Results of NFFC Rules Survey

[Jack_Bauer]

Can someone correct me if I am wrong. Isn't H2H record important ONLY if you win first place outright? Unless I am missing something, you cannot win second, or third via H2H. If you are tied for first in H2H the tie breaker is total points. So Total points again is the barometer right?

[CALI CARTEL]

Greg/Tom,

It didn't hurt me, but I'm sure someone out there lost at least $1000 due to the Points Allowed for the Bears, who lost 6 Fantasy Points (from 8 down to 2) when Arizona blocked and returned a FG with less than 2 minutes to go in the game. The NFFC Points Allowed Scale has a huge oversight -- when a Defense is sitting at 6 PA and gives up a TD, the Defense goes from 8 Fantasy Points down to 2, skipping the entire 4 point level of the scale. This shouldn't happen on a single TD. If the team gets a 2-pt conversion and that pushes them above the next limit, so be it, but a single 7 pt score shouldn't ever drop you 2 levels on the PA scale, except from a Shutout down to 7 PA.

The Points Allowed scale needs to have full 7 point tiers so that the Defenses can't be screwed like this.

This works so much cleaner and with the higher scoring Offenses, it much more reasonable for today's NFL:

0 PA = 12 Fantasy Points
2-6 PA = 8
7-13 PA = 4
14-20 PA = 2

This situation doesn't happen every week, but it happens enough and just happened in the most important week of the season to the more important defense in the game this year (highest % owned amongst Playoff teams). It also occurred in the GB/SEA fiasco on the final play; that's just obvious examples off the top of my head, I'm sure there were others if I took the time to go back and look, but I implore you to make this change in 2013 for the good of the league without waiting a year for an unnecessary vote.

[bezie]

I would also like to see the DST's get 2 points for blocked FGs and blocked punts.

[CALI CARTEL]

I would also like to see the DST's get 2 points for blocked FGs and blocked punts.

This is something I've always preferred as well, blocked kicks are nearly, if not better than a normal turnover. You gain possession of the ball at or behind the line of scrimmage the vast majority of times; without a decent return on an interception, almost all interceptions cost the defense yardage (it's why you always say or hear, "He should've just dropped that" on 4th down interceptions). Blocks are returned for TD at a higher % than interceptions as well.

Fumbles are usually fairly neutral because a large % occur on Sack/Strip/Fumbles or on short yardage fumbles by RB's getting stripped near the line of scrimmage -- but blocks are still returned at a higher rate for TD.

[JETS SB]

I would also like to see the DST's get 2 points for blocked FGs and blocked punts.

This is something I've always preferred as well, blocked kicks are nearly, if not better than a normal turnover. You gain possession of the ball at or behind the line of scrimmage the vast majority of times; without a decent return on an interception, almost all interceptions cost the defense yardage (it's why you always say or hear, "He should've just dropped that" on 4th down interceptions). Blocks are returned for TD at a higher % than interceptions as well.

Fumbles are usually fairly neutral because a large % occur on Sack/Strip/Fumbles or on short yardage fumbles by RB's getting stripped near the line of scrimmage -- but blocks are still returned at a higher rate for TD.

I have played in leagues that have this rule. The one big issue that I have seen is, so many kicks are "partially blocked" and go 10 yds downfield or out of bounds or some might have been partially blocked and it is hard to tell. You can determine a true blocked punt or FG attempt, if the ball doesnt go beyond the line of scrimmage, but other than that, it will be a hard rule to keep track of. The other team is getting the ball anyways, whether it is a bad punt, or partially blocked, or there is a good return that doesn't go for a TD, I don't think points should be given to the team that was getting the ball anyways. We already award blocked kicks that go for a TD. I think this would be a very controversial rule, especially with the borderline partially blocked kicks. The official scorers don't keep track of partially blocked kicks so how would we be able to monitor them?

[CoMoHusker]

I would also like to see the DST's get 2 points for blocked FGs and blocked punts.

This is something I've always preferred as well, blocked kicks are nearly, if not better than a normal turnover. You gain possession of the ball at or behind the line of scrimmage the vast majority of times; without a decent return on an interception, almost all interceptions cost the defense yardage (it's why you always say or hear, "He should've just dropped that" on 4th down interceptions). Blocks are returned for TD at a higher % than interceptions as well.

Fumbles are usually fairly neutral because a large % occur on Sack/Strip/Fumbles or on short yardage fumbles by RB's getting stripped near the line of scrimmage -- but blocks are still returned at a higher rate for TD.

