Congratulations to Scott Pianowski of Yahoo! Sports. He's the winner of our annual Experts Auction League. Strong year for Scott, who was also the runner-up in our annual Experts Draft League.
These are the competitions that we publish each year in our preseason magazine. In order to get it into the publication, we hold the draft and auction in late May, shortly after the actual NFL Draft. The auction assembled 11 fantasy experts, including our own Ian Allan, plus one of the top two finishers in our annual Super League competition. It was held online at ESPN.com, with each team purchasing 22 players within the confines of a $200 salary cap.
It's a no transactions league, but we do play it out, with each team getting its best starting lineup each week during the regular season. Each team plays every other team each week, so the top-scoring team goes 11-0, bottom scoring team goes 0-11, etc.
Pianowski hit it big with pricey acquisitions DeMarco Murray ($32) and Antonio Brown ($31), while supplementing with a couple of shrewd cheaper purchases that panned out: Brandon LaFell ($1), Dwayne Allen ($2) and Eli Manning ($5). Fred Jackson and Darren Sproles, a combined $13, also worked out as semi-regular starters in our best-ball format.
Bryan Hough of Fantasy Titan 101 was runner-up, ironic because by far his priciest purchase was bust Zac Stacy ($32). He also spent in double-digits on several other flops: Trent Richardson ($16) and Michael Crabtree ($14). But his value buys worked out well: Kelvin Benjamin ($1), Eagles Defense ($1), and Jeremy Hill ($4).
Scott Sachs of Perfect Season Fantasy Football came in 3rd, as his highest-priced selections paid off: Aaron Rodgers ($26), Andrew Luck ($18), Marshawn Lynch ($39) and A.J. Green ($35). Budget buys Jonathan Stewart ($3), Antonio Gates ($3) and Eddie Royal ($1) pitched in.
The teams that struggled generally did so due to spending huge money on players who went bust, often due to circumstances unforeseeable back in May. Adrian Peterson, Montee Ball, Ray Rice and Doug Martin stand out.
Final standings are presented below. Those who want to dig deeper into the rosters can check them out in our preseason magazine.
| 2014 Experts Auction League | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | W | L | T |
| Yahoo! Sports | 130 | 43 | 3 |
| FantasyTitan101 | 113 | 60 | 3 |
| Perfect Season Fantasy | 110 | 64 | 2 |
| Draft Sharks | 107 | 68 | 1 |
| Super League Qualifier | 96 | 80 | 0 |
| FF Index | 94 | 78 | 4 |
| USA TODAY Fantasy | 77 | 96 | 3 |
| Fantasy First | 76 | 96 | 4 |
| Bleacher Report | 72 | 101 | 3 |
| FootballGuys | 72 | 101 | 3 |
| Extra Point Press | 71 | 103 | 2 |
| LeagueSafe.com | 24 | 152 | 0 |
--Andy Richardson