Game of the Week

It’s a co-owner face off! There are only two teams in Maize and Blue with two owners and they are in a tight race for The Wood division title. At stake here is “The Wood” name, as division winners earn the right to name their entire division. Should Hong and Eric’s team eek out a win over J and Jayvee, we’re looking at a possibly very un PG-13 name going up on the charts. Someone prevent that! Pooh vs Fockers, let’s get it on!

100 Acre Wood Pooh Bears (8-3) vs * Fockers (7-4)
Last season, Fockers aka Human Amoebas was out of the playoffs and finished third in the division at 6-7. They are clearly much better this time around, with four wins in their last five games, but is that enough to usurp Pooh Bears, who are coming off a 126 point week and have also won four of their last five games? The computer scientists of ESPN tell us that both teams are projected to score 87 points next week, and that means we’re looking at a potential knuckle biter.

QB: It’s a battle of super steady Andrew Luck versus a surging Cam Newton. While Killer can throw up a dud once in awhile, the Panthers are rolling and Newton could easily outgun Andre the Giant. Still, we’ll give the advantage to Luck for his consistency. Edge: Fockers

RB: It hasn’t been pretty in the backfield for either team this season. Pooh Bears lost Doug Martin to irrelevance and then a seaon ending injury. Fockers’ Ahmad Bradshaw has been useless, while DeAngelo Williams is back to the bench. Rookie Montee Ball has been less than useless. The good news is, GM Hong patiently waited for first overall pick Le’Veon Bell to heal up and now he’s the bell cow in the backfield. Fockers will also also use free agent pick up Pierre Thomas for the first time all season, electing to sit pass catching specialist Danny Woodhead. J’s team will roll with Ray Rice, coming off his best game of the season, and his own pass catching wonder, Shane Vereen. There's not much to love from either backfield combination. Edge: Neither

WR/TE: First things first, Jimmy Graham is an outsized advantage over Kellen Winslow. In fact, it’s such a huge edge that Fockers will likely find themselves in a double digit hole just from this one matchup. The worse news is that Pooh Bears’ receiving corps also features red hot Antonio Brown and the always dangerous Dez Bryant. Demaryius Thomas has been spectacular all season for Fockers but he and the surprising Pierre Garcon don’t quite make up for the difference in tight end quality. Edge: Pooh Bears

DEF/K: In the world of unpredicatable defenses, it’s likely neither Steelers DEF nor Browns DEF will put up more than 5-8 points each. The bigger issue is if Browns DEF could stumble into a negative outting, as they’ve done before. In a nice twist of fate, it’s Steelers versus Browns in their real NFL matchup this week. As for the kicking matchup, Phil Dawson is a bit hotter than David Akers but that’s by only a few points. We don’t see either making much difference if they can play to their averages. Edge: Neither

INTANGIBLES: In his rookie season, Hong has been King Midas Jr. and made all the right moves. His trash talking backed up by wins has rendered the rest of the league quiet. An opportunity for a big upgrade at TE slipped away at the trade deadline last week but his bold moves this off-season set the table for a winning season. As for J, he (probably deliberately) annihilated Porta's team on the weekend of his wedding. I mean, that's some Red Wedding shit right? Geezes. What a friend! Edge: Fockers

Prediction: As much as we’d like to see an upset, we’re concerned that the Pooh Bears' receiving advantage is just too great. Plus, Cam Newton could easily negate Fockers’ slight advantage in QB and that could spell doom for Hong’s division hopes. Over the last three weeks, Fockers have been steadily declining in points scored from a season high of 104 points in WK9 to last weekend’s 64 points. Pooh Bears threw up a 46 point clunker in WK10 but otherwise they’ve been near the magical DeLorean 88 ppg mark. We smell a division clinching win for Pooh Bears!

[Immediate update:] Early breaking news, the big mouth co-owner of Fockers guarantees a victory this week. I'll let you guess which owner it was. It's a very Broadway Joe move, but you know, Sea World Hong. We're changing our pick to Fockers for chutzpah and you know, J's karmic retribution for last weekend's slaughter of Italian Stallionz. Almost literally on his wedding day...

