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Mike Davis | Archive | Email |
Staff Writer


Making Bitter Playoffs Better
Q & A: Week 2
9/11/14

Last Week's Question: Keeping score in a fluctuating league

My column for Week 1 featured a question from Shawn, who runs a league that has more in common with daily fantasy sports (DFS) than the traditional season-long leagues about which I usually write. Shawn says that anywhere from 8 to 20 of his friends and acquaintances play in this league each week, and the rules are very simple. Participants can choose any players they want to fill out a fairly standard lineup (1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex, 1 K, and 1 Def). There are no salary caps; choices are made according to the preferences of the owners. If multiple participants want to start Peyton Manning at QB, they can. In fact, you could go through the season starting Manning in even weeks and Drew Brees in odd weeks if that's how you wanted to roll.

I'm surprised leagues such as this one (i.e. leagues allowing player overlap between teams) aren't more common. Part of the appeal of the DFS model is the idea of not having a draft for the season, but choosing players based on upcoming defensive match-ups, so there's no reason to assume that the teams will look alike simply because the owners all have access to the same players.

Question: "Would you rather have Calvin Johnson or Brandon Marshall for the season?"

Answer: "I'll take Johnson please."

Follow-up Question: "But would you rather have Johnson this week if the Lions are playing against the Seahawks and the Bears are up against the Cowboys?"

Follow-up Answer: "Hmmm . . ."

Shawn's league isn't causing problems for anyone but him. As the commissioner, he has to enter the changing rosters of the teams each week by hand to find out which of his owners scored the highest. I featured his question in the hope that a reader of this column would be able to point him to a website that would allow his owners to enter their lineups in weeks when they wanted to play, lock the lineups during games, and then allow them to draft whole new teams the next week (without regard to which players may have been drafted in the meantime by competing owners).

Unfortunately, I struck out. No one came through with any suggestions, so I did a little research at two of the most popular league-hosting websites: ESPN and MyFantasyLeague.

Both websites were able to accommodate leagues of twenty members (which is the highest number of owners that Shawn reported having to deal with), but ESPN did not appear to have a way of supporting a league that would allow twenty owners to own the same running back at the same time. I called customer service at ESPN to find out whether I was missing something, and the representative who took my call was plainly baffled by my request. "Why would you let two owners claim Adrian Peterson?" he wondered.

As nearly as I can tell, however, the MyFantasyLeague website would be able to support a league such as the one Shawn described. On the "League Set-up" screen at MyFantasyLeague, the penultimate option reads "Rosters are not used -- instead, this is a contest-type league, whereby an owner can start any NFL player ___ times per season." I have seen leagues in which owners are allowed to use players once (sometimes twice) in a season, and this option appears to be set up with such leagues in mind. (It's a fun challenge to think about when you would use Jimmy Graham if you could only have him active for one week in 2014.) I suspect that if Shawn checked that option and allowed players to be started 16 times per season, he would be on his way to developing an interface that would enable his owners to enter their own teams each week. Regrettably, I didn't have time to test that theory. I look forward to confirmation from Shawn (or anyone who runs a similar league) if I am correct.

And if anyone has a belated answer to Shawn's question, I'll be happy to post it next week.

This Week's Question: Peter's response to a "fluke loss" in his fantasy league playoffs

A reader named Peter describes himself as a "sore and bitter 10-3 first-place team owner who got bounced in a fluke loss by a clearly inferior team after a first week playoff bye."

If you thought the New England Patriots (16-0) were a better team than the New York Giants (10-6) back in Super Bowl XLII, and if it still bugs you that the Giants won that game, then you may be sympathetic to Peter's position. I'll let him speak for himself:

Everyone knows the playoffs aren’t perfect, whether we are talking NFL or fantasy. It’s that one game, 60 minutes and ‘what happens, happens’ thing. The huge upset, the choke or whatever, a one-game playoff where the heavy underdog beats the huge favorite is always a great story…until the huge favorite is you. Then there is the whining by the owner of the perfect 13-0 season who got bounced in the first round by a fluke…isn’t the 13-0 (now 13-1) team really the best team anyway?

So from this beginning, or bad ending, rises this idea on how to fix the fantasy football playoff system! The basics are for standard league play: 13 weeks [of] ‘regular season’ and 3 weeks of ‘playoffs’.

Point one: The winner will be the team with the best record after 16 weeks, and all 16 weeks count on their record.

The ‘playoff’ schedule will be as follows:

First week (wk14) : 1st plays 2nd, 3rd plays 4th, 5th plays 6th, 7th plays 8th etc.
Second week(wk 15): 1st plays 2nd, 3rd plays 4th, 5th plays 6th, 7th plays 8th etc.
Third week (wk16): 1st plays 2nd, 3rd plays 4th, 5th plays 6th, 7th plays 8th etc.

After the third week, week 16, the team with the best 16-week record is the champ! If there are ties in records, standard tie-breakers come into play.

After the first week of playoffs, week 14, if there were any changes in the standings, they will result in changes in the schedule of ‘who-plays-who’ and not in the ‘1st-plays-2nd etc..’ idea.

