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In my 10 years of playing fantasy football, the following circumstance is yet to be brought up, until today. It’s one of intrigue, collusion, moral standing, and perhaps even the demise of longstanding friendship.
In my fantasy football league, two teams are in a very interesting situation–one that provides them the morally inept opportunity to collude with one another to guarantee themselves a spot in the playoffs. These teams are both 7-4 and tied for 2nd place. The top four teams make our playoff system, so as it currently stands, they are slotted to make it into postseason play. Our playoffs begin next week (week 13), so this is the final week of the regular season.
These two 7-4 teams are matched up against each other this week, setting in motion a myriad of possible outcomes.
The team in 6th place has a record of 6-5, but has enough total season points to overtake any other team with the same record. So, if this 6th place team wins this week (and he is matched up against me), he will definitely overtake the losing team in the aforementioned 2nd/3rd place matchup.
Neither of these teams want this to happen, obviously. Given this circumstance, the two owners of the 7-4 teams have figured out a win-win outcome for them in week 12: a tie. If they tie, they are both guaranteed to make the playoffs.
The easy way to ensure a tie, of course, is to bench every player on your roster, resulting in a final score of 0-0.
It should also be noted that the 6-5 team has scored the most total points this season and has an absolute monster of a roster. Below is his projected starting lineup compared to mine. Notice that I (the team on the right) am the first place team in our league with a record of 8-3.
Click image to enlarge.
To add some context, this is a 12-team money league. Every member is an alumnus of the same fraternity, and this league has been around for years. What I’m saying is we’re all boys. Let this all settle into your brain, think about it, put yourself in the shoes of each party, then answer this question:
Is it a breach of fantasy football etiquette to collude with another team owner for mutual gain?
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Dillon Cheverere
Dillon Cheverere is the Vice President of Media for Grandex, Inc. Email: dillon@grandex.co
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RogerJDorn
Let’s be honest, the entire purpose of this article was for Dorn to show that he’s in first place.
They should bench all their players. Y’know, to keep ’em fresh for the playoffs.
There is a special place in Hell for pedophiles, terrorists, and fantasy football colluders.
Dorn’s going for 2/3
Jesus.. is everyone in the league a terrible drafter? I feel like some collusion has already taken place if Carter’s Crusaders has lesean, graham, demaryius, marshall, and murray.
We do an auction draft, which enables you to go top-heavy with talent. I recall him getting Luck for fairly cheap.
It’s still pretty stacked for a 12 team league
Makes sense though with an auction league. Murray and Luck were easily obtainable at a huge discount for this season.
Not sure if he has made any trades recently to obtain that roster, but his team is absolutely stacked. I’d guess he has been screwed by match-ups all season and might be again if the teams do decide to sit all of their players. That’s a risk you take in head-to-head leagues, though.
If it’s a money league you’ve got to play it out. It’s a competition, not a circle jerk. If it wasn’t a money league, it wouldn’t be a problem.
I’m not passionate about anything, but if I were #1 on that list would be fantasy football collusion. That said, if they don’t do this everyone else is screwed because if that squad makes the playoffs its probably sheets for everyone else.
The commish needs to step in and end this. Shit’s un-American.
To me it’s very American. Commissioners are always communist assholes.
If you’re going to play a match-up based league (as opposed to one that crowns the team with the most overall points at the end of the season) you have to accept that the results are match-up dependent. If throwing a match-up gets you to playoffs, so be it. If you were that concerned with fairness, you should have played in a rotisserie league.
How is he only 6-5?!