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.