The Future of Fantasy

 
The Future of Fantasy
by Dan Salem and Todd Salem (1-21-13)

DAN:

Bill Simmons has a huge love/hate relationship with fantasy football, but really he's just addicted to the game and hates to lose. We've both agreed that there is a ton of luck involved in fantasy football as opposed to fantasy baseball, but fantasy sports are fantasy sports. You have to get lucky in your draft to do well and you have to hope other people are stupid.

This being said, where do you see fantasy sports going in the next five to ten years? If Simmons had his way, the entire sport of football would revolve around fantasy alone to improve his gambling opportunities. He would probably require Vegas to be involved too. For me, I love the small advancements over the last decade, like free up to the minute stats rather than having to pay for the feature, and projections, analysis, etc. It makes the game more interactive and fun.  Where do we go from here?

TODD:

I agree that the small advancements to fantasy sports have been superb. Step by step, fantasy sports are becoming more popular, more mainstream and, overall, just better. Other than a few more, small improvements, there is really only one place for this to go: Full-Year Fantasy.

I have written about this before and tried to come up with a system myself once upon a time, to no avail, but the product is coming, somehow, someway. Full-year fantasy would be one fantasy league that combines multiple sports and runs through multiple seasons. Depending on which sports you and your friends follow and want to play would determine which to include.

All the players from all those sports would be drafted and accumulate stats in their respective seasons. As the calendar year progressed, each subsequent season would run into the next and only at the very end of the year would a champion be crowned. It is really a fantastic bit of fake management; just imagine being able to trade Adrian Peterson for LeBron James. The possibilities are endless.

Of course, the reason this has not been widely available yet is because there are many problems.  I'll just quickly name four:
(1) when to start the scoring season
(2) when to hold the draft
(3) what scoring system to use
(4) how to distinguish between high count stats (like rushing yards in football) and low count stats (like stolen bases in baseball).

It may take years of awkward failures and unhappy participants but, I think, eventually, full-year fantasy will be the next, big thing.

DAN:

The "idea" of full year fantasy is better than the actual participation in such an endeavor, in my humble opinion. It solves one major issue I have with the current fantasy sports landscape, the overlapping seasons. It's a good thing I'm not a huge basketball fan, because the first several months of fantasy basketball basically don't exist for me since fantasy football is still happening. And come Christmas I feel like I need a break. I play fantasy basketball and enjoy it, but from Christmas until mid March is a fantasy sports breath of freedom that is much needed. Fantasy baseball is just too dynamic.

Year round fantasy, full-year fantasy, or as I like to call it the "FCS" or Fantasy Championship Series, would be amazing and yet completely overwhelming to participate in as fantasy sports currently stands. I propose we hash out something which would actually be fun to play and not just a headache to set a lineup for. Do we have to choose between starting Adrian Peterson in week fifteen or LeBron James for five games in that same week? How do we even divvy up the sports? The one thing that is very, very clear to me are which sports make the cut. Sorry hockey, auto racing and golf, but baseball, football, and basketball are our winners here.

As for fantasy football itself, I think something big is coming. Something that removes arbitrary luck of injury from the game. We all draft bench guys and some leagues let you play with an injured reserve (IR) spot on your roster, but what about an injury draft at the half way point of the season?

Fantasy Football Addendum:
In week eight, the half way point of the season, an injury draft is held. It would have to be on a Wednesday night (mid week) and along the lines of a real life expansion draft. Every team must place at least one player into the draft and nominate one other player from someone else's team. Each team can also mark six guys as safe, untouchable.

The draft lasts two rounds.  It now gives everyone a chance to steal players from a team that got lucky with a super deep bench, or snatch up a guy who was an injury replacement, or grab someone that got hurt early and is coming back. I love this for two reasons:
(1) More auction draft time!
(2) When everyone gangs up on the team in last place to nominate his best player for the draft, said person isn't participating and keeps no one safe, and now we can all bid again to draft the one and only 'All Day' Adrian Peterson.

[Part Two]