Dan Goldman Prevails....Again.

Dan Goldman further cemented his ALACS legacy by winning the 2009 March Madness Pool – the first event of the 2009 ALACS – on Monday night. Goldman, who won the PGA Majors Game and Fantasy Baseball in the inaugural year of the ALACS, prevailed on the strength of a simply dominating performance from the North Carolina Tar Heels – and was so confident in his bracket that he didn’t bother to fill out a second submission, a surprising decision for someone who has played in every ALACS game to date and is known to be a student of both implied odds and the amount of luck that it takes to win a March Madness Pool comprised of 126 brackets.

“That son of a bitch. How the hell was he the one who got so lucky?” asked Sean Stokke in a Tuesday-morning e-mail titled ‘F’n Dan Goldman?!?' “I guess he had more time to research this stuff since he can’t spend his time in the Mirage anymore,” Stokke added before 'applauding' Goldman's obvious man-crush on Tyler Hansbrough. Mike Marty went a bit further in his assessment of Goldman's victory, likening it to "another great moment in sports -- the 1919 Black Sox Scandal" and questioning Goldman's well-known Vegas connections. Dan’s bracket nailed 25 of the 32 first round games, 13 of the Sweet 16 teams, six of the Elite 8, and both Villanova and UNC in the Final Four.

With 126 brackets and 93 individual entrants, the 2009 March Madness Pool was far and away the largest event thus far in ALACS history. North Carolina – the odds-on Vegas favorite to win the NCAA Championship at the tournament’s outset – narrowly edged Pitt and Louisville as the most popular national champion pick in the ALACS Pool:

ALACS National Champion Picks
North Carolina - 24.0%
Pitt - 23.2%
Louisville - 20.0%
Memphis - 11.2%
Oklahoma - 5.6%
Gonzaga - 4.8%
UConn - 3.2%
Duke, Wake Forest - 2.4% each
Mizzou, USC, Syracuse - 0.8% each

Goldman narrowly edged not one, but TWO brackets from Mike Boden – who finished in both 2nd and 3rd place. Corey Rhodes and Billy Schreyer rounded out the top five, who will be paid out as follows:

1. Dan Goldman - 143 - $647.18
2. Mike Boden (1) - 142 - $286.36
3. Mike Boden (2) - 139 - $114.55
4. Corey Rhodes - 138 - $57.27
5. Billy Schreyer - 135 - $28.64

Winning the March Madness Pool gives Goldman an immediate boost in the first posting of the 2009 ALACS standings. Dan will look to further boost his score with a successful title defense in the upcoming PGA Majors Game – which begins on Thursday and is still accepting entries (buy-in is $10 and covers all four Majors).

Thanks to everyone who entered the ALACS March Madness Pool -- we hope you'll be back next year.

Christmas Edition: Destiny's Darlings?

Kyle Davis, Jordan Spektor, and Jordan Van Horn lead the three ALACS fantasy football divisions going into the season's final week.

Despite being out of the office for the second half of the football season, The Commish is feeling generous on Christmas Day. The NFL's regular season will come to a close on Sunday, bringing with it the conclusion of three ALACS Fantasy Football leagues and the NFL Pick 'Em game. Here's a not-so-brief rundown of each game's action going into the final weekend.

As always, the Fantasy Football Power Rankings for each division can be found here. It should be noted that in the event of a tie in the Power Rankings, the tiebreaker is TOTAL POINTS. Click the subject header for each league/game in the following paragraphs to view standings.

FANTASY FOOTBALL: LO DIVISION

In what is sure to be the most exciting finish of the three ALACS Fantasy Football divisions, Kyle Davis’ Rudi’s Luggage and Andy Popp’s Bandwagon Butcher are neck-and-neck going into Week 17. Davis leapfrogged Popp into 1st place after an abysmal 66-point showing from the Butcher in Week 16, Popp’s lowest-scoring week of the season.

Of the three PWR Categories, only Kyle Davis’ 12 PWR score in Total Points is secure. Popp sits at 11-5 in H2H record and has a Week 17 matchup vs. Fourth and Schlong; Davis is at 10-6 and plays DSFB in the season’s final week. Both of these games should be competitive.

ESPN Week 17 Game Line Projections
Fourth and Schlong (104) vs. Bandwagon Butcher (104)
Rudi’s Luggage (117) vs. DSFB (112)

In the Breakdown category, Davis has a slim two-game lead over Popp. If Popp can gain those three necessary games in Breakdown over Davis in Week 17, win his H2H matchup, and outscore Mike Lazar’s Laser Boots by seven points in Week 17, he should go home with the LO Division Championship.

Rudi’s Luggage (2:1 odds to win): Kyle can hold onto his slim lead atop the Power Rankings by outscoring Popp in Week 17 and winning his H2H matchup vs. DSFB.

Bandwagon Butcher (1:2 odds to win): Popp can gain two PWR Points in Breakdown if he can make up three Breakdown games over Rudi’s Luggage in Week 17. Popp can also gain one PWR Point in Total Points by outscoring Laser Boots by seven points in Week 17. Lastly, the Butcher can gain 0.5 PWR points in H2H Record if Mike Shoff loses to Brandon Seroyer and Adam Brady beats Kyle Davis in their respective Week 17 matchups.

The most dramatic implications of this Week 17 showdown can be found in the ALACS Year-Round Standings. Winning the LO Division will earn Kyle Davis 330 ALACS points. Combine those 330 Points with a potential 230 Points from winning the NFL Pick ‘Em Pool, and Kyle Davis will likely be your new ALACS Leader if he can pull off both victories.

FANTASY FOOTBALL: USC DIVISION

Barring a monumental collapse, Jordan Spektor should walk away from Week 17 with the USC Division crown planted firmly atop his head. Spektor is guaranteed to hold on to his 12 PWR Points in H2H Record and could lose only one of his 12 PWR Points in Breakdown if Justin Zelik were to gain 10 breakdown games on him in Week 17, which is a near impossibility. That leaves only the Points category, where Spektor has a 14-point lead on Brendan Meyer, a 21-point lead on Justin Zelik, and a 42-point lead on Dan Goldman. Things will only get interesting in Week 17 if Spektor fails to score around 60 points.

Santonio Holmes’ Weed (8:1 odds to win): Should lock up the USC Division Championship with even a sub-par performance.

Brent Huckelberry (1:6 odds to win): Unfortunately for Zelik, a recent nine-game win streak after a 1-5 start will likely not be enough to pull off one of the more memorable comebacks in recent ALACS fantasy history. Zelik will need to win his H2H Matchup against Weinberger in Week 17, and then would need to overtake both Meyer and Spektor in total points while also needing such a poor performance from Spektor that Goldman is also able to pass Spek in total points.

Roxy Returns (1:25 odds to win): The USC Division leader for the majority of the season faltered late in the game, turning in a combined 16-40 record in Breakdown in Weeks 12-16. Meyer was only recently overtaken by Spektor in total points and still has 11 PWR Points in that category, but the damage was really done in H2H Record, where Meyer currently sits tied with four teams at 9-7. Meyer could conceivably gain 4.5 PWR Points in Week 17, but only an epic collapse from Spektor could provide him any hope.

FANTASY FOOTBALL: GU DIVISION

Jordan Van Horn goes into Week 17 in control of his own destiny: winning his Week 17 matchup vs. Trevor Severeid’s Romo and the Ass Hats will guarantee Team Van Horn at least a share of the GU Division Championship. After a mediocre start to the season, the Ass Hats have posted a dominating 48-7 breakdown record in the last five weeks. Severeid and Van Horn’s Week 17 matchup could send shockwaves through the standings. If Severeid wins, the door will be open for Pete Lawton's Panty Sniffers to gain H2H PWR Points – a movement that would be assisted by losses from Hail Hokit and Mike Marty’s One-Eyed Wonder. The Points category is also extremely tight at the top of the GU Division with three teams – Lawton, Van Horn, and Stokke – within eight points of each other in that order, and Severeid the only other conceivable factor, 29 points back of Stokke. JVH should hold on to his 12 PWR Points in Breakdown.

Team Van Horn (3:1 odds to win): A Week 17 Victory over Romo and the Ass Hats guarantees JVH at least a share of the GU Division Championship (in the event of a tie, total points is used as a tiebreaker).

Panty Sniffers (1:3 odds to win): A number of Week 17 scenarios could make things interesting for Pete Lawton, but a lot will need to go right for the Panty Sniffers to come out on top. Lawton can gain PWR Points in H2H Record with some combination of a Panty Sniffers victory and losses from Van Horn, Hokit, and Marty. Lawton can also gain two PWR points in Breakdown if he were to gain three games on both Hail Hokit and the Ass Hats.

Hail Hokit (1:150 odds to win): Barring a truly miraculous Week 17 performance (something in the neighborhood of 200 fantasy points), Hokit stands as the ultimate longshot to win the GU Division crown. The collection of scenarios that would need to play out for Hokit to win would take about two paragraphs to explain, but the important thing is…there’s still a chance.

NFL PICK 'EM

Kyle Davis goes into Week 17 with a commanding lead in NFL Pick ‘Em, sporting a 121-96 record through the season’s first 16 weeks. Steve Duin is 5.5 GB in 2nd place at 116-102, followed by Brett Mullin, Chris Platt and The Commish. Kyle has had only two sub-.500 weeks this season in the Pick ‘Em game, so barring a miracle week from Steve, Hot Karl should walk away with his first NFL Pick ‘Em crown. A victory in the NFL Pick ‘Em game will provide Kyle with a major boost in the ALACS Year-Round Standings.

NCAA PICK 'EM

Adam Brady entered the 17-game BOWL SEASON scoring period with a three-game cushion atop the NCAA Pick ‘Em standings, but four players lie within five games of Brady. Any of those players could conceivably overtake Brady for the NCAA Pick ‘Em Championship over 17 bowl games. The top four players will be paid in the NCAA Pick ‘Em game, and a critical 230 ALACS Points will go to the winner.

NFL SURVIVOR

Mike Rennard won the Survivor Pool’s $1000 Grand Prize in Week 12 when the Raiders defeated the Broncos to knock Andrew Gay out of the pool. Judging by the collective response from the rest of the field, Rennard is undoubtedly the least popular champion in ALACS history.

Merry Christmas, folks. Thanks for playing this year.

Chris Berman...

....sucks. On NFL Primetime, after a vicious hit by Colts DT Eric Foster:

"Bang! Eric Foster! That's no Foster lager beer!"

What does that even mean?

Remember when NFL Primetime used to qualify as required viewing every week? Yeesh.

NFL Week 9 Wrap-Up: Passing the Midway Point

Relatively speaking, Week 9 in ALACS Fantasy Football was a low scoring week, with only nine teams across the three divisions breaking the 100-point barrier. Pete Lawton’s Panty Sniffers earned Team of the Week honors with a 138-point performance led by Kurt Warner (27), Adrian Peterson (19), and Derrick Mason (19). The GU Division is truly open for the taking – there are six teams within five Power Points at the top of the Power Rankings, led by Tim Hokit’s Hail Hokit at 29.5. Sean Stokke’s The Taters – fresh off a recent six-player blockbuster trade with Mike Marty’s One-Eyed Wonder – may have a leg up on the rest of the league if his luck in H2H record can revert to the norm. Stokke leads the GU Division in both Points and Breakdown, but finds his squad sitting at 3-6.

In the LO Division, Kyle Davis’ Rudi’s Luggage saw a previously comfortable lead take a beating by scoring only 53 points in Week 9. Kyle’s performance, coupled with 115 points from Andy Popp’s Bandwagon Butcher, accounted for a 21-game swing in the Breakdown category. Rudi’s Luggage still has a substantial lead in Points, but Popp and Mike Shoff’s Harmony Souljaz are creeping up the Power Rankings. The Harmony Souljaz led the LO Division in Week 9 with 124 points.

In the USC Division, Jordan Spektor’s Seahawks Nation (recently renamed ‘Santonio Holmes’ Weed’) led the way with 123 points. Spektor sits two Power Points behind the division leader – Brendan Meyer’s Roxy Returns – in the Power Rankings. After two down weeks, current ALACS leader Dan Goldman’s TriCrownThreat has fallen to 5th place in the standings.

In the NFL Survivor Game, Andrew Gay and Mike Rennard both are still alive after picking the Chicago Bears to defeat the Detroit Lions.

The top of the standings in the NFL Pick ‘Em game remained relatively unchanged from Weeks 7 to 9 in the NFL season – currently, Kyle Davis and Billy Schreyer are separated by half a game at the top, with Hot Karl leading by percentage points. Brett Mullin and John Rosinbum sit tied for 3rd. Mike Lazar had the best record in Week 9 at 9-5.

Corey Rhodes is leading the NCAA Pick ‘Em game by a comfortable margin through 10 weeks, having won 61.8% percent of his picks – Joe Simich is his closest competitor, 3.5 games behind. The Commish led the field in Week 10 with a 7-3 record.

NFL Week 7 Wrap-Up: More Mewelde

Week 7 of the ALACS Fantasy Football season was an explosion of fantasy points; when all was said and done, the three highest scorers in Week 7 had equaled or surpassed the previous season high of 159 points in a week. In the GU Division, Mike Marty’s One-Eyed Wonder rang up 172 points to win Team of the Week honors in a critical matchup between two 5-1 teams (the other being Tim Hokit’s Hail Hokit). 172 points is the highest single week total scored in the last three seasons of ALA Fantasy Football. Marty’s epic week featured Steven Jackson (37), Mewelde Moore (31), Calvin Johnson (25), and Dominic Rhodes (23). One-Eyed Wonder experienced a massive gain in the Power Rankings and is now the clear front-runner in the GU Division. Elsewhere in the division, Matt Crevier’s El Segundo Teen Wolf and Pete Lawton’s Panty Sniffers put up impressive totals in Week 7, with 125 and 122 points respectively.

