PolySciFi Blog

Each year, I run a reverse fantasy football league. The premise is pretty simple - instead of fielding the best players in the league, field the players that do the most damage to their team. A player can damage his team by throwing interceptions, fumbling, having a lousy rushing average, missing field goals, being a defense that gives up a lot of points, and so on. In normal fantasy leagues, you'll lose if your players we're playing so badly, but in this system, your players' incompetence is rewarded.

The one interesting twist to this is if your player is damaging your team too badly, he'll probably get benched, and you'll be SoL. What you really want is a player like Ricky Williams who didn't score too many touchdowns, got the ball a whole heck of a lot, and typically did 2-3 yards and a cloud of dust (oh and had a fumbling problem). However, because there was no better RB and the QB blew, Ricky kept getting the ball and was never benched. Compare thie to the rotating Detroit/Carolina QB situation - each QB was sure to get you points, but probably for only a couple weeks before he got benched.

If you're interested in playing, shoot me an email (jody.neel@gmail.com), and I'll send you the sign up info (not too interested in random people I don't know signing up though regular blog readers are welcome).

To those who have played in past years reading this (which I believe are the majority of the blog's readers), I'll be sending out an official invite today (league id and password). Related points: yahoo no longer requires the use of a Do Not Cut List (which was quite annoying for those who missed the live draft), and yahoo now displays fantasy points for each player under the current scoring regime. This latter made my life much easier in that I didn't have to cut and paste every player's stats into excel to crunch numbers. Accordingly, RBs and QBs are both worth about the same (and score about as many points as in a normal league), WR and TE are worth a little less (again like a normal league), the majority of kickers score positive points (though some are still negative), and defense numbers have been tinkered with (approximately similar worth to QBs and RBs).

For those who think reverse fantasy football is a great idea and would like to start your own league: the following is the league settings which I am using (kinda based on a value under replacement player approach, though the replacement player would be pretty good).

Roster Positions: QB, WR, WR, WR, RB, RB, TE, K, DEF, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN

Stat Categories:

Completions (-1)
Incomplete Passes (2)
Passing Yards (-50 yards per point)
Passing Touchdowns (-4)
Interceptions (5)
Sacks (3)
Rushing Attempts (1.5)
Rushing Yards (-4 yards per point)
Rushing Touchdowns (-6)
Receptions (2)
Reception Yards (-20 yards per point)
Reception Touchdowns (-4)
2-Point Conversions (-2)
Fumbles (2)
Fumbles Lost (2)
Field Goals 0-19 Yards (0)
Field Goals 20-29 Yards (-0.1)
Field Goals 30-39 Yards (-0.3)
Field Goals 40-49 Yards (-0.7)
Field Goals 50+ Yards (-1.5)
Field Goals Missed 0-19 Yards (10)
Field Goals Missed 20-29 Yards (8)
Field Goals Missed 30-39 Yards (6)
Field Goals Missed 40-49 Yards (4)
Field Goals Missed 50+ Yards (3)
Point After Attempt Made (0)
Point After Attempt Missed (5)
Sack (-2)
Interception (-3)
Fumble Recovery (-4)
Touchdown (-6)
Safety (-5)
Block Kick (-3)
Points Allowed 0 points (0)
Points Allowed 1-6 points (3.5)
Points Allowed 7-13 points (10)
Points Allowed 14-20 points (17)
Points Allowed 21-27 points (24)
Points Allowed 28-34 points (31)
Points Allowed 35+ points (40)

Fractional Points: Yes
Negative Points: Yes


Comments(13) |