Posted in Fantasy
10 comments
12/7 2010

Fantasy Integrity: What To Do When Your Season Is Over Before The Playoffs?

Posted by Dan Levy.

I am in three fantasy leagues this year. In my old friends league that’s a keeper league, I’m in first place heading into the playoffs (I have a bye as 6 of 12 make the playoffs).

In my second league, a non-keeper league with some show people, soccer teammates and random dudes a friend knows, I just eeked into the playoffs with a middle-of-the-pack squad. For what it’s worth, Nick is crushing everyone in that league, earning the top seed and a first round bye.

In my third and potentially most important league, I’m in last place in the BFL, sponsored by P&G. I’m on Team Gillette (seriously they have some awesome products and I totally might shave off the beard I had for, what, seven years just so I can use the phrase “Gillette is turning shaving into gliding” in a sentence and have the smooth-as-my-baby-son’s-ass face to back up that claim). I’m 3-10 with one more week to go in the regular season before a four-team playoff takes place to send one winning owner to the Super Bowl.

I won’t be that winner.

GO TO THE FACEBOOK PAGE AND CHECK EVERYTHING OUT AND ENTER CONTESTS AND TELL THEM HOW GREAT IT IS AND IT WILL MAKE THEM VERY HAPPY AND THEN I’LL BE HAPPY AND THEN YOU’LL BE HAPPY

I want to get to that league in a moment, as this is my week to recap the events therein, but I have a fantasy ethics question to pose first. Last week, I asked the question of whether or not it was okay to solicit offers for my best players in an effort to bolster the roster of someone in the BFL who may return the favor by taking me to the Super Bowl with them should they win the league. Collusion? Of course, but it would have given me a chance to go to the Super Bowl on P&G’s dime and I didn’t even have to win the league! I call it genius.

Alas, I opted not to help anyone else, nor did I try to broker any backroom deals. I’m going to finish in last place with dignity.

Having said that, in my old friends keeper league, we had an issue that could blow the entire league apart at the seams. The 11th place team was trailing the 3rd place team by ten points heading into Monday Night’s game with two players still left to play. Looking at the standings, the 11th place team knew he’d move up to 9th with the win, thus giving him the 4th pick in the draft instead of the second pick (or, more aptly explained, the 40th pick instead of the 38th pick).

So, after realizing his team was going to win — the 11th place team pulled his two remaining starters to lose on purpose, thus ensuring an 11th place finish in the standings and changing the projected outcome of the entire playoff bracket. Now the team that was supposed to finish 4th has finished 3rd (and vice versa) all because of a selfish move to ensure a lower draft pick.

Here’s the ethical dilemma: While I would never purposely bench players for empty slots to lose on purpose, no matter how it would help my team next year, I don’t have as much of a problem with this move if it was done before the weekend started. Had the 11th place team pulled his entire roster BEFORE the games started, it would call into question the integrity of the playoffs a little bit (considering he was involved in a huge game for playoff seeding) but it would not have been as bad as what he did — pulling his players just before kickoff once he realized that he was going to win and what winning would do to his draft status.

That, to me, is inexcusable. Plus, even though teams have pulled their starters in real football to help their team in the future, they always field a team. Shouldn’t he at least have to field a team, and not leave roster spots open?

So, what should we do? There’s no rule in the league that what he did was “illegal” and nobody ever expected someone to do something like this, so there’s no way to punish him for it next year. My resolution was to give him a one-round penalty of the last pick in the round and if he balks, let him walk. Who wants to play in a league with someone who only cares about his team and does things at the expense of the integrity of the league?

This has, understandably, turned our league upside-down today. So, what should we do in this situation? We’re probably going to set up a rule that gives the winner of the consolation bracket the first pick, thus rewarding teams for not tanking in that bracket or, in the future, at the end of the season. After that winner, the remaining consolation bracket players will be ranked according to how they finished during the regular season in advance of next year’s draft. It might get people to tank before the consolation bracket begins, but at least it’s something in the way of trying to stop this from happening again.