In the LO Division, Mike Lazar made good a post-Week-6-claim that his team was on the rise with a 159-point day from Laser Boots. Lazar’s breakdown from Weeks 6+7 stands at 21-1. What makes Lazar’s Week 7 even more impressive is that he had two players on his team get 0 points in Week 7, yet still reached 159. LenDale White (34), Calvin Johnson (25), and Dominic Rhodes (23) played major roles, and Matt Cassel (21) even got in on the fun on Monday night. On the other side of that matchup were Andrew Gay’s Nutty Poologs, who continued to make a mockery of fantasy football in general by starting three players with byes. Shame on you, Gay. Kyle Davis’ Rudi’s Luggage remained at the top of the standings , eeking out a 102-101 victory over Joe Simich’s Nuck Inc. Week 7 hero Mewelde Moore contributed a large chunk of Davis’ points with his 31-point effort. In other news, Team Schreyer got their first victory of the year with a surprising 124-point outing.

In the USC Division, Alex Rosenbloom’s Blazin’ Hits finally showed signs of life and led the way with 161 points. Hits QB Jeff Garcia filled in nicely for the injured Tony Romo with 21 points, and Steven Jackson’s 37-point contribution padded Rosenbloom’s total. Elsewhere, Jordan Spektor’s Seahawks Nation won their fourth consecutive H2H matchup to move to 6-1 on the year. Bobby Weinberger’s E. Village Hipsters made a dent in ALACS leader Dan Goldman’s armor, defeating TriCrownThreat 92-88. The top of the Power Rankings are crowded in the USC Division, with TriCrownThreat and Seahawks Nation tied at 32.5 Power Points. Brendan Meyer’s Roxy Returns sits close behind with 31 Power Points in 3rd.

In the NFL Survivor Pool, both remaining participants nailed their picks, with Mike Rennard prevailing along with the Buccaneers over the Seahawks and Andrew Gay winning with the Texans over the Lions. They both live to see another week.

The standings in the NFL Pick ‘Em Game saw a stunning amount of movement following Week 8’s games – a development possibly spurred by the fact that four participants failed to submit picks. The most depressing of these omissions were that of Andrew Gay and Dan Goldman, both of whom went 0-14 on the week, yet did not get to remove the week from their overall score because they had both gone 0-16 earlier in the season. Andy Popp and Jordan Spektor also deserve a nice ‘FAIL!’ for their lack of effort. Those who fared better in Week 8 included Alex Rosenbloom, who jumped from 11th to a tie for 3rd in the standings on the strength of an ALACS-leading 11-3 week. Kyle Davis took over first place at 49-37 on the year; Billy Schreyer sits in 2nd, a full game back at 48-38, and Brett Mullin, John Rosinbum, and Alex Rosenbloom are all 1.5 games back at 47-38.

In the NCAA Pick ‘Em Game, Corey Rhodes moved into the lead on the strength of a 6-4 week. Corey is now a full game ahead of Nick Foley in 2nd, and Joe Simich is 1.5 games back after going 4-6 on Saturday. Foley, Adam Atkins, the Commish, and Steve Duin all tied for the weekly lead by going 7-3 in Week 8.

VEGAS, BABY....VEGAS!!

Four days, folks. Get ready.

NFL Week 6 Wrap-Up: REFEREE FAIL

The NFL Survivor Pool nearly reached its end on Sunday – only an astonishingly terrible Pass Interference penalty saved Mike Rennard and Andrew Gay. Joe Nelson, Jordan Spektor, and Billy Schreyer all bit the dust when the Redskins lost to the Rams; it can be easily argued that Rennard and Gay should have met a similar fate. With the Vikings down 10-9 in the final three minutes and facing 2nd and 20, Gus Frerotte heaved a bomb down the sideline to Aundrae Allison. Lions DB Leigh Bodden made a small amount of incidental contact with Allison – about the amount of contact you’d have with someone if you tried to squeeze through the door of a restaurant together – and a PI flag was thrown after the ball fell to the ground. Just like that, the Vikings were in FG position, and Rian Lindell kicked a 26-yard FG to win the game 12-10.

That leaves two Survivor participants – Mike Rennard and Andrew Gay – to battle for the Survivor Pool’s $1000 Grand Prize.

In the LO Division of ALACS Fantasy Football, Kyle Davis’s Rudi’s Luggage earned Team of the Week honors for the 2nd time this season, becoming the first ALACS team to accomplish that feat. Kyle’s 159-point effort also set the season high for a single week point-total. Rudi’s Luggage was led by his QB combo of Drew Brees (28) and Philip Rivers (29). Davis’s showing overshadowed Mike Lazar’s Lazer Boots’ strongest showing of the year, a 131-point effort that led Lazar to victory over an outmatched Team Schreyer. Andrew Gay’s Nutty Poologs continued a depressing fall from grace in Week 6; after starting off the season with four straight brilliant performances, the Poologs started two players with byes in Week 6 on the way to a 71-67 loss to Joe Simich’s Nuck Inc. After going 36-8 in Breakdown through the season’s first four weeks, the Poologs combined Breakdown record from Weeks 5+6 is 2-20.

In the other two ALACS divisions, the abysmal performance of the Giants' defensive unit on Monday Night wrecked havoc. Brendan Meyer’s Roxy Returns squad had led the USC division for the first five weeks of the season, and he found himself in a fateful inter-roommate matchup with Alex Rosenbloom’s 0-5 Blazin’ Hits in Week 6. After Top Three finishes in each of the last three seasons, the Blazin’ Hits’ 2008 campaign had been a prolonged struggle, and it only got worse on Monday morning when it was announced that Blazin’ Hits QB Tony Romo would miss the next four weeks of the season with a broken pinkie. Meyer went into the Monday Night matchup with Jamal Lewis and the Giants’ D on his side, leading Rosenbloom 90-80; Alex’s fate lay in the hands of Braylon Edwards.

The matchup may have been the most dramatic in the ALACS this season. At one point, Braylon Edwards caught a 75-yard pass…and was tackled just close enough to the goal line for Jamal Lewis to run it in for a crucial six points. With just 8:22 left in the game – and on the strength of Edwards’ best fantasy showing of the year, by far – Roxy Returns led the Blazin’ Hits 102-99.

And then….boom. An Eli Manning pass down the sideline is picked off and returned 94 yards for a Touchdown. Just like that, Meyer and Rosenbloom are tied 99-99.

Now this is where things get fun. Up to this point – immediately after the interception return for a TD – the Giants’ D had allowed 33 points to the Browns; if the Browns reached 35 points, the Giants’ D moved from -4 fantasy points to -7. Thirty-four points allowed would have kept the Giants’ D at -4.

So what do the Browns do? They go for two. And who scores the two-point conversion? Braylon Edwards. Final score: Blazin’ Hits 101, Roxy Returns 95. Roxy Returns’ loss meant bad things for the rest of the ALACS, however, as current ALACS: Year One leader Dan Goldman moved into first place in the USC Division on the strength of Tricrownthreat's 110-96 victory over Jon Goldberg’s Ecto Cooler. Jordan Spektor’s Seahawks Nation continued to move up in the USC Division standings by leading the league with 136 points in Week 6.

The Giants’ D also made the difference in a pivotal GU Division matchup between Tim Hokit’s Hail Hokit and Matt Crevier’s El Segundo Teen Wolf. Hokit, 4-1 on the year and clutching first place in the GU Division through five weeks, went into the MNF matchup losing 92-86. Hokit had no one playing; his score was set in stone at 86. Crevier, however, had both the Giants’ D and Amani Toomer in action. Amani Toomer? Zero receptions, zero yards. Giants’ D? –7 points. Final score: Hail Hokit 86, El Segundo Teen Wolf 85 – and the victory keeps Hail Hokit on top of the GU Power Rankings. Sean Stokke’s The Taters led the GU Division with 131 points and pulled within 1.5 points of Hail Hokit in the Power Rankings. Speaking of the GU Division Power Rankings…well, it’s hard to know what to make of them. Two teams sitting at 4-2 have the two worst Breakdown records and the two lowest Points totals. The Taters, leading the league in both Points and Breakdown by a comfortable margin, have had such bad luck in their H2H matchups that their record sits at 2-4. The discrepancy in the GU Division’s PWR numbers is truly a rarely seen fantasy phenomenon.

Both Pick ‘Em games saw their standings get a little more intriguing this week, as a recently adopted rule allowed each participant to drop their worst weekly score of the year. Both Pick ‘Em scorecards have been updated to show each participant’s overall record as well as an adjusted record to account for the removal of their worst week to date.

Brett Mullin moved into 1st place in the NFL Pick ‘Em game with a 59.42% winning percentage on the season; John Rosinbum, last week’s leader, took a hard fall down to 2nd after a 4-10 week. Kyle Davis, Steve Duin, Andy Popp, and Billy Schreyer are close behind. Dan Goldman led the field with a 9-5 record in Week 6.

In the NCAA Pick ‘Em Game, Joe Simich and Corey Rhodes are separated by mere percentage points (Joe is 36-22, Corey is 36-23) but are comfortably ahead of the rest of the field. Andrew Gay – the darling of the NCAA Pick ‘Em Game after an impressive 31-19 showing through the season’s first five weeks – is now in 3rd place after turning in a 5-13 record over the last two weeks (Coupled with Gay’s two week fallout in fantasy football, it bears asking the question: Gay, you been alright these past 14 days?). Damon Pryor and Rhodes both finished 7-2 in Week 7 to lead the ALACS.

Ok I need to stop writing before I get fired. Cheers.

NFL Week 5 Wrap-Up: Five Still Fighting

With a $1000 grand prize on the line, the five remaining NFL Survivor participants all made it through Week 5 easily. The Dallas Cowboys – at (-17), the biggest favorite of the week – turned out to be the most nerve-wracking of the three teams selected, as their 9-point victory over the Bengals paled in comparison to the Giants’ 44-6 shellacking of the Seahawks and the Panthers’ 34-0 victory over the Chiefs. In Week 6, the big favorites are the Redskins (-13.5 over the Rams), the Vikings (-13.5 over the Lions), and the Giants (-9 over the Browns).

In ALACS Fantasy Football, Justin Zelik’s Brent Huckelberry earned Team of the Week honors in the USC Division with a 158-point performance that tied the season high across all of the ALACS leagues. Zelik can thank his 56-point Carolina Combo of DeAngelo Williams and the Panthers’ D – plus solid contributions from Ben Roethlisberger (27), Kyle Orton (25), and Michael Turner (18). Dan Goldman’s TriCrownThreat was a hard-luck loser to Huckelberry; Goldman’s 116 points were 2nd in the USC Division in Week 5. Elsewhere, Team Handman prevailed 97-96 over Steve Duin’s Father Figures after getting a 16-point boost from Devery Henderson on MNF. Brendan Meyer’s Roxy Returns saw its lead atop the standings shrink to 1.5 Power Points after turning in its worst performance of the season.

Chaos reigns supreme in the GU Division, which has some of the closest standings the Commish has ever seen in a fantasy football league. Some fun facts to illustrate just how close the competition in this division is:

- 13 wins separate the best (33-22) and worst (20-35) Breakdown records in the GU Division. In the other two divisions, the best and worst Breakdown records are separated by 27 wins (USC) and 31 wins (LO).

- The two highest-scoring teams in the GU Division this season – Sean Stokke’s The Taters and Willis Barnes’ Team BigMan, both at 501 points – stand at 1-4 and 2-3 in H2H record, respectively.

- EIGHT teams in the GU Division have between 485 and 501 points on the season.

Tim Hokit’s Hail Hokit moved back into first place after Reggie Bush’s 27-point explosion on MNF, which earned Hokit a 6-point victory over The Taters – another hard-luck loser (The Taters had the second highest score in the GU Division in Week 5). Mike Marty’s One-Eyed Wonder, who had sat atop the Power Rankings with 36 points after Week 4, dropped to 2nd after an ALACS-low 56 points in Week 5. A rough season continued for Trevor Severeid’s 0-5 Ass Hats, who lost 110-93…with a 32-point performance from DeAngelo Williams on the bench.

In the LO Division, the aforementioned Carolina Combo found itself united again, and this time led John Rosinbum’s Fourth and Schlong to a stunning 112-100 upset over Stu Schrager’s Silver Fox. In more somber news, Billy Schreyer – on suicide watch since the brooms came out on his Chicago Cubs – left five players with byes in his Week 5 lineup…and almost pulled off an upset over Mike Shoff’s Harmony Souljaz, which needed Bernard Berrian’s 17-point showing on MNF to pull off a 74-67 victory. Rudi’s Luggage owner Kyle Davis – irate over Billy’s dismal effort – has put a bounty on Schreyer’s head, and declared Mike Shoff’s 2nd place standing in the LO Division “a travesty.”

In NFL Pick ‘Em, John Rosinbum led the way with a 9-3 record in Week 5, thrusting him back atop the standings with a 41-30 record on the season. Rosinbum’s closest competitors are Kyle Davis and Brett Mullin, coworkers who share a 39-32 record (how cute!). Four players sit three games back of Rosinbum at 38-33.