I have played in leagues that have this rule. The one big issue that I have seen is, so many kicks are "partially blocked" and go 10 yds downfield or out of bounds or some might have been partially blocked and it is hard to tell. You can determine a true blocked punt or FG attempt, if the ball doesnt go beyond the line of scrimmage, but other than that, it will be a hard rule to keep track of. The other team is getting the ball anyways, whether it is a bad punt, or partially blocked, or there is a good return that doesn't go for a TD, I don't think points should be given to the team that was getting the ball anyways. We already award blocked kicks that go for a TD. I think this would be a very controversial rule, especially with the borderline partially blocked kicks. The official scorers don't keep track of partially blocked kicks so how would we be able to monitor them?

The easy solution is that your DST is only awarded two points for the blocked kick if the official scorer rules it that way. It is very common in many leagues to be rewarded for a blocked kick, especially FG's, as they are taking probable points off the board for the opponent. A blocked FG can be huge, especially if it keeps your D under the allowed point total that also gives your DST points. I play in several leagues where the DST or IDP is awarded 2 points for both blocked FG's and punts. I've never seen an issue arise because of it. But really, they aren't that common to make a huge difference week-to-week.

[Greg Ambrosius]

it seems like we are always tinkering with the rules and scoring system here. It would be nice to just keep it the same..... Just my opinion.


Wayne

Agree 100% with Wayne, Gekko, and Cali Cartel.

Some out there claim the NFFC is already too "gimmicky" with 3RR and KDS. The FFPC has their "gimmicky" 1.5/TE reception, and adding MORE "gimmicky items" to ANY contest is not a way to build it.

I know the FFPC realizes that.....I hope the NFFC does too.

I thank everyone for their opinions on this thread and for responding to our poll. The overwhelming response to keeping the FAAB as is was worth the time and effort everyone took with that poll. It's always good to get the pulse of our current players and that one was very helpful.

As for tweaking our rules, I definitely don't apologize for the changes we've made through the years. Most of these changes have come from recommendations from our most die-hard players. If we had never changed, we'd still be taking only two teams to the Championship Round in the NFFC Classic, we'd still be paying low league prizes, we wouldn't have KDS or 3RR, and we wouldn't have 12-team leagues. Blame the NFL for the change in FAAB dates, but every other change was meant to IMPROVE the contest, not make it worse.

Yes, these changes can force long time owners to keep up with the new rules and yes they may seem gimmicky to some, but hopefully they make the game fairer for our customers. We tweak things because as Billy said, we don't want the 14th highest scoring team overall to be left out of the Championship Round. We don't feel that's fair here. And just because a certain playoff format has been around since 2002 doesn't mean it can't be tweaked to make things better. I think we learn something new every year and as you can see on our 2013 thread we're tweaking a few rules and playoff qualifications again. Hopefully for the better of the contest.

Thanks again all. And Wayne, just to honor your request not to tinker with the scoring we won't reduce passing TDs to 4 points as you requested earlier in this thread!! There, some things don't change in the NFFC!!

[Greg Ambrosius]

So the NFFC cutline is 15% and the other contest's cutline is 0%

if the cutline % is important in the minds of fantasy owners, i'm assuming there will be a flood of new nffc entrants next year.

I think we have a lot of positives we need to promote about our NFFC contests:

** 13 week regular seasons vs. 11 weeks
** One team can win both the Total Points league prize money and the H2H league prize money
** No head-to-head playoffs for the big league money in Weeks 12 and 13
** Wild card safety nets of Top 15% in total points through Week 13 vs. no safety net
** KDS so that you can create a plan around your preferred draft spots
** Third Round Reversal to balance out all draft spots
** Total Points League Playoffs in Weeks 14, 15 and 16 between H2H and Total Points leaders

Now I understand that some folks believe that KDS/3RR, no H2H playoffs in Weeks 12 and 13 and bigger safety nets are negatives in their eyes. To each his own. But I really believe that having a regular season beyond Thanksgiving and fairness to all of the highest scoring teams in the contest are positives related to the NFFC and in 2013 we'll do a better job of promoting that.

[Money]

I assume the change to -2 for INT's also includes fumbles. Is this correct?

[Greg Ambrosius]

I assume the change to -2 for INT's also includes fumbles. Is this correct?

No it's not correct. It's much tougher for an RB to recover -2 points for a fumble (20 yards rushing) than it is for a QB to recover -2 points for an INT. With 6 points per passing TD, the change of -2 is only for INTs.