[Hi, I'm Peter Schoenke the co-founder and still "president" of this web site after 27 years. I haven't written much in recent years but I have the itch again. I'm going to start a periodic column about just fantasy sports in general. It will mostly be about how to run fantasy leagues. I participate in about 40 season-long leagues per year in 7+ sports and am the commissioner in many of them, so I hopefully have some worthwhile experience to share.
Much of this column is going to be updating and improving pieces I've written in the past. Such as this one, that first appeared January 2, 2010. ]
It's Week 18 in the NFL season and most leagues are over.
Why don't more season-long leagues use Week 18 and thus have Week 16 be the last regular season week? (Unless you have 3 rounds of playoffs, which case Week 15 would be the first week of your playoffs). I know Matthew Stafford, the Ravens and Chiefs are taking Week 18 off. But should your league?
Most fantasy leagues don't use Week 18 because many playoff-bound NFL teams rest starters ahead of the playoffs with their playoff seeding set. However, isn't this overreacting to the odds of it having an impact?
The scenario of having a league's Super Bowl ruined in Week 18 from key players being rested ahead of the playoffs doesn't happen as frequently as everyone fears. In my hometown league when we used the final week for the super bowl, it happened 2 or 3 times in 15 years [we eventually voted to move it to the penultimate week]. If there are only a few players in the NFL who are rested ahead of the playoffs, what are the odds that these players are thus owned by the two super bowl teams in a 12-or-14 team league? It's low.
Plus there are some compelling reasons to use Week 18:
- Why should the 6 to 12 non-playoff teams in your league lose one week of enjoyment of fantasy football just to prevent a low-odds scenario of the Super Bowl being ruined by a key player being rested.
- Why is a player being rested in Week 18 any different than a player injury in Week 4 or a bye week? A fantasy team's bench counts and that's true in the playoffs. Sure, a team this week won't have Christian McCaffrey but two weeks ago a team like my team in the NFFC RotoWire Online Championship playoffs didn't have C.J. Stroud. You can't pick up free agents in the NFFC playoffs and I took a zero with three injured QBs on my bench.
- Taking the last week off the schedule doesn't even ensure the resting of players won't impact the playoffs. In 2012 and in 2006, the Colts [with Peyton Manning and thus a ton of fantasy stars] had such a big lead in their playoff seeding they rested key players in Week 16 (they also rested players in Week 15 in 2006).
- For awhile, the default playoff format on ESPN was a combined final two-week game for the championship. Many still use that format. That may be a way to use Week 18 without some of the problems, but I still maintain the odds of the championship game being impacted are low enough that its worth considering using that week alone.
There are other ways, of course, to utilize Week 18. I'm in a league that has a small prize for most points the week after the playoffs end. And of course you can play daily fantasy sports and other formats for one week that were not as readily available 10-15 years ago. Still, I always like to make the case that Week 18 shouldn't be totally abandoned.
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I got an advanced copy of Ron Shandler's new book "Fantasy Expert" that is both a memoir and history of fantasy baseball (and fantasy sports). It's a very enjoyable read if you've been around this hobby anywhere close to as long as I have. I say that as my big moment in the book is when he points out a major typo in my first advertisement to promote RotoWire (then RotoNews). Oops.
Give it a look: https://ronshandler.com/fantasyexpert/