In NCAA Pick ‘Em, Joe Simich regained the lead after going 6-3. Joe can thank the five players who surrounded him at the top of the leaderboard after Week 5; they went a combined 12-33 in Week 6. In stark contrast to most of the weeks this season, the pick distribution was remarkably close for every game in the pool outside of UW/Arizona (in which 68% of the pool incorrectly chose UW to cover). In the other nine games featured, check out the pick distribution amongst the 22 NCAA Pick ‘Em players: 13/9, 11/11, 11/11, 10/12, 9/13, 12/10, 11/11, 10/12, 12/10. This could mean that Vegas is getting better at picking accurate lines as the season goes on…or it could mean absolutely nothing.

Until next week...

NFL Week 4 Wrap-Up: Buckin' Broncos

…and then there were five. Seven more ALACS’ers bit the dust in Week 4 of the NFL Survivor Pool. Five of those casualties came at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs' shocking 33-19 upset over the Denver Broncos. Mike Shanahan’s impressive NFL head coaching resume apparently does not extend to Arrowhead Stadium; Shanahan is now 3-11 when he visits the Chiefs’ home field. The Washington Redskins’ statement victory in Dallas knocked two more people out of the Survivor Pool. Andrew Gay, Jordan Spektor, Joe Nelson, Billy Schreyer, and Mike Rennard are the five people left with a shot at the Survivor Pool’s $1000 grand prize and 330 ALACS Points.

In the GU Division of ALACS Fantasy Football, Joe Nelson’s Making it Rain earned Team of the Week honors. Nelson – who had accumulated 245 points total in the season’s first three weeks – shocked the ALACS with a 141-point showing powered by his QBs (Garrard 25, Campbell 19) and RBs (LT 24, E. James 19). Elsewhere, Willis Barnes’ Team BigMan and Matt Crevier’s El Segundo Teen Wolf tied at 105; Barnes ended up SOL with 0 points coming from a bench that held four players with byes, giving Crev’s 14-point bench the victory. Drew ‘the Bird’ Schoentrup, playing in the first fantasy game of his lifetime, was a heavy underdog going into the season; he can be hardly considered as much now, as BirdShit in Your Eye put up a third straight 100+ point performance with a 129-point showing that was good for the fourth highest Week 4 score in the ALACS. BirdShit made a serious move up the standings and now sits in 2nd place in the GU Division. Mike Marty -- who left $22 on the table in the GU Auction -- has One-Eyed Wonder sitting comfortably in first place with 36 Power Points.

Defending champ Teddy Bergeron’s Welcome to the TeeShow paced the USC Division in Week 4, ringing up 134 points in Tee’s strongest showing of the year. Earlier last week, Teddy traded for Brett Favre; with Laveranues Coles already on his roster, the two Jets’ 66 points made up almost half of Tee’s total score in Week 4. Elsewhere in the USC Division, The Commish's XFactor suffered a second straight heartbreaking loss, this time at the hands of Bobby Weinberger’s E. Village Hipsters. The Hipsters won 91-90, scoring the deciding point on the final play of Sunday night’s Eagles/Bears game on a meaningless Donovan McNabb pass. Brendan Meyer’s Roxy Returns maintained a strong grip on the top of the USC Standings with a 115-point performance, and Meyer’s 38-6 record in Breakdown stands as top in the ALACS.

In the LO Division, Andrew Gay’s Nutty Poologs yet again demonstrated that they are the most consistent team in the ALACS with a 125-point showing. The Poologs have been 9-2 in Breakdown in each of the season’s first four weeks, a relatively remarkable – if not odd – achievement. The Poologs’ consistent nuttiness has frustrated Rudi’s Luggage owner Kyle Davis, who has led the LO Division in points in three of the season’s first four weeks, yet still finds himself trailing Gay by half a point in the Power Rankings. Elsewhere, John Rosinbum threatened to set marks of fantasy football futility that could last decades. After a 39-point Week 4 performance, Rosinbum’s Fourth and Schlong has now accumulated 204 points through four weeks – 55 points less than his closest competitor in the ALACS cellar, fellow LO Division-er Billy Schreyer. Rosinbum: we still love you.

The Commish led the field with a 9-4 record in Week 4 of NFL Pick ‘Em; Andy Popp moved into a tie with Steve Duin at the top of the leaderboard at 33-26 on the strength of an 8-5 week. Brett Mullin, Kyle Davis, and John Rosinbum are one game back at 32-27.

Finally, Andrew Gay regained the NCAA Pick ‘Em lead after his 7-3 record in Week 5 was tops in the ALACS; Gay stands at 31-19 on the season and has won 62% of his picks. Week 5 proved particularly challenging as nine of the 22 pool entrants had their worst week thus far in the season; this may have had something to do with 20 of 22 ALACS’ers incorrectly picking Auburn to cover 6.5 points against Tennessee and 21 of 22 participants incorrectly picking Wisconsin (Andrew Gay alone correctly picked Michigan at +6). Joe Simich sits one game back at the standings at 30-20; Corey Rhodes, Matt Crevier, and Nick Foley sit two games back at 29-21.

NFL Week 3 Wrap-Up: Bills Paid

Another outstanding week in the NFL Survivor Pool saw nearly 2/3 of the pool eliminated before the afternoon games had even begun on Sunday. 43% of the pool held the Buffalo Bills, 9-point favorites against the Raiders in Buffalo, as their Week 3 pick, and – as a roomful of NFL Survivor participants followed the game together within the ‘Discuss’ tab of the Survivor scorecard – the Bills rallied off 17 points in the final eight minutes of the game to win 24-23 on a 38-yd Rian Lindell FG as time expired. Kyle Davis was the last one to make it out of the morning alive when his Giants then dispatched the Bengals in OT. Mike Natelli and Brett Mullin became the Survivor Pool’s 8th and 9th casualties after the Patriots took a shockingly large dump on the field against the Dolphins in New England.

In the USC Division of Fantasy Football, Dan Goldman’s TriCrownThreat claimed Team of the Week honors with a 137-point performance. Goldman’s consistent outing featured five players scoring between 18 and 21 points. The Commish's XFactor rang up the third-highest Week 3 total in the ALACS with 126 points, but experienced its first loss at the hands of TriCrownThreat. Points elsewhere in the USC Division were bipolar in dispersion, with five teams scoring above 117 points and five teams failing to reach 70. Two mid-week trades played a major role in Week 3 USC Division performances. Jon Goldberg took a beating all week in the USC Division for a deal in which he traded Joseph Addai and Chad Johnson to Alex Rosenbloom for Plaxico Burress, Ronnie Brown, and a bag of marbles – but Goldberg had the last laugh on Sunday when Brown’s 5 TDs propelled Ecto Cooler to 117 points. Recently acquired Reggie Bush scored 25 point to push Chris Chasin’s Thugs from Cali into the ALACS weekly Top 10 for the first time. Brendan Meyer’s Roxy Returns continued to pace the ALACS with both the highest overall point total and the best overall breakdown.

Ronnie Brown provided storylines in the GU Division as well – albeit from Jordan Van Horn’s bench. Apparently down on the Miami RB, Van Horn had offered him all over the league leading up to Week 3 but found no takers. According to a Team Van Horn representative who requested anonymity, Jordan has now upped his asking price to a first-string WR. Nate Duckett’s Pilate’s Dog led the GU Division with 130 points, far and away Duckett’s strongest showing of the year. Drew Schoentrup’s BirdShit In Your Eye staged a late comeback to beat Wills Barnes’ Team BigMan 106-104 on the strength of Nate Kaeding’s meaningless FG with 2 minutes left in the MNF game. Tim Hokit's Hail Hokit posted a third consecutive strong week to move into a tie at the top of the GU standings with Mike Marty's One-Eyed Wonder. Hokit has the challenging task of managing a team that has seven byes in Week 4 of the season.

In the LO Division, Kasey McCabe’s AllStar Tards scored their third consecutive win – a shocking development after McCabe was roundly chastised by the league for spending $28 on Eli Manning in the LO Auction. The real story in the LO Division is the consistent dominance of Andrew Gay’s Nutty Poologs, who have rung up totals of 108, 106, and 112 points in the season’s first three weeks, earning Gay a 27-6 record in Breakdown despite trailing the league leader by 27 points overall. The Nutty Poologs stand alone in 1st place after Week 3. Elsewhere around the LO Division, the most exciting matchup of the week pitted Mike Lazar’s 0-2 Laser Boots against Mike Shoff’s 2-0 Harmony Souljaz. The Harmony Souljaz were down 83-81 going into the MNF game that featured Antonio Gates (Souljaz) and Darren Sproles (Boots). On the strength of Sproles’ 7 points, Lazar held on to win 90-89.

In the NFL Pick ‘Em Game, Steve Duin and Billy Schreyer made up for their depressing fantasy football performances – they both are in last place in their respective divisions – by going 12-4 with their Week 3 NFL picks, rocketing them both up the standings. Steve’s 27-19 overall record leads Billy Schreyer and Kyle Davis by one game.

Finally, in the NCAA Pick ‘Em Game, Joe Simich went 5-5 to hold onto a slim lead at the top of the standings. Joe is now 26-14 overall, trailed by Corey Rhodes and Matt Crevier (8-2 in Week 4) who both of whom sit at 25-15.

NFL Week 2 Wrap-Up: We Will Survive

An incredibly exciting weekend of football led to an equally exciting number of ALACS storylines. In the NFL Survivor Game, all 14 participants who made it out of Week 1 alive also were victorious in Week 2. 50% of the pool picked the Giants to defeat the Rams -- which they did handily – followed by the Bucs (3 picks), Cowboys (2 picks), Packers (1), and Cardinals (1). 14 survivors still have their eyes on the $1000 Survivor Pool grand prize.

In Fantasy Football, little ground was made up by anyone in the USC Division, as all six teams that won in Week 1 were victorious again in Week 2. Brendan Meyer earned himself Team of the Week honors with his Roxy Returns squad putting up 158 fantasy points, led by the 66-point combo of Kurt Warner and Anquan Boldin (oddly, both of these players also player together in the GU Division on Matt Crevier’s El Segundo Teen Wolf). Meyer now has a 22-0 record in breakdown after leading the USC Division in Points in both of the first two weeks, and has a firm grip on the top of the USC Division Power Rankings.

The GU Division saw a particularly exciting matchup take place between Tim Hokit’s Hail Hokit and Drew “the Bird” Schoentrup’s BirdShit in Your Eye. Schoentrup went into Monday night’s game with a 31-point lead, while Hokit had both Donovan McNabb and Nick Folk still to play. Hokit earned a one-point victory with the deciding point coming from Donovan McNabb’s passing yards on the Eagles’ final possession. A GU Division-leading Week 2 performance by El Segundo Teen Wolf pulled Matt Crevier into an 18-4 tie in Breakdown with Mike Marty’s One-Eyed Wonder – the standings are tight up and down the GU Division. Another notable Week 2 perofmance was Willis Barnes’ Team BigMan exploding for 134 points after a less-than-impressive 67-point showing in Week 1. One-Eyed Wonder sits atop the GU Division Power Rankings.

The competition was fierce this week in the LO Division, with a few exceptions. Roughly five years ago, a man named Mike Shoff was banned from all ALA competitions after accepting bribes in exchange for trade vetoes (back when we still used such an archaic system). Then, two years ago, Mike was banned a second time (can I ban someone twice? Yes, I can!) when he chose to attend UCLA for Med School. Shoff is currently making up for lost time, and his Lil Ripstaz Harmony Souljaz turned in a second straight strong performance, leading the LO Division with 149 points. Shoff now stands at 21-1 in Breakdown and sits atop the LO Division Power Rankings with 35 Power Points -- the most out of any team in the ALACS. On the other side of that spectrum is the inspirationally-named Team Schreyer. After two consecutive sub-50-point performances, Billy Schreyer finds himself faced with an 0-22 record in Breakdown and a legitimately depressing fantasy football team. In the middle of the pack fell just about everyone else in the league: seven teams scored 106, 106, 104, 103, 101, 100, and 99 points, making the breakdown distribution particularly brutal for those unlucky enough to be on the bottom of that totem pole.

In the NFL Pick ‘Em Game, Chris Platt led ALACS’ers with a 9-5 record in Week 2. John Rosinbum, Kyle Davis, and Brett Mullin share the overall lead at 18-12, with Mike Lazar and Matt Crevier close behind at 17-13.

In the NCAA Pick ‘Em Game, Joe Simich took the lead with a stunning 8-1 record in Week 3, giving him a 21-9 record overall. Andrew Gay and Corey Rhodes are tied for 2nd place, both at 19-11.

Finally: Week 4 NCAA Pick ‘Em Lines will be sent out today – and get em in quick, because there’s one game on Thursday. Until next week…

NFL Week 1 Wrap-Up: Seven Deadly Selections

Week 1 of the NFL Season is in the books, and I'll start off with some links to all the important scorecards, since they're not yet up on the ALA Website (they will be soon). Before we get into the gruesome details:

Fantasy Football Master Scorecard
NFL Pick 'Em Scorecard
NFL Survivor Scorecard
NCAA Pick 'Em Scorecard

First: the Fantasy Football Spreadsheet explained. On this spreadsheet you will find four tabs. The first tab is the Power Rankings for all three leagues. These rankings will also be pasted on your league homepage, and they are explained within the spreadsheet for anyone who still doesn't understand how they work. The second tab is the Flex Usage tab that tracks how many times each team in each league has used each position in their Flex spot. The third tab is what I'll be using to compute each team's Breakdown metric over the course of the season. The fourth tab will detail the highest scoring team in all of the ALACS for each week.

