Are You Ready For Some Football?!!

While we have all been enjoying our summers and not paying attention to football, the 2009 season of the National Football League is fast approach. Thursday, Sept. 10 will be the first game of the season (Titans vs. Steelers). The FFL draft is therefore scheduled on Saturday, Sept. 5 — but some owners would like to change the draft to Sunday again this year to avoid conflicts. Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

The draft lottery was held July 4 at the Fisher summer open house. Congratulations (again) to the Syracuse Blizzard for winning the first pick in the draft.

The first 8 picks of the 2009 FFL draft will go in this order:

  1. SYR Blizzard
  2. RIB Raptors
  3. MIA Muffdivers
  4. BOB Big Bang
  5. OCD Beach Dudes
  6. MER Mustangs
  7. NCT Thorobreds
  8. FFL Froglickers

The regular draft order, as posted below, will resume after the first 8 picks.

2009 Draft Order

The regular draft order is determined by 1) worst record thru best record of non-money-winning teams; followed by 2) low money earnings to high money earnings.

The 2009 Draft will follow this order for all BUT the first 8 picks of the first round, which will be determined by draft lottery.

  1. Syracuse (2-12)
  2. New Chester (4-10)
  3. Mercer (5-9; 609 pts.)
  4. Richburgh (5-9; 611 pts.)
  5. Orange County (5-8-1)
  6. Miami (5-7-2)
  7. Oregon (7-7)
  8. Frelinghuysen (8-6)
  9. Dallas (min. $160)
  10. Keystone (min. $175)
  11. MassIll (min. $225)
  12. Happy Valley (min. $275)
  13. Philadelphia (min. $480)
  14. Boston (min. $600)

2009 Division Lineups

Divisions assignments are made by top money winner to low money winner, and then high points through week 14 to low points through week 14 for non-money-winning teams. Assign the teams numbers 1-14 (below) and assign to divisions as specified in the rules.

1-BOS; 2-PHI; 3-HVV; 4-MIM; 5-KEY; 6-DAL; 7-RIB(611); 8-MER(609); 9-BOB(608); 10-OCD(591); 11-MIA(579); 12-NCT(577); 13-FFL(556); 14-SYR(491)

2009 Divisions:

Paterno Division: Boston, MassIll, Richburgh, Orange County, and New Chester

Cappelletti Division: Philadelphia, Keystone, Mercer, Miami, Frelinghuysen

Engle Division: Happy Valley, Dallas, Oregon, Syracuse

Chances for 2009 Draft Lottery

Here is the breakdown for the chances in the 2009 Draft Lottery, to be held at a time/place TBD.

Team Record(Pts) thru wk11 Chances Pts wks 11-15 Chances Total Chances
MER 3-8 14 221 5 19
SYR 1-10 16 158 2 18
RIB 4-7(477) 10 231 6 16
MIA 3-6-2 12 194 4 16
OCD 4-6-1 6 248 8 14
NCT 4-7(486) 8 145 1 9
BOB 6-5(474) 2 237 7 9
FFL 6-5(425) 4 183 3 7

Boston prevails 65-46, wins Fantasy Bowl XVII

The Boston Wildcats, behind a huge 32-point performance from DeAngelo Williams, held on to win Fantasy Bowl XVII 65-46 over the Happy Valley Violence. Williams, who was a first-round pick of the Wildcats in 2006 and who underwhelmed for his first two seasons, is enjoying a breakout year in 2008 and with his big week 16 performance is now 5 points behind QB Drew Brees as this year’s top overall fantasy scorer heading into the season’s final week. The Wildcats’ Fantasy Bowl win also caps off a league-best 9-game winning streak in 2008.

The Philadelphia Griffins won the consolation game and finish 3rd place in the playoffs, beating MassIll Mud 75-40, highlighted by Peyton Manning’s season-high 23 points. The Griffins extended their lead in the overall points race over the Wildcats, with the Griffins now leading by 73 points going into the final week. The Wildcats hold a 35-point edge over MassIll for 2nd place in overall points.

