(S24) - Ultimus Week

[Baron1898]

Task 12 (405 Words)

I’m going to focus on one particular side effect of expansion - how the scheduling will work now that 14 teams are in the league. I believe that the league should take this opportunity to open up the fourth playoff spot in each conference. For the longest time, the ISFL sent only two teams to the playoffs from each conference. With only four teams in each conference, it made sense - you don’t want to devalue the playoffs by sending nearly everyone in. When the S15/S16 expansion was put into place, and the Austin Copperheads and Chicago Butchers bumped up the number of teams in each conference to five, the sim engine still only allowed either two or four teams to make the playoffs. But instead of keeping it at two, the league allowed three of five teams to make it, and the fourth seed would play a meaningless, guaranteed loss against the first seed to grant a virtual bye week. This stayed the same even as the Hahalua and Sailfish pushed the conference totals to six.

Now the Berlin Fire Salamanders (what a mouthful) and New York Silverbacks are on the scene, which results in seven teams placed in each conference. I’ve already discussed the scheduling issues this creates in a media post, and I’m still curious to see how that works out. But I’d like to argue that the expansion should change the playoff seeding as well. The fourth seed of each conference should be opened up.

Here’s a look at every playoff structure we’ve had so far:

• Season 1: Six teams, three per conference. Two teams in the playoffs for a 66.6% entrance rate.

• Seasons 2-15: Eight teams, four per conference. Two teams in the playoffs for a 50% entrance rate.

• Seasons 16-21: Ten teams, five per conference. Three teams in the playoffs for a 60% entrance rate.

• Seasons 22-24: Twelve teams, six per conference. Three teams in the playoffs for a 50% entrance rate.

What this shows us, other than the markedly increasing rate of league expansion, is that we’ve tried to hew the playoff entrance rate as close as possible to 50% but never under it. Allowing four teams into the playoffs in seven team conferences would result in a 57.1% entrance rate, which is not at all an unreasonable percentage of teams to send into the postseason. Also this would make it easier for Honolulu.

Task 14 (221 words)

For this task I’m going to shamelessly plug myself, Venus Powers, for contention in the ISFL Kicker of the Year award. Obviously awards results were announced yesterday, and so my victory is already guaranteed, but here’s the case why Powers should’ve been even more unanimous than she already was.

Her biggest selling point is accuracy. For only the fifth time in ISFL history, a kicker hit 100% of both their extra point attempts and field goal tries. Powers sank all 32 extra points and 29 field goals. In addition, 11 of those 29 field goals were from 40 yards or further, and three of them were from 50 yards or more. Her biggest competitor, Alfredo Crisco, went 38 for 38 on extra points and 35 for 36 on field goals. Despite his extra volume, I don’t think that this makes him a worthy alternative for KOTY. Kickers should not be knocked down for the opportunity or lack thereof given to them, and Austin’s offense ranked third in the league in passing yardage, rushing yardage, and points scored. Honolulu’s offense was much less proficient, even ranking last in the league in passing yardage by a good margin. It would be unfair to disqualify Powers for making the most of her situation, and she could not have possibly performed better than she did.

Task 25 (206 words)

There have been other, more influential changes to the status quo in league history, but perhaps none have been so personal or impactful to me as was the rebranding and relocation of the San Antonio Marshals. I was drafted to the Marshals fourth overall in the S14 DSFL Draft; the Fabulous Five established Marshal Law in our dominant regular season, and I gained incredible enthusiasm for the league as a whole. When Morgan Marshall retired rather early, I initially planned to make my way back to San Antonio. But team leadership decided that the team needed a change, and moved to the north to become the Minnesota Grey Ducks. This changed a number of things. It resulted in significant division realignment, moving the Grey Ducks away from their historic rivals in Tijuana. The GMs at the time were able to follow up this rebranding with playoff success, including back to back Ultimini championships only a season after the move. For a large percentage of the league, the Minnesota Grey Ducks are the status quo, and the San Antonio Marshals sound as foreign as the Chicago Blues or Las Vegas Legion. To me, the disappearance of the Marshals is the saddest change of the league so far.