I had a good conversation yesterday with one of my owners who is somewhat skeptical of switching to an auction draft next season.  I actually think he is starting to see the light on the system with the very simple reason – anyone can have Chris Johnson and not just the team lucky enough to nab the first pick in the draft.  It all comes down to how much CJ is worth to you.

In a standard auction draft, every team is allotted $200.  That money is all a team has to build a 14-player squad.  How that money is spent is totally up to each owner.  Technically, a team could choose to drop $187 on CJ, which would mean they’d have to fill the rest of their roster with $1 players.  Not the smartest of strategies, but hey, give it a shot and see how it goes.  Anyway, so a team has $200 to spend, and a top RB like CJ would usually go for about $55-60.  But is he worth just a bit more if you really want him as the foundation of your team?  Do you spend $65?  And if so, is another team willing to inch it up to $66?  That’s the fun of auction drafting – you get to decide what a player is worth!  You get to build the team that you want to build without hoping that a player falls to your draft slot.

Plus the nature of the auction means that every team is paying attention to every pick because every team can have any player as long as they have the money.  C’mon, you know the teams that have picks in the #1 or #10 slot tend to get more than a bit bored after they make their picks and have to wait 19 picks for their turn again.  Now, every team has to pay attention to every player and consider whether that guy would be a good fit for their team at a given price.

This is likely the start of what I hope is a continuing series on the awesomeness of auctions.  I’ll have more another time.

‘Gators 138, Las Vatas 122
Well, it looks like, in the battle of Gore v. Davis, the RB is the winner. Gore had a great game against what was purported to be a top rushing defense and finished with 30 points. Davis mustered 12.

Fwet 97, Steal 83
In the battle of recent past champions Fwet came out on top with what could only be termed a mediocre game. One wonders if this was one of those “get it out of the way” performances that can occasionally strike even the best of teams. If so, they could be primed for another championship run.

Here’s now next week looks:

#3 Team Fwet (10-4) vs. #2 Tom (9-4)

#5 BullGators (7-7) vs. #1 Dumb F’ing Cows (10-3)

After Sunday we know one thing for certain – Steal will not repeat of AFA champion. With Fwet still sending out Kurt Warner tonight and Steal finished the score currently sits at 90-83 with Fwet in the lead. Fwet will face Tom next week in the semi-final round.

As for Las Vatas/’Gators, well, that’s gonna be a tough one. Las Vatas has Vernon Davis heading out tonight while the ‘Gators have Frank Gore. Las Vatas has a 110-109 lead. Dating back to SF’s Week Six bye week, Gore has outscored Davis four out of seven times. Last week, Davis put up 23 while Gore only managed 10. The Week before Gore put up 20 while Davis managed 18. The week before that Davis posted 22 while Gore had 15. This one will likely come down to the wire. One thing that may work in Las Vatas’ favor – they’re playing the Cardinals tonight, and they’re a team that knows how to score, so if the Niners fall behind they’ll likely be throwing the ball a lot, which would obviously benefit Davis. Something to keep an eye on. The winner will face the Cows next week.

Steal 80, Fwet 88
5:49 – Long story short, Steal needs Roy Williams to step up huge if they hope to pull this one out. Williams is the only player left for Steal while Fwet still has Miles Austin and some dude at QB you may have heard of playing tomorrow night – Kurt Warner. Ten years after he burst onto the scene in the ‘99 season for the Rams the dude is still a fantasy monster. Steal will need one heck of a cushion if they have any hope of defending their title.
6:15 – Oomph, that was a backbreaker for the defending champion. That Austin TD put Fwet up by 8 as the clock continues to tick away.

Las Vatas 108, ‘Gators 80
5:51 – I watched the early games and saw how big of a lead Las Vatas put up. Well, several hours later and that lead is still holding up. They’ll look to pad the lead a bit with K Rob Bironas still going while waiting for Vernon Davis tomorrow night. The ‘Gators have Jason Witten and Nick Folk going right now and have the D/ST Eagles tonight and Frank Gore tomorrow so there’s still a lot of game to go. Still, Las Vatas has to like their situation right now.
6:44 – Bironas is having a heckuva day. He’s got 17 with some time still left; it’s his highest total of the season.

I wanted to do a big thing for this week’s games, but Jamie’s birthday weekend extravaganza has dominated my time so we’ll just have to do with an abbreviated rundown:

#5 BullGators vs. #4 Las Vatas
A redux of last week’s game (these sort of doubleheaders have happened on occasion in the first week of the postseason). Las Vatas won big on that one 138-117, mostly due to a WR corps that combined for 76 points. Whether they are able to get a repeat performance could go a long way to determining the winner in this one.
The ‘Gators averaged 121.9 ppg during the regular season; Las Vatas averaged 109.9.
The BullGators are 4-2 all-time during the regular season. The last (and only) time they faced each other in the postseason was in 2005 when the ‘Gators absolutely pasted them 78-26 in AFA Bowl 8.