Chasing the Postseason

With only two weeks left to go in the regular season, it looks like most of the playoff spots are locked up. Let’s take a quick look at the playoff picture. [Last year’s playoff peek.]

Western Conference
Not a lot of change here, as Jedi Knights and MoRRie’s Pogiboys, last year’s division winners, are assured of playoff positions. There’s no intrigue at all in Hoke-A-Mania as Pogiboys have a three game lead on Ann Arbor Bamfers and the rest of the pack.

Over in Knights Who Say Ni, Jedi have a one game lead on P Funk All Stars, and they face off against them in a possibly pivotal WK13 matchup. Chris’ team has already beaten Paolo’s once this season but their tie-breakers aren’t that far out of reach if Paolo can tie up their H2H record.

With Pogiboys, Jedi, and P Funk likely in the playoffs, it’s down to two 5-6 teams — Ann Arbor Bamfers and Another Bad Creation — to duke it out for that last wildcard spot. Bamfers owns the H2H tiebreaker this season, so the edge is with them. There’s an outside chance that Hungry Hungry Ouroboros could edge into the playoff picture but they are one game behind their competitors. Sayonara to Original Salt and Team Cameltoe, start making moves for next season!

Eastern Conference
It’s the same old story over in this conference too. Mandalorian Warriors and 100 Acre Pooh Bears won their respective divisions last season also and both hold the edge heading into the last two weeks of the regular season. We feel pretty confident that Warriors will win Lebowski Achievers as they are two games up on Detroit Players. As for the Pooh Bears, they are being chased hard by * Fockers and this week’s matchup between them could go a long way toward determining who wins the division crown. J’s team currently holds the 1-0 H2H edge but that could change with a win by Hong.

In any case, all that division title jostling is the only excitement as the other four teams in the East — Squirtle Squad, Italian Stallionz, WS Tartars, and Dunder Mifflin Paper Company — are at least two games back of the playoff hunt and probably should start prepping for summery vacation spots. Better luck next year gentlemen!

Potential New Rules

So we’ve got a couple of possible rules things that could be up for voting. I figure it's time to get the ball rolling on it in an organized way. Let’s get a clear view of what possible changes we're looking at. Also, here are some of the comments from our previous poll on CBS when Felipe asked "We've talked about it all off-season, so here goes. Should we change the scoring format to include points per reception (PPR)? Also, should we change the format to include fractional points (i.e., 1 yard rushing = 1/10 of a point)?"

Note: Anything implemented would be for two seasons from now (I believe). Also this is just the new rules list I came up with, and the Google Doc below needs some rewriting perhaps or revamping before an official vote. So don't vote yet, but take a look or comment away!

[[ SAMPLE GOOGLE DOC POLL ]] See bottom of post for update...

1. Fractional Scoring
The argument for is easy: each yard should be worth something. A lot of scoring systems now go with fractional scoring and it’s possible Maize and Blue should move in that direction. An alternate take is that fractions should only be used in the playoffs.

2. TE eligibility for Flex Position
With the advent of two TE sets, it’s been proposed that we allow the Flex position to include RB/WR/TE instead of just RB/WR.

3. Adding a Position, RB/WR/TE
As difficult as it is to field sixteen starting RBs already, it seems like most NFL teams use at least two RBs, even in a part time role. Could adding another required RB position better mirror that? Also, I would like to propose adding a WR position, to reflect how NFL teams now use more receivers. Or perhaps just adding a WR/TE position instead of the previous option to RB/WR/TE flex. Also, adding another skill position would also lower the overall effect of DEF and K, which is something I'm always for.

4. Points Per Reception
We all know the pros and cons. Here’s a refresher: The Case for PPR (2009). The purists think PPR is free points for something a receiver should do. What do you think?