The dominant ALACS story from Week 1 of the NFL Season was the elimination of exactly 1/3 of the 21 people who threw down $55 for a shot at ALACS glory in the NFL Survivor Pool. Four participants were eliminated by virtue of a last-second Jake Delhomme TD pass that eliminated the Chargers; three more players fell on Sunday night when the Bears -- nine point underdogs coming into the game -- shocked the Colts in Indianapolis. Fourteen participants are now a great deal closer to the Survivor Pool's $1000 grand prize.

And then, of course, there's Tom Brady...and the fact that two of the three ALACS teams with Brady on the roster don't have a backup QB. Yikes. It's rare that a player of Brady's caliber goes down in the first game -- in fact, the first quarter -- and his injury is testament to the amount of luck that is sometimes involved in these games. Before his leg was crushed by one of the Chiefs' DBs, Brady had the third-longest streak of consecutive starts in the NFL.

In the NCAA Pick 'Em Game, Nick Foley and Andrew Gay both won seven games for the second consecutive week and are now tied for the lead. In an exciting twist, Gay started the day 7-0 before losing the last three games. Alex Rosenbloom became the first participant of the season to not submit his picks in time. He can currently be found at his brother's apartment in Brazil, hanging his head in shame.

And finally, the first week of NFL Pick 'Em saw an impressive number of participants finish above .500. ALA veteran Mike Lazar and newcomer John Rosinbum led the pack at 11-5.

NFL Pick'em and Survivor Scorecards

Guys:
These will soon be linked up on the main page of the ALA Website, but for now here are links to the ALACS NFL Game scorecards.

NFL Pick 'Em Scorecard

NFL Survivor Scorecard

Fantasy Football - Week 1 Lines

Guys:
Here are your Week 1 Lines for all three divisions of ALACS Fantasy Football, based on ESPN's projections.

LO Division Week 1 Lines
USC Division Week 1 Lines
GU Division Week 1 Lines

It starts today, folks -- best of luck in Week 1.

NCAA Pick 'Em Week 1: Newcomers Lead the Way

With one week of picks down, two ALACS newcomers are atop the standings of NCAA Football Pick 'Em. Here are some stats from Week 1 along with the current standings.

% of Favorites Picked by ALACS: 71.07%
% of Favorites Covering Spread: 54.55%

% of Home Teams Picked by ALACS: 62.81%
% of Home Teams Covering Spread: 54.55%

% of Home Favorites Picked by ALACS: 76.62%
% of Home Favorites Covering Spread: 57.14%

% of Road Favorites Picked by ALACS: 61.36%
% of Road Favorites Covering Spread: 50.00%

1. Corey Rhodes (8-3)
1. Jeff Schneider (8-3)
3. Mike Lazar (7-4)
3. Joe Simich (7-4)
3. Nick Foley (7-4)
3. Matt Crevier (7-4)
3. Andrew Gay (7-4)
8. Sean Stokke (6-5)
8. Mike Marty (6-5)
8. Adam Atkins (6-5)
8. Damon Pryor (6-5)
8. Brandon Seroyer (6-5)
13. Andy Popp (5-6)
13. Kyle Davis (5-6)
13. Matt Sullivan (5-6)
13. Steve Duin (5-6)
13. Mike Duin (5-6)
18. Adam Brady (4-7)
19. Chris Platt (3-8)
19. Alex Rosenbloom (3-8)
19. Dan Goldman (3-8)
19. Joe Nelson (3-8)

NCAA Football Pick 'Em -- Week 1 Results

Week 1 Picks have been made and compiled here: Week 1 Results. I'll be updating this intermittently throughout the weekend.

Week 1 NCAA Football Picks Due Today

REMINDER: For those of you participating in the $25 ALACS NCAA Football Pick 'Em Game, picks are due by 4 PM PST today (the first game is at 4:30). Week 1 lines can be found here. Please e-mail your picks to alacspickem@gmail.com.

Ready for some football?

On Tuesday night, the USC Division held the third and final auction draft of the 2008 ALACS Fantasy Football season. Now that all three drafts have been completed, we can compare the results to determine who was most highly valued by the 36 teams that drafted in the ALACS. Here will you find that comparison: ALACS Auction Values. It’s worth noting that the GU Division’s values had to be adjusted (x1.33) since they auctioned with a $150 budget rather than $200.

The most exciting pick of the three auctions had nothing to do with LT, Adrian Peterson, or Tom Brady – but instead, when the Chargers D/ST was nominated as the 7th pick of the LO Division’s auction. According to witnesses, ALACS newcomers John Rosinbum and Kasey McCabe engaged in a prolonged bidding war so flagrantly outrageous that the rest of the auction room was stunned into complete silence during the bidding. Rosinbum ended up with the Chargers D/ST for $23.

A more sinister plan was hatched by Mike Marty, who held the first nomination of the GU Division’s draft. Marty nominated Adrian Peterson – except this wasn’t the AP who was expected to be a top three pick. Marty nominated the Adrian Peterson with the CHI next to his name – the Bears’ RB. Before the rest of the league had caught on, the bidding had hit $45. Once everyone had settled down, the Commish rolled back the pick as if it had never happened…perhaps wanting to extend an olive branch to the entire GU Division after the 1.5-hour delay they experienced at the hands of Fantasy Auctioneer.

Some other significant price discrepancies between the three divisions:

- LaDainian Tomlinson ($60 LO, $70 USC, $77 GU)
- Tony Romo ($25 LO, $37 GU, $47 USC)
- Donovan McNabb ($13 LO, $19 GU, $35 USC)
- Patrick Crayton ($3 GU, $15 USC, $26 LO)
- Laurence Maroney ($24 USC, $25 LO, $47 GU)

A couple things that apply to the rest of the season:

- Remember that you are only allowed to use one position SIX TIMES in your Flex/Offensive Utility spot over the course of the season. That does not mean you can only use a single player in the spot six times – it means you can only use a RB there six times. Or a QB. Or a WR. You get the point. I’ll be issuing reports each week to help teams keep track of their flex spot usage.

- Remember that the standings/prizes are not determined strictly by head-to-head record – but by a system called Power Rankings that takes three different scoring measurements into account (h2h record, total points, and breakdown). This scoring system, along with everything else you might need to know, is explained in more detail in the ALACS FF intro post. I will be posting your league’s Power Rankings on your league home pages, as well as a composite ranking of all three divisions' standings on the ALACS Website.

Lastly, thanks to everyone for being patient with the draft process this year – we obviously had extreme difficulties using Fantasy Auctioneer, and I appreciate most of you being able to tolerate that. ESPN’s draft rooms ended up working smoothly, and we’ll be using them in future years so we don’t run into problems like this again.

Good luck this year.

Goldmania

On Sunday, August 10th, Dan Goldman clinched the third competition of the 2008-09 ALACS season by winning the PGA Majors Game despite a thrilling Sunday run from Kyle “Hot Karl” Davis and his pony for the PGA Championship, Sergio Garcia. Final standings for the PGA Majors Game can be found here.

Goldman finished the four major championships with a cumulative score of 157.357 points; Davis finished with 142.567 points, with a 3rd-place finish from Sergio netting him 35 points. Had Sergio finished first, his effort would’ve been worth 50 points…and it would’ve given Kyle Davis a 0.210 point victory in the PGA Majors Game. Given Goldman’s commanding lead going into the final major, it was as exciting a finish as dedicated PGA Majors Game-followers could’ve hoped for.

FINAL STANDINGS – PGA MAJORS GAME
1. Dan Goldman, 157.357 ($105)
2. Kyle Davis, 142.567 ($50)
3. Brandon Seroyer, 136.682 ($24)
4. Mike Duin, 119.895 ($10)
5. Logan Morrison, 107.33
6. Mike Lazar, 107.137
7. Sean Stokke, 104.767
8. Mike Mary, 95.262
9. Alex Rosenbloom, 92.347
10. Joe Simich, 90.289
11. Andy Popp, 84.84
12. Teddy Bergeron, 77.925
13. Jordan Spektor, 67.887
14. Mike Rennard, 65.405
15. Joe Nelson, 58.427
16. Chris Platt, 57
17. Tim Hokit, 55.437
18. Steve Duin, 42.952
19. Bobby Weinberger, 33.122
20. Andrew Blood, 25.122
21. Conor McAvoy, 6.25

Goldman’s victory moved him into 3rd place in the ALACS Standings – a frightening prospect to every other ALACS participant, given that Goldman is currently neck-and-neck with PBA Commissioner Fred Schreyer for 1st place in Fantasy MLB and is the two-time defending champion of Fantasy NBA.

Target Acquired

Ladies and Gentlemen of the ALACS: Meet Public Enemy #1 (at least for this weekend). The profile you're staring at is that of two-time Fantasy NBA defending champion Dan Goldman, who also happens to have an overwhelming lead in the PGA Majors Game. The rest of the ALACS will need a lot of help to overtake Goldman this weekend.

Follow the ALACS competition live here: PGA Majors Game Standings and Scores.

ALACS Fantasy Football '08: Everything You Need to Know

In terms of sheer popularity, Fantasy Football is unquestionably the granddaddy of fantasy sports. As the simplest of the major fantasy games as well as the least time-consuming and management-intensive, fantasy football has become a global industry that creates over $3 billion in annual revenue for the major online players.

Here at ALA Fantasy Sports, we’re committed to offering the best fantasy football experience possible – which means we might do things a little differently from past leagues that you’ve played in, but we almost certainly do them better. Allow us to explain by way of Q&A.

Q: Which website will host ALACS Fantasy Football?
A: We will run each of our Fantasy NFL leagues through ESPN.com’s Fantasy Football game.

Q: How do I draft my players in ALACS Fantasy Football?
A: As any ALA veteran knows well, we despise traditional snake-format drafts (1-12, 12-1, etc.) and run auction drafts for all of our fantasy leagues. The concept is relatively simple: Each team in the league is given $150 in fake money to use on 15 players. Owners take turns nominating players, and if you win the bidding on a player, he joins your roster and the price you paid for him is deducted from your available budget. We run auction drafts rather than snake drafts for a few reasons:

- We believe that everyone in the league should have a chance at every player. In our leagues, you’ll never be the guy who gets the 4th pick in a draft where the top 3 players in the league are clearly better performers than everyone else. An auction allows every team in the league complete freedom to construct their team however they’d like – and gives every team a chance at every player. In the same vein, an auction draft allows for more strategy than a snake draft.

- In this Commissioner’s opinion, auctions are way, WAY more fun than snake drafts – particularly because the auction software we use for our drafts is tremendous. We run our auctions through FantasyAuctioneer.com; click here to a run a DEMO of the auction software (the demo is for fantasy baseball rather than football, but it’ll look exactly the same).

Q: How does the ALACS Fantasy NFL scoring system differ from past leagues that I’ve played in?
A: Our Fantasy NFL game uses something that we call Power Rankings to determine the standings, rather than just basing the standings on H2H record. Don’t freak out yet – H2H record is still a major component of the standings, but our system eliminates the luck involved in typical fantasy football leagues, where scheduling luck can often supplant overall performance to determine a champion. That doesn’t happen here; you have to earn your titles, not luck into them.

The Power Rankings are a three-tiered system, with each of the three tiers carrying equal weight. Teams are ranked 12-1 in each of the three categories to determine the standings – so the best score possible is 36 (meaning you’re in 1st place in all three categories).

CATEGORY 1: H2H Record. A simple W/L record based on your weekly games.

CATEGORY 2: Total Points. Still simple – teams are ranked based on the total fantasy points they have accumulated for the year.

CATEGORY 3: Breakdown. This is a cumulative H2H record measurement that acts as if you are playing every team in the league every week. For example, let’s say your team scores 120 fantasy points in Week 1, and everyone else in the league scores between 80-100. Your Breakdown record would be 11-0 for Week 1, because you would have defeated every team in the league had you played them. In Week 2, let’s say you have the third highest point total – one team scores 120, another team scores 110, your team scores 100, and the other nine teams score worse than 100. In Week 2, your breakdown would be 9-2, giving you a 20-2 record in Breakdown through the first two weeks of the year.

Combine the three categories, and you have your Power Rankings.

Q: What scoring system does ALACS Fantasy Football use?
A: In a tribute to one of the better sportswriters of our time, we use a scoring system crafted by ESPN columnist Bill Simmons, also known as the Sports Guy. Complete scoring rules can be found here: ALACS Fantasy Football Scoring. We may make a minor change or two by the time the season rolls around, but this is the gist of it. Make sure to read the note regarding Flex Spot usage – it’s a unique system, but it was a great success when we used it for the first time last season.

Q: How are you going to fit all of us into one league?
A: We’re not. The ALACS will support as many 12-team leagues as we can fill up, and each of the leagues will have equal ALACS significance. The structure of the leagues will be geared to keep friends together within each league as best as possible, while still making the leagues balanced competitively. This may be tricky to pull off, but I realize that it’s more fun for everyone if they’re playing with people they know.

However, it should be noted that it will be IMPOSSIBLE to keep everyone happy in this regard – there’s simply no way to ensure that each “group of friends” that participates in the ALACS will be able to all play in the same league. Of kids hailing from Lake Oswego, there are already more of us than could fit in one league, so seniority/experience will likely take priority when it comes to league placement.

