worlds posted for more info.

Agree with opie.

A touch dated, but a good resource in terms of the quality of worlds

http://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?TopicID=372570&ThreadID=7362305#l_7362305

I'm pretty sure that 3 new worlds have opened recently much to the dismay of the world's that had openings to fill. There has been a serious slow down on admin allowing new worlds to be created and they generally make the commish jump through some hoops to do it. I've been playing for 3 plus years now and haven't seen a new public world started in that time and with Fox taking over the site I'd be surprised if another ever did.