It's time to get down to the business of scoring the Fantasy Index Experts Poll -- a season-long cumulative points competition with 20 analysts ranking 20 players each at six different positions. Scott Pianowski takes the early lead by outperforming everyone at kicker.
Scott Pianowski is the early leader in the Fantasy Index Experts poll. And for that, he can send Nick Novak a thank you card. Novak, with 144 points, was the biggest difference maker as Pianowski easily won the kickers portion of the poll, outperforming 19 other fantasy analysts.
Pianowski is one of two guys who’s won this competition twice, most recently in 2011. He’s a writer for Yahoo! Sports. He’s been in the competition for years, so he knows the format and what kind of picks are best avoided (more on that later).
L’Roy Hale of Fantasy First took second place in this category, followed by Ladd Biro of Fantasy Fools.
It was the Novak pick that created the most value for Pianowski. He ranked the San Diego 12th – six spots higher than any other expert. Only four other analysts even ranked Novak at all. Novak ranked 3rd in scoring among kickers, and that really lit up Pianowski’s scoreboard.
In this competition, there are no rosters and no drafts. Every player counts for every team. The higher you rank a guy, the more he counts towards your score. The lower you rank him, the less he contributes to your score.
In this case, Pianowski received 2,736 points for Novak. That’s what you get when you multiply 144 and 19. The 19 comes from 31 minus 12 (Pianowski ranked him 12th). If Pianowski had ranked Novak first, he would have received the maximum 4,320 points for that choice (30 x 144).
In the old days, we used to use a 20-down-to-1 scoring system, but we altered it a few years back to put more weight on the guys ranked in the teens. With the old scoring system, the No. 1 players are worth 20 times as much as the 20th-ranked guys. Now they’re only worth about three times as much.
It didn’t make any real difference this time. You run the points any way you want, and Pianowski wins this position, and the other guys come in approximately the same order.
There are still five other positions to grade, then we’ll crown the overall champion.
In this format, it’s important to get as many guys as possible in your top 20 who are at least going to be on the field for the full 16 games. If a player gets injured or cut in the preseason, there’s no safety net of being able to plug in another option. That becomes a real driver at the quarterback and running back positions, but it’s also a factor at the other spots (well, except defenses).
Pretzel May, for example, finished last in this category. Look at his top 20 and you’ll see Lawrence Tynes, Shayne Graham and Connor Barth between 10th and 13th. Tynes and Graham weren’t with teams when these picks were submitted. May included them, figuring they’d be signed and win jobs. When they didn’t happen, his entry went up in smoke at this position. Barth looked like a solid choice (he was the No. 8 kicker on the Fantasy Index Board), but he got injured and missed the entire season.
The hope is that over the course of 120 picks for each guy, the injuries and luck even out.
For now, Pianowski is your leader.
| EXPERTS POLL -- KICKERS | |
|---|---|
| Analyst | Points |
| Scott Pianowski | 51,374 |
| L'Roy Hale | 50,140 |
| Ladd Biro | 49,931 |
| Christopher Harris | 49,207 |
| Micah James | 49,123 |
| Bob Henry | 48,953 |
| Michael Nazarek | 48,796 |
| Alan Satterlee | 48,713 |
| John Moore | 48,570 |
| Scott Sachs | 48,447 |
| David Dorey | 48,115 |
| Mike Clay | 48,076 |
| Chris Liss | 47,908 |
| Paul Charcian | 47,879 |
| Lenny Pappano | 47,817 |
| Sam Hendricks | 47,375 |
| Bill Enright | 46,940 |
| Cory Bonini | 46,251 |
| Tony Holm | 45,863 |
| Pretzel May | 44,084 |
--Ian Allan