This results in a nice mix of rewarding an excellent season, or rewarding your season’s efforts whatever the outcome, but still giving teams a chance to compete and advance through a playoff system. This also eliminates bye weeks which some like and some do not. (I do not.) This system also eliminates the fluke loss that does not reward a team for a great season. It can allow for a second-place or even third- or fourth-place team to be champion if the final regular season standings are close. Any team within 3 games of the first-place team has a chance at a championship. But it gives the edge to the first place team since they have to lose more than once in the playoffs to lose the championship. And a first place team will be a lock champion if they are 4 games ahead or more, which is also fitting, since they could lose 3 games and still have the best record.

For example: Say our 13-0 team A plays the second place 10-3 team B. Team B wins and is now 11-3, and team A loses and is 13-1. Second-place team B plays first-place team A in week 15 (second round). And team B wins again making them 12-3 and team A 13-2. Now week 16 becomes the winner-take-all game for team A and team B because if team B wins again, they will be 13-3, team A will be 13-3, but team b has beaten team A 3 times at least, not including regular season, so team B is champion based on tie-breakers!

If this is a 12-team league, make the regular season 11 games. Everyone plays everyone else once, a balanced schedule. Then have 5 weeks of ‘king of the hill’ style playoffs as described above. This will allow 3rd, 4th , 5th and 6th place teams a more reasonable shot at the title. As before, no one gets a bye (I hate byes; I want to PLAY!) and no one ever gets bounced out of the playoffs.


Peter is eager for feedback on his idea. Anyone interested in commenting on his playoff proposal, modifying it, or countering with a proposal of their own is welcome to email me. I'll include the best responses in my column for Week 3.

Survivor Picks - Week 2 (Courtesy of Matthew Schiff)

Phew! How many of you turned on the Eagles game at halftime and were seriously worried that your Survival Pool pick was going to be a loser in Week One? I for one was having mixed feelings. On the one hand, as a Giants fan, I love to see Philly lose. But on the other hand, as someone who is here to help you win your pool, I was angry. I stuck my neck out for you, gave you all the reasons why this game was a sure bet, and boom, the birds managed to lay a goose egg in the first thirty minutes. Luckily Chip Kelly and his boys posted 34 unanswered points in the second half. I must note that the Bills were surprisingly good against a Bears team that many expect to win the NFC North. Buffalo won’t be the team that you automatically look for when choosing your survival pick this year.

Trap Game: NY Jets at Green Bay
Last week the Dolphins proved that they can compete against the perennial divisional champion Patriots by roaring back from a 20-3 deficit with 30 unanswered points. While the NY Jets probably won’t do that against a Packers team that was exposed in their opener by the Super Bowl Champion Seahawks, their league-leading defense will keep them alive in a game in which Geno Smith no longer has to put the team on his back to win. Couple that with the questionable status of Eddie Lacy, who suffered his second concussion in two years and is still awaiting approval to play, and this game should give you pause (though I understand how tempting it will be for those who burned their Denver selection in Week One). Last season (2013) was the first time that the Packers had a losing record at home (3-4-1) since the 2006 season. Will that trend continue this year? But the more important question is, “Are the Packers on the decline?”

#3: New Orleans at Cleveland (1-0: Pit):
Well, it only took one game for Ben Tate to get injured. Now the Browns will be relying on a combination of Terrance West and Isaiah Crowell to run the ball. While Brian Hoyer was respectable in his first game back since his season-ending injury last year, it would be a big surprise to see Josh Gordon lining up on the wing in response to the impending new drug policy that the NFL and the players association should be ratifying before kickoff. Meanwhile, Drew Brees and his new wideout Brandin Cooks look to get comfortable outside in the elements (something the Saints haven’t been good at in recent years) against a Browns defense that allowed the second most yards in Week One (499). It won’t get any easier for Cleveland fans this week, especially since the Saints, who are better than the Steelers on offense, should have no problem shutting down a Browns team that has more bark than bite in its game.

#2: Seattle at San Diego (0-1: Chi):
It looks like this is the week to choose between last year’s Super Bowl teams as your survival pick. With so many games too close to call, and only the Broncos a double-digit favorite, your next best bet seems to be the Seahawks who dismantled Aaron Rodgers in the league opener. Who says that Marshawn Lynch is done? Clearly, he doesn’t think so, and with Russell Wilson looking like he is becoming an elite quarterback (with a potent weapon in Percy Harvin), the Seahawks seem likely to bury the Chargers in a familiar 0-2 hole at the beginning of the season. San Diego will try its best to match the Hawks, but take NFC’s best team on the road if you used Denver last week.

Peyton Manning
Image by Tilt Creative (Ty Schiff)

#1: Denver over Kansas City (1-0: PHI):
Peyton Manning started this season with his patented statistical pyrotechnics by throwing three touchdowns to second year tight end Julius Thomas. This week, Andy Reid and his punch-less Chiefs visit Mile High and hope that Dwayne Bowe, reactivated after his one-week suspension, returns to his 2011 form to help balance out a rushing attack that was held in check in the loss to Tennessee. The Chiefs don’t have the manpower to match up against this high-powered Bronco offense. And with the prospect that Wes Welker will play thanks to the newly revised drug policy in the NFL and removal of his four-game suspension, there will be way too many skill players to cover in a game that will probably be over before halftime.


Mike Davis has been writing about fantasy football since 1999. As a landlocked Oklahoman who longs for the sound of ocean waves, he also writes about ocean colonization under the pen name Studio Dongo. The latest installment in his science fiction series can be found here.