Wisconsin clinches Cappelletti Division;
3 teams still in hunt for Wildcard

The Wisconsin Cheeseheads have become the final team to capture their division and secure a spot in the Fantasy Bowl playoffs. The Cheeseheads did so with a convincing 60-24 win over New Denver. Irving Fryar and Steve Young led the attack for Wisconsin.

The Wildcard race is up for grabs, as New York won and both Syracuse and Mercer lost.

The NY Griffons beat Dallas 47-19, and up their record to 7-6.

The Syracuse Blizzard lost to the Pennsylvania Wildcats by a 74-39 count. Their record drops to 8-5. The Wildcats secure home-field advantage for the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Mercer lost to Richmond by a 30-18 count. Mercer’s record also drops to 8-5.

Preface this by saying there is no statistician on our “payroll” here at FFFlyer, we may have missed a possibility or two along the way. But from what our crack team of editors here can figure out, the Wildcard scenario looks something like this:

Syracuse and Mercer enter Week 14 with 8-5 records. New York enters Week 14 with a 7-6 record. New York plays Mercer, and Syracuse plays Carolina. If both New York and Carolina win in Week 14, that would leave a 3-way tie for the wildcard spot with NY, SY and MR all at 8-6. Syracuse beat New York in week 7, New York would have a Week 14 win over Mercer, and Mercer and Syracuse split their head-to-head series during the year.

The Wildcard will most likely go to either Syracuse or Mercer. Obviously, if one team wins and one team loses in Week 14, the winning team would become the Wildcard. If the teams finish with the same records, then net points would be the tiebreaker, since they split their head-to-head series during the regular season and they both have identical 3-3 division records.

Syracuse is pretty much in the driver’s seat. All they have to do is win in Week 14, and they make the playoffs as the Wildcard team UNLESS Mercer wins AND outscores SY by more than 83 points.

New York has a very, very outside chance of making the top tier. New York needs Syracuse to lose, NY would need to beat Mercer, and MR would need to score 83 points more than Syracuse scores in Week 14. OK, got that? Not impossible, but also, not likely.

Let’s not forget that we also have the consolation tier to figure out. Amongst the SY, MR and NY trio, the two teams that do not make the top-tier playoffs are guaranteed a spot in the consolation bracket. That leaves two other spots open. Miami and Carolina would both be in the consolation bracket with wins in Week 14. Dallas and Keystone are both still barely alive. They face must-win games AND they would need both MI and CL to lose, AND there would be some other tiebreakers that would come into play.

More fun things to figure out next week.

Other results from Week 13:

NIKEtown continues on a roll, with a 50-11 shellacking of the Big Bang.

Keystone beat Mission Viejo by a 48-32 count.

Miami’s rollercoaster season reached another high peak this weekend, as they exploded for a 80-35 drubbing of the Nightmare. Miami is out of the playoffs but remains in strong contention for the point title, which is still up for grabs among of handfull of teams.

 

 

Analysis
Mystery handicapper offers some general football comments this week

Fantasy Football Flyer has again received email from “Ace,” an anonymous fan of our league who handicaps and writes about football elsewhere. If you would like to contact “Ace,” the email address is RonAce2477@aol.com.

ACE takes a trip to the bay area this week to scout Stanford and Cal. The Cards were supposed to contend for the roses, but have fallen short. They may be able to run on Cal, but believe it or not, it is Cal (Vedder) with the better QB. Speaking of QB’s, my scouts will be in Kentucky this week to visit the QB of the present, Peyton Manning, vs. the QB of the future, Tim Couch. Should be fun.

The 1998 football draft will likely produce the best crop of QB’s since the 1983 Elway/Marino et. al group. And the NFL (and probably many of you “owners” need more QB talent into the league. OK, you all know about Leaf and Manning, but some potential good ones are available from Central Florida (Culpepper) and Colorado State (Moreno).

As for the current crop of QB’s, can you believe that Billy Joe Hobert/Tolliver are BOTH back in the NFL!!! Loser city!

Some comments:

Don’t give up on the Buffalo QB’s, they’ll be fine once Dan Henning is fired from his coordinator’s job (ACE will see to it in December!). Harbaugh has taken too many hits, and we project him to wind down his NFL career. Foley is not the long range fantasy FB answer, but Minnesota’s Brad Johnson is, unless the Viking OL begins to falter. Keep an eye on Tennessee’s McNair in the years ahead. If he studies hard, he might be a star. We told you last week Kordell is ready, now we’ll tell you that the Denver back-up QB, Jeff Lewis, may be a good one once Elway retires. My scouts really like him. Look for the Bears and Saints to draft new QB’s soon. Also, beware! If Carolina gets its act together, Kerry Collins will have a good 1998!

OK, I know that this is a Penn State league (the division names give that away), but that was some clinic Michigan put on in the first half a couple of weeks ago. Still, your team can go to the Rose Bowl if Michigan is upset this saturday. Michigan State has had some bad luck this season, but might prove to be a tough stumbling block in the season’s finale.

Any questions? Comments? ACE is happy to respond.