SCFF Exclusive

Forget TMZ, SCFF has exclusive video of the Grafdawgs practicing lullabies:

Shaking up the 2010 Season

Welcome to 2010 season playas.

The Game has changed. I like this league. I think I will own it.

A new league logo is in order. Unicorns are out. Style is back.

P's B out.

Championship Match-up Links

It's frustrating, because Yahoo! doesn't allow us to customize the championship week match-ups, but fortunately we learned how to be URL-savvy last year, and here are the links to this year's Championship week match-ups:

SCFF Championship Game
MAssClowns vs. Dynamite 120-70

Oreo Bowl
Animal vs. Grafdawgs 60-64

Toilet Bowl
Baxterminators vs. Agitated Lawyers 119-80

Championship [and not so championship] matchups

The Monday night game is not yet over, but the matchups for next weekend are set. Jared is making a comeback tonight on the back of Steve Smith. A win will further solidify his regular season dominance and relegate Merritt to last place. A win will also give Jared 12 for the season, tying the 2004 Animal for most regular season wins.

Strictly Circus Championship Game

Bay State MAssClowns vs. Jersey City Dynamite

This is Jared's first appearance in the title game in just his 3rd year in the league. After middling in the middle of the pack for two years, it has been a breakout season. I don't have the stats to prove it, but I believe it is quite rare for the team with the #1 draft pick to make it to the final. The Dynamite are limping into the title game after suffering an epic beatdown in week 15. This is of course Baxter's fault. One more point in week 11 would have broken the tie between the Dynamite and Baxterminators and potentially relegated Napoleon to the Toilet Bowl. It was not to be... Ben is making his 4th title game appearance, his record is 2-2. Ben already has a gift registry.

The Toilet Bowl

The pressure was too great for the Havertown Baxterminators to handle. After a nailbiting win in last years SCCG, the HB is back in the TB. The stakes are high, Baxter knows all too well, having lost 4 TBs in the past. The foe will be the 1st State Agitated Lawyers, who have somehow disavowed Wilmington. In just 3 years in the league the Lawyers are making their second appearance. They are 0-1.

The Oreo Bowl

This game between the Annandale Grafdawgs and Wilmington Animal will be one Mike Vick is sure to love. It is a rematch of the 2001, 2004, and 2006 SCCGs. However, it is now meaningless. Six pack to the winner?

Drew Brees is Dynamite!

Who dat? Who dat? Who dat is say they gonna beat them Dynamite?!

Drew… I love you, man.

For the Record

So, I've been checking the Record Book and it needed some updating.

After this week, I've noticed that we've eclipsed or tied three records for individual players this year:
- Tom Brady just tied the record for the most points by a QB (or any position)—a record that he already held
- Antonio Gates beat the record he once held with Jason Witten for points by a TE (formerly 11 points, now 18)
- the 49ers smashed the record held by the Vikings for Defensive points (formerly 29 points, now 39)

So, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't mind checking the Record Book if you think one of your players has had an exceptional week. I think it's very possible that we could break the kicker's record (18) at any point here, and perhaps another. It'd be more helpful to have many of us checking this every once in a while. Thanks!

OUCH!

Check out this post-game interview with a representative of the Baxterminators:

Kickoff 2009

Good luck everyone… may your season be filled with lots of fantasy goodness (except when you play the Dynamite! :)

Strictly Circus? No, strictly business.

Annandale, VA. - August 19, 2009 - The annual Strictly Circus owners’ meetings have wrapped up here at Casa de Grafton, one of west Annandale’s premier resorts, as the league get's ready for another season.

Economic issues were front and center, as owners from smaller market teams could not afford to attend in person and had to teleconference with various sessions. One source close to Haverford’s Baxterminators cited the imposing combined transportation/day care costs. “We couldn’t even afford to pay for the first pick in the draft. How could we justify staying in a place like that?” added the source, whose name is being withheld to protect him/her from his/her spouse.

On the other side of the tracks, the reclusive owner of the Bay State MAssclowns, not seen publicly since the 2007 season, again opted not to attend, despite using his ponderous oil wealth to acquire the first pick in this year’s draft. Messages left for the Massclowns were not returned. (Or rather, they were returned, but had obviously been intercepted by an imposter, given the uber-pessimistic self-flagellating nature of the responses).

Other pressing issues included AL’s owner Brian Merritt’s motion to extend the time between draft picks. “I just see all these other draft parties where people have fun. Did you hear those commercials from Hooters where they are now hosting draft parties? I bet they don’t have 90-second draft timers. They get to taunt each other, beat up on each other’s picks, use the bathroom.” Merritt quickly added that the food and quality of women was just as good at the resort as at Hooters. Merritt called this reporter after the interview to further amend his comments that the women were, of course, not ‘just as good’ but better at the resort. Merritt again called a few minutes later pleading for none of his comments to be printed.

Merritt’s motion on draft timing failed to obtain the support of other owners. Owner Chris Burkett, battling tetanus toxoids, was heard to report that the high pressure draft actually served to make is headache go away. Other owners appeared equally at ease with the decidedly uncircuslike atmosphere of the Strictly Circus draft. “People think these owners’ meetings are all fun and games,” said the Grafdawg’s Brian Grafton, taking a break from pumping the nearby keg of Summerfest lager “this is a serious business, and should be treated as such.”

He did what?

