This is a very unfortunate situation for the operators and players in the NFFC. I am also in the camp that believes that the integrity of the entire event has been compromised because of this.
IMO, here's how it should've been handled:
1. There seems to be some confusion as to who exactly Seth spoke w/ from Fanball about this. Greg said it wasn't him. For something this important, it absolutely should've been either Greg, Tom and/or Ryan.
2. The solution should've been to try as much as possible to mimic what the majority of live owners would do in a draft. I know we're all different, but I'm also pretty sure most of us fill our 8 starting position player spots before drafting our bench, DST and kickers. So using ADP was fine, as long as if the ADP list hit a 5th WR, 4th RB, 2nd TE or 2nd QB before filling all other starting lineup spots, you should've skipped over that player. To clarify further, once you filled his WR or RB starting spots and also filled the flex, then another WR or RB (whichever one wasn't yet filled) should've been filled before taking an excess/bench WR or RB. We also see that most teams tend to take a 2nd QB in rounds 9-12 or so, a 2nd TE maybe there or a bit earlier, DST around there and kickers quite a bit later. Discussion should've taken place w/ Fanball personnel and a decision made as to exactly which rounds these bench players would be taken. But I think the other 13 owners could've probably lived w/ that if it were explained to them upfront. Of course, if we're all honest here, I'll bet most of them were too busy jumping for joy inside at the early Christmas/Hanukkah present that just landed on their laps.
Ok, so that is all water under the bridge and can be filed in the "lessons learned" area for future reference.
Now how do we rectify this?
I think the biggest concern here is obviously the fact that these 13 owners are likely to have stronger teams than almost all other leagues because they essentially drafted in a 13 or 13.5 team league. So how exactly does that affect the rest of us? As far as the competition within that league for the top 3 spots, that's pretty much their business; it doesn't affect us. They're competing for the same amount of league prizes that we are, albeit against one or a half of one less owner. No biggie. More on this league's "private" competition later.
However, the major concern is how this affects the overall competition during the playoffs. First, let's address the possibility that there's likely a stronger chance of some of the teams beyond the top 3 finishers also getting into the playoffs via the "top 10% in the overall (300+ team) competition", as that's what affects the most people. Here's a suggestion for rectifying that: increase the number of teams that make the playoffs this way by the number of teams from this league that make it that way. For example, if we have 300 teams (I don't recall the exact number), then normally, any team whose total points are in the top 30 would make the playoffs. So if 5 more teams beyond the top 3 make it from this league, then let the top overall 35 teams in. If one of those extra 5 teams allowed also comes from this league, then let the next overall one (36th) from outside this league in. If two from this league, 2 more, and so on. It's not a perfect solution, as it creates more competition for the grand prizes, but it really isn't fair to let this 13-team league compete for those "top 10% entries" against all of the other 14-team leagues. To me, this is a valid compromise.
As for the competition within this league for their top 3 playoff spots, that doesn't really affect the rest of us, other than the fact that maybe we wish we were in this league.
But it's still something that should be considered to maintain the integrity of the prizes awarded within this league ($5k 1st place, etc.). As someone pointed out, the teams who get to play against this team for the first few weeks - until the original owner hits the wire to hopefully patch up the holes - have a definite advantage in the head-to-head (H2H) competition. This is a tough one. Here are some possible options:
1. Do you put out to this league a vote (or maybe just a private vote among Fanball personnel?) to decide upon a number of weeks it would/should take to patch up this team and until then, play this league as an "All-play" format (in which the top 7 scoring teams each week get a win and the rest a loss)? So... if it's decided that Eric should be able to get this team back on track in 3 weeks, then the first 3 weeks of the season are played as "All play". This at least alleviates some teams from getting easy wins. It's still not perfect though because then, not every team in the league ever even has to face Eric's team. But we can't know at this point if that's an advantage or disadvantage. Who knows? Maybe by week 4 or 5 his team is a powerhouse, so it could be a disadvantage?
2. Just play the whole season within this league only as "All play"?
3. Simply toss out the H2H component in this league only and award the top 3 playoff spots to the top 3 point scorers?
4. Remove the offending team from the league and play this out as a 13-team league. I know Greg said he didn't plan to do that, but why not? This would make it easier to make the overall playoffs from this league compared to others because of one less team to beat. However, can we conclude that this is balanced out by the fact that the compeition between these 13 teams should be a bit fiercer than in other leagues due to the added strength of their teams?
I believe personally that option 4 above is the best solution.
Lastly, there doesn't seem to be anything that can be done now to fix the fact that any playoff teams from this league have a chance to be stronger than those from all other leagues. That said, a popular, but certainly debateable, opinion regarding the playoff sprint is that it's basically a "lottery", in which the "luckiest" team over 3 weeks wins anyway. This is supported by the fact that it seems that very seldom does a top scoring regular season team win the overall $100k prize, and also that the last seed (65th?) in last year's playoffs won the $100k (no offense to Steve
). So as long as the rest of the owners from all of the other leagues beyond this one have a solution in place to ensure that THEIR odds of making the playoffs haven't been reduced by this mistake, that's probably all that can be done in this area.
I know I've rambled quite a bit here and I'm just trying to help maintain the integrity of the event I love so much. If I've missed any important issues, let's continue discussing... but SOON please. This situation must be addressed immediately, before the season starts this Thurs. night.
Respectfully,
Mike Sanda
[ September 05, 2010, 06:04 PM: Message edited by: Sandman62 ]