Is this idea fair to everyone? What about the guy who finished last this year and tried? Is it fair to him? Would you be more drastic to the offender or is it a shrewd move and some of us are over-reacting?

Okay, on to the BFL recap, and how this still might get me to the Super Bowl (okay, no chance).

You can see the standings above. You may also notice that despite my 3-10 record I actually have more points than three other teams, including the team currently in line to make the playoffs in my division (Zerkle). That said, he whooped my ass twice this year, so I can’t really complain that he’s ahead of me. I do have, if you notice, more points against than anyone, including an inexplicable 274.56 MORE against me than Zerkle has. Isn’t that nuts? I’m faced with having to score 21.12 points more than him just to win EVERY week.

But that’s nowhere near as bad as Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders who reps Prilosec OTC who sits at 6-7 despite the most points in the entire league. Nor is it as bad as Phil from Gunaxin who is playing for Old Spice who has the most points in my division and sits in third place. That said, he’s still in line to make the playoffs because WHAT I LEARNED TODAY is that it’s not the top two teams in each division, but the top four records in the entire league. The two divisions were just set up so we could have cute umbrellas named Procter and Gamble (note: not actual umbrellas.)

PROCTER
Fresh 2 Death is the conglomerate from National Football Post and they are running away with the Procter division at 10-3, after crushing Zerkle’s team. Jerod Morris has mocked me all season for passing on Adrian Peterson in favor of Ray Rice but all it’s gotten him is one game out of the playoffs, for now.

This is where things get confusing. Midwest Sports Fans plays Team Gunaxin next week to see who can finish 8-6. The winner of that game will certainly have more points than Zerkle’s DayQuil Fighter of the NyQuil squad, but lucky for Zerkle he plays the worst team in the league (no, not me) in Brian Bassett’s Prilosec-run What Would Revis Do, who has scored an embarrassingly low 946.18 points in 13 weeks.

If Zerkle wins, he guarantees himself a spot in the playoffs. A loss, he might be out.

GAMBLE
The Gamble Division is totally up in the air heading into the last week of the season. The once-juggernaut 99-Rated Swagger, Dan Shanoff’s Old Spice outfit, has looked mediocre in the second half of the season, barely eeking out a win over the last place Sweaty Ditkas of Matt Sebek. It was an Old Spice on Spice battle and Shanoff won, giving him an 8-5 record with one week to play.

Steph Stradley of Fanhouse and Texanschick.com lost to my Gillette teammate Will Brinson who came out of the basement (pun) to nearly have a chance at making the playoffs (but alas, no).

Steph’s For A Better Looking Tomorrow still has a chance at playoff slot #4, facing Shanoff in the last week of the season. Shanoff certainly wants to win to avoid dropping out of the playoffs altogether. There shall be no tanking there.

Kyle Bunch’s Febreze Freshness team beat Schatz to put him in a position to make an outside run at the playoffs, but it doesn’t look good for Bunch as he has to overtake Stradley and the winner of Team Gunaxin/MSF in the other division just to get in. Bunch plays Brinson in week 14 while Schatz faces off against Sebek in a game that suddenly means nothing.

PROCTER SCENARIOS
• Fresh 2 Death (National Football Post) — In. Locked up top seed.
• DayQuil Fighter of the NyQuil (Zerkle) — Win. Loss & Stradley/Bunch Losses.
• Team Gunaxin (Phil Van der Vossen) — Win.
• Midwest Sports Fans (Jerod Morris) — Win & Zerkle loss or Win & Stradley Loss (must outscore Bunch by 5 points) or Win & Stradley/Bunch Losses or Win & Shanoff Loss and outscore Shanoff by 30.5 points and outscore Bunch by 5 points.
• OUT – What Would Revis Do (Bassett) & Press Coverage (me).