Q: Will we start using Keepers in fantasy football?
A: Nope – Fantasy NFL will remain the one ALACS fantasy game in which we do NOT use a keeper system; rosters will start from scratch each year.

(LATE EDIT)

Q: How do Playoffs work in ALACS Fantasy Football?

A: None of the ALACS Fantasy games have playoffs; having a league title decided by playoffs has always struck me as absurd. The idea that a team could dominate the competition all year only to lose because the Colts sit Peyton Manning every year in Week 17 is simply ridiculous; it amazes me that so many leagues are run this way. We reward people for having the best team over the course of a season, not having the best team in Week 17 when half the NFL isn't playing. Again, the Power Rankings system described above determines who wins the ALACS football leagues.

That should do it; if you have any other questions, post them in the comments.

Looking forward to the best fantasy football year yet for A Level Above.

Punished by Padraig

The first Tiger-less major in ALACS history ended without suspense on Sunday when Padraig Harrington captured golf’s oldest trophy for the second consecutive year, winning the British Open by four strokes. Through the lens of the ALACS, the biggest story was an e-mail sent out from the Commissioner’s Office on Wednesday, July 16th - a day before the British began – to five ALACS’ers who’d selected Harrington.

Gentlemen,
In the spirit of fair competition and not penalizing people who submitted their golfers early, I wanted to make you guys aware of this:

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/britishopen08/news/story?id=3491525 [article details a wrist injury sustained by Harrington in the days leading up to the open]

Each of the people receiving this e-mail has selected Harrington for the British. I wanted to let you know that you are free to change that selection (if you'd like to; I haven't made up my mind yet) as long as you get me your replacement by 9 PM tonight.

Six ALACS participants – Steve Duin, Chris Platt, Mike Marty, Dan Goldman, Brandon Seroyer, and The Commish himself – had selected Harrington as their Tier 2 golfer for the British, but after reading that Harrington was giving himself only a 50% chance to make it through the first round, everyone but Dan and Brandon switched Padraig out of their foursome. Numerous media outlets reported hearing anguished cries and wails of frustration reverberating through the walls of the Commissioner’s Office when Harrington sealed the deal on Sunday morning.

Harrington’s win blew the PGA Majors Game Standings wide open. The 50-point boost gave Dan Goldman what may be an insurmountable lead; his total score of 152.107 points gives him more than a 33-point lead over ALA veteran Brandon Seroyer, who moved into second with Harrington’s victory. Logan Morrison also made a major charge up the standings, moving into 4th place on the strength of Ian Poulter’s second place finish.


As might be expected as the 2008 PGA season progresses and more and more golfers are removed from the tiered ALACS selection pool, average scores for ALACS foursomes have dropped with each major. This does not bode well for anyone not named Dan Goldman. Even for those close behind Goldman in the standings, it will take a small miracle to make up the points necessary to provide a boost into first place.


Next Up: The PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club, August 7th – 10th.

British Open Live ALACS Scoring

Updated standings for the third Major of the ALACS PGA Majors Game, the British Open, will be available throughout the weekend at the following link:

ALACS PGA Majors Game -- British Open Standings

Round 1 Analysis from Guest Blogger Mike Lazar:

"Looking at the damage after day 1 - some interesting observations (or maybe just my musings as I take a break from a hectic work day...):

1 - Tier 1 scores, ignoring Adam Scott for the moment, did not perform as well as you might expect. Of course, in a British Open, with terrible weather, and Tiger being out of the tournament that might not be so unexpected. Phil and Ernie's high ball flight killed them today, and I don't know how Ernie managed to go triple - bogey - double at one point, but that's the Open.

2 - Tier 2 scores are pretty much exactly where they should be. With the exception of Vijay and Ogilvy, these guys all played well enough to stay in contention (just what a bunch of guys who are top 15 in the world should do in bad weather)

3 - Tier 3 scores are also spot on. Just a bit behind tier 2, but all in all, no one shot themselves totally out of it, and all the guys are in position to make the cut.

4 - Tier 4 provided some surprises. Besides Mahan, Casey, and Leonard, these guys are all right in it (and even leading in the case of McDowell). I don't know if this means that we are getting better at predicting this stuff over the couse of the season, or that the Open is just so messed up that "tiers" don't apply."

British Open Golfers Due Wednesday

Submissions for the third PGA Major of the year -- the British Open at Royal Birkdale -- are due at 9 PM PST on Wednesday, July 16th. Golfers will tee off at 6:30 AM UK time, which is at 10:30 Wednesday night if you live on the west (best?) coast.

Current standings can be found here: PGA Majors Game Standings.

R.I.P.

"July 2nd, 2008: The day Seattle sold the Sonics for $45 million."

The Settlement.
J.A Adande's Take.
TrueHoop.
Bill Simmons' "Save the Sonics" Mailbag.

NBA Draft Day 2008

Follow along with five ALACS veterans as they attempt to predict the first round of the NBA Draft, with $100 going to the winner:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pydYizl3LDh-SxGanN3_bNw

Un-Skewing Strikeouts: Using K/9 Rate

The introduction of an IP cap to ALA Fantasy Baseball this year has made gauging a team’s strength in strikeouts more complicated than simply looking at the standings. No longer is winning the strikeouts category as simple as “amass as many Ks as possible” – each team is required to stay under 1500 IP over the course of the season, which places more value upon efficient pitchers with high K/9 IP rates. Using the K/9 statistic is the key to deciphering each team’s true relative strikeout strength.



The above table breaks down each team’s strikeouts, K/9 rate, and IP pace, as well as projecting the number of strikeouts each team would accumulate if each pitching staff were stretched to 1500 IP while maintaining their K/9 rate.

This last sentence is important because it would obviously be easier for some teams to maintain their current K/9 rate than it would be for others. It can be stated with near certainty that Billy Schreyer’s ShrayDay team will win the strikeouts category; his 8.15 K/9 rate is substantially higher than that of his competitors. Moreover, he has managed to significantly reduce his IP count, as he was on pace to amass over 1650 IP a month into the season. Billy can thank Edinson Volquez (10.42 K/9, 1st in MLB of pitchers who’ve pitched at least 60 IP) and Josh Beckett (9.31 K/9, 4th) for their contributions. (Along the lines of Volquez: How impressive is 10.42 K/9? Since 2005, only five pitchers have maintained a K/9 rate above 10 for an entire season)

Taking K/9 rate into account, most teams are sitting about where they should be in the strikeouts category. It should be noted that “most teams” does not include Poo Holes, managed by the infamously enigmatic Mike Rennard. Poo Holes is the only team in the league with a K/9 rate that comes close to that of Shray Day; both teams come in right at 8.15 K/9. However, Poo Holes also has 260 less IP than ShrayDay, an enormous discrepancy given that we’re not even halfway through the season yet. Despite having two of the top strikeout pitchers in the game (Tim Lincecum’s 9.03 K/9 is 7th in MLB; AJ Burnett’s 8.87 is 10th), Rennard has failed to surround those two aces with a stable of reliable arms. At this very moment, Poo Holes has only four other starting pitchers on his roster: an oft-injured Rich Harden, a demoted Max Scherzer, an injured Adam Wainwright, and a young-and-still-learning Matt Garza. Considering that Rennard is also currently forcing a demoted Billy Butler and an injured Alfonso Soriano into his everyday lineup, it can be stated with a fair amount of certainty that Poo Holes is intent on proving that last year’s championship was an aberration.

Recommended Reading

Fantasy Baseball Owner Rips Team In Media

Kudos to Sean Stokke for digging this one up.

Celtic Pride

The Celtics rewarded the 18 ALACS’ers who picked Boston as their NBA Champion in stylish fashion on Tuesday night, blowing out the Lakers by 39 points in the most lopsided championship-clinching-game in NBA playoff history. The Celtics’ celebrated ‘Big Three’ all showed up for Game 6, and they got some help from Rajon Rondo, who might have turned in the best game of his young NBA career: 21 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds, and 6 steals. Nice timing, Rajon.

The final NBA Playoff Pool standings (full brackets found here):

1. Mike Duin, 64 (-14 games) – $145
2. Sean Stokke, 64 (-15 games) – $60
3. Mike Lazar, 62 – $28
4. Colleen Northup, 60 – $10
5. Ted Bergeron, 58
6. Brandon Seroyer, 56
6. Cici Northup, 56
6. Dan Goldman, 56
9. Dave Christeson, 50
10. Jeff Vaudt, 48
10. Mike Marty, 48
10. Alex Rosenbloom, 48
13. Jordan Spektor, 46
13. Joe Nelson, 46
13. Shaun Wickers, 46
16. Loren Northup, 44
17. Kyle Davis, 42
18. Andrew Gay, 40
18. Joe Simich, 40
18. Matt Crevier, 40
21. Steve Duin, 38
22. Adam Brady, 36
23. Chris Platt, 34
24. Damon Pryor, 32
24. Micah Gantman, 32
26. Andy Popp, 28
27. Tim Hokit, 24

And with that, the second game of the 2008-09 ALACS season has concluded – updated ALACS Standings can be found here and are always available through the ALACS Home Page. Thanks to everyone for playing.

Tiger's 2008 Season: Extinct

BREAKING: Tiger Woods has announced that he will have surgery on his left knee, ending a 2008 season in which he played in six tournaments. In those six tournaments, Tiger made six cuts, won four times, and made $5,775,000. Tiger will miss the last two majors of the year -- the British Open and the PGA Championship -- leaving eight unlucky ALACS'ers in the dust. Tiger will also miss the Ryder Cup in September.

"This is Probably the Greatest Tournament I've Ever Had"

Tiger Woods won his first major of the year Monday when he prevailed over Rocco Mediate in an 18-hole playoff, rewarding the four ALACS’ers who chose to use the world’s best golfer for the US Open. Thanks to Tiger and a 4th place finish from Tier 4 golfer Robert Karlsson, Mike Lazar rang up the highest single-tournament score yet in the PGA Majors Game, posting 74.167 points for the Open. That score vaulted Lazar into second place with a total score of 86.292 points, just 0.375 behind still-leader Dan Goldman, who sits atop the standings with 86.667 points.

If you’re looking to draw anything meaningful from the performance of your foursome in yesterday’s major, I might come to the following conclusion: outside of Tiger, no one is reliable in these tournaments (a conclusion you assuredly came to yourself if you watched Phil Mickelson’s Kevin Costner-esque performance on the 13th hole on Saturday). In fact, not only have no other golfers proved dependable – but not even the tiers of golfers have demonstrated any sort of collective consistency. Consider the following:


Tiger has averaged 45 points per major; the collective tiers have averaged no fewer than 3.88 points and no more than 4.98 points. Further, Tier 4 golfers (golfers ranked 27+ in the pre-Masters World Golf Rankings) have outperformed Tier 2 golfers (ranked #7-14).

For those of you who haven’t yet used Tiger and have saved him for either the British Open or the PGA Championship? Anything short of a 2nd place finish would all but demolish your hopes of winning our PGA Majors Game – a prospect made much more interesting by the fact that Tiger stated, at the conclusion of the Open today, that he wasn’t sure whether he’d play in the British Open next month. Of course, if you’re still in relative contention and have not yet used Tiger, you’re sitting pretty…assuming, of course, that he continues this run of greatness.

(note: I can't get the order reversed for some reason, but it's better to be at the bottom of this chart with Teddy, not at the top with Chores McAvoy)

Next up: The British Open at Royal Birkdale, July 17th-20th.

US Open Scorecard

PGA Majors Game Particpants:
I'll be updating the ALACS US Open Scorecard frequently throughout the tournament. Refresh it for updates.

US Open Golfers Due Wednesday Night

Just a reminder that the 108th US Open Championship at Torrey Pines -- the second event of the ALACS PGA Majors Game -- begins bright and early Thursday morning. Get your golfers to the Commish by Wednesday night.

Standings can be found here: PGA Majors Game Standings.

NBA Playoff Pool: Standings Through Conference Finals

Here are the updated standings through the conclusion of the Conference Finals. There are two perfect brackets remaining. Following the standings, there is a list of the possible payouts depending on whether the Celtics or Lakers win the NBA Finals. As always, complete brackets can be viewed through the NBA Playoffs link at the ALA website.

If a participant's NBA Champion is not listed, their champ has already lost and their noted score is final.

