The draft dates/times are set, and the official start of Pride of Detroit's fantasy football leagues is right around the corner.  Considering that, I figured it's time to put up a post where you can discuss the rules of our leagues (to view them, click on "Scoring Rules" under the "League" tab).  Basically, I want to get your input on the current rules we have and any changes you want to see happen.  I can't guarantee that I will make a change just because you want one, as there will have to be a few people thinking along the same lines as you.  Even so, I want to see if you think any changes should be made, and this is the place to let me know.

(This isn't limited to scoring rules, by the way.  If you have any thoughts on any other rules (which can be found by clicking on "League Rules" under the "League" tab), please let me know.  I would like to get them finalized in the next couple of days, as the first drafts are on Sunday.)

Two of Pride of Detroit's four fantasy football leagues are filled.  The second and third overflow leagues are not.  As of this post, we have five spots open.  The invites have already been sent, so if you haven't already responded, please join the leagues as soon as possible.  If they are still unfilled in another day or so, I will put up a "last call" thread before I start to reach out to alternates, as I want to get the draft dates/times setup, which brings me to the main point of this post.

Currently, I don't have a set date or time for any of the leagues' drafts (the ones on FleaFlicker are not final by any means).  The reason for that is because I want to give people in the leagues a chance to let me know in advance if there is a certain day or time when they will be busy and unable to attend the draft.  I am thinking around the week of August 31 is when these drafts will be held, as that will be late enough in the preseason where an injury hopefully won't happen to a star player.  (Plus, I'd like to get this in before college football starts, as I will be busy with that and moving back to Ann Arbor.)

Considering what I just said, leave a comment if there is a specific day or time of day toward the end of the month/first week of September when you will be unavailable to participate in the draft.  Also let me know what time of day works best for you, as that will give me a better idea of what time to make the drafts. 

IMPORTANT: Make sure to put your league (Main, Overflow 1, Overflow 2, or Overflow 3) in the subject of your comment, as that will allow me to sort through things much faster. 

I can't make any guarantees that I won't schedule your draft for a time when you are unavailable, as I have four of them that have to take place, but I will do my best to make sure as many people as possible will be able to participate.

Side note: No drafts will be held on September 3, 4, or 5.  The Lions' final preseason game is on 9/3; on 9/4 I will be busy with college-related things; and 9/5 is the start of college football.

I went ahead and put all of the users who said they were interested in playing fantasy football into a spreadsheet and sorted them based on their amount of comments and FanPosts.  That seemed like the easiest way to put the leagues together, so that is how I determined who is in which league.  The numbers actually worked out perfectly as far as how many leagues there will be.  Based on the amount of people who said they were interested, the plan is to have four different leagues with 11 users and myself being in each.

After the jump you can find the full list of who is in which league.  I will send out invites in the coming days, as I still have to setup the leagues and get them running.  (The invite will be sent to the e-mail listed in your profile on POD, so if you use a different one, let me know.)

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Last year, I ran two fantasy football leagues for Pride of Detroit users.  One of them was the "main" league, which I dedicated a weekly post to.  The other was an "overflow" league, including users that didn't make the cut for the main league.  This year, I'm planning on doing something similar, though I am expecting to have more than one overflow league.  Even a year ago there were a ton of people wanting to get involved in POD's fantasy league, and with the influx of new users since then, I expect to have to run quite a few leagues.

The site we are using is again going to be FleaFlicker.com.  It provides enormous customization, which will make my life easier considering I will be running multiple leagues again.

As far as how I will determine who gets to be in the main league and who is relegated to the overflow leagues, it will depend on who wants to be involved.  The biggest factor will be activity on the site, as users who are on POD every day, posting comments, and just being involved in general will have a better shot of being in the main league.  Just because you're active doesn't guarantee you a spot, though, as there are only 11 spots in the league if you don't count mine.  There are obviously more than 11 active users, so in the end I will just have to pick who gets to be in the main league. (If a ton of regular users want in, I may make two leagues the "main" ones.)

