Implications

So we enter the last week of our fantasy football regular season. Anyone who follows the fantasy sport knows this is odd, most leagues finish up last week so that the championship game isn't played during week 17, due to the number of NFL starters that end up not playing because their respective teams have already clinched a playoff spot and refuse to risk potentially injuring their starters in what is in essence a meaningless game. Our league, whether rightly or wrongly, doesn't adopt such a philosophy, we play our final game the last week of the regular season, so as important as it is to have quality players on your roster, it is also important that you have guys that are actually playing for something during the last week of the season.

As for my team, I am trying to defend my league title that I won last year. We have six playoff slots, with the first and second place teams getting a bye in the first round of the playoffs and as we enter the last week of regular season play I could finish anywhere from 2nd place to out of the playoffs. A quick look at our standings

Team      Record      Points

The U      10-3      1041

Howling Manslayers      9-4      986

*Argonauts      8-5      1205

Teabag?      8-5      1133

Champs      7-6      1184

Jim Beam Black Outs      7-6      1171

The Jameson's      7-6      1142

Youngstown Stooges      6-7      1055

Dangerous D      6-7      1023

Nobody Told Me      4-9      1007

Americas Team      4-9      916

Alaska Mud Hens      2-11      994

You'll note that I lead the league in points scored, which is important as it is the first tiebreaker when determining playoff position. That being said, two teams have clinched a playoff spot, The U and Howling Manslayers, with The U guaranteed one of the two first round byes. Similarly, Nobody Told Me, Americas Team and Alaska Mud Hens have all been eliminated, leaving 4 spots for the remaining 8 teams.

The schedule for the final week is Argonauts/Champs, Americas Team/Dangerous D, Nobody Told Me/Alaska Mud Hens, The Jamesons/Youngstown Stooges, The U/Teabag?, and Jim Beam Blackouts/Howling Manslayers, so there isn't a lot of head to head jockeying for position in the last week of the season, only two matchups feature two teams trying to get one oif the four remaining spots so much of it is going to be scoreboard watching of other games to see where teams will fall in the final standings.

Since this is my blog as opposed to any of the other teams in the league, I will try to extrapolate how my team can reach playoff glory.

First, I could qualify for a first round bye if Argonauts win and Howling Manslayers lose and Teabags? lose and Howling Manslayers do not outscore Argonauts by 219 points or Teabags? win but do not outscore Argonauts by 73. Confused yet? It gets better.

I can qualify for a playoff spots (seeds 3 through 6) via any of the following combinations.

The easiest is simply an Argonauts win, or a loss by Champs, Jim Beam Blackouts or The Jameson's. I could still get in with a loss and wins by all three teams if any of the three fail to pass me in points scored, Champs (-21), Jim Beam Blackouts (-34) or The Jameson's (-63). Or I could get in with a loss and a Teabag? loss, provided Teabag doesn't pass me in points (-72).

In a nutshell, lots of things would have to go incredibly wrong for me to miss the playoffs, but a few things would also have to go right for me to get a first round bye, but at the end of the day with one game remaining I could end up anywhere from 2nd to 7th place. Now if you will excuse me, I need an aspirin after figuring all of that out.