GAMBLE SCENARIOS
• 99-Rated Swagger (Shanoff) — Win (locks up 2nd seed). Loss & Zerkle/Gunaxin Losses (must stay within 26 points of Bunch, if Bunch wins and 29 points of MSF.)
• For A Better Looking Tomorrow (Steph Stradley) — Win.
• Febreze Freshness (Kyle Bunch) — Win & Stradley/Gunaxin Losses (must stay within 3 points of MSF.)
• OUT – DVOA vs GERD (Schatz), Fuzzy Gullets (Brinson) & Sweaty Ditkas (Sebek).

PROJECTIONS
The NFP team will crush me this week, heading into the playoffs as the top seed and obvious favorite. Zerkle will beat Bassett to get into the playoffs, setting up ostensibly two playoff games (Team Gunaxin v MSF and 99-Rated Swagger vs. For A Better-Looking Tomorrow). That said, watch Bunch sneak his way in somehow.

I do, however, expect Gunaxin to win, leaving just one spot for the Gamble division. I always look at total points and despite losing three of the last four weeks, Stradley’s team is scoring way more than Shanoff’s over the last month. If you’re betting on this (and you’re insane if you are), my money’s on Texas.

Most importantly, can Zerkle’s hold on a playoff spot despite the second-fewest points in the entire league continue? Did the 9-7 Cardinals make the Super Bowl? Did the six-seed Steelers win the Super Bowl?

Will Zerkle win and take me to the Super Bowl? I have two words for him: Remember Belding.

The P&G Blogger Fantasy League (BFL) is a group of 12 digital sports influencers competing on the NFL.com fantasy platform for the chance to win P&G product, a donation to a local charity, and a trip to Super Bowl XLV, all furnished by P&G. The NFL Entities have not offered or sponsored the sweepstakes in any way.

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Posted on December 7, 2010 at 3:08PM
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  1. RSR
    12/7 2010

    Under the concept of ‘must field a team’ can the points for the lowest scoring bench player for each position be added in? Would the worse performing TE and D/ST still have yielded a win?

  2. Dan Levy
    12/7 2010

    He only had one defense, it was the Jets and despite the blowout it was still more than four points. Both his tight ends (he benched Hernandez at the last minute, would have given him the win by themselves.

  3. Gunaxin
    12/7 2010

    I could have saved myself the trouble and just waited for your analysis. I was working a sweet spreadsheet on Sunday night, trying to figure out who would win, how many points they would have, and what it would take for me to get into the Playoffs. BTW, I knew about the Top 4 teams things since the beginning of the season, as the playoff brackets have been available all year. I came to the same conclusion though, win and I’m in, and I can’t control anything else anyways. Well, honestly I can’t control whether I win the game or not either. Players play, coaches coach, and the rest of us just whine about it.

  4. Ty
    12/7 2010

    Man, I am blown away by this. If anyone tanks, to any degree, at any point in the season, it’s totally unacceptable. Maybe I’m in the minority, but it’s in my main league’s rules as Holy Writ: you do the best you can to win EVERY GAME.

    This is exactly why.

    Peace
    Ty

  5. DGL
    12/7 2010

    In our league, the regular season seeds the consolation bracket, and the outcome of the consolation bracket is used to determine next year’s draft order (winner gets first pick, and down from there, with the four playoff teams getting the last four picks in reverse order of finish). That tends to keep people from tanking.

    I don’t tend to like retroactive punishments – if there’s no league rule that says you have to field a full roster, then it’s hard to punish someone for not fielding a full roster. Put in a rule over the offseason, and everyone can give the guy dirty looks when you explain why the new rule is going in…

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  7. Bob
    12/7 2010

    This dilemma is solved by most leagues that use an internet administrator by the fact that lineups are locked in place at 1:00 pm EST on Sunday — no changes after that. Most leagues also have a rule that a player be listed for every position, whether that palyer is active for the game or not. In our league, the offending owner would have had to submit a complete roster by the start of the early game Sunday, and live with the results.

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