#6 Man of Steal vs. #3 Team Fwet
These two teams have combined for five of 11 total championships in league history as well as the last three (Steal in 2006 and 2008; Fwet in 2007).
Fwet averaged 122.9 ppg during the regular season. Steal averaged 110.4.
These two teams have never faced each other in the postseason. Fwet holds a slim 8-7 lead in regular season matchups. Fwet won their last meeting back in Week Two 131-84.

Just a quick reminder – there are no transactions allowed after the end of the regular season.  I see that two teams made roster moves but such moves are not allowed and the rosters will be readjusted back to what they were before the transactions.  This rule has been in place since the league started; it’s only because of how ESPN is set up that these two got by me (I used to have more control over transactions back when we used Sportsline).  No harm, no foul.  Just wanted to make sure everyone was aware.

Scrotums – $6
Saint – $18
Las Vatas – $3
Who Dat – $8
Steal – $15
‘Gators – $6
Tom – $18
Cows – $3
Amish – $24
Fwet – $21

At $1 per transaction (defined as an addition to your roster, via free agency, waiver wire or trade), there were 122 transactions, meaning, obviously, that we raised $122 in total transactions.

The only teams that need to actually pay me money at this point are the Amish, the Nation and Saint (and, of course, myself). Everyone else is still in the running and any money owed will be taken out of winnings, assuming a team actually gets any.

Just wanted to do a quick rundown of where some things stands.

The Cows obviously won the Barbay Division, and the $50 that goes along with it.

Tom clinched the Hickey Division by virtue of the h2h tiebreaker over Fwet. They, too, get $50.
Tom also claimed the Points Championship. And seriously, this one wasn’t even close! Tom finished the regular season with 1719 points. The next closest team was Fwet, with 1597 points. The worst team was Saint, who only managed 1325 points.

#5 BullGators (6-7) vs. #4 Las Vatas Locas (6-7)

#6 Man of Steal (5-8) vs. #3 Team Fwet (9-4)

#1 Cows (10-3) and #2 Tom (9-4) are on bye.

I’ll certainly have more on these matchups throughout the week.

Okay, here’s what was originally stated:

Here’s how the tiebreakers look for these four:

Steal – holds tiebreakers over the Amish and the Nation.  Loses tiebreaker to Saint.

Saint – holds tiebreakers over Amish and Steal.  Loses tiebreaker to the Nation.

Amish – holds tiebreaker over the Nation.  Loses tiebreakers to Steal and Saint.

Nation – holds tiebreaker over Saint.  Loses tiebreakers to Amish and Steal.

Now, according to those tiebreakers, then yes, Saint would be advancing according to the current tiebreaking rules that say the number of tiebreakers is used, followed by a determination if any h2h tiebreakers then exist between the remaining teams. In this case, Saint and Steal each have two tiebreakers so they “advance”; then as we look at those two teams’ h2h we see that Saint defeated Steal (by two points) in h2h.

But…

As the Scrotums also finished with a 5-8 record, they are also entitled to participate in this tiebreaker scenario so their information is then inputed. Here’s how the tiebreakers NOW look:

Steal – holds tiebreakers over the Scrotums, Amish and the Nation. Loses tiebreaker to Saint.

Saint – holds tiebreakers over Amish and Steal. Loses tiebreakers to the Scrotums and Nation.

Amish – holds tiebreaker over the Nation. Loses tiebreakers to Scrotums, Steal and Saint.

Nation – holds tiebreaker over Saint. Loses tiebreakers to Scrotums, Amish and Steal.

Scrotums – holds tiebreakers over Amish, Nation and Saint. Loses tiebreaker to Steal.

So, by my count, that means that the Scrotums and Steal both have 3 tiebreakers, Saint has 2 and the Amish and Nation have 1. (That loss by Saint this week [by two measly points!!!] dropped them down since they now have two tiebreaker losses as opposed to only one before the Scrotums needed to be taken into account.) That means that the Scrotums and Steal “advance”. Now, as we look at any determining h2h matchups we see that Steal defeated the Scrotums by 40 back in Week Six, meaning they advance to the playoffs to face Fwet and not Saint.

Sorry if this caused any confusion or heartbreak – I’m speaking directly to you, Saint.  Honestly, I had not even taken the scenarios that far down the line to even consider that the Scrotums would have an impact, yet here we are.  Talk about every single game counting.  And I was barely going to be troubled to put in a starting lineup this week given my situation.   I expect a nice present this year, Steal…

I’ll have a full bracket shortly in its own post.