League Design Workshop #3– Scoring
Posted:6/5/07Scoring
Long gone are the days of TD-only leagues. Now we have all sorts of statistics that are used for Fantasy Football scoring. This article will address some rationale for various choices on how to use the various statistics for your league's scoring.
Let's start out by assuming that your league will use decimal scoring.
Some leagues persist in not going that route, but I just can't see
any reason to avoid the decimals. Sixty-nine yards rushing is not
that similar to sixty yards and is very similar to seventy yards –
yet in a non-decimal format that extra 70th yard makes a big difference.
Let's also assume a basic performance scoring setup: 0.1pts per yard
rushing or receiving and 0.04pts or 0.05pts per yard passing. In my
experience, the 0.05pts/passing yard usually goes with 5pt or 6pt
passing TDs and the 0.04pts/passing yard usually goes with 3pt or
4pt passing TDs: one the first version tries to increase QB values
by upping their scoring despite the relative non-scarcity of the position
(since we generally only start twelve of the thirty-two starters in
most of our leagues).
Another consideration is how to handle yardage bonuses. Many leagues
provide a bonus for 100 yards rushing/receiving or 300 yards passing.
Typically, that bonus is 2pts or 3pts for reaching that yardage hurdle.
Basically, the one yard that hits the rushing/receiving hurdle is
worth 21 or 31 times as much as any other yard (even more of a multiple
for the passing hurdle). I prefer to do something a little different.
I like to set my yardage bonuses up by providing extra rewards for
the additional yardage after hitting the hurdle. Say it's 0.1pts per
yard, then 0.1pts extra for any yards after 100 yards. So instead
of the 100th yard being worth 2.1pts or 3.1pts, every yard after 100
is worth 0.2pts. It's worth a little less if the player barely exceeds
the hurdle (105 yards is only worth 11pts), but it's worth a lot more
if the player beats the hurdle by a large margin (130 yards is worth
16pts & 200 yards is worth 30pts).
Touchdowns: practically every league rewards rushing/receiving TDs
six points. The passing TDs might be any integer from three to six.
Three: these leagues really reward the rushing quarterbacks, six rushing plus twenty passing is just as good as thirty-two passing
Four: a little less reward for the rushing quarterbacks, six rushing plus twenty passing is just as good as twenty-nine passing
Five: just a very small reward for rushing quarterbacks, six rushing plus twenty passing is just about as good as twenty-seven passing
Six: no reward for rushing quarterbacks, six rushing plus twenty passing is just as good as twenty-six passing
I tend to think of four as a happy middle ground. A touchdown is a touchdown, but a QB can accumulate a lot more than any other position so it seems reasonable to diminish the passing TD's value a little. A rushing TD seems to demoralize a defense more than a passing TD, so I also think that this justifies a modest reduction for a passing TD (not allowing a rushing TD is a big deal for a defense, although it's talked about more in the college game).
Long touchdown bonuses appear in some leagues. Often, these are like the yardage hurdles: 6pts for a 0-39 yard TD and 9pts for a 40+ yard TD. Is that one yard extra really worth three extra points? So, like the yardage bonuses, I prefer to use an incremental bonus. Starting with yard after the TD distance yardage hurdle, I add an extra 0.1pts per yard. So a 90+ yard TD is worth far more than a TD that barely surpasses the hurdle. Using 40 yards as the hurdle, a 45 yard TD is worth 6.5pts and a 90 yard TD is worth 11pts.
I do the same with field goals. Any FG is worth at least 3pts, but starting with the 31st yard it's 0.1pts per yard. So 39 yards versus 40 yards isn't a one point difference, it's 0.1pts like any other one yard difference. You could even double the yardage bonus after 50 yards so that the 60+ yard FGs are worth a lot.
Missed field goals also provide an opportunity for this incremental approach. Missing a long FG ought to result in little or no punishment, but missing a short one ought to be much more severely penalized. Perhaps something like -3.0 pts for a missed FG of 20 yards or less and then with every yard over 20 you remove 0.1pts of the penalty so that a 50 yard miss carries no punishment. Using these ideas, a kicker would get 3.0pts for a 25 yard make and -2.5pts for a 25 yard miss, get 3.5pts for a 35 yard make and -1.5pts for a 35 yard miss, 4.5pts for a 45 yard make and -0.5pts for a 45 yard miss, 5.5pts for a 55 yard make and no penalty for a 55 yard miss. You can play with the hurdles so that the reward for making equals the punishment for missing at the FG yardage of your choosing. Also be careful not to give positive points for long misses (in the example I provided, a 55 yard miss might be -3.0pts + 0.1pts/yard for each yard over 20 = -3.0pts + 0.1pts/yard * 35 yards = -3.0pts +3.5pts = +0.5pts) unless that's what you intend.
