Here’s your chance! Enter the Fantasy Index Open rankings accuracy contest. It’s free, it’s fun, and it’s simple.
The winner takes home an gigantic trophy from the team at Affordable Trophies. They’ve been partnering with us on this competition for years.
The top two finishers earn berths into the regular Experts Poll in the magazine (2020 version), allowing them to compete against 18 industry writers.
This contest is different than a typical fantasy league. You don’t draft a “team”. Instead you submit a top 20 at each position before the August 8 deadline (that’s this Thursday), and those 120 players become your roster. The higher you rank a player the more he counts towards your score.
To access the contest, log into the site, click on “YOUR STUFF” in the upper right corner of the screen, and pull down to select “Fantasy Index Open 2019”. Those who are already logged in can get to the contest by clicking here.
The contest is free, but to be eligible to win you must sign up on the website, providing a name and mailing address. If you were to sign up without supplying a name, you wouldn’t be eligible to win the trophy (which is huge).
Once on the website, use the drag-and-drop technology to select your players – 20 at QB, RB, WR, TE, K and DEF. You’re stuck with those players for the duration of the 17-week regular season, so be careful about selecting players who are more likely to serve suspensions or miss games with injuries. There are no waiver moves or trades, so when a player doesn’t play, you get a zero from him that week.
Entries are due before the start of the first game of the first full week of the preseason. That’s this Thursday, August 8, at 7 p.m. Eastern time. Until then, feel free to start on your picks, coming back to make adjustments for injuries and holdouts. But once that deadline hits, all entries are locked.
There’s a change in the scoring system this year. We’re going PPR, with players getting 1 point for each reception. Otherwise, it’s the same as in previous years – 6 points for touchdowns, 4 for TD passes, 1 for every 10 run/rec yards and 1 for every 20 passing yards. Defenses receive 2 points for takeaways, 1 for sacks and 6 for every touchdown scored on a return of a takeaway or kick. Kickers get regular NFL points – 3 for field goals and 1 for PATs.
We’ll come back and score all of the picks using a complex scoring matrix that combines a player’s production against where he was ranked. Basically, the higher you rank him, the most his production counts. Suppose, for example, that Justin Tucker finishes the season with 100 points. If you ranked Tucker first, that would net you 2,500 points (25 x 100). If you ranked him second, you would receive 2,400 (24 x 100). Third would be 2,300 (23 x 100) and so on down to 20th being worth 600 points (6 x 100). We use that same approach for all 120 players ranked by each entry, with the overall high score winning the title.
Best of luck to all.