1. Mike Duin, 48 (-14 games) (Celtics)
2. Sean Stokke, 48 (-15 games) (Celtics)
3. Mike Lazar, 46 (Celtics)
4. Colleen Northup, 44 (Celtics)
5. Ted Bergeron, 42 (Celtics)
6. Joe Simich, 40 (Lakers)
6. Matt Crevier, 40 (Lakers)
6. Brandon Seroyer, 40 (Celtics)
6. Cici Northup, 40 (Celtics)
6. Dan Goldman, 40 (Celtics)
11. Steve Duin, 38
12. Adam Brady, 36 (Lakers)
13. Chris Platt, 34 (Lakers)
13. Dave Christeson, 34 (Celtics)
15. Jeff Vaudt, 32 (Celtics)
15. Mike Marty, 32 (Celtics)
15. Alex Rosenbloom, 32 (Celtics)
18. Damon Pryor, 32
18. Micah Gantman, 32
20. Jordan Spektor, 30 (Celtics)
20. Joe Nelson, 30 (Celtics)
20. Shaun Wickers, 30 (Celtics)
23. Loren Northup, 28 (Celtics)
24. Andy Popp, 28
25. Kyle Davis, 26 (Celtics)
26. Tim Hokit, 24 (Lakers)
26. Andrew Gay, 24 (Celtics)

TOP 4 PAYOUT IF CELTICS WIN:
1. Mike Duin (64) (tiebreaker: 14 games off exact series lengths), $145
2. Sean Stokke (64) (tiebreaker: 15 games off exact series lengths), $60
3. Mike Lazar (62), $28
4. Colleen Northup (60), $10

TOP 4 PAYOUT IF LAKERS WIN:
1. Joe Simich (56) (tiebreaker: 5 games off total games in playoffs)*, $145
2. Matt Crevier (56) (tiebreaker: 6 games off total games in playoffs)*, $60
3. Adam Brady (52), $28
4. Chris Platt (50), $10

*= It's necessary to measure the tiebreaker differently depending on whether the Celtics or Lakers win. If the Celtics win, the two leaders (myself and Sean Stokke) would have perfect brackets, so it is easy to simply count how many games we were off on each series. However, if the Lakers win, Joe and Matt's brackets were not perfect, and the tiebreaker measurement used is the total length of the playoffs (as was specified at the top of the brackets before the playoffs began). It's essentially the same thing, just a different method of measurement.

Debut.

"Bruce is loaded with both tools and skills. He's a fantastic hitter who is seemingly incapable of light contact, projecting as a .300+ hitter who approaches 100 extra-base hits annually. He has average to slightly-above speed and has proven to be surprisingly capable in center field, while also showcasing a strong arm. He supplements his natural abilities with strong makeup and an outstanding work ethic. Perfect World Projection: A perennial All-Star and MVP candidate. A true superstar in the mold of a healthy Larry Walker."

Welcome to the Majors, Jay.

NBA Playoff Pool: Standings Through Round Two

Here are the up-to-date standings through the conclusion of the second round of the NBA Playoffs. There are three perfect brackets remaining. As always, each bracket can be viewed through the NBA Playoffs link at the ALA Fantasy Sports website. Each participant's champion is listed after their score.

1. Sean Stokke, 32 (Celtics)
1. Mike Duin, 32 (Celtics)
1. Cici Northup, 32 (Celtics)
4. Steve Duin, 30 (Spurs)
4. Mike Lazar, 30 (Celtics)
6. Andy Popp, 28 (Pistons)
6. Colleen Northup, 28 (Celtics)
8. Chris Platt, 26 (Lakers)
8. Ted Bergeron, 26 (Celtics)
8. Dave Christeson, 26 (Celtics)
11. Joe Simich, 24 (Lakers)
11. Matt Crevier, 24 (Lakers)
11. Dan Goldman, 24 (Celtics)
11. Brandon Seroyer, 24 (Celtics)
11. Jeff Vaudt, 24 (Celtics)
11. Mike Marty, 24 (Celtics)
11. Alex Rosenbloom, 24 (Celtics)
11. Damon Pryor, 24 (Suns)
11. Micah Gantman, 24 (Suns)
20. Joe Nelson, 22 (Celtics)
20. Jordan Spektor, 22 (Celtics)
20. Shaun Wickers, 22 (Celtics)
23. Adam Brady, 20 (Lakers)
23. Loren Northup, 20 (Celtics)
25. Kyle Davis, 18 (Celtics)
26. Tim Hokit, 16 (Lakers)
26. Andrew Gay, 16 (Celtics)

FMLB Team Spotlight: The Waiver Wire Magician

Billy Schreyer has led an intriguing ALA career. As one of the Founding Fathers of A Level Above, he was there in the beginning, fielding a team in all three of ALA’s fantasy games. Yet in recent years, Billy has drifted into the murky underworld of our great fantasy league – first by disappearing from the realm of fantasy football, and then by announcing his retirement from fantasy hoops after an infamous stretch in which he abandoned an injury-crippled team, forcing his hurt players onto the floor when all they wanted was a seat on the bench to rest their torn ACLs and broken limbs. It seemed as though the lack of an ALA Championship had all but demolished Billy Schreyer’s fantasy spirit. Yet through it all, the man they call ‘Ill Bills’ made one thing clear: he would never quit playing fantasy baseball.

And now, six weeks into the 2008 Fantasy MLB season, Billy Schreyer finds himself in an unfamiliar position: 1st place. The top of the heap. How has he gotten there? Where did this sudden, surprising resurgence come from? And the most pressing question: will ShrayDay be able to stay on top?

Billy has a very balanced team – of his league-leading 97.0 Roto Points as of May 14th, 46.5 of those come from his hitters and 50.5 come from his pitching staff. What’s astonishing about Billy’s team is where his stars came from. Billy made a few great draft picks – notably, spending $24 auction dollars on Chipper Jones, who has aged like a fine wine. Chipper’s currently putting up an unbelievable .415 AVG/.475 OBP/.683 SLG and is on pace for 43 HR and 135 RBI. If you’re looking for another outstanding auction pick, look no further than Pat Burrell. After Burrell batted .257 and .256 in the last two years, it wasn’t entirely surprising that the rest of the league let him go to ShrayDay cheaply, at $13 – Burrell has looked like a less powerful Adam Dunn in recent years, as dependable for 30 HR as he was to do serious damage to a fantasy team’s batting average. This year, much to Billy’s delight, Burrell has kept his average above .300 all year and is also slugging a full 120 points higher than his career slugging percentage.



As impressive as Jones and Burrell have been, let there be no doubt why Billy Schreyer is currently in 1st place. As of May 14th, ShrayDay owned three of the top seven players on the ESPN Player Rater, as well as the 14th ranked player. Here are those four players:

#3: Chipper Jones – .415 AVG, 27 R, 10 HR, 31 RBI, 0 SB
#4: Cliff Lee – 6-0, 44 K, 0.67 ERA, 0.67 WHIP
#7: Nate McLouth – .305 AG, 32 R, 10 HR, 31 RBI, 3 SB
#14: Edinson Volquez – 6-1, 57 K, 1.12 ERA, 1.26 WHIP

We’ve discussed Chipper – but look at those other three names. Look at ‘em hard. Now, look at the percentage of CBS leagues that Lee, McLouth, and Volquez were owned in when the fantasy baseball season began:

Cliff Lee: Owned in 21% of leagues
Nate McLouth: Owned in 27% of leagues
Edinson Volquez: Owned in 60% of leagues

This is the amazing thing. Billy picked up all three of those players as free agents after the draft. Cliff Lee, who was demoted to the minors last year after posting a 6.30 ERA and 1.52 WHIP, has come back this year looking like the second coming of Sandy Koufax. Lee’s numbers are beyond mindblowing. They’re seemingly impossible. 53.7 IP. 44 K. Four – FOUR!!! – walks. His 0.67 ERA is the 6th lowest ERA after seven starts since World War II. All of this from someone whose career looked resigned to that of a journeyman after his failed 2007 campaign.



Billy Schreyer’s first place team is Exhibit A in the Museum of Why It Pays Off to Pay Attention. The scary thing? Though Chipper would be hard-pressed to maintain a .415 batting average all year, and Lee’s ERA will certainly not stay below 1.00 forever, ShrayDay isn’t likely to fade away. Even outside of the four fantasy superstars we’ve discussed, Billy has a reliable supporting cast in place – a group that includes a stingy John Smoltz, a reborn Ryan Dempster, and a hard-throwing Josh Beckett on his pitching staff, and a few hitters who haven’t yet hit their stride – notably Robinson Cano and Brad Hawpe. Billy will have to keep an eye on the IP Pace of his pitching staff: he’s currently on track for 1693 IP, far over the 1500 IP limit. But the way his arms are throwing right now, I’m not sure there’s any reason not to run straight into that 1500 IP wall – if ShrayDay’s starters keep throwing like they have, the rest of teams in this league will have their hands full trying to match their peripherals.

A Few Words on OJ

Ten minutes after I walked into my office today, my boss was already giving me shit – “So how do you like that OJ Mayo now?” I’m sure the rest of you aren’t far behind. For those of you who haven’t been glued to your television sets all weekend, a guy named Louis Johnson – formerly a member of OJ’s entourage – came clean and told ESPN that Mayo had accepted $30,000 in gifts over the last four years from an LA promoter named Rodney Guillory. Once OJ made it to the L, he would repay those favors by signing with an agent from Bill Duffy Associates (BDA) – something OJ did the day he declared for the draft.

As fascinating as this story is, my feelings on it are pretty clean cut: as a USC basketball fan, why am I supposed to care about this? Am I supposed to feel guilty, or be pinged with some sort of regret because some guy gave OJ Mayo nice clothes and a flat screen TV?

I’m not a fan of OJ Mayo the celebrity, or OJ Mayo’s entourage, or OJ Mayo’s self-marketing aspirations. I’m a USC basketball fan, and this ‘scandal’ and OJ’s USC basketball career are hardly related. There was no institutional involvement in buying OJ Mayo a flat screen TV. I find it hard to believe that someone like Tim Floyd – who by all accounts is as good a guy as he is a coach, and has repeatedly stood up for OJ’s character and actions – would put his own name on the line if he had any idea that OJ was blatantly breaking NCAA rules.

This thing has nothing to do with OJ’s USC basketball career (which lasted all of one year). It’s not like USC higher-ups visited OJ in high school and slipped him envelopes full of $100 bills that had “Fight On!” written on the back of them. None of this had even the slightest effect on the 20.4 PPG, 4.5 RPG, and 3.3 APG that OJ averaged last year, which is why I couldn’t care less about this as a USC basketball fan.

This is also why idiots like Pat Forde need to get off their bandbox. Really, Pat? This is our fault? Take a second and remember how OJ Mayo ended up at USC – he quite literally recruited himself. He had one of his boys call up Tim Floyd and say “How would you like it if OJ Mayo came to play for the Trojans?” It was clear, both now and then, that this was part of a plan to craft OJ’s “brand” and make him more marketable as a player. LA was an easy place to do that.

According to USC’s official denial of this debacle, both the NCAA and the PAC-10 “reviewed O.J. Mayo's amateur status before and during his enrollment at USC, and did not identify any amateurism violations. Mayo and USC fully cooperated in these investigations.” If this is true, what exactly was USC supposed to do? Were we supposed to say to OJ: “Sorry man – we know you’re a prep legend, and you’d be the highest profile basketball recruit we’ve ever pulled in…but I think we’ll pass. Someone might’ve bought you some new clothes while you were in high school. Good luck playing for UCLA!”

Pat Forde claims that OJ was “a player everyone in Hoopsworld strongly suspected was no amateur before he set foot in Los Angeles.” Um, Pat? If that’s the case, where was your groundbreaking investigative reporting back then? If it was so obvious, why weren’t you telling us about it? Newsflash: THIS HAPPENS EVERYWHERE!! Instead of taking your self-righteous, melodramatic stand that “Someone has to stop USC!!” you should be working a little harder to figure out where else this is going on. You seem to realize that off the basketball court, in the offices of high-profile agents and wherever the shady ‘runners’ like Rodney Guillory hang out, there’s another game being played. For the sake of your readers, why don’t you try and learn a little more about that game while you’re getting over your envy that no one can beat our football team.

Rethinking - and Revising - the ALACS Scoring System

Let’s get to the point right away: the first draft of the year-round ALACS scoring system was flawed. Aside from being unnecessarily complex, the scoring system failed to differentiate between degrees of difficulty, effort, and time involved in different events. Put concisely: every event held identical significance. First place in the NBA Playoff Bracket Pool scored you just as many points as first place in a seven-month long fantasy basketball season. Clearly, this is both illogical and unreasonable.

The scoring system was initially designed with the six-event requirement in mind; we wanted to make sure that someone playing in all nine events had no advantage over someone playing in just six. However, our idea from the start of this project was also to encourage participation in as many events as possible – and the original scoring system did nothing to accomplish that goal. With every event weighted with equal importance, and an average of each participant’s ‘total’ score taken to determine a year-round champion, there was little incentive for someone to play in a game they didn’t consider themselves an expert in.

Now that I’ve had a little time to tinker with this, I think I’ve found a solution – a scoring system that both rewards people for playing in as many events as possible, but also doesn’t discriminate against those of you who choose not to play in every game. Here’s how it will work.

There will be three “levels” of ALACS events, each with a different set of point values that will be distributed to participants based on how they finish. In this link, you will find two tabs: the first tab shows the current ALACS Standings. The second tab shows the new scoring system.

ALACS Year 1 Standings and Point System

In the first level, we have the PGA Majors Competition and the NBA Playoffs Bracket Pool – two pure guessing games. In the second level, we have the two spread competitions – which take a moderate amount of effort, since participants are required to submit picks every week – as well as the NCAA March Madness Pool, which is given more importance than the Level I events because of its prestige and the certainty that it will be the ALACS Event that the most people participate in every year. Finally, we in the third level, we have the three fantasy games, which require a participant to actively manage a roster over an entire season, and the NFL Survivor Pool.

Some people might scoff at the Survivor Pool’s inclusion in the third level – after all, it’s just as much of a guessing game as the bracket pools and spread games – but keep in mind that the Survivor Pool requires a $55 buy-in. This might also be the most exciting game in the ALACS on a week-to-week basis. Not only will you be rooting for an NFL team every week with a life-or-death state of mind, but you’ll have plenty of other teams to root against – the most popular picks in the pool, the teams that, if they lose, would eliminate a bunch of people you’re competing against. It’s going to be fun, and the brainpower behind this ALACS project would like to see the NFL Survivor Pool blow up.

