Fantasy Index Super League

We spend too much time in life celebrating the winners. Steelers, Patriots, Cowboys, 49ers, Giants, Raiders; these have been the most successful teams since the merger in 1970.

But what about the Cardinals, Lions and Browns? They’ve also been great in their own way.

With that in mind, I offer a different look at the Fantasy Index Super League. Not the best teams, but the teams that did the worst. The teams that week in and week out managed to come up a little bit short. The worst of the worst. The biggest losers, so to speak.

And at the very bottom of the barrel, we have the Rumrunners, who managed to average only 120 points. They managed to hold off “Better Off Four Years Ago” by 4 points.

I’m not listing these guys by name. I tried that with a couple of entries in the Fantasy Index Open in August, and it just pissed guys off. I thought they would appreciate the shout out, but they were annoyed.

To be eligible for the Bigger Loser prize, a contestent had to enter in all 17 weeks. Lots of guys quit after a few weeks or forget to send in a few lineups here and there (I even did that myself once a year ago). But these guys were struggling but still put in the effort to compete in all 17 weeks.

Only 170 teams were able to field a lineup for all 17 weeks. Of that subset, Rumrunners finished in last.

That does not necessarily mean, of course, that he’s a clueless fool who doesn’t know what he’s doing. In this contest, the name of the game is to somehow come up with the highest score of the week, beating hundreds of other entries. So one viable strategy is to avoid the very best players (Adrian Peterson, Calvin Johnson), hoping that the vast bulk of other entries have them.

Bruce Taylor of Fantasy Index, for example, employed that kind of a strategy. He finished in 130th of these 170.

But somebody’s got to finish in last, and this year it was the Rumrunners.


FANTASY INDEX SUPER LEAGUE -- BOTTOM 10
   Points   Team
   2,040   Rumrunners
   2,044   betroff4yrsago
   2,064   Hammerheads-2
   2,079   muskrats
   2,124   RocknRollRebel
   2,230   ILBT's
   2,231   Redmond Rampage
   2,233   dorks
   2,235   Orange Crush
   2,240   RG III and Out


As an additional note, there will be some additions to the 2013 competition. Namely, there will be prizes for the best team names.

I very much appreciate the good team names. I’ve been meaning to draw attention to the better ones all along but never got around to it. (In the regular season, I tend to get caught up with trying to get all the various products completed.)

So for next year, the best team names will win prizes. I spoke to Bruce about it last night. We’re thinking that maybe the best dozen team names will be recognized in September. Those teams will then compete throughout the season for some kind of prize. Whichever one of the teams with the best names has the best overall score at the end of the season will win a gift card or something.

We both skimmed over the list of entries and highlighted the names we felt were the best. These names were chosen by both of us.

Best Names in 2012 competition
All Leshoure That's Going Leshoure
Fantasy Teams Are People, My Friend
Al Davis' White Tracksuit
Tatum Bell's Ghost
Don't Hit Your Mom Dez
Toe Jam Football
Matt Forte Year Old Virgins
You Say Helu


These names were just a notch out of that top group – chosen by only one of the judges.

Honorable mention
A Boy Named Suh
Fumble O Bills
Jiggle the Handle
Joe Buck Yourself
Mike Trout's Pharmacist
Aaron Rodgers Neighborhood
RG III and Out
Running Back By Committee
Bad News Kennels
Smoke a Blount, Drink a Forte


Thanks to all for participating. We’ll fire up the 2013 contest in August.


—Ian Allan

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