PPR: many leagues reward pass catching. It's a way of making the elite WRs more similar in value to the almost elite RBs. Of course it also rewards pass-catching RBs unless set up in way that only rewards the TEs and WRs. I've seen many different ways of using a PPR system. Here are several ideas that seem to work well:
No PPR: these are RB-heavy leagues, you'll almost always choose a RB as your flex starters
½PPR: the WRs and TEs get a modest bump in value and the non-pass-catching RBs take a hit, if your WRs are deep and talented then you might use a WR as a flex starter
½PPR for WRs/TEs, no PPR for RBs: this is a pretty good way to only help the WRs/TEs without giving any help to the RBs
1PPR: huge bump for the pass catching RBs and the WRs who get around 100 catches, but the elite RBs still way outscore the elite WRs
1PPR for the WRs/TEs, ½PPR for the RBs: this might be my favorite option – it rewards the pass-catching positions more for doing their primary job than it does the RBs, yet the pass-catching RBs still get some extra benefit (versus no PPR)
2PPR for the TEs, 1PPR for the WRs, ½PPR for the RBs: this is a way to force the TE position to have extra value – it even makes TEs nice choices for flex position starters if you've got two good TEs, elite TEs will get drafted in the early rounds
Also, QBs don't catch many passes, but there's no reason not to give them some PPR credit if you're giving it to the other positions.
Pass completions: this is an idea I haven't tried out yet, but it intrigues me. I'm not liking the idea of only rewarding completions, but if you reward completions and penalize incompletions then you've got a good way to have your scoring system reflect passing efficiency. Say you give 0.2pts per completion and -0.3pts per incompletion. In that system, any QB with a better than 60% completion rate will get a bonus. Under 60% and the QB gets a penalty. Thirty passing attempts at a 70% completion rate is worth 1.5pts ( = 21 * 0.2pts + 9 * -0.3pts). And thirty passing attempts at a 50% completion rate is worth -1.5pts ( = 15 * 0.2pts + 15 * -0.3pts). Increasing the point values makes the reward or penalty bigger. Changing the relationship of the values will create a different breakeven completion percentage (0.2 vs. -0.4 requires 66?% for breakeven, 0.3 vs. -0.5 requires 62½% for breakeven). These rules should also apply to any other positional player who attempts a pass. Also note that an interception is probably also counted as an incompletion, so you might want to reconsider the interception penalty (for instance, make it -1.7pts so that including the "incompletion" portion it's a total of -2.0pts).
Return yardage: some leagues reward kickoff and punt return yards. I like this idea, but only if the rewards are not the same. A kickoff returner usually gets a bunch of yards before having to make his first cut to avoid contact. It's very rare for a kickoff to result in a fair catch. For punt returns, fair catches are common and the punt returner generally has to cut right away to avoid hits. I'd reward the kickoff returns no more than I'd reward pass yardage, and I'd reward punt returns at least as much as I reward rushing/receiving yards. Kickoff returns getting 0.03pts per yard and punt returns getting 0.1pts per yard –or– kickoff returns getting 0.05pts per yard and punt returns getting 0.15pts per yard –or– some similar relationship.
We've covered the kickers and the skill position players, now it's time to talk about the defenses. I'm going to stick with DTs rather than IDPs, since my IDP experience is fairly limited. Here are some general ideas for DT scoring:
Sack: one point per sack is a typical solution, a bonus for over a certain number seems like a nice idea but again I'd suggest it being a double reward for sacks that exceed a certain hurdle (say between six and eight sacks) – also I've seen MFL leagues where the sacks 1-10 are rewarded yet there have been NFL games with over ten sacks so be careful to not cheat an owner of a couple points for his DT's eleventh and twelfth sacks
Interception: typically two points per INT, again bonus for the 4th and beyond might be worth considering
Fumble: I prefer to give one point reward for forced fumbles and another point for fumble recoveries – so it's two points if there's a turnover and one point if the pay is damaged without a turnover resulting
Safety: I prefer to consider a safety in two parts – the first part is the scoring impact (2pts) and the second is the turnover impact (another 2pts or whatever an INT is worth) since the team that just scored the safety also gets ball next after a free kick – so typically my leagues rewards safeties at 4pts
Defensive Scoring Allowed: many leagues have large differences between the various ranges of points so that one extra point can cost a team 3-5pts – again I prefer the incremental approach: 10pts less 0.5pts for every point scored so that twenty points allowed is worth 0pts and you know that regardless of the current point total against any FG costs you 1.5pts and any TD + XP costs you 3.5pts (the median NFL defense allowed about 20½ points per game in 2006, so 20 seems like a decent breakeven figure)
Defensive Yardage Allowed: I'm not a fan of this, one league of mine gives 7pts for <200 yards allowed and nothing for 200+ yards – if you feel a need for this scoring category, I'd look at the average yards allowed in NFL games last season and use that figure as your breakeven then determine how much the reward should be for beating that by 100 yards (and make it equal to the punishment for having it exceeded by 100 yards) and then do the math to make it work – the median 2006 NFL team gave up about 330 yards per game, so you could start with 11pts and then subtract 1/30th of a point for every yard allowed and have 330 yards breakeven and 230 yards scores +3.33pts
One final comment – don't worry about absolute scoring totals.
In the last two DT scoring categories, negative point totals are realistic
for DTs that give up lots of yards or points. The DT may give up enough
in both categories to not have the sacks and turnovers cover the deficit.
But in the end, you should worry not about the absolute total DT points
but about the difference between the good scores and the bad scores.
If a good score is +10 and a bad score is -10, that's no different
from an outcome of +30 as a good score and +10 as a bad score. Either
way, the bad scores are bad and far worse than the good ones. Bad
is bad and whether the bad is +10 or -10 makes no difference when
the good is twenty points better.