The number of overflow leagues will depend on how many people want to play fantasy football with users from POD.  Like I said earlier, there are 12 spots for each league, so it will ultimately depend on how many people express interest.  To express interest, simply leave a comment on this post saying you want to play FF with POD.  After a few days, I will put together the leagues and send out invites, and once that is all taken care of, we can start to discuss rules, scoring, and draft dates/times.  Until then, leave a comment if you are interested in playing.  (Side note: If you don't plan on actively participating in the fantasy football league, don't bother expressing interest.)

Congratulations to Just go away Favre, a.k.a ahtrap, for winning the official Pride of Detroit fantasy football league.  He had an amazing Sunday night combination of Brandon Jacobs and DeAngelo Williams that combined for 7 touchdowns and a whopping 62 points.  Congrats to Calvin and the Chipmunks, a.k.a. mgersz, for finishing second.  It would have taken a lot to beat a team with both Williams and Jacobs on it.

In the third-place game, I had an absolutely terrible coach rating and ended up losing in blowout fashion.  I had Tarvaris Jackson and Visanthe Shiancoe on the bench, leading to a pathetic finish to the season for me.  The Gosder Cherilus Posse, a.k.a. The Prodigy, finished strong to end up in third-place.

LA Leos (sgdbw90), who was actually was in second-to-last place in the regular season, beat Maize 'n' Blue Jays (THE_J) 102.26-96.18 to win the consolation playoffs.  Underdogs (Sig Sauer) beat SnotKnocker's (Ace BangerTheGuru) 103.84-73.84 in the 9th place game.

In the POD overflow league, Pineapple Express, who was actually the #6 seed, beat Raging Rhinos to win the championship.  It was a great run for Pineapple Express, especially since he finished last in his division during the regular season.  Granted, every team in his division made the playoffs and it was the toughest one in the league, but it's still unusual for a #6 seed to win the championship.

I would like to give a big thanks to all of the people that participated in my two fantasy football leagues this year.  I had a blast and can't wait to do it again next year.

Here's the situation: In the SBN/AOL fantasy football league, I was playing BigBlueShoe of Stampede Blue in the semifinals.  I was the best team in the regular season and was only a single win away from the finals.  As the weekend progressed, I became angrier and angrier at myself over who I started.  I left Kevin Faulk, Santonio Holmes, and the Colts D/ST on the bench in favor of Chester Taylor, Lance Moore, and the Eagles D/ST.  As a result, I had only 77.3 points going into the Monday Night Football game, even though I could have had over 100.  Hell, even starting one of those three players I left on the bench would have made a huge difference.

BigBlueShoe had Aaron Rodgers, Donald Driver, and Mason Crosby left to play in the MNF game, and he trailed by 31.1 points.  I was very concerned, as those three easily could make up that much ground.  As it turned out, I was almost right.  The three combined for 30.7 points, meaning I led by .4 of a point.  This is when I started to have a heart attack.

One pass by Aaron Rodgers, a single catch by Donald Driver, or even an extra point by Mason Crosby would have knocked me out of the playoffs.  Everything had to go in my favor, and I mean everything.  The Packers went down the field and with about 20 or so seconds left in the game, had a chance to beat Chicago on a field goal.  If the kick was good, I lose.  Thankfully, it was no good.  The Bears blocked the kick, sending the game to overtime and keeping my slim lead intact for the time being.

Despite the good news, this was far from over for me.  The Bears had to win the coin toss and get the ball; otherwise, Aaron Rodgers and the other two Packers players on my opponent's roster would have a chance to end my championship hopes.  Once again, luck was on my side.  The coin toss actually bounced off of Brian Urlacher's helmet and landed heads up.  The Packers called tails, meaning the Bears got the ball and gave me hope that I could survive to win the game.

The next thing that had to go my way was Green Bay never getting the ball back.   The game had to end without the Packers ever going on offense again in order to ensure that Rodgers or Driver or Crosby doesn't get a chance to score any points.  That meant that the Bears had to go down the field and score on their opening drive of OT, even though their offense had stunk most of the night.  With luck on my side, that wasn't the case when they got the ball in overtime.  The Bears quickly moved the ball into field goal range, setting up Robbie Gould for an attempt to win the game.  Gould's kick from 38 yards out was perfect, and the Bears won.  That meant that my slim margin of .4 of a point stayed intact and I also miraculously won.

