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Challenge Contests — by Justin Eleff

Know why those do-it-yourself ice cream makers make terrible gifts? There's nothing wrong with the ice cream you can buy at the grocery store. Between Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's, the whole spectrum of flavors is damn near covered. You'd have to be a master artisan to improve on what's right there, ubiquitous and priced at just $3.49 a pint.

And my point is?

The ranks of fantasy football challenges have thinned over the years. There are fewer worthwhile games now than there used to be, and I'm pretty sure that's because much of Fantasy Nation has concluded that there's nothing wrong with their home or office leagues. The people are speaking. They happen to be wrong, of course, but that's what they're saying every time a challenge game disappears.

Look, I'm all for traditional fantasy leagues. There's nothing quite like an auction or draft - that part of those other games simply cannot be duplicated. But there's no way for me to stomach the notion of a phony Fantasy Playoff determining league championships. LAST YEAR IN ONE OF MY OFFICE LEAGUES I DRAFTED LADAINIAN TOMLINSON IN THE FIRST ROUND, STEVE SMITH IN THE SECOND, ANTONIO GATES IN THE THIRD, FRANK GORE IN THE FOURTH, DREW BREES AS MY QUARTERBACK ...

... AND LOST IN THE PRETEND SUPER BOWL, WEEK 16, WHEN MOST OF THOSE GUYS DRIED UP.

I have always preferred challenges to traditional leagues for one reason only: This is where you have the most control, where luck plays the smallest part in how your teams finish. Every week is weighted equally in the challenges, so a dry Week 16 has no more impact than a dry Week 3 would have. This is where what you know means most, and what you cannot possibly control means least.

But with all of that said, not all challenges are created equal. CDM may have the best games, the most thoughtful structures, even the fairest payouts, but there is one other company I tend to gravitate toward every fall (and spring, too, come baseball season). For years now, and always quietly, Sportsco has run games that take the idea that skill-not-luck should separate challenge teams to another level entirely.

The Sportsco Iron Man Fantasy Football Challenge asks you to pick 3 QBs, 6 RBs, 6 WRs, 2 TEs, 3 Ks and 3 DEFs ... with no salary cap. You pick whatever mix of players you want, turn your whole roster over from week to week if you wish, and that's the challenge. My brain and eyes versus yours. What I see and believe versus what you do. Nothing left to grouse about.

How it works ...

The game uses Roto-style scoring and counts 12 categories, 8 for individual players and 4 for defenses. Right away that should tell you that matchups will be unusually important: You own the right mix of defenses each week or you fall behind. Especially if ...

OK, so there is something to grouse about. A warning to all: Last year I wrote in this space that you could own defenses on their bye weeks in the Sportsco game and thereby get ahead in what might be called the negative counting categories. The 4 defensive stats measured here are (1) yards allowed, (2) points allowed, (3) sacks and (4) interceptions. A bye week should = 0 yards and points allowed, right?

Turns out, though, that Sportsco had always intended to assign each bye week defense certain default numbers: 400 yards allowed, 24 points allowed, 1 sack, 1 interception. On its very face, of course, this is absurd. Why would the default not be 0 sacks and interceptions?

But they make the rules – eventually; I swear there was nothing about this on the website until I called to complain when my bye week defenses dropped me a dozen places in the league standings - and this is the game we're playing.

If you detect a certain pissiness in my prose, it's because Sportsco refused to budge on giving me those unadvertised, unearned default numbers. I stopped playing the game altogether when that happened, in Week 3, out my entry fee and two weeks' worth of fees for player changes. This year, though, armed with all of the rules, I'll play through.

Again, matchups are key. I don't see much of a percentage in starting with the Bears' D, for instance, when they open on the road against what may be the best offense in all of football, that of Norv Turner's (and LaDainian Tomlinson's) Chargers.

So for Week 1 I'll take BAL (at CIN, not a great matchup either but better than at SD), JAX (vs TEN) and either NE (at NYJ) or SEA (vs TB). Every week I'll own the three DEFs I like best, regardless of the fact that every switch will cost $1.89.

