Week 13 Update

 

 WEDNESDAY UPDATE!!!

I've decided that due to how the standings have played out this year I'd set up a consolation playoff bracket. The six teams not playing for the Hughes Bowl will play for a to-be-determined waiver cash prize(s). I'll seed the bracket the same way as the HB bracket. The difference is that the Consolation Bracket teams will NOT have waivers. You'll go with what you have on your roster as of the end of the season.

Two points: 1) The HB bracket will have a $$$ prize that mirrors the Consolation Bracket and 2) waivers for the non-HB hopefuls end Saturday so if you are in that group make plans for the postseason.

Last thing...I will set the Consolation Bracket teams to have their lineups filled automatically on Thursday mornings. I figure some of you may not want to be active in this. But you can override the automatic lineups or, if you wish, I can turn that feature off for you and you can fill lineups as normal.

EDIT..I'm thinking $30 waiver cash for the Hughes Bowl win, and $20 for the Conso Bowl winner.  Do we give something to the runners-up? Half the winners share? Nada? I'm all ears.

After I posted the Hughes News late Monday night (scroll down to read it first) I stayed up even later digging through past seasons. As best I can tell we have never had, at least in the three-division era going back to the 80s, a season where the following were true:

• All divisions were still up for grabs with a week still to play
• All playoff teams were known with a week still to play

It would take far more research than I'm willing to do but I'm pretty sure the 2024 season is unique in that regard. Having two qualifiers from each division isn't unusual (it's happened the past two seasons) but it satisfies my sense of...ummm... symmetry. 

BTW...does anyone have an opinion on the proper protocol? Is it...

1. WildCard
2. Wildcard
3. Wild Card
4. wild card
5. wildcard

😐 I've used all five (sometimes in the same newsletter)! Vote by number in the comments. Thanks! 

Other quick observations:

The Nats have made the playoffs after being on the outside looking in for the past three seasons. The Flyers' drought is snapped after two seasons. The other four clubs made the playoffs in 2022, 2023, or both (the Bombers)... a WildCard team has won three of the last four Hughes titles so the 'advantage' of getting a bye has not held true recently... Portland is the only team with a chance to capture back-to-back division crowns. Neither the Legends nor Strawmenn made the cut... you need to go back to 1994 to find a season where the league's 'best' record was achieved by a team with less than nine wins. The Heroes and Bullies (Rbacks) both went 8-4-1 that season. That streak remains intact... Since tied games are very, very rare in this era of decimal scoring we will have at least one double-digit win club for the fourth straight year. 

Research Corner:

I'm not sure what to make of the Lineup Configuration research but I started it and I feel like I need to continue it. Anyway, here's the latest. 

Reminders:

Playoff teams receive $10 in waiver funds each week during the postseason... the waiver schedule changes in the postseason, check the calendar... the trade deadline is Saturday. I go back and forth on moving the deadline back to where it used to be i.e. earlier in the season. But we've never had a trade that even hinted at collusion so I'm not going to concern myself with the deadline at this point. 

Gary Allan Video Dump. 

I've been saving this one for quite a while, it's a great farewell song. If you ever see it here again, you'll know. 😜