Check out how friendly this NFL official got during the Cardinals/Falcons game:

2008 Postseason Bench Tie-Breaker Rosters

So, I got home tonight and realized that we messed up big time. We should have each picked our tie-breaker bench rosters before tonight's game between the Jaguars and Colts. Whoops!

So, now we either have to take people at their words, or disqualify every Colts/Jaguars player. Discuss…

Either way, let's not wait any longer… get your bench picks in… recall you are ranking three bench players. In the event of a tie, your first pick will be compared with your opponents' #1 bench pick… if still tied, we then compare your second picks, and so on if necessary. (Read the rules here >)

Baxterminators:
1. Matt Ryan (QB-ATL) 8
2. Miami (DEF) 10
3. Brandon Jacobs (RB-NYG) 22

Animal:
1. Dan Orlovsky (QB-DET) -2
2. Baltimore (DEF) 6
3. Chicago (DEF) 7

Napoleon's Dynamite:
1. Tarvaris Jackson (QB-MIN) 15
2. New England (DEF) 11
3. Vincent Jackson (WR-SD) 5

The Agitated Lawyers:
1. David Garrard (QB-MIN) 16
2. DeAngelo Williams (RB-CAR) 29
3. LaDanian Tomlinson (RB-SD) 5

Sheik 'n' Bake:
No players selected

Grafdawgs:
1. Eli Manning (QB-NYG) 11
2. Johnathan Stewart (RB-CAR) 2
3. Anquan Boldin (WR-ARI) 0

2008 Regular Season Stats Recap

Let's take a look at the stats from the regular season: The full PDF is available here. (Right click to download)
Yahoo! has some interesting stats as well.

Here are some of the things I found most interesting about the 2008 Regular Season:

The Lawyers definitely had the toughest go at it, even though Yahoo shows the Grafdawgs and Sheik with the Hardest Strength of schedule (both averaging 82.06 points against). But take a look at the PDF's second page and Week 11. The Lawyers briefly had the highest Domination Pct. that week, but were second to last in Actual Win Pct. Very interesting how that could happen. Perhaps it explains how the Lawyers had the highest average margin of victory (35.67)

The best drafter this year appears to be the Animal, averaging 61.13 points from drafted players each week, while the Dynamite definitely found the short end of the stick on draft day, garnering a pitiful 28.93 points per week from his draftees (in Week 8, he only got 1 point from drafted players!). On the flip side, the Dynamite made up for it with the most weekly points from acquired players with 43.64 pts/week.

The Baxterminators dominated the league with the most, and best average, yardage per week from all position players (QB, RB & WR!) and the most average points from his kickers as well. The Animal made up ground in the area of TDs, leading the league with an average of 7.33 per week. Perhaps that's why both will be meeting in the SCFFCG this week.

The Baxterminators were also the most steady team in scoring, with a standard scoring deviation of 9.79—under 10 points!—and a scoring range of just 42 points. The Animal were the most erratic with a scoring range of 86 points and a standard deviation of 19.56! Which team will show up next week?

The Dynamite almost pulled off a miracle last week… coming from the cellar to the second place, and holding that position for most of the last day, until the Animal regained the 2nd spot in the late Sunday game. A valiant comeback effort.

The Grafdwags don't have much to celebrate this year. With two losing streaks of 4 games or more, there wasn't much hope to escape the Toilet Bowl. Having the least total points in the league and the worst domination pct. doesn't help either. It doesn't look good for the Grafpuppies in the Toilet Bowl either, as they are up against a Sheik team with a domination pct. over .500 (.513 to be exact) and a season scoring average that is nearly 10 points higher (77.67 to 68).

The Sheik lost their Oreo Bowl bid, narrowly to the Lawyers, as the Lawyers held the advantage in the first tie-breaker: domination pct. (.567 to .513) and the second tie-breaker: total points (1227 to 1165). But the Sheik would have won the third tie-breaker: head-to-head match-ups, by a two to one margin.

The Oreo Bowl has an interesting matchup as the Dynamite and Lawyer's records are almost perfect inverses in both the actual and domination records. Actual records: 8-6-1 and 6-8-1, respectively. Domination records: 32-41-2 and 41-31-3, respectively. Weird, right?

Other interesting thoughts:
No records, individual or team, were broken this year… unless someone can correct me.
This would be the Baxterminators first SCFF championship since the league's inception in 1999. They are 1-2 in Championship game history, while the Animal is 2-2 in championships.

Any other interesting notes from the regular season?

Playoff scenarios

I'll make just one assumption this week:
1) S. Smith is not scoring 34 more points for Sheiky Bakey

Therefore, Baxter has clinched a spot in the SCFFCG.

Everything else is up for grabs. In fact Ben has the potential to either clinch a spot in the SCFFCG or the TB. Very interesting.

Here are the scenarios for the the remaining spot in the SCFFCG
1) Animal wins -> Animal clinches
2) Animal loses and Dynamite loses -> Animal clinches
3) Animal loses and Dynamite wins -> Dynamite clinches

For the TB:
1) Lawyers lose, Sheik wins -> Merritt clinches
2) Lawyers lose, Sheik loses -> Sheik clinches, domination loser
3) Lawyers win, Sheik wins -> Dynamite clinches, domination loser
4) Lawyers win, Sheik loses -> Sheik clinches

Locking Rosters?

I was looking through the SCFF rules and couldn't find anything about locking down rosters for the last week or two weeks. I thought we did this last year, but not certain. Anyone remember?