As I mentioned in last week’s column, I want to address a scoring error that occurred in my league and how we handled this situation. The bigger picture regarding this topic is what to do when results of completed games are changed for various reasons.

In my league, team defenses receive points for yardage allowed. I use CBS sportsline for my commissioner software. For years I’ve set the scoring ranges for yards allowed as shown below.

• 0 – 99 Yards = 6 Points
  
• 100 – 199 Yards = 4 Points
  
• 200 – 299 Yards = 2 Points
  
• 400 – 499 Yards = -2 Points
  
• 500+ Yards = -4 Points

As you can see there is no range set for 300 – 399 yards allowed because you score no points in this range. For some reason Sportsline was scoring yards allowed in this range as 2 points, as if it was in the range above. This setup had functioned properly for several years until this point. This was pointed out to me in week three by an owner regarding his opponent’s scoring. The first thing I did was to check the prior weeks results, hoping no game outcomes were impacted by some defenses getting two unearned points. Of course I was out of luck, there was a game in week one where a team lost by 1.5 points where his opponent received two extra points from his defense. Obviously the error had to be corrected in the current week (week three) and going forward, but what should be done about the week 1 result that had been in the standings now for two weeks?

There are two very logical paths of action. The first would be to let the week one game stand. I always like to look to the NFL for precedent where applicable and there is no precedent in the NFL for a game result being overturned due to an error in the application of the rules. See week-two’s San Diego / Denver game for proof of that axiom. The other option would be to enforce the rules as they were written and apply points to the statistics as intended. In this instance I chose the later option. My logic was that this was an error on the part of CBS sportsline in applying our league rules, and had the error not occurred, the outcome of the game would have been correct. I reversed the week one results and explained to the league what had happened. In retrospect, I’m still torn over this decision and I’m not sure I made the right call. We currently have a statistics protest rule in effect and if there is a stats change made prior to Friday of the current week’s games, owners can submit the corrected NFL stats and those changes will be updated (i.e. Jay Cutler in week one going from 299 to 300 yards). If I had applied that rule to this situation, I could have made it the owner’s responsibility to review his box score and notify me of the error that the sportsline software was making. Ultimately the key factor in my reversing the result is that fantasy football is a statistics based game and the correct numbers should govern the results.

To go along with this experience, I had a related question from an owner last week. It seemed that his commissioner erred when creating his league schedule. In order to correct this error the commissioner in question rescheduled the entire season after three weeks of playing the incorrect schedule. This resulted in a complete change of game results and standings for the first three weeks. Naturally this owner was skeptical of the motivation as he went from 3-0 to 1-2 while his commissioner’s team went from 0-3 to 2-1. In a case like this I can’t advise this course of action. Schedules are part of the luck that is inherent in fantasy football and to manipulate that in the midst of the season will never sit well with owners. In this case the problem was that the commissioner didn’t schedule multiple divisional match-ups and couldn’t fit them all in without re-creating the schedule. To me, the solution would have been to re-work the schedule going forward to accommodate as many divisional match-ups as possible. This does point out the importance of schedule in fantasy football and why it’s good practice to include the schedule as part of your league’s rules and not rely solely on having it input correctly into the league’s commissioner service. I’ve made mistakes in the entering the schedule in sportsline before, but having the schedule published in your rules document allows you to fall back on that document to make your corrections.

Yet another way completed games can be impacted are by post-game statistics changes. Most commissioner services finalize results on Tuesday morning. Some do allow for retroactive stat changes after that period. This is the note that is on MFL’s (myfantasyleague) website regarding this situation.

“Occasionally, the Elias Sports Bureau (the official Statistician of the NFL) will make official statistics changes after a week's games have been completed. Note that there is no set schedule for when these corrections are announced - they might be announced a day after a game is over, and at other times, it may be weeks later.”

Based on this information, game results could be changed weeks down the road if you don’t account for this in your league rules. As I previously stated, owners in my league have until the Friday following the week’s games to review their box score and note any statistical changes or errors. After that, the books close on the week and results will not be modified. The reason for doing this is, despite the fact that I would prefer to have points based on 100% correct stats, I feel you cannot keep game results open for the entire season. Team owners make decisions based on where they are in the league standings and to have your standings be in a constant state of flux due to stats tweaks won’t sit well with owners. I’ve tried to accommodate stats corrections for as long as I feel is reasonable without leaving owners in limbo as to whether or not they’ll win or lose a close game for the rest of the season.

There were some great questions from the past couple of weeks. Let’s take a look at a couple of them.

Q) My league, now in year seven, has added one IDP spot. The scoring is minimal. There is almost no impact. Do you have any scoring suggestions? What is a typical scoring system? Secondly, we have noticed that offensive players are accruing IDP stats (tackles by kickers, fumbles recovered by WRs etc.). Again our scoring for these stats is minimal, but a match-up will undoubtedly be determined by one of these occurrences. Is this commonplace for the IDP stats to bleed into offensive players?

A) Let’s answer the second part of your question first. To control the “stat bleed” issue my league’s scoring system up to be positional. That is players cannot accumulate points outside their position. WR's don’t get return yardage or fumbles on kick returns. Kickers only get points for kicking, not for passing or for rushing if that happens.

If you don't have that option with your league management software (Sportsline does), then you'd have to manually adjust these out each week. I sometimes have to do this if a WR fumbles on a punt return. I make it a team owner’s responsibility to notify me within the week if that is the case. Otherwise the score stands.

I think that these stats are flukes and not worth rewarding points for, but others may have a different opinion. It’s really a personal preference, but I don't think Rex Grossman should get points for all the tackles he had to make on interception returns.
In regard to the first portion of the question, I've only played in one IDP league so I don't have a good scoring system off the top of my head but I’ll ask the readers here for some suggestions and pass those on.

Q) In week five you saw special teams TDs by DeSean Jackson and Reggie Bush. In my league those TDs are credited to the Defense/Special Teams unit, and not to the individual player. In your experience is that typically the case or do you have experience where the TD is credited to both the player and to the Defense/Special Team?

A) In leagues that field a team Defense / Special teams unit, I typically see these TDs scored as you described. They are credited to the DST unit, not the individual player. If a league does credit these stats to the individual player then they typically don't get credited to the team unit. This is the approach I prefer because I don't like the idea of a scoring statistic counting twice. However, this is a personal preference type issue. If you want to see special teams plays count for individual players as well as a DST unit, there's nothing wrong with that, just be sure to clarify that in your rules so your owners can factor this into their draft decisions.

That's all for this session. If you've got any suggestions for IDP scoring I'd love to receive those as my experience is limited there, plus any other questions you may have for the commissioner.