Full 16 week national draft league competition

LFW · Post by **LFW** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 5:34 am

I know format for draft leagues has generally been a regular season then followed by a playoff say during weeks 15 and 16. When the National Draft league competitions started they decided to follow this type of regular season then Playoff format and Even shortened the regular season to expand the playoffs. Most would agree that the longer time frame of play favors the better team/owner yet the Grand Prizes in these Competitions is basically shortened to about a month of results rather than on 4 months of results. I believe there is a good sized segment of fantasy players who would prefer National Competition Football Draft leagues be decided by total results over 16 weeks rather than this playoff type format.

NFFC does run a few Satellite leagues that are 16 week games I believe? From what I can tell the NFBC Grand Prize is decided over the course of a full season too not some abbreviated playoff.

I believe running the National contests under the typical regular season/then playoff type model injects more random chance into whether the best owners finish at very top. When you combine draft leagues there is neccesarily advantages to being in a weak league but running the playoff system doesn't eliminate that it only shortens the competition for the grand prize which imo is never favorable because less weeks equals less skill/more uncertainty whether the cream has time to rise.

NFFC and WCOFF Main events have no reason to change how they decide their Grand Prize Champions as the way they do it is working for them...but I think there may be a market for full season competitions for Grand Prize and if NFFC creates Online championships perhaps that is a good place to try it. Not only would it give an option to serious players who want longer competitions but it would differentiate that type of National Competition from NFFCs existing one.

Thoughts?

[ February 13, 2008, 11:38 AM: Message edited by: Lightning Fast Whip ]

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 9:22 am

That is basically a Total Points league, which can be exciting but also boring. Somehow, I think you'd have to take into account h2h records or otherwise it's a boring race to the finish line. Not a bad idea and something we'd consider, but I'd have to see how you could factor in h2h into the equation first.

LFW · Post by **LFW** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 9:51 am

The League race money could be decided by head to head even with a playoff elimination format such as a traditional Head to Head playoff...but right now most National Draft contests are not Head To Head to decide their Overall Prize. They use some sort of Truncated Total Points over a portion of the season ( and because they don't want it too short in WCOFF case they cut regular season way down to 11 weeks!). For the League races I think Head To Head still makes sense but when determining your Overall Grand Champion wouldn't it be better to go Total Points over 16 weeks instead of Total points over about a 1 month span. You could base all the league prizes on traditional head to head but base the National part on Total points. That would also extend the season for more teams and make Head to Head in League important for League Money but reward the best 16 week team with the Grand Prize. To me I'd feel like the team that performed for Full 16 weeks is more deserving of a Grand Prize and have no problem leaving each individual League race to Traditional Head to Head.

LFW · Post by **LFW** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 10:02 am

League money based on Head to Head
Overall money based on Total Points

I think over time some (good portion of) players would favor this setup over the current one as the stronger teams over a longer time frame would win the Overall prizes and you still have Head to Head excitement in league and can even have the League playoffs be Head to head and retain the excitement on league level.

[ February 13, 2008, 04:24 PM: Message edited by: Lightning Fast Whip ]

Mike Costaglio · Post by **Mike Costaglio** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:44 pm

Boring? I think that boring was excused when the prize hit $100,000. H2H is great for your local league where you are up against your buddy.

sportsbettingman · Post by **sportsbettingman** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 5:07 pm

Originally posted by Mike Costaglio:
Boring? I think that boring was excused when the prize hit $100,000. H2H is great for your local league where you are up against your buddy. I get what you're saying...but I'd guess thinking long term...

Bored but won money = repeat customer.

Bored and lost money = bye bye customer.

Not a good way to stay in business. (as far as repeat customers)

H2H allows for "fun" but lost money to = many repeat customers.

H2H also allows for the "lucky via schedule" teams to be "close" to winning (via H2H records) = thinking they are better than they really are = repeat customers.

~Lance

[ February 13, 2008, 11:11 PM: Message edited by: sportsbettingman ]

sportsbettingman · Post by **sportsbettingman** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 5:19 pm

Nobody seems to want to adopt my idea that I've posted for years now.

Leagues are won via X week schedule and Y week LEAGUE PLAYOFF with X + Y = 16.

OVERALL is done how it is now with the cutoff for making the overall championship based on total points alone. (say cutoff is after week 13.)

Simple.

Rewards the best teams thru week 13 getting into the championship dance. (using their avg. score + 3 week playoff vs. other top teams for big money)

Leagues get to battle it out for the full 16 weeks.

The crying over uneven schedule is moot as each team is uneven durning bye weeks and uneven with every injury that occurs...but if you wished to factor in a version of all play as mentioned with top 7 teams getting W and bottom 7 getting L...fine with me.

Great idea that someday will be used. (IMO)

~Lance

LFW · Post by **LFW** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:10 pm

sportsbettingman- But why do you have to cut the OA Championship dance at all? Do whatever you think gives the most fun for league stuff but imo the OA(s) should go to the best team(s) over longest time frame possible...cutting up the OA race into a 3 or 4 week thing seems like you are trying to even the playing field by shortening the race to me. Let em run for 16 weeks and see whose team is strongest over long haul.

[ February 14, 2008, 01:15 AM: Message edited by: Lightning Fast Whip ]

sportsbettingman · Post by **sportsbettingman** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:16 pm

I'd be fine with that too, LFW...

So long as it wasn't TOTAL POINTS...but rather Avg. points thru week X and the playoffs weeks.

Otherwise the entire event could be rigged with one fixed league.

~Lance

LFW · Post by **LFW** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:23 pm

SBM- I think you miss what I'm saying. No average points cutoff. All that does is shorten the competition for OA. Now shortening that competition does make a loaded team not have as high of odds at winning the OA as it would without a cutoff date....but that's an issue with league setup fairness not a issue of determining which is truly the best team. If you want the best team winning you would want to count all results possible. If you fear some collusion or hanky panky creating a monster team that is a completely different issue...but if a monster team is created fairly shouldn't that team odds of winning be maximized in a tourney trying to crown the best owner? I say yes.

I believe if you're signing up you have to trust leagues setups will be fair. You can't go in setting up a competition then saying you need to reduce chances of a great team winning it cause a great team could be somehow created in underhanded way. Assume fairness and then design system that rewards the best the most often.

[ February 14, 2008, 01:28 AM: Message edited by: Lightning Fast Whip ]