Fantasy News

Sam Hendricks is the grand champion of the 2012 Fantasy Index Open – our prognosicating contest open to anybody who wants to show what they’ve got. Hendricks is the king for Year No. 2 of this competition.

Hendricks is a professional. He writes fantasy football books for Extra Point Press. He resides in Lynchburg, Va.

A real estate agent from Sea Isle City, N.J., John Moore, finished in first place among the civilian entries. Two other fantasy football writers finished in the top 10, including Adam Holtz from Rochester, Minn.; he took third.

This is a time-consuming competition. You have to put together a top 20 at each position, then all of those selections are graded. The higher you rank a player, the more his production counts to your score. In all, 92 valid entries were received before the July 1 deadline (we opted for a nice early deadline, before there was general agreement on players’ values).

Hendricks finished in the top 10 in only one category – defenses (7th) – but he was steady across the board. Quarterbacks (22nd), running backs (13th), wide receivers (15th), tight ends (33rd) and kickers (11th). That allowed him to finish 122 points ahead of Moore (which isn’t much, considering both scored over 400,000 points.

The winner of this competition wins a monster-sized trophy from Affordable Trophies. That company graciously joined us as a sponsor this year. They’ve been specializing in fantasy sports awards since 1996.

The winner of this competition earns a berth in the sister competition, the Fantasy Index Experts Poll. That’s the one where the results are printed in the magazine each summer. Hendricks was going to be in that competition anyway (he’s been in there the last five years). So we will give that at-large berth to John Moore.

A shout out is due to Shane Scott, a teacher from Toronto. We changed the scoring system this year, giving more weight to the lesser picks. Had we stuck with the old format, he would have been the champion. Scott also goes down as the top-ranking Canadian.

Fantasy Index Open – old scoring system
   1.  Shane Scott (10th in official scoring)
   2.  John Moore (2nd)
   3.  Mike McIlraith (6th)
   4.  Sam Hendricks (1st)
   5.  Jamie Alberts (8th)
   6.  Zach Leavitt (14th)
   7.  Nike Nease (36th)
   8.  Michael Crow (30th)
   9.  Adam Holtz (3rd)
  10.  Dish Adams (46th)

I put my own picks in here. I’m not eligible for prizes, but I’d like to see how I would do. I finished in 15th this year, which is disappointing. I finished 1st in quarterbacks, but was below-average in running backs (52nd) and kickers (68th). I didn’t include Adrian Peterson in my top 20, which killed me there. At kicker, I get crushed by taking zeros for Randy Bullock (my No. 10 kicker) and Neil Rackers (12th). If Bullock hadn’t landed on injured reserve and had scored Houston’s 138 kicking points, I would have moved up to 6th. I don’t know if Rackers would have moved me up relative to the other top guys, because I don’t know where they ranked him.

I placed 16th among tight ends, 34th among wide receivers and 41st among defenses.

Scott Anderson of Lakewood, Colo., goes down as Mr. Irrelevant. He finished in last place this year. Craig Smith, an attorney from Ozark, Mo., would have been the last-place guy if we’d stuck with the scoring system used in previous years.

The only professional wrestler in the field, Michael Stanco (aka “Maximum Capacity”) finished in 34th place. A fingerprint examiner, Michael O’Brien of Brighton, Colo., finished in 12th.

Scott Sachs of Perfect Season Fantasy Football won the traditional Experts Poll, but he submitted a radically different player list for this competition. A month after submitting the winning entry in the regular experts poll, he finished in 68th in this one, last among all eight of the industry guys who competed.

Hendricks went just the opposite. He finished in only 12th (out of 20) in the regular Experts Poll. But a month later, when the deadline for the Open came up, he made a bunch of changes and made his entry 11,000 points better.

The deadline for the 2013 Fantasy Index Open will be in late June.


