End of year wrap up.

Hello,
Well football season finally ended, and who would have guessed that the Steelers would have went all the way? They do deserve the Championship though as they had one of the hardest roads to the Super Bowl that I can recall. But now that the Big Game is over and the Red vs. Black game is in the book (Go Black!) we can get down to wrapping up the 2005 PIFF Season.
First I should congratulate Amber and the Ambersandia &'s with convincing wins throughout the season and the playoffs. Aaron's Rebels did have a more lethal team, but when it came down to the playoffs he did not have the depth that the &'s had. Also I should mention that Pickle did an astounding job turning his team around from the 0-7, or so, start to making a run for the playoffs. It goes to show that you are (almost) never out of the playoffs, even with only four playoff spots.
I guess I should mention some tentative changes to next years league. Depending on how my masters report goes look to see some changes in the scoring system. The big changes that are bound to happen are: all TD will be worth 3pts, there will be no points awarded for return yards (either kicking or punting, but return TDs will still count), and defenses will not be given negative points based on how many points they allow (or at least it won't be as harsh). The reason for the changes that that after my initial stat analysis on the NFL data, these factors do not contribute significantly to predicting a final outcome of the game, so they are not needed in fantasy football. The whole scoring system will be given an overhaul, but at the moment I do not know what the changes will be. (Look for that around the end of the school year when I am finishing up my project.)
The next subject is the placement of the playoffs. I have the last two games of the NFL regular season being the playoff games, but this causes some problems with teams in the NFL that have made the playoffs sitting their starters. I am split on this, on one hand it is kinda sucky that a good player will not be able to start for your team because their NFL team is too good, but on the other this allows PIFF teams with good depth of players to have an advantage in the playoffs. Also starting the playoffs as late as possible allows for everyone to play as many games as possible. I have not decided what to do about when to start the playoffs, and if you have thoughts I am willing to listen.
Another tentative (very possible) change for next year is dropping it down to 2 staring WRs and bumping it up to 2 starting DBs. I am thinking about this so that there is not such a strain on finding decent WRs.
The last big change for next year is the expansion of the PIFF by four teams. Andy-man will be back with his Sparrow Island Maties which will split from Michelle's Pirataly Vampirates. The other three teams will start from scratch, at the moment the people that will be added to next year will be Matt Baker, my roommate from Smith House, G.B. a guy from the Stat Dept., and Steve my cousin from KC. If you have anyone who wants to get in let me know, and if one of these people drop I may be able to add them in. But remember; I would prefer to keep the people in the league to people I have met, so somebody's boss's cousin's co-worker, will probably not get the green light to join the league.
With the upcoming expansion in mind it is time for everyone to save their players for next year. The way it will work this year is that you will pick 12 players total (3 for sure keepers, and 9 probably keepers). Then when I get all the lists in I will contact the expansion teams and each expansion team will get to select one player from each current team (from the 9 probably keepers list from each team). After this is done each team will have 9 players, your team will be comprised of 3 players that you got to keep for sure, and the 6 reaming players that you put on your probably keep list.
For example, here is my keeper list:

Keep For Sure:
P. Manning QB Ind
E. James RB Ind
J. Plummer QB Den
Prob Keep:
T. Houshmandzadeh WR Cin
Ro. Williams WR Pit
J. Jones RB Dal
J. Witten TE Dal
M. Vanderjagt K Ind
A. Bryant WR Cle
Seattle DEF
K. Vanden Bosch DL Ten
O. Umenyiora DL NYG

So, no matter what I will have Manning, James, and Plummer for next year, and I will get to keep 6 of my prob. keepers for next year as well (exactly who depends on who is left after the expansion teams pick the players.)
If I am not making any sense please email me and I'll try to explain things better.
Welp, I hope that everyone had a good time with PIFF this year and I am looking forward to being able to attempt to beat you all again next year. ^_^ Try to get your keeper list in to me as soon as possible (I don't know how long Yahoo will keep up our league page), and if you have any questions or comments feel free to ask. Long live the Pirate Islands!
Shannon (El Presidente of the Tea Republic)
(I'll repost this email on the PIFF Blog)
http://pirateislandsff.blogspot.com/

Final Score of the 2006 Red vs Black Game

At the end of the game the score is:

Team    1st  2nd  3rd  4th  Total
Red     5    4    -1   21    29
Black   34   4    9    -10   37

Red Team (4th Qtr.):

Pos   Player       Pts NFL Team
QB    M. Hasselbeck 6  Sea Kilters
RB    [Empty]
WR1   H. Ward       7  Pit Vampirates
WR2   J. Jurevicius 3  Sea Picklers
WR3   A. Randle El  5  Pit Pillagers
TE    H. Miller     0  Pit Red Burns
K     J. Reed       0  Pit Pillagers
DEF   Pittsburgh    -3 Pit Vampirates
DB    [Empty]
DL1   L. Tatupu     0  Sea Picklers
DL2   [Empty]
Coach Davin                Pillagers

Black Team (4th Qtr.):

Pos   Player       Pts NFL Team
QB    [Empty]
RB    S. Alexander  6  Sea &'s
WR1   D. Jackson    1  Sea Rebels
WR2   B. Engram     2  Sea Rebels
WR3   [Empty]
TE    [Empty]
K     [Empty]
DEF   Seattle      -19 Sea Steepers
DB    T. Polamalu   0  Pit Rebels
DL1   B. Fisher     0  Sea Rebels
DL2   [Empty]
Coach Aaron                Rebels

The Black team was able to hold off a last minute rush by the Red team to win the 2006 Red vs. Black game. Congratulations goes out to all, especially my Black teammates (...) who are the Rebels, &'s, Snotknockers, and Eldars.