Interest in fantasy is way down this year. Is it because I started the threads late? I’m having almost no recruits this year, usually there are too many and I’m carefully screening people, this year I’m having a hard time filling up empty slots.
Big league especially needs 3 people to function at its intended purpose.
I think it’s because we have more leagues this year. Oak his running one or two now, and I vaguely remember seeing someone else promoting an SDMB league.
We don’t have any more leagues than last year. It’s true in past years we’d created a new and interesting league pretty much every year, but we had no problem with recruits last year.
I have an idea for another football related competition, but I’ve got too much on my plate already. So I’m just throwing it out there for anyone who might want to run with it.
I want to have some sort of sports betting competition where we all start with some amount of monopoly money - $1000 seems like a good number. Then we can use some online sportsbook as a reference for the odds and make any bet we want. To keep it simple and easy to track, we should keep it to 1-3 bets per week, but they can be any sort of sports bet. Parlay, spread, over under, whatever. Would suggest a maximum bet size to keep people from just taking a double or nothing type shot which isn’t terribly interesting. Have people track their own bets and enter the results into a spreadsheet, see how we do over the season. I think this would be both a fun competition and enlightening as to whether we astute geniuses can beat the vig.
I might be interested in doing this. I probably still have my old spreadsheet to format the spread info. Hmmm, lemme see…ha, nice! Found it. It appears to be from week 1 of the 2007 season:
Thursday Opener
8:30pm…COLTS…6…Saints…52…**
Early Games
1:00pm…Steelers…4½…BROWNS…36½…**
1:00pm…REDSKINS…3…Dolphins…34½…**
1:00pm…Eagles…3…PACKERS…42½…**
1:00pm…Broncos…3…BILLS…37…**
1:00pm…TEXANS…3…Chiefs…37½…**
1:00pm…JAGUARS…7…Titans…38…**
1:00pm…Patriots…6…JETS…41…**
1:00pm…RAMS…1…Panthers…43…**
1:00pm…VIKINGS…3…Falcons…35½…**
Late Games
4:15pm…CHARGERS…6…Bears…42½…**
4:15pm…SEAHAWKS…5½…Bucs…41…**
4:15pm…RAIDERS…2½…Lions…39½…**
Night Games
8:15pm…COWBOYS…6…Giants…44…**
7:00pm…BENGALS…2½…Ravens…40…**
10:00pm…49ERS…3…Cardinals…45…**
We could crib from the 2+2 (poker) forums, which have their annual “3+1” contest. It’s simple: every week, you post four bets, choosing from among the point spreads and the over/unders. You have a $400 bet, a $300, a $200, and a $100. As you go along, you keep track of everyone’s profits/losses. If someone misses a week, it’s not a huge deal, since they were about as likely to lose money as to win it.
Very simple to play, pretty simple to keep track of.
$400 Browns -4.5
$300 Saints u52
$200 Bucs o41
$100 Dolphins +3
That sounds alright, and easier to administrate, but I think it’d be more interesting doing an actual simulation/mock betting. Including vig, and also not forcing people to make a certain amount of bets if they’re not feeling comfortable about that many that week. That way you’d actually treat them to valuable information about their skill at sports betting while also running a competition. Also would allow bets like parlays.
If people grade their own bets and just submit a total, it shouldn’t be too hard to administrate if we do the more complicated method.
I think that simulating an actual NFL gambler (as I was through much of the 90s) would be the most interesting. There are of course no minimums, but the psychology of the sports gambler is such that you really want action during every “NFL window.” As in, if there are games being played, you want some kind of action.
This typically involves a lot of bad bets on SNF and MNF games you otherwise don’t feel confident about. heh.
Does anyone know any sites - whether actual FF league sites or mock draft sites, that would work for the following?
Free
Allow drafting of a league with 6 players but very deep (25ish slot) rosters
Drafting runs through at least November (yahoo stops running drafts sometime in early October IIRC)
Private/lockable mock drafts?
I just need the results, not necessarily the league, because I can input them manually into a yahoo league. I basically just need a way to run a custom draft and get the results printed out to me late into the year.
I’m going to recruit for the super league. The idea is that we have 6 very dedicated fantasy players with rosters a little more than twice as big as a typical league (so around the same amount of people would be drafted as in a 12 man league). Every year the person who finishes last gets booted from the league, and the league votes to invite replacement players based on who we think had the best performance overall in fantasy last year.