The individual player stat categories are (1) passing yards and (2) passing TDs; (3) rushing yards and (4) rushing TDs; (5) receiving yards and (6) receiving TDs; (7) field goals and (8) extra points.

That means quarterbacks and kickers are disproportionately important, much like defenses; your three QBs and three Ks each get two whole categories to themselves.

I'll run down the positions now, identifying (for each) both the players who should never leave your lineup and the players who have the best Week 1 matchups.

QB

Peyton Manning never leaves. The other two slots rotate between Tom Brady (yes for Week 1), Drew Brees (yes), Carson Palmer (no) and maybe Donovan McNabb (no, remembering that knee injuries are tricky and remembering, especially, the sudden difference between Daunte Culpepper last preseason and Daunte Culpepper in Week 1).

RB

LaDainian Tomlinson never leaves. No one else is quite there, mostly because there are something like eight other RBs in the whole NFL who might ever be used here, and I'll be playing matchups a lot.

The eight, alphabetically:

Joseph Addai, IND (yes)
Shaun Alexander, SEA (yes)
Reggie Bush, NO (yes)
Frank Gore, SF (yes)
Travis Henry, DEN (yes)
Steven Jackson, STL (no)
Larry Johnson, KC (yes)
Brian Westbrook, PHI (yes)

With Steven Jackson the only no for Week 1 (vs CAR, a unit that is always solid until its front guys suffer their season-ending injuries) - and I guess Tomlinson would be a no too (vs CHI) if that weren't completely nuts - this position is a matter of taste. I'll probably own one but not both of Bush and Westbrook (playing for extra receiving yards and deciding on the basis of Thursday night's cheat game, the NO-at-IND likely barnburner that does count here, as in CDM) and everyone else except Shaun Alexander. He's looked pretty old so far in 2007; I wanna be sure before I use him.

WR

Steve Smith never leaves. Maybe Terrell Owens, too. There are generally more players to consider here than at RB; in Week 1 I'll probably look to Lee Evans, Larry Fitzgerald, Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne. Others to use in their best matchups: Anquan Boldin (if Fitzgerald happens to hurt himself, but unlike with the CIN and IND receivers, I wouldn't use those two together), Donald Driver, Torry Holt (once his health is certain), Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Javon Walker (if Jay Cutler looks OK early on), Roy Williams. Marques Colston if he proves that 2006 wasn't somehow a fluke.

TE

Antonio Gates never leaves, or - let's face it - you're an idiot. Todd Heap looks good for Week 1; I can see rotating Chris Cooley or Jeremy Shockey in for him, but otherwise the position is pretty much set. Vernon Davis if his hands look improved.

K

No one never leaves, although Adam Vinatieri may wind up playing 14 or 15 weeks for me. I'd put Nate Kaeding up there with Vinatieri, too, except that I won't use him Week 1 vs CHI. Will use two of Josh Brown (vs TB), Stephen Gostkowski (at NYJ), Olindo Mare (at IND) and Matt Stover (at CIN).

And that's it, Iron Man Fantasy Football in a nutshell, a true challenge game: You own your players, I own mine, the very best guys win.

These columns will continue into the regular season, whether weekly or biweekly or whatever, and I'll look to you - your comments, below - for suggested topics. I'll tell you both how to manage your teams in general and what I'm looking at in the way of matchups and (evolving) player rankings. You tell me what else you'd like to know.

LATE NEWS ON THE FOOTBALL CHALLENGE: I'm continuing to tweak, with the latest changes being that (a) I'm off of Jay Cutler until he shows me something, probably onto Phil Rivers in his place; and (b) I'm worried about receiving average, so I've gone to Santonio Holmes, Bernard Berrian and even Kevin Curtis, who looks like he may have last season's Donte' Stallworth role in Philly.

Last minute advice is freely available, either through the comments below or, if you prefer, by writing to my bosses here and asking for my personal e-mail address. Otherwise, enjoy Kickoff Weekend. I wish each of you luck in 2007; hope it's one of my readers who winds up in 2nd place overall in the Football Challenge and elsewhere.

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