MBA IT Class In-Class Assignment

Learn About Tableau

Gold Medalists by Age and Sport

A Great Day To Be Alive

Today is a great day to be alive.  Why?  It's simple. I just discovered that ESPN Fantasy Football 2011 signups are available.  I honestly don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight I'm so pumped.

For those of you who haven't discovered fantasy football and don't understand my euphoria let me fill you in.  Fantasy football feeds all of my natural affinities. 

Sports - It gives me the opportunity to follow sports and follow everything that happens on a day by day and hour by hour basis.  No nugget of news is too small or insignificant.  The main reason I joined Twitter was to get up to the minute fantasy football updates and (I can't lie) one of the reasons I own an iPhone is to have the easy ability to change my fantasy football roster at a moments notice.

Statistical Analysis - I'm a CPA, I can't help myself.  My day job is as a Financial Analyst and I get giddy when I learn a new Excel shortcut key.  Fantasy football was made for nerds like me.

Gambling - I might like to gamble...a little. Not the "my family lives in a car and I spend my paycheck on blackjack" kind of gambling but I'm always good for a contest.  Even more than that I love organizing contests for random events.  I have yet to enter the world of prop bets because I know if I start I might not be able to stop.  Fantasy football gives me the opportunity get my gambling fix without playing online poker.

Competition - Let's face it.  Put sports, stats, and gambling together and you have one kickin' party.  Add direct competition with some of my closest friends and it might as well be New Year's Eve in Times Square.

So there you have it.  I love fantasy football and I'm not ashamed to admit it.  If you are looking for a league to join just for fun or you think you can run with the big boys let me know. (bigtimefantasyfootball@gmail.com)  I'm heading up a few different leagues this year (from FREE up to $100 entry) and it should be a lot of fun.  Time to start preparing for the draft...

Season One Recap and Team Awards

The championship of the first year of the Big Time Fantasy Football League will begin this evening. Sadly I won't be participating but I wish the best of luck to the two who will.  Jake and Garey are both worthy competitors and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top.  I just have to make sure I beat my wife and Lanette this week so I don't end the season looking like a fool. (see fun facts for interesting thoughts on "First Wives Club")

I plan to purchase some sort of a plaque and get the winner's team name and regular name (regular name?) engraved on it.  That way there will be something to pass around year after year.  Hopefully this thing goes for a while even if participants come and go.

Scoring Stats

• Total Points: 13,655
• Average Per Team Per Week: 87.5
• Weekly High Score - First Wives Club 156
• Weekly Low Score - Defenstrators 22.9
• High Scorer - Isaac (team name will have changed by the time this posts) - 1,396
• Top Dollar - Floaters - $44

Team Awards

• Mr Consistency - Dog Pound - 11pt standard deviation
• Mr Feast or Famine -  First Wives - 25pt standard deviation
• Trade Enthusiasts - MissNColts and Rackin' It Up (involved in every trade but one)
• Mr. Almost - MissNColts (smallest loss 4 weeks, barely missed playoffs)
• Biggest Identity Crisis - Isaac (more than 15 name changes)
• Prettiest Team - First Wives Club - (brownie points!)
• Last Undefeated - Ghetto Gangsta (started 7-0)
• Biggest Wins - Lehman Bros and Maverick (taking down the 1 and 2 playoff seeds)
• Most Time Wasted - Makin' It Wayne (don't ask...it was a lot, but I'll do it again next year)
• Mental Attitude - Defenstrators (we all know what that means)

Fun Facts from Season One:

A total of 13,655 points were scored this season.  That's 87.5 points per team per week.


There was a 674 point spread between the highest (Isaac 10-3) and lowest (Alex 0-13) scoring teams this season.


First Wives defeated both the 1st and 2nd place regular season teams


Are there other awards you'd like to give out?  Leave a comment!

Winner and Loser Trophies

Well, if you saw on the NFL.com league page, Dan suggested we have the Loser of the league wear a DD bra to next year's draft with "The" and "Loser" written on each cup. While I like the idea, I'm not sure anyone wants to wear anything from his wife's closet. (And Emily, if you actually read this blog, either 1) don't take that personal or 2) take it as a compliment)

None the less, please write some comments on what we should have as the winner's trophy and what we should have as the loser's trophy. Have fun with it too!

Suggestions / Looking Forward

The season is by no means over, but I'd like to start looking forward to next year.  Hopefully all of your had an excellent experience and will be interested in playing in the league next year.  As always I'm sure there are things we can improve so here is your opportunity.  While it's fresh in your mind let's make some suggestions for next year.  What would you like to see changed?

Just joking with the picture!

• Different division setups?
• More smack talk?
• Alterations to scoring or payouts?
• Prohibit weekly team name changes?
• A different host website for the league?

Any suggestions you can give will be helpful in ensuring that the league continues to be competitive, fun, and exciting in the future.  Let's get some discussion going!

