Analysis of Proposed New Scoring System

INTRODUCTION
in case you haven't been paying attention since 1993

The IFL is discussing a potentially major change to our offensive scoring system, quite possibly the most significant in our 14 years of existence. What has made the IFL's scoring system unique is that we do not start awarding yardage points to offensive players until they reach a certain threshold - starting at 100 yards passing for QBs, and awarding 1 point for every 20 yards thereafter; and 50 yards combined rushing/receiving for RB/WR/TEs, and 1 point for every additional 10 yards.

But you know this.


IFL SCORING SYSTEM 2.0
the next big thing? or the next New Coke?

What has been proposed for the 2007 season is the following change to how points are awarded for yardage, which is more of a standard scoring system that you would find in most fantasy leagues:

For passing yards - points will start to be awarded with 1 point for 20 yards (instead of 100), and 1 point for every 20 yds thereafter.

For rushing/receiving yards - points will start with 1 for 10 yards (instead of 50), and 1 point for every 10 yds thereafter.

Here is a chart which breaks it down (5-point bonus not taken into consideration).

RUSH/REC YDS	OLD	NEW		PASS YDS	OLD	NEW
10	0	1		20	0	1
20	0	2		40	0	2
30	0	3		60	0	3
40	0	4		80	0	4
50	1	5		100	1	5
60	2	6		120	2	6
70	3	7		140	3	7
80	4	8		160	4	8
90	5	9		180	5	9
100	6	10		200	6	10
110	7	11		220	7	11
120	8	12		240	8	12
130	9	13		260	9	13
140	10	14		280	10	14
150	11	15		300	11	15
160	12	16		320	12	16
170	13	17		340	13	17
180	14	18		360	14	18
190	15	19		380	15	19
200	16	20		400	16	20
210	17	21		420	17	21
220	18	22		440	18	22
230	19	23		460	19	23
240	20	24		480	20	24
250	21	25		500	21	25

On the surface, everyone changes equally across the board. All offensive players' point totals will increase by 4 points.

The exception will be when the player has a sub-par performance, which can be defined as under 100 yds passing, or under 50 yds rushing/receiving. In this case, where they would get zero points before, now they would get anywhere from 1-4 points.

IMO, without actually researching (sorry), I would say that WR/TEs are the position that would benefit most from this, because they tend to have more donkey games than RBs or QBs (i.e. 2-for-21, etc.). Those 2-for-21 days, instead of being worth 2, now they would be worth 4. On the other hand, QBs would probably be affected the least by this change, as they rarely have a game where they throw for under 100 yards.

So in summary, the question is - do we want to start awarding yardage points starting at the bottom (10 yds for rush/rec, 20 yds for passing)? Or should we stay with the old method, where a player has to acheive a certain benchmark (50/100 yds) before getting yardage points?

Feel free to post your comments and opinions, by clicking on the Comments link below, or reply to the email.

If you haven't already done so, please vote in the poll on the website to voice your opinion. I must clear something up though - that poll is not meant to be the decisive factor in whether or not we change, it is only to gauge the interest. However, if the majority of the league agrees one way or another, that side will most likely prevail. The results of the poll will be taken into great consideration.

Either way, it will go before the Rules Committee, where any decision will likely be stalled by a filibuster by John E.

I look forward to hearing your opinions.

E. Russell Butterworth
Commissioner
Cambodian Society of Genitalial Elephantitis Victims