Football Update: Final and Bowl Games

RFSJunior football ended the season with a respectable 4th place. As I noted earlier, I was pretty amazed to have made the playoffs, but then my players did not do well in my playoff games. Still, 4th place is better than I thought I could do. I still need to decide if I will play fantasy football next year or not. It was interesting, but I found I didn't get into it like I did baseball.

College football is a different story. I Iike that, mostly because I am doing very well at it. I ended the regular season at 560th worldwide, 66th in the Fans of OSU Group, and 13th in the Fans from New Jersey group. That puts me in the 99th percentile. It's fun, but it's a little disconcerting, also, since for over half the season all I did was pick the favorite to beat the spread. That was enough to do really well.

I am also, for the heck of it, in a BCS pick-em group. Here we pick who will win each bowl game. It's a straight-up pick-em game; no point spreads here. I am doing well in this game as well, by using my usual strtegy of always picking the favorite. At the moment, that places me at 57th in the group. My downfall will likely be the BCS Title game. I am picking OSU over LSU for unabashadly sentimental reasons. I'll report fully after January 7.

RFSJ

Playoff Update

Well, RFSJuniors got beaten - badly - in last week's playoff game. My QB Tony Romo was nearly shut down, and my TE, Antonio Gates, only the top tight end in the NFL, started but got no action. So the final score was 85-55. So that means this week I'm playing for 3rd place. I admit I'd like to finish third, although I also have to admit I've done far better - and through sheer luck only - than I ever hoped I would.

RFSJ

I Made the Playoffs!

The fantasy football league I play in has a playoff system built in it, so that the top four teams play against each other in week 15 and 16 in a championship round, and the next four play against each other in a consolation round, in a strict 1-vs-4, 2-vs-3 format. RFSJuniors finished Week 14 in 4th place, so we play the No. 1 team OaklandSlugga in the league this upcoming week. The playoff bracket is here. If I win this game I can't finish lower than second in the league.

I'm kind of amazed actually. It seems like mostly luck on my part that I've gotten this far. I don't have the sense of this game that I think I am getting in Fantasy Baseball about how to win, but it's quite clear to me that I happened to draft one of the two top quarterbacks this year in Dallas's Tony Romo. If I did not have him I would simply have been a member of the pack. I am still unclear about how one actually prepares to win in this version of the game, and I'm not sure I'll play again next year or not.

In the meantime, I can't seem to find a patron saint for football. Any ideas?

RFSJ

Football Update: Week 11

Well, RFSJuniors did win last night, but so did Nuclear Blast, so I remain in 5th place in the league. I should be happy, right? I mean, I have never played fantasy football before, and I'm in the top half of the league. And you're right, I'm pleased. But it's funny how one always wants to do better in these sorts of things. My original goal last season in baseball was to finish in the top half of the league - and I did. I finished 4th. But I was second for most of the season, not sliding slowly downward until August. And there were a few glorious days when I was actually first in my league. I liked that and found I wanted more of it. And so I find myself gently scheming to get in the playoff bracket in my football league. I'm not sure I can do that, but we'll see.

In College news, I continue to do really really well by doing nothing but always picking the favored teams each week. Even though Ohio State lost, I ended up 12 for 21 for the week, or 57% correct. However, in the rankings I am now 442nd worldwide (from 438th) and 31st in the Fans of Ohio State group and a truly mystifying tied-for-14th in the Fans From New Jersey group. So on one level the point spread system is working - most of the time, the effective odds are about 50-50. But what is strange to me is how bad people must be at picking teams to win. Do people do so mostly emotionally? Yes, I will always pick Ohio State to win, but they also are nearly always favored to do so. I mean the point spread data is right there. Or maybe people think they can do better than the point spread. However, the data seem to indicate they can't.

Huh.

RFSJ

I'm rooting for SF

Seattle plays San Francisco tonight on Monday Night Football. I wouldn't normally have a preference because the Colts aren't playing. (2 losses in a row. Come on guys!) But in Week 10 of my fantasy football league, the No. 4 team Nuclear Blast is losing badly to IndyRocks, and RFSJuniors is currently winning against the No. 2 team Ribeyes. If both Juniors and Indy win tonight, I will move up to 4th place and be in the playoffs if I can hold on. And it all hinges on the Seattle-SF game tonight. Nuclear Blast has the Seattle defense, and if SF beats them soundly, Blast will probably not win tonight.

So go 49ers, beat the Seahawks!

RFSJ

Football Update - Week 10

Well, RFSJunior Football is above .500 - we're 5-4-0 going into Week 10. This week we play the No. 2 team in the league, Ribeyes, who are 7-2-0. The next few weeks are crucial if I intend to make it into the playoff bracket, because I need to be in the top 4 teams in the league to do that and right now I am No. 5 with 4 weeks to go. The good news is that many of Ribeyes' starters are off this week (their teams don't play and so neither do they) and they will have to start backups who aren't as good. So I may have a chance to win.

Some interesting developments in my NCAA Pick-em league. For the past few weeks I have consisted picked the favorite team in each game to beat the appointed point spreads. I expected to do about 50%, because the point spread system is supposed to handicap the stronger teams so that lesser teams can play them. (The lower the point spread the closer the teams are considered to be in strength. A zero point spread team would essentially mean even odds - a toss-up.) And in fact I have been doing about 50%; 9 of 16 correct in Week 8; 8 of 15 in Week 9, but then 14 of 20 last week. And my relative rankings have climbed consistently over the last three weeks: This week I am 638th overall in the entire league, 60th in the "Fans of Ohio State" group, and an astounding 18th in the "Fans from New Jersey" group. 18th place puts me in the top 50 - woo hoo!!!!! What's interesting is that the point spread system failed last week - the advantage still went strongly with the favorite team. I'm going to pick all the favorites again this week and see what happens. I may not be 18th, 60th, and 638th for long!

Go Bucks! Beat Illinois!

RFSJ

I got skunked!

Well, Week 6 of the NFL season is over, and none too soon for me, either. I got soundly thrashed, 124-56, by Nuclear Blast. I learned a lot though. I did not realize until it came upon me the significance of the Bye in the NFL. At least once in the season each NFL team, and thus all their players, are off that week - it's called a "bye" for reasons that escape me. Last week I had several top players, including all my RBs either Bye'd or injured. So I actually competed with fewer players than I needed to. Problem was that it did not seem to make sense to pick up one of the available free agents as a substitute, because then I'd have to drop one of my better players, so I just went without. If I play this game next year I will need to take Byes into account as I examine my roster.

However, I am still 3-3 so far this year, better at the moment than several other teams. This week I play Cohrs Lite, which is currently 2-4. I have no Bye'd players scheduled this week, so that's a ray of light.

RFSJ

Football Season Has Begun!

Well, the 2007 NCAA football season has begun, and the NFL season is about to. I am participating in a Pick-em league for NCAA and a Fantasy League based on the NFL. You can see my picks for each week of the NCAA season here. Last week, I was 11 for 19. I thought that was pretty respectable - I got more than half of my picks right. But it was only enough to be something like 16,000th overall. Oh well. I confess to not spending a lot of time on this. I mostly just pick the higher ranked team to win. Except of course, I will always pick the Ohio State Buckeyes to win. Always. And it didn't bother me at all that Michigan lost week....

The Fantasy League I'm playing in is organized a bit differently than the baseball leagues. The overall approach is the same: each owner drafts a team of NFL players and then accumulates stats over the course of the season. However, there is a featured matchup each week, where my stats are compared to those of just one other owner. I'm not quite certain how that works, but I will know in a few days. In the meantime, RFSJunior Football is here.

RFSJ