Full Season vs. Playoffs

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 7:54 am

Greg, I'd like to pick your brain on something. You have stated many times how important the 13-week regular season is in fairly awarding/rewarding a League Champion. Here's my question: if the winner of a league should be based on the performance of an entire season (rather than a 1-3 week playoff), then why is the overall ($100,000) winner not determined in a similar fashion? The spread between the #1 and #32 playoff teams is less than 25 points--an amount that can be easily overcome in 3 weeks. I understand your intention is to give all 32 teams a fighting chance at the big prize, but doesn't this go against your logic that the entire season should be the determinant of who wins?

Just curious as to your thoughts.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 8:15 am

Glenn, everyone starts over in the NFL playoffs, the NCAA tournament and every other post-season action. Yes, we could carry your scoring total into the three weeks of play and add three more weeks of scoring to it to determine the NFFC champion. That would allow Team NEW to retain his 64 point lead over second place Route Collectors and his 294 point lead over the 32nd place playoff team, but I believe that is contrary to what playoffs are all about. It's about starting over and giving everyone a realistic chance of winning the title.

The playoffs are all about win-or-go-home, as the NFL said in its ad campaign last year, and I like that in the NFFC. All 32 playoff teams now have a fighting chance to win $100,000 and we do reward top teams from the regular season, albeit at a smaller level than some people would like.

We've eliminated 86 percent of the teams from the field. Now it's a fight to the finish and all 32 teams can realistically win. Keeping the entire point total from the regular season would realistically eliminate 20 of those 32 playoff teams. Honestly, it would eliminate all but five of those teams as only five teams are within 110 points of Team NEW. That wouldn't be much of a playoff, would it?

Another reason I wanted to take the weekly scoring average rather than total points into the playoffs is because of the league variances. Who's to say Team NEW didn't compete in an easier league than someone else? He certainly didn't, but this evens the field for teams who had no control over Team NEW and other playoff teams who had great drafts and made great free agent pickups. We have drafts in three different cities and all isn't equal, so this is one small way of equalizing the field.

Now stop picking my brain. There's not much left up there!

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 9:20 am

Great answer, Greg, and I agree with just about everything you said. Still, I feel we should somehow reward the "regular season" 1st place owner. If an extra edge going into the playoffs is not the answer, then perhaps a cash prize is in order.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 9:40 am

I'm glad everyone is sticking up for Team NEW and asking for added prizes for him beyond the $5,000 he just won. He's been quiet through all of this, so I have this feeling he's acting as if he's throwing a no-hitter and doesn't want anyone jinxing him by talking to him!

But we'll see what we can do for the overall points leader after the regular season for 2005.

ultimatefs · Post by **ultimatefs** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 10:00 am

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:
I'm glad everyone is sticking up for Team NEW and asking for added prizes for him beyond the $5,000 he just won. He's been quiet through all of this, so I have this feeling he's acting as if he's throwing a no-hitter and doesn't want anyone jinxing him by talking to him!

But we'll see what we can do for the overall points leader after the regular season for 2005. Greg, you should have prizes for the Top 10 point finishers.

$5k
$4.5K
..
.
.
.
.
$500

These guys deserve extra prizes as it takes a solid effort almost every week to be up there.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 10:25 am

Yes John adding another layer of prizes for regular season top finishers would be nice, but all of this is possible in the future if we continue to grow. For now, my main focus is league prizes while maintaining a strong overall prize structure. Giving more prize money to the Top 10 finishers who likely each just won $5,000 is a little lower on the totem pole of things to get done.