FANTASY INDEX OPEN -- FINAL STANDINGS
   Points
   411,060   Sam Hendricks (Lynchburg, Va.) football writer
   410,938   John Moore (Sea Isle City, N.J.) real estate agent
   408,123   Adam Holtz (Rochester, Minn.) football writer
   407,452   Anthony Borbely (Taylor, Mich.) college student
   407,446   Kevin Cuozzo (Boston, Mass.) payroll
   406,859   Mike McIlraith (Fort Worth, Tex.) mechanical engineer
   406,858   Brian Staines (Gibsonia, Pa.) teacher
   406,301   Jamie Alberts (Sturgeon Bay, Wis.) banker
   406,073   Jared Smola (Rochester, N.Y.) football writer
   405,872   Shane Scott (Toronto, Ont.) teacher
   405,700   Keith Mason (Sumter, S.C.) buyer
   405,270   Michael O'Brien (Brighton, Colo.) fingerprint examiner
   405,197   Kirk Kennedy (Pink Hill, N.C.) teacher
   405,079   Zach Leavitt (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) accountant
   404,663   Ian Allan (Seattle, Wash.) football writer
   404,599   Tod Denison (Bakersfield, Calif.) materials manager
   404,523   Mike Sarmento (San Jose, Calif.) sales manager
   404,376   Daniel Williams (Murrieta, Calif.) appraiser
   404,337   Jason Pilon (Blaine, Minn.) office grunt
   404,285   Moishe Steigmann (Milwaukee, Wis.) rabbi
   404,266   Brian George (Billings, Mont.) sales
   404,120   Chris Hertzberg (Austin, Tex.) attorney
   404,092   Bill Rehor (Culver City, Calif.) screenwriter
   403,907   Richard Jackson (Berkeley, Calif.) attorney
   403,635   Adam Thygeson (Portland, Ore.) teacher
   403,509   Jeff Tefertiller (Oklahoma City, Okla.) IT
   403,438   Joshua Smith (Olympia, Wash.) staffing scheduler
   403,342   Manny De Jesus Jr. (Gilbert, Ariz.) student
   403,223   David Dorey (McKinney, Tex.) football writer
   403,221   Michael Crow (Orion, Ill.) systems engineer
   402,986   Chris Rito (Martinsville, Ind.) chemist
   402,746   Ty Tietjen (Brandon, S.D.) teacher (math)
   402,623   Scott Kopischke (Menomonee Falls, Wis.) sales engineer
   402,611   Michael Stanco (Clermont, Fla.) pro wrestler
   402,610   Russell Ditnes (Jamison, Pa.) attorney
   402,579   Mike Nease (West Chicago, Ill.) football writer
   402,344   Maurile Tremblay (San Diego, Calif.) attorney
   402,097   Ed Weiss (Parsippany, N.J.) accountant
   402,087   Jim Bukowski (Chicago, Ill.) accountant
   402,076   Nathan Priest (Hagerstown, Md.) teacher (substitute)
   402,008   Michae McAninch (Naperville, Ill.) network engineer
   401,780   Isaac McNally (Billings, Mont.) car salesman
   401,704   Marc Price (Kelowna, B.C.) law firm administrator
   401,683   Bradley Wolfrum (Alpharetta, Ga.) business owner
   401,662   Jim DiLorenzo (Grayslake, Ill.) production planner
   401,407   Dish Adams (Los Angeles, Calif.) football writer
   401,111   Brian Laskiewicz (Randolph, N.J.) attorney
   400,832   Ed Borcky (Wallingford, Pa.) operator
   400,487   John Lanfranca (Kansas City, Mo.) firefighter
   400,385   Miguel Tames (Miami, Fla.) sales
   400,302   Mike Craig (Kokomo, Ind.) electrician
   400,234   Ken Yuen (Arlington Heights, Ill.) attorney
   400,205   Ralph Traino (Youngstown, Ohio) accountant
   400,066   David Erickson (Los Angeles, Calif.) camera assistant
   399,999   John D. Smith (Mount Laurel, N.J.) warehouse supervisor
   399,882   Cole Houchens (Carrollton, Tex.) sales
   399,857   Todd Weigel (Milwaukee, Wis.) blackjack dealer
   399,787   Bob Adelman (St. Louis, Mo.) sales
   399,414   Treavor Phipps (Salem, Ind.) steamfitter
   399,303   TC Cannon (Oklahoma City, Okla.) sales
   398,529   Sean Chi (San Jose, Calif.) attorney
   397,641   Steve Tortora (Wallingford, Conn.) management
   396,982   Rustin Paul (New York, N.Y.) attorney
   396,555   Eric Huber (Milwaukee, Wis.) football writer
   396,237   Bill Mason (Huntersville, N.C.) operator
   396,196   Stephen McKenzie (Red Wing, Minn.) business owner
   396,082   Rob Dammers (Ringwood, N.J.) senior tech analyst
   396,014   Scott Sachs (Huron, Ohio) football writer
   395,932   Daniel Bowman (Liberty, Mo.) government employee
   395,513   Rob Carraher (Lincoln, Neb.) student
   395,408   Steve Simon (Waterloo, Iowa) dental technician
   395,371   Justin Colver (Draper, Utah) Medicare sales
   395,263   Dana Duffield (Rochester, Minn.) software engineer
   394,846   David Di Gregorio (Norristown, Pa.) retired clerk
   394,765   Kevin E. Smith (Philadelphia, Pa.) student
   394,628   Joe Russo (San Diego, Calif.) biochemist
   394,153   Jim Nienaber (Georgetown, Ohio) wholesaler
   393,852   Jason Spann (St. Louis, Mo.) software engineer
   393,589   Robert Honaker (Baltimore , Md.) Education
   393,582   Kevin Weakland (Tracy, Calif.) DBA
   393,229   Geoff Maleman (Redondo Beach, Calif.) public relations
   393,120   Paul Kuchar (Schaumburg, Ill.) teacher
   392,831   Patty Saderholm (Elko, Nev.) graphic artist
   392,172   Andy Gough (Dallas, Tex.) IT project manager
   391,998   Richard Meyers (Huntsville, Ala.) quality engineer
   391,299   Manny De Jesus Sr. (Gilbert, Ariz.) insurance agent
   391,106   Mark Burns (Runnemede, N.J.) sales manager
   386,817   Pete Meyer (Merrill, Wis.) sales
   385,432   Adam Locke (Lynnwood, Wash.) teacher
   384,124   Craig Smith (Ozark, Mo.) attorney
   383,406   Bob Tecca (Minneapolis, Minn.) IT manager
   380,909   Scott Anderson (Lakewood, Colo.) professional desk driver

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