5. Lowering FG Points
Currently a kicker is rewarded +1 point for a 40+ yard FG and +2 for a 50+ yarder. The argument is that a forty yard FG should be normal. The rule change would be for FGs of 1-49 yards to only accrue 3 points, plus an extra point if it’s 50+ yards. Additionally, I would like to nominate points off for a missed FG and extra point.

6. Toilet Bowl
Would a Toilet Bowl for the top picks each year be preferable to a lottery system? A Toilet Bowl would keep the non-playoff teams engaged longer and make them earn a top pick. For example, each of the non-playoff teams would be tossed into a seeded eight team tournament for the #1 and #2 overall picks, with the draft reverting to reverse order of standings after those two picks have been determined by the Toile Bowl winner and runner-up.

7. FAAB: Free Agent Auction Bidding (What is it?)
Currently we use a traditional waiver system that works in reverse order of standings. The FAAB system gives each team a certain amount of money each season, usually $100, to make waiver pickups. "If a team would like to add a player, that team will secretly bid a certain amount. On the next waiver process day, the team with the highest amount bid will be awarded the player, and the bid will be subtracted from that team's budget.”

In theory, FAAB adds additional strategy and levels the playing field for waiver pick ups. FAAB allows teams to compete over the hot free agents. Also, FAAB mitigates the effect of using a waiver wire pick position to grab a K on a bye week, and thus sending you to the back of the line.

8. Using league fees to buy and maintain a URL
We are looking at getting a URL for Maize and Blue, which would cost in the neighborhood of $10 a year to maintain. Chris would host the URL I believe. Pros: Email list! Cons: None?


[Update 11/19/2013] New Google Doc: Rules Ballot 2013, plus a quarterback TD vote, and also some voting rules suggested by Matt.

[Update 11/20/2013] Looks like we're voting?! Here are the current results so far: Rules Ballot 2013 Results.

Voting Rules 

• Each franchise has one vote; co-owners of any franchise must agree on a single ballot
• All rule changes require a majority of 9 votes to
• Some questions include a clarifying question in case the measure is passed. Even if a franchise is voting against a change, each franchise should select an answer to the clarifying question in case the measure is passed.

Merry Go Round

With rumors flying and one late trade acceptance that slid in too late for the deadline, this year saw only one move before the post-WK10 cut off date. Defending champs Mandalorian Warriors moved to shore up a receiving position that had semi-plagued them all season. Last year’s Super Bowl hero, Roddy White, was moved for a healthier superstar receiver: Larry Fitzgerald.

Despite floundering a bit so far this year, Fitzgerald is averaging 8.1 points a game this season, has four double digit games, and is a huge upgrade over the missing-in-action White. Losing Steven Jackson won’t be a problem either because Knowshown Moreno has more than replaced (In)Action Jackson’s RB2 stats. With Rob Gronkowski returning to form, the Warriors are getting ready for a long stretch run. Already averaging a league leading 91.0 points per game, it’s highly likely GM Matt just assured his 8-2 team of another Super Bowl appearance. Future defending champs take note: This is how you defend your title! Aggressive, be aggressive! (Does this move have shades of Matt moving for Roddy last year, and then going to win the title? Yes, yes! The fantasy gods reward bold moves.)

Trade ID: #170

• Original Salt receive Roddy White and Steven Jackson
• Mandalorian Warriors receive Larry Fitzgerald and Nick Folk

On the other side of things, Original Salt was facing a losing season after a promising start and is already looking toward the off-season. White and Jackson have been injured most of the season — they’ve combined for only 36 points this entire season — and the two are clearly not going to help much the rest of the way. Both are back but still fighting through their various dings. Despite a roster featuring Philip Rivers, Matt Forte, and the ghost of Jordan Cameron, Reno has likely decided to throw in the towel and hope for a high draft pick next year.

Kicker Nick Folk, included in the deal for we're not sure why, has already been dropped by Mandalorian Warriors. Folk has been on fire recently and is the #3 ranked kicker, so it might behoove someone to scoop him up. The Warriors already had Matt Prater and Garrett Hartley on board, while Original Salt employs Robbie Gould. Folk has been outscoring all three of them, and now he's a FA. Go figure.