Keystone had the week’s highest score with 85 points and has all but wrapped up the award for top points (813) of non-playoff teams. The final award, for 2nd-highest points of non-playoff teams, is still wide open for several teams going in to the last week of the NFL season: DAL 718,  OCD 693, BOB 691, MER 687,  RIB 684, and MIA 673 are all easily in contention for the final prize.

Boston vs. Happy Valley in Fantasy Bowl XVII

The Philadelphia Griffins’ hopes of pulling off the league’s first-ever Fantasy Bowl three-peat were slashed this weekend, as the Happy Valley Violence rolled to a big 88-62 upset of the Griffins. The Violence will meet the top-seeded Boston Wildcats, who hung on through a Monday night nail-biter and prevailed 51-49 over MassIll Mud.

It’s not only the first-ever Fantasy Bowl for Happy Valley, but it’s the first-ever Fantasy Bowl appearance for this franchise, which was previously the Mission Viejo Impossibles, and the Pittsburgh Pachyderms before that. One of the Violence co-owners has been to the Fantasy Bowl once before however — Michael “Slick” Cerenzia won Fantasy Bowl I in 1992 with his State College Bandits franchise (now New Chester).

It’s the sixth trip to the Fantasy Bowl for the Boston Wildcats, second most behind the Griffins’ 9 trips. The Wildcats are 1-4 in Fantasy Bowl appearances, winning in 1997 (49-20 vs. SYR), and losing in 1994 (51-62 to WIS), 1999 (71-87 to NYG), 2000 (47-62 to SYR), and 2001 (78-91 to KEY).

The two new overall points awards for non-playoff teams this year ($175/160) are looking competitive going into the final two weeks. Keystone (with 728 points) is setting the pace but it’s currently wide open for the final prize, with DAL 656, MER 652, BOB 651, and OCD 650 all within 6 points of each other (and RIB 639, MIA 614, NCT 608 and FFL 578 still theoretically within striking distance).

Final playoff teams set

Philadelphia, MassIll, and Happy Valley all won their games this weekend, clinching playoff spots. The Griffins win 75-24 over RIB. The Mud win 51-23 over NCT. Both finish 10-4, with identical 7-1 records in the division. Since they split in regular season, the tiebreaker for Paterno Division title goes to Philadelphia via totals points. The Mud win the wild card spot.

The Violence beat Dallas 37-28 and finish 10-4 and win the Engle Division title. Keystone was eliminated from the playoffs via a 48-38 loss to Miami.

Boston beat the Big Bang 73-33 and finishes at 11-3, capturing the top seed. Boston also moved into second place in overall points behind Philadelphia.

FANTASY BOWL XVII SEMI-FINALS:

BOS Wildcats (1 seed, 11-3) vs. MIM Mud (wild card, 10-4)

PHI Griffins (2 seed, 10-4) vs. HVV Violence (3 seed, 10-4)

The consolation bracket is now eliminated, but several teams are still in the running for awards to the top 2 non-playoff teams for total points. All teams should continue to submit lineups on Web League Manager as usual. All teams are “scheduled” to play an opponent, although for non-playoff teams only points are counted.

McNabb, ‘Ocho Cinco’ on the move; trade deadline kickoff week 11

Sources “in the know” tell Fantasy Football Flyer that the Boston Wildcats and Frelinghuysen Frog Lickers have agreed to trade QB Donovan McNabb and WR Chad “Ocho Cinco” Johnson. The deal was not finalized before the Thursday night kickoff this week, so will be officially filed after this weekend’s games. McNabb will remain on the Frog Lickers’ bench and Ocho Cinco is on a bye this week.

Kickoff week 11 — which is this coming Thursday Nov. 13 (Jets vs. Patriots, 8:15 ET) — is the trading deadline.

  • No trades after kickoff Week 11
  • All players protected on rosters entering 2009 draft must be on an FFL roster continuously from kickoff Week 11 this year through season’s end
  • Drop/Add reverts back to first-come, first-serve after kickoff Week 11