August 28, 2010

I mean, you should really read this.

This post is intended to be a refresher on the three-year term of the league. Most of you will be familiar with this (it is very similar to the original post), but as some of you are new, and some maybe did not fully grasp the scope of rules last year, here we go:

This league is like any other fantasy football league in many respects. We play in a head-to-head format, and generally allow the Yahoo! settings to determine the winners every year. However, there is also a “three-year term” that we are recording independent of Yahoo!, based on the performance of each team from year to year. Your performance this year, and every year over the next three years, contributes to your overall performance during the three-year term.

The One-Year Term
Each year you will pay me $25 which will go toward the winners of the league that year. The rewards will be distributed as follows:
1st Place: $175
2nd Place: $75
3rd Place: $25

The last $25 will be given to the winner of a separate Playoff Pick ‘Em similar to what we did last year. This last $25 is only meant as a fun way to still keep in touch and stay competitive through the NFL’s playoffs. It is completely optional.

The Three-Year Term
The three-year term is more complicated, and will require you to manage and monitor your team’s performance on the blog (updates on individual team performance are kept there). The three-year term will reward yearly performance, actual player performance—independent of Yahoo! player performance—and overall league performance via a points distributed system. We are keeping track of this, completely on our own. Points will be distributed based on the below elements of the game, listed in detail.

Note: These points are all cumulative throughout the entire three-year term. If you win one year, you are not disqualified from winning points for winning the same category in any other year.

Yearly League Performance
These points are distributed based on whether or not you are successful in winning (in a variety of ways) during any of the three years.
100pts - 1st Place
60pts - 2nd Place
45pts - 3rd Place
30pts - 4th Place
25pts - 5th Place
20pts - 6th Place
25pts - Best record during a fantasy football regular season
25pts - Most fantasy points accumulated during a fantasy football regular season

***EDIT***
The above point distribution has been edited per the latest comments to this post, and commissioner majority approval.

Player Performance (yearly)
Each of the following performance categories will be awarded 25pts on a yearly basis. The player to have the most of each of these statistics during a given year wins the points. For example, if at the end of this first year your team has accumulated the most passing yards, you would get 25pts toward the three-year term.
Passing Yards
Rushing Yards
Receiving Yards
Tackles
Interceptions
Sacks

Note: Only performance from the players you start on any given week will contribute to these performance categories. This same rule applies to the Weekly Player Performance points.

Weekly Player Performance
Two performance categories will be chosen, one offensive and one defensive, from the categories listed above every week. The team(s) to have the best performance in each category will receive 5 points. In the case of a tie, both teams will be awarded the points.

How to win the Three-Year Term
By the 2010-11 Superbowl, you will pay me $100 which will go towards the winnings of the three-year term. The three-year term award money will be distributed as follows:
1st Place - $700
2nd Place - $325
3rd Place - $175

How do you know who came in first? The points system I outlined above determines the winners. Basically, whoever has the most points will be awarded first place, and so on. So, you had better be thinking about three years from now as well as this year!

Rule: If the extremely unlikely scenario occurs where a team wins first place all three years, but does not have enough points to win the league, they, by default, win the league regardless of their points or lack thereof. KKR Stat. §146.75.4 (g) ...if thy pointage is exceeded by thy peer’s, though thy winningness has exceeded theirs, common law states that thou shant lose any league due to said inconceivable events…

Other Notes
This is not a regular fantasy football league. You may feel in over your head. Not only are we determining winners in a dramatically different fashion than a standard league, we also have a very unique set of rules, scoring settings and rosters. This league is not for the faint of heart. But you knew that when you signed up. This league has elements of a Rotisserie League, as well as a Head-to-Head league, with strong keeper elements to be mindful of. Many of the rules are instituted to cause you to sacrifice your performance elsewhere. That’s on purpose. In the end, only the player who not only thought the most about fantasy football, but who thought about how to win a league this intricate will be awarded. Do your homework, study the art of drafting, and learn the rules on the Yahoo! stats page as well as in this post. Heck, tweet Matthew Berry and ask him for advice in your draft strategy if it helps (others have been doing so, twitter.com/MatthewBerryTMR). We’re gonna have fun for sure, but don’t get frustrated if your team underperforms because you didn’t take the time to read about these things.

This blog will be updated weekly with the Weekly Player Performance Categories, as well as the results from the previous week. We will also track individual Yearly Player Performance on a weekly basis. I have enlisted three other members of the league to help out posting the stats, so they are not again left unattended. These stats will have a due date of Wednesday night, every week. You can begin complaining about the rules not being up starting Thursday of every week.

Lastly, in lieu of the upcoming draft, please be mindful of the roster settings.

1 QB
3 WR
2 RB
1 TE
1 QB/WR/RB/TE
1 K
1 D (any defensive player)
2 DL
2 DB
2 LB

7 BN
2 IR

Note: I included the latest IDP additions Josh spoke of in the previous post, under the assumption the majority of the league likes the idea. If you have any issues, or if you simply don’t want the extra IDP positions, I am mandating a deadline to vote against them by Monday August 30, 11:59pm CST. If you want to vote against the additions, post your disapproval on Josh’s post in the comments section. No one will be offended if you vote against them, but no one will know you don’t want them unless you make your voice heard.

Thanks all, please feel free to comment. Looking forward to draft night!

A little IDP rejiggering

Hey Guys (and John Freeborn),

So Pat, David and I were not entirely satisfied with how the IDPs worked out last year and didn't think the slight changes we made this year were enough to address the issue. The problem with the current IDP set up is that there isn't enough scarcity at each IDP position to make much difference either in week to week scoring or in the season long categorical competitions. Basically, the gap between the #1 guy and the #12 guy at each position isn't very significant. The whole reason for having IDPs as a part of this league is because this is supposed to be a specialized "expert" league and selecting individual defensive players should take more skill than just picking one defense and sticking with it for the year.

Our idea is to add 3 additional IDPs to the roster (1 each of DL, LB, & DB) and add one additional bench spot. This will increase the scarcity at each defensive position which will make the top guys more valuable and cause managers to put a little more week-to-week research/strategy into the IDP spots that don't have sure fire starters.

I know that some of you aren't super fond of the IDPs in the first place, and probably won't be very excited about this change, but what I would ask is for you to just stop and think about if this change would really have any negative effect on the league or your ability to win. The only negative I see in the change is a few extra rounds in the draft, but we're starting early, so no big deal.

This decision is not final; it is just something that the 3 of us would like to change. But we are essentially putting it to a league vote. If you could reply back to one of us with your preference on this and we'll leave it up to the majority to decide.

Lemme know what you think.

-Josh

August 23, 2010

Memories

It's pretty entertaining going back and reading some of these old posts and comments. I definitely missed some calls on players and teams last year, but I would like to mention that I was severely mocked last year for believing and calling Jason Campbell a top 15 QB. He finished the year #13. Not sure how I feel about him this year yet, but we'll see.

Also, I'd like to point out (not for any particular reason, but just to throw some stats out there) that Matt Schaub is currently ranked as the #5 QB (a late 3rd-early 4th rd pick) by both Yahoo & ESPN while Matt Ryan is ranked #14 (a 10th rd pick) by both. Not really sure why I felt compelled to look these ranks up, but something piqued my curiosity. Just sayin.

Looking forward to another fun filled year of football, statistics, and random babblings. (Hopefully this year the blog will have more than just Pat, John, Dave & I participating.)