I have been part of some crazy close games in fantasy football in the past, but never before has something like this happened, especially with a trip to the championship game on the line.  Like I said, everything had to go my way, and somehow everything did.  Crosby's field goal was blocked; the Bears won the coin toss; and the Bears scored on the opening drive of overtime to ensure that the Packers didn't get the ball back, which likely would have handed me a loss.  After all, Rodgers only needed to complete a pass for 9 yards to give BigBlueShoe the win, so it was pretty much a guarantee that I was toast if Green Bay got the ball.  That is all it would have took to end my season, so I definitely lucked out.

What makes this win all the more thrilling is the fact that BigBlueShoe was 2-0 against me in the regular season.  On top of that, his first victory over me was by a margin of .8 of a point.  That game ended my perfect start to the season and was one of only four losses all year.  The feeling after that loss sucked, so I can't even imagine what BigBlueShoe feels like right now.

Although winning this game is amazing and I feel like I have already won the championship, I still have to win one more game to take home the title.  I guess this is comparable to the Miracle on Ice in that sense.  The United States pulled off the miracle against the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980.  However, the United States still had to beat Finland two days later to win the Gold Medal.  They did just that, so here's to hoping that I can use the momentum of this victory to win one more next week in the championship game.

I'm officially down to one fantasy team, as I was eliminated from the official POD fantasy football league playoffs.  My lack of talent finally caught up with me and ended my season for good.  I struggled mightily down the stretch and barely made the playoffs.  Had it not been for a great start to the season that really was nothing more than a fluke, my season would have ended before now.  Either way, Calvin and the Chipmunks is on his way to the finals, where he will face Just go away Favre.

In the consolation playoffs, LA Leos (sgdbw90) beat Underdogs (Sig Sauer) 76.02-67.54 and Maize 'n' Blue Jays (THE_J) beat SnotKnocker's (Ace BangerTheGuru) 96.24-64.8, setting up the finals in that bracket.

In the POD overflow league, Raging Rhinos and Pineapple Express will square off in the finals.  Pineapple Express is actually the #6 seed in the playoffs, meaning he is one win away from pulling off a great run to win the league championship.

In the SBN/AOL league, I will play Stampede Blue's BigBlueShoe in the semifinals.  This matchup scares the crap out of me for two reasons: 1) BigBlueShoe is responsible for two of my four losses this season, and 2) All but one player scored in double digits for BigBlueShoe this past week.  Hopefully the third time will be a charm for me, as a win puts me in the finals.

UPDATE: So technically my season isn't over, as I still have to play The Gosder Cherilus Posse in the third-place game.  Either way, my run for a league championship has ended.

Normally scoring 59.3 points in the playoffs will get you eliminated.  Thankfully, though, my opponent only managed to score 47.6 points.  I definitely got lucky with my matchup, but I will take it at this point.  I ended up getting beat 128.4-71.84 in the POD overflow league, meaning I have been eliminated from the playoffs.  In the SBN/AOL league, I have a first-round bye, so I will get to relax this coming week of play.

With the win in the official POD league, I advance to the semifinals to play Calvin and the Chipmunks (mgersz), who scored 88 points this past week (he was on a bye).  In the other playoff game from this past week, The Gosder Cherilus Posse (The Prodigy) beat Detroit's Few Good Men (ReichardZ) to move on to the semifinals to play Just go away Favre (ahtrap), who scored a whopping 143.1 points during his bye week.

Here is a full look at The Gosder Cherilus Posse's win:

In the consolation playoffs, Maize 'n' Blue Jays (THE_J) beat Rudys Warhawks (isjim) 83.16-81.94 and LA Leos (sgdbw90) beat West Coast Lions (LVLionfan) 84.88-70.36.  Just last week West Coast Lions beat LA Leos, but things turned out differently this time around, meaning LA Leos will play Underdogs (Sig Sauer) in the consolation semifinals.  Maize 'n' Blue Jays will play SnotKnocker's (Ace BangerTheGuru).