October 26, 2004

Fantasy NFL Week 7 "It makes the championship totally illegitimate...": I've been on a total slackfest on the standings tables, apologies for that, ... a week 7 table will be posted this week. But, for the moment at least, I'd this thread to discuss the point ChasFile made about the Week 17 Championship game (because, frankly, Yahoo's message interface sucks and I think the discussion is worthy of the Lockerroom). (Discussion to date recap inside.)

posted by danostuporstar to fantasy at 11:27 AM - 11 comments

Chas' original comment (hope you don't mind, dude):

I think we should move the playoffs to weeks 14, 15, and 16.
In week 17, many of the studs will be benched in order to save them for the playoff or next year on all but the few teams that are still fighting for a playoff spot. Nothing is worse than a team made up of second-string week-16-waiver-wire-pickup whodats beating a team of year-long producers that are benched for rest in the week 17 championship game. It makes the championship totally illegitimate, and you have to hear about it all year, until next season happens. Trust me, I've seen it happen, and it sucks.
There is some benching in week 16, but its not nearly as extensive, as on the one hand few teams will have locked up playoff spots in week 15 and even those that did will still be playing for homefield advantage and on the other hand few coaches can get away with giving up on the season with two games left to play. You might see McGahee take over for Henry in week 16, but you probably won't see McNair or Favre or Shawn Alexander or Randy Moss on the bench in week 16, as you might in week 17 for either winning or losing reasons.
Nothing is worse than a team starting Voltek and Stecker beat a team with Warner and Green on it for the championship. It makes the whole season seem cheap, because then everybody can say, "hey, even my team was better than the one that won the championship!" The winner should be the guy who was able to put together the best team made up of the best players through savvy drafting, free agent signing, and trades, not the guy who manages to pick the best second-string whodat waiver scrubs in week 16.
Just my opinion.
Support for moving the playoffs has been voiced by catfish and mick.

posted by danostuporstar at 11:31 AM on October 26, 2004

My opinion: yes, week 17 benching is an issue, but not a big enough issue to warrant taking a week of play away from non-playoff teams. With the current format, 18 teams get to play 14 weeks and almost every team gets to play the other teams at least once (with 3 exceptions). By dropping week 17 from the schedule, 10 teams don't get to play at all in week 14 and the number of teams you won't play against this year becomes 4. Players sitting out week 17 is part of the game, just like bye weeks and injuries. Frankly, I think "It makes the championship totally illegitimate" and similar statements are utterly bogus. If a team has made it to the SpoFi Superbowl, it's a good team managed by a good fantasy coach who was fortunate throughout the season. If s/he happens to get some more luck because the other team has players sitting out week 17, well that's probably not the only break that helped win the championship....and the team that had the tough luck just has to be happy they beat 16 other good players in the SpoFi league to make it to the Superbowl.

posted by danostuporstar at 11:34 AM on October 26, 2004

Catfish, I didn't understand your point about teams being tied at 7-7 but not making the playoffs because total points. Doesn't another week of the regular season help eliminate ties?

posted by danostuporstar at 11:39 AM on October 26, 2004

I don't think it makes the championship illegitimate. I see it as a way of rewarding the owners that have a backup plan in case of injury, suspensions, locust plagues, etc. Speaking of not having a backup plan: I need a QB!! I screwed up and now both of my QBs are on a bye week. I'll trade either Marc Bulger or Brian Griese, and I don't mind doing 2 for 1, 1 for 2, 2 for 2, whatever. I've also got two excellent tight ends: Jeremy Shockey and Daniel Graham. Let's make a deal!

posted by dusted at 12:05 PM on October 26, 2004

Dano, I believe there were 6 teams at 3-3 last week so I was thinking 4 or more might end up at 7-7 & vying for the last playoff spot. I'm not sure if it would be decided by points or head to head.

posted by catfish at 12:35 PM on October 26, 2004

Found a QB... Craig Krenzel. It won't be pretty, but Bulger and/or Griese will be fine for the rest of the year.

posted by dusted at 02:56 PM on October 26, 2004

Dusted: can you email me again? I still have no idea who is on my team and I tried e-mailing you back after we traded messages. Thanks!

posted by wfrazerjr at 07:24 PM on October 27, 2004

Hey wfrazerjr: are you sure you have the right person, because I don't remember getting any email from you...

posted by dusted at 07:42 PM on October 27, 2004

Crap, maybe I mean Dano ...

posted by wfrazerjr at 11:33 PM on October 28, 2004

dude, it's too late. when i remember i'm trying to make sure you don't have any bye/injured players in the lineup.

posted by danostuporstar at 07:15 AM on October 31, 2004

Well, it looks like it can't be changed now anyway, so it doesn't really matter. I do think we need to discuss what appear to be abandoned teams, however. What do we do about them? On the one hand it may be that managers are simply away from their computers for a week or two, and all the bye week starts are simply oversights (you can set your roster for any upcoming week, BTW, so if you know you won't be able to access Yahoo at some point in the future it may be a good idea to do that now) while on the other hand it would totally suck if an abandoned team coasts into the playoffs while an actively managed one gets shut out. Also, I'd like to point out that with Tyrone Wheatley back I am now have 3 starting RBs in my line-up and am going to start kicking copious amounts of ass. Watch out.

posted by ChasFile at 02:17 PM on November 01, 2004

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