Welcome

It is that time of year again! NFL season is upon us and, as the two-time defending champion*, I feel it is time that I step aside to let some of the less-astute players have a kick at the can (also to let the past organizers get in on this). I will be happy to organize a fantasy league for any interested players to participate.

Week 1 Kick-off features two no-name teams that no one expects to beat the Patriots: the Packers vs the Bears on September 5 at 20:20 EST.

Draft will be at 18:00 EST on September 5 - see below for details.

Which are you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_NmwtttzA8

Structure/Size

Ideally, I would like to run a 10- or 12-team league, but numbers are flexible. If there are more than 12, I will break the players down into two leagues randomly (no - I don't really care about experience as I know enough guys with 20+ leagues under their belts who still have drafted retired and/or dead players...). If needed, I can manage a second team to ensure we have equal numbers in each league (since I am ineligible for crescents, this should not be an issue).

Format

Website: ESPN

Scoring Rules: PPR as per ESPN's defaults.

Positions Breakdown

Position	Starters
QB	1
RB	2
WR	2
TE	1
Flex	1
K	1
IDP	2
Bench	4-7*

• For bench size, this will depend on how big the league(s) are. The Free Agent pool needs to have some blood in it to allow for owners to actually make moves and pay attention to guys on hot/cold streaks, so I don't want a 12-team league with a 7-man bench that leaves you with the best FA pickup being a practice squad call-up. If the league is 12-team, it will be a 4-man bench (132 offensive players accounted for), 11- and 10-team will be 5-man (132 and 120 players respectively), and 9- and 8-team will be 7-man (126 and 112 players respectively). This also factors in that nobody in their right minds puts a K or an IDP on the bench, so you are only carrying benches for the 7 offensive starters.

Regular season: Depending on the size of the leagues, regular season will be weeks 1-12 at the minimum (NFL Bye weeks go to week 12).

Playoffs: Weeks 15, 16 at the minimum. No games in week 17 - full stop, no negotiating - fantasy football does not belong in week 17. I want to have half the teams eligible for playoffs so we don't get lame-duck leagues by the mid-season mark. That will thus need me to fiddle with the playoff weeks and length of the playoff matchups. Playoff tie-breaks will be set by the head to head record.

Draft (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoF6jsjDIZ8)

We only have about a week to gather players and for me to set up the leagues and invites. Because of that (and my work schedule), I want to have the draft on Thursday, September 5 at 18:00 EST. Opening game is at 20:20 EST that night, so we will have time to get the draft(s) finished before kick-off.

How to Join

Once you submit, the link to the Google Form will be available. Include your name, PIN, and email address. I will send out the link to the league as soon as I have it set up.

I will close the Google Form on Thursday, September 5 at 14:00 EST and no further entries will be accepted at that point unless I have an odd number and one last entry will make the numbers work perfectly AND I have time to add the last entry to the league. I don't like being wishy-washy about this, but this will need common sense on my part to make it work for me to allow an exception - basically, if it saves me a headache and it makes the league(s) better for the participants, I will put in the work to make it happen. If I'm sitting at a perfectly balanced league and someone wants in after the cut-off, I won't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj-I3vYX64c

If there is a second team being managed by me (ie - I added one for me to manage in order to balance the numbers), I may consider allowing someone to take that team over before Week 2, but anything beyond that would need me to check with higher powers (ie - Howie or those of his ilk... I mean pandas) to make sure we don't tromp on toes for crescents and the current rules for leagues vs crescents.

Crescents

If 1 league, it will be determined by the playoff ranks - simple enough.

If 2 leagues, this is where it gets a little tricky. The tie breaker for the 1/2 spot and the 3/4 spot in the overall standings will take me a few minutes to hash it out manually, but it will be a week-to-week head-to-head record between the individual champions (for 1st) and the individual runners-up (for 3rd) as if they had played each other for every week of the season.

If still tied after that (ie 8-8), then we will use regular season points for, then regular season points against if needed. IF one of the champions had a bye week in their playoff schedule, that week will NOT be used in the head-to-head calculation.

Disclaimer

*to clarify my title as two-time defending champion, I direct your attention to the 2015-2016 league and the 2017-2018 league. There was no league in the intervening years. Championship! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs1N5NYyb24