The Regular Season

Here you have it. At the conclusion of the regular season here are the payouts. Remember, each playoff team has the chance to win additional $ in the coming three weeks so keep updating your roster and good luck!

Click Here to see the detail behind the spreadsheet.  Audits of my calculation are always appreciated.  You can find a full listing of payouts in the first blog post of the year.

Money, Money, Money

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 1 Timothy 6:10 (NIV)

With that in mind here are the updated season-to-date payouts for The Big Time.  All monies listed herein have been earned and cannot be lost (except in the case of monies related to weekly wagers past, present, and future).  If you would like to see the detailed spreadsheet click here.

Playoff Seeding Changes - Please Vote!

Fantasy Football Team Owners,

After reviewing the playoff format, it has come to my attention that the division winners each receive one of the top seeds.   This is contrary to generally accepted playoff seeding of fantasy football leagues using formats other than NFL.com.

 I am making the motion that the seeding for playoffs be based solely on each team’s ranking in the league.

The new playoff seeding (which will follow NFL.com league rank) will be based on record, using total points scored in case of a tie.  This change only has the ability to affect the seeding of the playoffs and will not change the teams which are eligible to participate.  If implemented today, the current 3 seed (Rackin it Up) and 4 seed (Torainosaurus Rex) would flip as they have the same record (6-3) but Torainosaurus Rex has scored more points.   The only change this effectively makes to the playoffs, is eliminating the possibility of a team with less wins getting a seed higher  than a team with more wins (and therefore an “easier” playoff opponent).  Obviously there are 4 more weeks left until playoffs, so we don’t know who it would affect, if it affects anyone at all.

Please respond with your vote FOR or AGAINST the change to the playoff format.  You have until Nov. 20^th at midnight to respond. 

The majority response (with no minimum number of votes necessary) will be the playoff format used for “The Big Time” Fantasy Football League.  If you have an opinion on this matter you must vote.  A nonreponse will be considered concurrence with the majority of voting team managers.

Thanks,

Dan Stichter 

-The Big Time League Commissioner

Stat's Don't Lie... Week 9

So I was curious this week, “What’s more important: having players who score offensive touchdowns or having players who gain yards?”  And so I set out to find my answer…

Team	Total Points	TD's	Pts. / TD	Pts. / Week	TD's / Game
Lehman Brothers	665.48	28	23.77	83.19	3.5
Makin' It Wayne	755.96	34	22.23	94.50	4.25
Maverick	637.8	30	21.26	79.73	3.75
Scobee Dooby Doo	775.04	37	20.95	96.88	4.625
MissNColtsNCOS	667.12	32	20.85	83.39	4
Ghetto Gangsta	783.38	38	20.62	97.92	4.75
Rackin it Up	757.34	37	20.47	94.67	4.625
WhenNRome	585.44	30	19.51	73.18	3.75
The First Wives Club	697.9	36	19.39	87.24	4.5
Defenestrators	432.8	25	17.31	54.10	3.125
DogPound	618.4	39	15.86	77.30	4.875
Floaters	796.26	52	15.31	99.53	6.5
League Averages	8172.92	34.83	19.79	85.13	4.35

The table has been sorted on Points per touchdown.

All this table tells us is 1) Floaters has 13 more touchdowns than any other team and 2) there’s not a specific strategy that guarantees success as the top ranked teams in the league are spread all over the place.

A couple other interesting stats: only 4 teams have lost their matchup when scoring 6 touchdowns or more (Scobee Dooby Doo & Floaters – 6 TDs, The First Wives Club & Defenestrators – 7 TDs) and only 2 teams have won scoring only 2 touchdowns (Scobee Dooby Doo & Ghetto Gangsta).

Being the curious guy I am (and having 96 games worth of data) I was curious what your chance of winning was if you simply score a certain amount of touchdowns.  So, if we assume whomever scores more touchdowns in a matchup on any given week will win, your chance of winning is outlined in the table below:

	TD's	% Win
At Least	10	99%
	9	98%
	8	95%
	7	89%
	6	78%
	5	64%
	4	42%
	3	29%
	2	17%
	1	4%
	0	1%

So, if your offensive players score 7 touchdowns, you’ve got an almost 90% chance of winning your matchup.

Finally, if your opponent scores their weekly average points this week, you need the following amount of touchdowns from your team to beat them:

Team	TDs to Win Week 9
Floaters	3.53
Ghetto Gangsta	4.23
Scobee Dooby Doo	3.98
Rackin it Up	4.62
Makin' It Wayne	4.63
The First Wives Club	5.05
MissNColtsNCOS	4.96
Lehman Brothers	3.08
Maverick	3.64
DogPound	5.03
WhenNRome	4.26
Defenestrators	5.75

Basically, round up to the nearest touchdown, and if your opponent has an average week, you will win.  Of course, if your opponent has a better than average week, you’re going need a few more TDs, because Stats Don’t Lie…