Now, there are a couple of other caveats to the scoring system that are extremely important. Let’s turn to another round of ALACS FAQ to answer some questions you may have.

Q: This is (expletive) ridiculous. I didn’t even get a chance to play in ALA Fantasy Baseball, and now all the (expletive)s that are playing fantasy baseball have a chance to earn way more ALACS points than I can in the events I’m playing in. How is this fair? (expletive) this, I quit!!

A: Alright, calm down. First of all, it’s important to remember that only 10% of each prize pool is going towards the ALACS Master Pool –playing in an event will always be profitable if you do well, regardless of the overall ALACS implications. Moving on, I’m well aware that not everyone had a chance to play fantasy baseball – which is why we’re including a special fantasy game rule for the first year of the ALACS (and the first year only). Participants in all three fantasy games will only get to use two of their ALACS fantasy scores to go towards their year-round total. Though you could still argue that tri-fantasy players have a small advantage since they have three games available to pick those two scores from, the bottom line is that if you were to play in two fantasy games and do well in both of them, you won’t be getting slighted. And if you don’t do well in the two games you play in (which would be basketball and football), you can’t expect us to jump through hoops for you. Besides, the two people currently leading ALA Fantasy Baseball are almost certainly not going to play in the six events necessary to qualify for the year-round title, so calm the (expletive) down.

Q: So…remind me again why I should be playing in all of these games, rather than just the events that I think I’m going to do really well at?

A: I’m glad you asked. Another new caveat with this scoring system is that participants will use their six highest-scoring events to go towards their year-round total score – so if you screw up really bad with your PGA Golfers, it doesn’t hurt you. We’re not averaging all your games anymore; we’re just picking your six best ones. Again: we’re trying to reward participation with this bad boy.

Q: While we’re here, how are fantasy basketball and football going to work? Aren’t there going to be way too many people trying to play to fit in one league?

A: Indeed there will be – which is why the ALACS will support multiple leagues. Go big or go home baby!

If any of you have comments or thoughts related to the new and improved scoring system – please post them in the comments of this entry. I’ll be happy to respond to them. Thanks for reading and, as always, enjoy the games.

NBA Playoff Pool: First Round Wrap-up

Kobe and the Lakers still haven't lost a playoff game.

The first round of the NBA Playoffs concluded on Sunday when the Celtics finally put the Hawks down, and five of the 27 ALACS Brackets made it through the first round unscathed. Sean Stokke, Andy Popp, The Commish, and Cici and Colleen Northup -- two ALACS newcomers -- each correctly predicted the winner of each first round series. They stand atop the standings, which can be found by clicking on the NBA Playoffs link at http://www.alafantasysports.com/.

The San Antonio Spurs undoubtedly did the most damage to the ALACS Pool as a whole -- which is surprising if only because they've been the dominant team of the last decade, and they repeat the same process every year: cruise control for the regular season, calculated dominance in the playoffs. I will never understand how so many of you guys decided this team wasn't making it through the first round this year. Only one participant, Steve Duin, picked the Spurs to win yet another NBA Championship this year.

Taking a quick glance at the pool leaders:
- Sean Stokke missed less games (seven) than the other four perfect brackets. As he and The Commish have identical brackets and an identical NBA Finals length, the best The Commish can hope for at this point is a tie. Unfortunate.
- Andy Popp's bold prediction of a Utah/Detroit NBA Finals -- which would hold only slightly more entertainment value than a Spurs/Pistons rematch, for the record -- is markedly different than anyone else at the top of the pool.
- Colleen Northup was the only pool participant to pick the New Orleans Hornets to reach the Western Conference finals. They've already taken a 1-0 lead over the Spurs.
- Cici Northup was the only one of the pool leaders to pick the Spurs to reach the NBA Finals.

Enjoy the second round.

ALACS NBA Playoff Pool: By the Numbers

The first week of the 2008 NBA Playoffs has been a fantastic experience. Among other highlights:

- The Suns/Spurs series, unquestionably the most important first round series in terms of the ALACS Pool, has featured one of the best first round games in NBA history and has maintained in intense aura that’s usually reserved for the later rounds. Between Shaq’s quest for a fifth ring with a third team, the high probability that this is Steve Nash’s last chance at a title, and the Spurs continual ability to coast through the regular season before turning it on in the playoffs…well, there’s a lot happening with this one.

- CP3 is a legend (where’s Sebastian Telfair these days?). Last night Chris Paul became the 8th player in NBA history to post consecutive games of 30 points and 10 assists in the playoffs – a list that features the likes of Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, John Havlicek, and Kevin Johnson. By the way, CP3 did this in the first two playoff games he’s ever played.

- Dwight Howard threw up consecutive 20-point, 20-board games – the first player to do so since KG did it back in ’04. On a related note, the Magic lead the Raptors 2-0.

It’s hard to compare the NBA Playoffs to March Madness, but I’d like to if only because far too often (at least where I live) I hear ranting about how the NBA sucks and college basketball is so much more ‘pure.’ What struck me watching these games yesterday, among other things, was a simple fact: this is better basketball. These guys don’t miss open shots; they’re always in the right spots on the floor; they thread the ball through passing lanes that may not even exist when the ball leaves the passer’s hand. Say all you want about the ‘passion’ that college players have – which NBA players supposedly ‘lack’ (as you might be able to tell by the quotemarks, this assertion is total bullshit in my opinion) – but if anyone tells me the college game is a better basketball product than the pro one, they deserve to be slapped in the face.

Without further ado, the ALACS Pool: By The Numbers…

27: Total number of brackets in the pool

18: Brackets picking the Boston Celtics as NBA Champion
5: Brackets picking the LA Lakers as NBA Champion
2: Brackets picking the Phoenix Suns as NBA Champion
1: Brackets picking the Detroit Pistons as NBA Champion
1: Brackets picking the San Antonio Spurs as NBA Champion

3:2 : Current Vegas odds of the Boston Celtics winning the NBA Championship, the best of any team (followed by the Lakers at 2:1, the Spurs at 5:1, and the Jazz at 8:1)

19: Brackets picking the Suns to upset the Spurs in Round 1 (Spurs currently lead 2-0)

0: Brackets picking the Lakers, Pistons, or Celtics to lose their first round series

3: Brackets picking Tracy McGrady to finally get out of the first round

7: Brackets picking the Magic to reach the Eastern Conference Finals

1: Brackets picking LeBron James to return to the NBA Finals

6: ALACS newcomers in the NBA Playoff Pool

1: Person who has paid their NBA Playoff Pool entry fee (thank you, Hot Karl)

Until next time...

One.

In the world of college basketball, the shot has become known as Mario's Miracle. In ALACS lore, Mario Chalmers' game-tying three pointer with less than three seconds left in the National Championship game will be forever known as Marty's Miracle. Michael Marty took home the $339 awarded to first place in the ALACS March Madness Pool, and he has an early lead on the rest of the field as the winner of the first game of the 2008 ALACS Season.

The Payout:

1. Michael Marty ($339)
2. Damon Pryor ($150)
3. Leslie Dillavou ($60)
4. Lauren Duin ($30)
5. Willis Barnes ($15)

Thanks to everyone for playing.

Two.

Here are the two possible prize breakdowns once tonight's title game has concluded:

If Memphis Wins:
1. Alex Rosenbloom - 138 Points ($339)
2. Michael Marty - 130 Points ($150)
3. Christina Duin - 129 Points ($60)
4. Jordan Spektor - 123 Points ($30)
5. THREE WAY TIE between Brandon Seroyer, Damon Pryor, and Matt Crevier, all of whom would have 119 Points. Their championship tiebreaker scores would determine who gets the $15 for third place.

If Kansas Wins:
1. Michael Marty - 154 Points ($339)
2. Damon Pryor - 143 Points ($150)
3. Leslie Dillavou - 140 Points ($60)
4. Lauren Duin - 137 Points ($30)
5. Willis Barnes - 132 Points ($15)

Good luck to all...

Four.

For the sake of everyone's unyielding curiosity, let’s break down every possible Final Four scenario to see who has the best shot of winning this thing. The following hypothetical scenarios are all based on the possible Championship Game matchups.

IF UNC BEATS UCLA…
Andy Popp will win. Popp nailed three of the four Final Four teams, picking Pitt to get there over Memphis.

IF UNC BEATS MEMPHIS…
Tiffany Baiardo will win. Tiff nailed all four Final Four teams, and is also beating her boyfriend Willis Barnes, much to Willis’ embarrassment.

IF KANSAS BEATS UCLA…
Lauren Duin will win. Lauren nailed all four Final Four teams.

IF KANSAS BEATS MEMPHIS…
Michael Marty will win. Marty also nailed all four Final Four teams.

IF UCLA BEATS UNC…
Alex Bratt will win. Thankfully, there is no possible scenario where Alex Bratt’s tiebreaker score of 87 can come into play and actually matter.

IF UCLA BEATS KANSAS…
Brandon Seroyer and Matt Crevier will tie at the top, and it will come down to each bracket’s tiebreaker score. Seroyer has 132; Crevier has 112.

IF MEMPHIS BEATS UNC…
Christina Duin will win. I’m slightly embarrassed that both my sisters correctly predicted all four Final Four teams, yet I did not.

IF MEMPHIS BEATS KANSAS…
Alex Rosenbloom will win, despite spending the past two weeks depressed by how poorly his brackets were doing.

I’m fairly certain all of these ‘predictions’ are correct, but I claim no responsibility if I missed something while perusing the brackets. Best of luck to all, especially my sisters.

National Holiday.

Sometime this week I'll figure out who wins the ALACS March Madness Pool based on every possible scenario that we have left; today, however, is Opening Day in the major leagues...and of course, the first real day of the ALACS Fantasy Baseball Season.

Texas Rangers @ Seattle Mariners. 3:40 PM PST. Safeco Field.
It's Erik's time.

Eight.

Eight teams left in the NCAA Tournament. Here's how the top eight ALACS brackets can win.

1. Jon Wang, 74 Points. Best Score: 154
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Wisconsin, Texas, UCLA
CHAMPION: UNC over UCLA
BREAKDOWN: Wang once again finds himself in the lead, even after taking a major hit in yesterday's Davidson/Wisconsin game. He has one problem, and that problem is writing this blog. If Kansas beats Davidson, The Commish will jump ahead of Wang, and the rest of their brackets are identical. Long story short: If Kansas beats Davidson, Wang can't win.

2 (tie). Brandon Seroyer, 71 Points. Best Score: 159
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Memphis, UCLA
CHAMPION: UCLA over Kansas
BREAKDOWN: Seroyer and fellow #2 Matt Crevier share the highest possible score in the pool, as well as the exact same results for the remainer of their brackets. As Seroyer conveniently pointed out to me last night via text message, this is the third year in a row he has nailed seven of the Elite Eight teams -- and given that Seroyer has won my NCAA bracket pool the last two years, the rest of us should probably start worrying. Brandon has all four #1s in the Final Four. The bad news for Seroyer? No Florida to count on as national champ this year.

2 (tie). Matt Crevier (2), 71 Points. Best Score: 159
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Memphis, UCLA
CHAMPION: UCLA over Kansas
BREAKDOWN: Again, Crevier and Seroyer have identical brackets from here on out -- if they both are correct, it'll come down to the Final Game Score Tiebreaker, which Crevier has at 112 and Seroyer has at 132.

4 (tie). Andy Popp (2), 70 Points. Best Score: 150
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Pitt, UCLA
CHAMPION: UNC over UCLA
BREAKDOWN: Popp has already lost Pitt as a Final Four team; if Texas beats Memphis, Popp will be mathematically eliminated at the hands of Jon Wang.

4 (tie). Danny Hennessy, 70 Points. Best Score: 158
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Texas, UCLA
CHAMPION: UCLA over Kansas
BREAKDOWN: Like much of the pool, the Texas/Memphis game is critical for him: if Texas and Kansas win, Hennessy jumps into the lead and controls his own destiny. If UCLA then beats Kansas in the title game, Hennessy wins the first event of the ALACS season.

6. Corey Mitchell, 69 Points. Best Score: 149
FINAL FOUR: Tennessee, Kansas, Memphis, UCLA
CHAMPION: UCLA over Kansas
BEAKDOWN: Corey has lost Tennessee out of his Final Four and because he shares the rest of his bracket with Seroyer and Crevier has already been mathematically eliminated from winning the pool.

7. Willis Barnes (2), 68 Points. Best Score: 156
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Texas, UCLA
CHAMPION: Kansas over UCLA
BREAKDOWN: If Kansas wins, Willis wins the pool. It's that simple.

8 (tie). Alex Bratt, 67 Points. Best Score: 155
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Memphis, UCLA
CHAMPION: UCLA over UNC
BREAKDOWN: Alex can win because he is the top person in the pool who has UCLA over UNC in the national championship. If that happens, Alex wins.

8 (tie). Mike Duin, 67 Points. Best Score: 155
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Texas, UCLA
CHAMPION: UNC over UCLA
BREAKDOWN: Thanks to Davidson beating Wisconsin and a still-intact Final Four, The Commish still has a chance to win this thing if he nails every single remaining game. I'm praying.

