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Why Not Use Week 17 In Fantasy Football?

It's Week 17 in the NFL season and most leagues are over.

I seem to be in the minority here, but why don't more leagues use Week 17 and thus have Week 15 be the last regular season week? (Unless you have 3 rounds of playoffs, which case Week 15 would be the first week of your playoffs).

Usually leagues don't use Week 17 because many playoff-bound NFL teams rest starters ahead of the playoffs with their playoff seeding set. But this seems to be overreacting to the facts

The scenario of having a league's Super Bowl ruined in Week 17 from key players being rested ahead of the playoffs rarely happens. In my hometown league, it's happened 2 or 3 times in 15 years. If there are only a few players in the NFL who are rested ahead of the playoffs, what are the odds that these players are thus owned by the two super bowl teams? It's low.

Plus there are some compelling reasons to use Week 17:

-Why should the 6 to 12 non-playoff teams in your league lose one week of enjoyment of fantasy football just to prevent a low-odds scenario of the Super Bowl being ruined by a key player being rested.

-Why is a player being rested in Week 17 any different than a player injury in Week 4 or a bye week? A fantasy team's bench counts and that's true in the playoffs.

-Taking Week 17 off the schedule doesn't even ensure resting of players won't impact the playoffs. This season, and in 2006, the Colts had such a big lead in their playoff seeding they rested key players in Week 16 (they also rested players in Week 15 in 2006).

-I've seen a trend toward leagues using a combined Week 16 & Week 17 game for the championship (I originally made the case for playing Week 17 back in 2006). That may be a way to use Week 17 without some of the problems. But I still maintain the odds of the championship game being impacted are low enough that its worth considering using that week alone.

I know Drew Brees, the Colts and maybe the Patriots are taking Week 17 off. But should your league?

Comments

By: Chris Liss
On: 1/2/2010 1:54:00 PM		 I'd go the other way. Fantasy baseball leagues should end September 1. There will always be luck in fantasy sports, but in my opinion, the less, the better. It's the same reason AL only leagues usually let you keep stats of players traded to the NL. You could do everything right, and then a trade destroys your season. So you keep the stats to make it more skill based. You can't avoid injuries, bizarre coaching decisions and strange bounces. But you can set the parameters of your league to minimize those quirks as much as possible. If you don't, then strong play still gets rewarded - only less reliably as luck increases the short-term variance.
 
By: herbilk
On: 1/2/2010 2:30:00 PM		 I'm in the championship of one league where my opponent has Carson Palmer, Ryan Grant, Marques Colston and Randy Moss. Antonio Gates is the only player on my team who might get rested. It's pretty obvious that I'm going to have an advantage due to the resting of players in week 17. I'm not complaining. It's possible that some sub he plays goes off for a big week and I lose, but this is an example of me gaining an advantage only because it's week 17.
 
By: tumanic
On: 1/2/2010 2:33:00 PM		 "I seem to be in the minority here, but why don't more leagues use Week 17?"

Using week 17 is one step above using pre-season imho......Especially in a cash league I find it ridiculous....I try to limit luck factors in fantasy leagues that I run and I have found total points to be the best game by far to determine the best fantasy skill set. The best team always wins in total points league.....Just my take....
 
By: Kenn Ruby
On: 1/2/2010 7:04:00 PM		 Back when I played STATS Fantasy Football, we not only used all 17 weeks, but even the playoff weeks as well (we had a convoluted system of picking playoff rosters using a salary cap, having exclusive rights to players on your team at the end of the season, and so on). Now THAT was fun. If you make the Super Bowl of your league, you're actually rooting for players during the real Super Bowl.

As for Peter's suggestion, I say go the full 17 in standard leagues. Yeah, it sucks if Peyton Manning carried you all year and you're forced to roll with Jason Campbell, but assuming your league has a decent bench size, you can prepare for that remote eventuality much earlier in the season.
 
By: Erickson
On: 1/3/2010 1:16:00 AM		 I should be anti-Week 17, seeing as I'm 0-for-3 in Week 17 finals in the home league that Pete refers to above (with a chance to enter rarified air as 0-for-4 finalist tomorrow). But I like having something to root for this week, and trying to figure this week out is a unique problem-solving exercise. That there's only two teams competing for free agents makes it more tenable. But I'm also glad not all of my leagues play in Week 17. It's sort of the like the AL/NL DH debate - I like the contrast.
 
By: jimbom1234
On: 1/4/2010 8:21:00 AM		 The biggest problem with using week 17 as the superbowl is that you have no idea who will, won't or play part-time. This is especially had for leagues that lock rosters before the playoffs. In some instances, week 16 is getting to be just as bad. Why should someone who took Peyton Manning or Philip Rivers early in the draft (or worse paid a lot in an auction league) only to be penalized when they play half a game vs someone like Romo or McNabb who has something to play for.
 

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