Well, I started the league way too late this year, and fantasy recruitment is way down too, so I’ve screwed up the normal recruitment process. Instead what I’m going to do is to get a list of people who would be interested in joining this league, and then we’ll vote on who we accept into the league. Proven dedication/fantasy skill is essential here.
Draft date is kind of up in the air. Provisional date is Wednesday Sep 4 at 9pm eastern, but that may be changed. And in fact I think we drafted after week 1 last year which was interesting - the pre-season cheat sheets go out the window and you have to adjust for the actual NFL action of week 1. We’re also considering finding a way to run multiple re-drafts throughout the season (probably every 4 weeks) but we’ll have to figure that one out later.
Anyway, if you want to submit yourself for consideration, post in the league thread.
Running backs in Denver. I have hillman, but Moreno went undrafted. After watching the game yesterday, I’m inclined to drop hillman for Moreno. Am I crazy?
No.
We’re recruiting for the Pick em and survival leagues and the Yardage pool.
I want to get that sports betting competition off the ground, but I was hoping someone else might run it. But I may end up doing it myself, because it seems interesting.
I’m still thinking I might do it; no point until after the preseason though.
Had my live draft this weekend. We lost a couple players late, so it’s only 10 players. Standard scoring (no PPR), except QB’s get 6 for TD passes. We also draft coaches, which give you 10 points if they win, -10 if they lose, but you don’t have to start them. I had the 8th pick. Here’s my team (with round drafted in parens afterward)
QB Drew Brees (Keeper)
QB Michael Vick (10)
RB Jamaal Charles (1)
RB Frank Gore (4)
RB Darren McFadden (8)
RB Ahmad Bradshaw (12)
WR Larry Fitzgerald (2)
WR Hakeem Nicks (5)
WR Jordy Nelson (6)
WR Chris Givens (13)
WR KenBrell Thompkins (16)
TE Jimmy Graham (3)
TE Zach Sudfeld (14)
K Who Gives (17)
K A Fuck? (18)
D/ST Bengals (11)
D/ST Cardinals (15)
Coach Bellicheat (7)
Coach Pete Carroll (9)
Overall, I like my team. I loved having Graham in the 3rd round, but the Brees/Graham combination could take it hit if either gets injured or starts sucking. I took McFadden even though I despise him because he was great value, and I drafted my coaches earlier than most players for those 10 points.
My biggest fault is not paying enough attention to downside/injuries. Gore/Bradshaw/Nelson/Nicks are all coming off injuries. A high risk team with, hopefully, high reward.
What do you all think?
Those running backs are brutal, and not in a good way. Tons of risk with pretty low ceilings on all of them except Jamaal. Fitzgerald in the 2nd in a 10-team league is too early - what other WRs were on the board?
After the top 10 or so RB’s (who were all gone except Charles when I picked), there isn’t a RB who doesn’t have question marks and who aren’t all a big ol’ tier of “could be a #1 RB”. So rather than reach for a David Wilson/Steven Jackson/Reggie Bush/Chris Johnson/etc. in the third round, I waited, got my stud TE, and ended up with Gore. After him, it was just another huge group of RB’s with question marks, so I waited again. I certainly sacrificed the position, but to me, there was no point in joining the “I have to get a RB NOW!!!” mayhem after the top 10 are gone.
The draft round is a bit misleading because we have one keeper, and anyone drafting who hadn’t kept a player gets an immediate supplemental pick before the first round. So there’s already 10 players off the board before we begin what is called the first round. So, yeah, 2nd is too early, but 38th player taken isn’t bad for Fitzy.
With him, it was a decision between Fitz/Colston/Vincent Jackson/Torrey Smith/Roddy White. I liked Fitz the best of those.
I dug through my mess of papers from the draft (yes, there was heavy drinking involved during it), and I actually took Jimmy Graham in the 2nd and Fitz in the third.
Yeah, I figured something was up with the keepers in there - 38th isn’t bad at all, especially given those other options (I like Roddy, but shy away from him being the #2 option in a target-rich environment).
I know I created a separate recruitment thread for this purpose, but I had 2 last minute cancellations in the big league and I need replacements quickly. Draft is tonight at 8:45 eastern, but you probably have to join the league an hour before then. The league is really interesting - 20 teams spreads the talent really thin, it’s definitely fun. If you’re interested PM me your e-mail and I’ll send out the invite - be at your computer this afternoon.