Because it is sooo early for fantasy football, I've had to spend a ton of time at espn. As a result, I caught the "Hey wouldn't it be neat if you could sort of pick a real NFL team" bug. I'm thinking of floating this idea in the Back Alley Knife Fight, but we're definitely doing this in The American Pigskin Classic, which will draft at my official start of the fantasy season, July 5, Independence Day weekend!
Update 7/21/10: We drafted on 7/5/10 and the following 10 teams were taken. It is, by design, a low-maintenance league, so very little will happen before the season, especially the bye weeks. Since the draft is probably my favorite part anyway, this suits me well.
Jacksonville Jaguars
San Fransisco 49ers
New Orleans Saints
Minnesota Vikings
Baltimore Ravens
Atlanta Falcons
Cleveland Browns (!)
Indianapolis Colts
Houston Texans
Dallas Cowboys
Miami Dolphins
Green Bay Packers
Now obviously, it can't just be "pick any team" without any adjustments or it wouldn't be a challenge. I mean, those poor Buccaneer fans wouldn't stand a chance in real life or fantasy! So I came up with some tweaks to balance out the obvious advantages of some NFL franchises over others. It may not be perfect, but it's as close to a level playing as I can get right now. Presto! you get to root for your favorite NFL team and play fantasy! Here's how it would work:
Four easy steps, and you're off to the races!
Select your NFL franchise. For simplicity's sake, this is done on a first-come, first-served basis. I worked out a bidding process that I thought was fair, but the early comments showed that the complexity outweighed the fun of rooting for your hometown team. So now all you do is a) register for the league, b) check the message board for unclaimed teams, and c) claim a team by posting the name on the message board for all to see.
Now that you have your franchise, d) you select any 3 of that NFL team's players, including rookies. So for example, a Jets fan could select Shonn Green, Santonio Holmes, and the Jets Defense. Ideally, you would list these players in the same message board post claiming the franchise.
Once all 10 (or 12) GMs have selected their franchise players, the commissioner will use the keeper function to assign them. The remaining players constitute the free agent pool for the draft. [Strictly speaking, this works very well with 2 players, as most NFL teams tend to have at least 2 players you wouldn't mind starting. But to honor the spirit of the idea, which is to actually feel like you're rooting for a team, I bumped this up to 3. At 4, the idea becomes unworkable on competitiveness grounds.]
For the American Pigskin Classic the franchise selection must be completed by midnight of July 2, to give everyone a chance to prepare for the draft a couple of days later. (So much for that idea!)
That's it! That's all you have to do until the draft. I included some features to the league that are intended to keep it fun and competitive, so you may want to read those before making your franchise decision.
League Structure, Features, and Rules
Power Rankings -- Power rankings are used to establish the draft order as well as the amount of the Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB) that we use for the waiver system. They are a combination of the fantasy star power of their players and the 2009 regular season finish of that team. To save time and effort, fantasy star power is considered for only the 10 most successful and/or popular NFL franchises (#23-#32 in the list below) while the rest of the 22 teams are ranked strictly according to their regular season finish.
Draft Priority and FAAB Based on Power Rankings
01 St. Louis Rams -$160
02 Detroit Lions - $110
03 Tampa Bay Buccaneers - $160
04 Washington Redskins - $160
05 Kansas City Chiefs - $115
06 Seattle Seahawks - $160
07 Oakland Raiders - $160
08 Cleveland Browns - $140
09 Buffalo Bills - $140
10 Miami Dolphins - $90
11 Jacksonville Jaguars - $90
12 Chicago Bears - $90
13 Tennessee Titans - $125
14 San Francisco 49ers - $50
15 New York Giants - $70
16 Denver Broncos - $140
17 Pittsburgh Steelers - $70
18 New York Jets - $125
19 Atlanta Falcons - $40
20 Cincinnati Bengals - $90
21 Arizona Cardinals - $90
22 Philadelphia Eagles - $50
23 Panthers - $35
24 Baltimore Ravens - $65
25 New Orleans Saints - $25
26 San Diego Chargers - $25
27 Houston Texans - $35
28 Dallas Cowboys - $25
29 Indianapolis Colts - $25
30 New England Patriots - $25
31 Green Bay Packers - $25
32 Minnesota Vikings - $25
Power Ranking Effect on Draft Order - Teams draft in reverse order of their power ranking. For example, whoever chooses the St. Louis Rams (God bless his fuzzy little soul) will automatically pick first regardless of anyone else's selection. But whoever chooses the Vikings, (and you know someone will) automatically chooses last. Everyone else will be somewhere in between depending on the specific combination of franchises chosen.
Power Ranking Effect on FAAB - The league uses the FAAB system of acquiring free agents and players on waivers. The initial amount of your FAAB will depend on the power ranking of the team you select; the more loaded your chosen franchise is with fantasy stars, the smaller your budget. It's a little bit art and mostly science, but the amounts are listed in the table above. There will be no increase in the FAAB for the rest of the season. Should everyone run out of money during the course of the season, the waiver system will revert to the default rolling basis.
The Draft Structure is not serpentine. Every round will proceed 1-10, 1-10, 1-10, etc.
League Structure -- The league will be organized into 2 divisions, formed by using the same power rankings as the draft order, strongest to weakest. For example, if the Cowboys, Colts, Patriots, Packers, and Vikings were among the teams selected, they would be in the same division. But in any case the teams that drafted 1-5 will be in one division, and the 6-10 teams in another (same for 12 teams).
That's it! And no, I can't wait to try it!
Mini-FAQ
Eligibility - Invites and anyone reading this.
League: American Pigskin Classic (ID# 70773)
Team Names - Team names should be the official name of the NFL team chosen, but I'm flexible on this.
Rules -- In addition to the posted scoring and roster settings:
a) FAAB free agent bidding rules apply...the minimum bid on free agents is $1 and the maximum FAAB budget for the season is listed in the Power Rankings table above. You must have at least $1 left in your budget to make a bid.
b) There is no trading and limited (5) free agent acquisitions are allowed for the season, so use them wisely. (Tweaked on 6/30/10, and again 7/3/10)
c) Each active roster spot must be filled with a player at all times, including Kickers and Defenses. The matchup penalty will be a 10 point reduction per open position. However, bye week players may fill active roster spots. In the ghastly event that a team is abandoned the GM will be locked out and the team managed by the commissioner. Abandoned teams are ineligible for the playoffs regardless of record. GMs absent from the live draft risk being locked out immediately.
d) Any issue not covered here or in the settings will be fairly dealt with by the Commissioner. Drafting skills and using your waiver wire claims wisely can make or break you, so for once, please pay attention to bye weeks during the draft.
Best of luck to everyone!
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