8 (tie). Joe Simich, 67 Points. Best Score: 147

FINAL FOUR: UNC, Georgetown, Memphis, UCLA

CHAMPION: UCLA over UNC

BREAKDOWN: Joe's best hope is to tie for the win -- this will only be possible if Kansas loses to Davidson and he nails the rest of his bracket. In the event that happens, he and Alex Bratt will tie for the win and the tiebreaker will decide it.

8 (tie). Andrew Gay (2), 67 Points. Best Score: 147

FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Stanford, UCLA
CHAMPION: UNC over UCLA
BREAKDOWN: Gay has been mathematically eliminated from winning because he lost Stanford and shares the rest of his bracket with Wang and Popp, who are both ahead of him.

8 (tie). Ted Bergeron, 67 Points. Best Score: 147
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Stanford, UCLA
CHAMPION: UNC over UCLA
BREAKDOWN: See Gay's explanation above. Sorry Tee.

8 (tie). Jordan Spektor, 67 Points. Best Score: 123
FINAL FOUR: Tennessee, USC, Memphis, UCLA
CHAMPION: Memphis over USC
BREAKDOWN: ...see above. Spek's done.

8 (tie). Andy Popp (1), 67 Points. Best Score: 83
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Wisconsin, Stanford, Xavier
CHAMPION: Stanford over Wiconsin
BREAKDOWN: "Simultaneous train wrecks." - the text I received from Andy as Wisconsin and Stanford both were discarded by double digits. This bracket is dead.

Sixteen.

In the spirit of the Sweet 16, which starts tonight, I'm going to break down what needs to happen for each of the current top 16 teams in the ALACS pool to win the $339 that goes to first place.

It's worthwhile to keep in mind that a correct Sweet 16 pick is worth 4 points, a correct Elite 8 pick is worth 8 points, a correct Final Four pick is worth 16 points, and picking the correct champion is worth 24 points.

1. Andrew Gay (2), 51 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Stanford, UCLA.
CHAMPIONSHIP: UNC over UCLA
BREAKDOWN: Our current leader was the only person in the pool to correctly pick Western Kentucky, Villanova, and Davidson all reaching the Sweet 16. Gay has lost only one of his Elite Eight teams -- he had Kansas St. beating Davidson -- and shares his two Championship teams with much of the pool. The key to Andrew Gay's success is the South region -- he has Stanford beating Texas and Michigan St. prevailing over Memphis. If he nails both of those winners, I might as well start writing his check for first.

2 (tie). Alex Bratt, 47 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Memphis, UCLA.
CHAMPIONSHIP: UCLA over UNC
BREAKDOWN: Bratt picked all four #1s to reach the Final Four -- something that, as the geniuses at Basketball Prospectus pointed out before the beginning of the tournament, has as good a statistical chance of happening as a #16 upsetting a #1 in the first round. He's lost Georgetown and Duke out of his Elite Eight, and otherwise has every single #1 and #2 advancing. Especially considering Memphis' free throw woes, Bratt is a longshot to win.

2 (tie). Andy Popp (1), 47 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Wisconsin, Stanford, Xavier.
CHAMPIONSHIP: Stanford over Wisconsin
BREAKDOWN: Simply put, Popp is living and dying with his two #3 seeds. If Stanford and Wisconsin do in fact make it to the Championship game, Popp wins.

2 (tie). Joe Simich, 47 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Georgetown, Memphis, UCLA.
CHAMPIONSHIP: UCLA over UNC
BREAKDOWN: Joe has lost Duke and G'Town out of his Elite Eight and G'Town out of his Final Four -- for Joe to beat Alex Bratt (who has the exact same Championship result), he will need Kansas to lose, Stanford to beat Texas, and Louisville to beat Tennessee. The chances of all of these things happening are not likely.

2 (tie). Jordan Spektor, 47 Points
FINAL FOUR: Tennessee, USC, Memphis, UCLA
CHAMPIONSHIP: Memphis over USC
BREAKDOWN: USC's done and Memphis shot 59% from the FT line this year. Good luck next year, Spek.

6 (tie). Andy Popp (2), 46 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Pitt, UCLA
CHAMPIONSHIP: UNC over UCLA
BREAKDOWN: Popp's second bracket has lost Pitt out of his Final Four and Georgetown from his Elite Eight -- to catch current leader Andrew Gay, Popp's #2 bracket will need both Texas to beat Stanford AND Lousville to beat Tennessee. If those two things don't happen, he can't catch Gay.

6 (tie). Aurora Janke, 46 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Memphis, Duke
CHAMPIONSHIP: UNC over Duke
BREAKDOWN: Aurora needs a lot of help -- probably a little too much help given she's already lost one of her Championship teams. However, she has already scored a serious victory as she's beating her boyfriend, Sean Stokke. Stokke....hang your head in shame.

6 (tie). Danny Hennessy, 46 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Texas, UCLA
CHAMPIONSHIP: UCLA over Kansas
BREAKDOWN: Hennessy boasts an oustanding Final Four (at least in this Commissioner's biased opinion) and has only lost Stanford out of his Elite Eight. If Kansas gets to the title game, Hennessy is in great shape for a top 3 finish. However, he will have to worry about....

6 (tie). Michael Marty (1), 46 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Memphis, UCLA
CHAMPIONSHIP: Kansas over Memphis
BREAKDOWN: Marty's technique was interesting in this bracket -- he chose all four #1s to make the Final Four, but also chose the two underdogs (relatively speaking) to play for the title. If Kansas and Memphis can both make it that far, Marty will almost certainly win.

6 (tie). Joe Nelson (1), 46 Points
FINAL FOUR: Tennessee, Kansas, Texas, UCLA
CHAMPIONSHIP: UCLA over Kansas
BREAKDOWN: Joe found a nice mix of bold picks and reliable ones -- no one ahead of him in the standings has Tennessee reaching the Final Four, so if that were to happen Joe would be gaining serious points on the rest of the field. It's worth noting that despite being a higher seed, Tennessee is a 3-point underdog to Louisville in their Sweet 16 game tonight.

6 (tie). Jon Wang, 46 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Wisconsin, Texas, UCLA
CHAMPIONSHIP: UNC over UCLA
BREAKDOWN: Wang has been the ALACS leader for nearly the entire tournament -- he only recently dropped down after Butler, Notre Dame, and Georgetown all lost. Wang is the only person in the pool to have his entire Elite Eight intact -- if Wisconsin can defeat Kansas and make it to the Final Four, I'd mark Jon Wang down as your winner.

12 (tie). Corey Mitchell, 45 Points
FINAL FOUR: Tennessee, Kansas, Memphis, UCLA
CHAMPIONSHIP: UCLA over Kansas
BREAKDOWN: Corey has hope, but that hope depends on Memphis and Tennessee both making it to San Antonio, which seems like a longshot. He will need those two things to happen to win, as he has the same Championship game as Danny Hennessy, who's a point ahead of him.

12 (tie). Jane Scott, 45 Points
FINAL FOUR: Tennessee, Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA
CHAMPIONSHIP: Tennessee over Kentucky
BREAKDOWN: Sean Stokke's aunt Jane must be from the south. On a related note, she has no chance of winning this pool.

12 (tie). Lauren Duin, 45 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Memphis, UCLA
CHAMPIONSHIP: Kansas over UCLA
BREAKDOWN: Given that no one else above her in the pool has Kansas beating UCLA in the Championship Game, little sis Lauren will win the pool if her fairy tale ending becomes reality.

15 (tie). Mike Duin (2), 44 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Pitt, UCLA
CHAMPIONSHIP: UCLA over Kansas
BREAKDOWN: Given that The Commish has already lost a Final Four team and a couple people ranked ahead of him also have UCLA over Kansas...well, to hell with the third person. I'm not winning with this bracket.

15 (tie). John Rosinbum, 44 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Wisconsin, Stanford, UCLA
CHAMPIONSHIP: UCLA over UNC
BREAKDOWN: Rosinbum has a shot because of his Stanford and Wisconsin Final Four picks -- if both of these things happen, considering his dependable Championship picks, his bracket will become scary.

15 (tie). Matt Crevier (1), 44 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Texas, UCLA
CHAMPIONSHIP: UCLA over UNC
BREAKDOWN: Crev's bracket simply has too much in common with those ahead of him. I could be wrong, but I think our favorite LMU grad has already been mathematically eliminated.

15 (tie). Willis Barnes (2), 44 Points
FINAL FOUR: UNC, Kansas, Texas, UCLA
CHAMPIONSHIP: Kansas over UCLA
BREAKDOWN: For Willis to beat Lauren Duin -- who has the exact same Championship result -- he will need Texas to beat Memphis and/or Xavier to beat West Virginia tonight. Another interesting spread: West Virginia is a favorite in that game, despite being the #7 seed to Xavier's #3.

So there you have it. Enjoy the games.

I'm beating ESPN to this!

Davidson comes back and beats Georgetown 74-70 after being down 17 points in the 2nd half. The legend of Stephen Curry, the 12-year-old Basketball Jesus, grows.

In the ALACS Pool, three of 66 brackets had Davidson prevailing over the Hoyas, and those three brackets were from the three Stanford alums in the pool: Andrew Gay, Kyle Davis, and Mike Lazar. An ALACS-funded study analyzing the correlation of GPA to Bracket Performance is forthcoming.

Three Current Scores...

(2) Tennessee 63, (7) Butler 63. 23.6 seconds left in the game.
(2) Georgetown 57, (10) Davidson 57. 5:07 left.
(12) Western Kentucky 60, (13) San Diego 57. 4:36 left.

I love March.

24 Down, 8 To Go

With eight first round games remaining, Jonathan Wang, a mysterious man who works with my roommate at Research in Motion, sits alone atop the leaderboard after picking 21 of 24 games correctly. I hope everyone got a chance to see the last couple minutes of Drake/Western Kentucky -- if you missed it, the last three minutes are available through the CBS On Demand program that lets you watch all the games online (just click 'Buzzer Beater'). That was about as good as it gets; as ALACS-er Adam Atkins so eloquently put it, "put it on the shelf of the all-time highlights" that March Madness is famous for.

In another dose of Day 2 excitement, San Diego outlasted UConn in overtime, winning on a fadeaway just inside the three-point arc with 1.2 seconds left, despite having their top two scorers foul out of the game. Worth noting: Only three of the 66 brackets in the ALACS pool did not have Drake or UConn advancing to the Sweet 16; Andrew Gay, Kyle Davis, and Jordan Spektor each had Western Kentucky winning two games.

Now we're talkin'

After a first day that saw teams winning by an average of 16 points per game, we're finally being treated to some true battles this morning. Gonzaga/Davidson lived up to expectations: Stephen Curry scored 30 points in the second half, 40 in all, and was 8-11 from beyond the arc as he almost single-handedly led the Wildcats to the second round. That guy can SHOOT. 15-seed American hung around with Tennessee until the last ten minutes of the game. And now, Drake has closed regulation on a 29-14 run to send their game with Western Kentucky into OT. A Drake loss would devastate one Matt Sachse, who has them winning...the entire tournament. Stay tuned.

Davidson/Gonzaga Highlights Day 2

Day 2 begins this morning with four early games, including the Gonzaga/Davidson game that might be the most interesting game all day. The Zags find themselves in the unfamiliar position of playing against the media's mid-major darling -- in the past, they've usually occupied that position themselves. Stephen Curry and Davidson have won 22 games in a row and didn't lose a game in whatever craptastic conference they played in this year.

Alex Bratt, Jon Wang, and Matt Langedyke each missed only one game in Day 1, which was devoid of any major upsets despite Belmont's best efforts to shock Duke. Remember, each first round game is only worth one point, compared to 16 for a correct Final Four pick and 24 for picking the right team to win it all. Enjoy the games.

Bracket Update; Trojans struggling

Through the morning's 8 games, seven brackets were perfect: Alex Bratt, Corey Mitchell, Damon Pryor, Matt Crevier, Matt Langedyke, and the boyfriend/girlfriend combo of Willis Barnes and Tiffany Baiardo. Sounds fishy to me. Hopefully Alex Bratt is not involved in a tiebreaker scenario at the end of the tournament, as he predicted a total score of 87 points in the championship game ("Ladies and Gentlemen, UCLA is your national champion...they win 57-30!!!").

In other news, my Trojans are down 10 to KSU at halftime. Bill Walker, OJ Mayo's high school teammate who now plays at Kansas State, is playing out of his mind and has 17 points at the half on 6-8 shooting. All week I said the same f'ing thing: Taj Gibson cannot get into foul trouble. He had three fouls with six minutes left in the first half. Weak.

The Best Day of the Year

I'd like to start off the first post of the ALACS Blog with a sincere thank you to everyone who joined our March Madness pool. I was optimistic sending out invitations, but I tried not to hope for as many brackets as we pulled into this pool. We have quite an eclectic group: within the ALACS pool there are fathers (mine and Kerry Burke's), aunts (Sean Stokke's), students abroad (my sister Christina and Adam Brady), alums of over 20 different colleges, and one guy with a really sweet name (Blaiz Grubic). There are 53 of us in total...all of whom, it should be noted, have more testicular fortitude than Brendan Meyer. Even the girls.

Who will the ALACS be rooting for (brackets aside) in the tournament?
Gonzaga (11 alums)
Oregon (8)
USC (6)
Stanford (3)
Portland St (3)
Duke (2)
Arizona (2)
Oklahoma (1)

Here is how the payout will work:
1st: $339
2nd: $150
3rd: $60
4th: $30
5th: $15

I'll be updating this throughout the opening weekend, the rest of the tournament, and the ALACS season (which lasts all year). Good luck with your brackets...