FOF - anyone ever create a minor football league?

[Kodos]

I was thinking it might be interesting to have a league that would be a parallel to the minor leagues in baseball. Teams would be in lesser cities making finances harder, and the talent pool would be shallow. Maybe the salary cap would be set real low too.

FOF2007
9 - Rare Superstar - 0.3% (nc)
8 - Superstar - 0.4% (-1.0%)
7 - Near Superstar - 0.6% (-1.2%)
6 - Elite Starter - 1.1% (-0.6%)
5 - Excellent Starter - 1.5% (-2.0%)
4 - Very Good-Plus Starter - 2.6% (-1.7%)
3 - Very Good Starter - 3.9% (-2.1%)
2 - Good Starter - 12.2% (-4.0%)
1 - Replacement-Level Starter (decent backup) - 23.9% (-3.3%)
0 - Roster Filler - 53.4% (+15.8%)

Instead of the standard number of superstars from above, the talent pool would top out in the Good Starter level, and the bulk of the league would fall in the roster filler level.

Anyhow, just an idea I had for a twist on the usual type of dynasty. Draft classes could be edited to ensure that the league remained full of marginal talent.

[Coder]

Not to be Mr Negative, but why lower the ratings? You'll get an even balanced league using the regular setup anyway; if you lower the ratings you'll just even out the playing field. Actually, I think you'll end up with really wacky results.

Basically, what I'm saying is that in theory, even a minor league has the same talent distribution as a major league (or at least quite similar). The only difference would be noticed if you "promoted" a player. For example, a "rare superstar" would probably end up as an "Excellent starter" or something if he was "promoted", which he can't be in your league.

Compare it to TCY. The college players are rated on the same scale as the pros, but when you export the draftclass the ratings are modified.

Ok, so I am Mr Negative..

[Kodos]

Eh. It was just an idea. Mr. Negative.

[Huckleberry]

Basically, what I'm saying is that in theory, even a minor league has the same talent distribution as a major league (or at least quite similar).

Is this a valid assumption? I don't think we should just accept that it is.

Let's assume (don't get too picky, folks) that natural football playing ability is normally distributed across the entire population. Obviously the NFL is comprised of the far right hand portion of that curve.

True minor leagues will be a little to the left of the NFL. Based on what I recall of the normal distribution, this means that in reality the ratio of lesser players to better players is actually higher in the minor league.

[Coder]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

Is this a valid assumption? I don't think we should just accept that it is.

Let's assume (don't get too picky, folks) that natural football playing ability is normally distributed across the entire population. Obviously the NFL is comprised of the far right hand portion of that curve.

True minor leagues will be a little to the left of the NFL. Based on what I recall of the normal distribution, this means that in reality the ratio of lesser players to better players is actually higher in the minor league.

Valid theory by all accounts. My assumption didn't have much thought, but I felt the general idea of simply lowering the percentage of good players isn't a "true" representation of a minor league.

[larrymcg421]

Even if talent distribution is similar, I doubt the results would be the same. I think it would be interesting to see how the stats/scores would play out with such a distribution.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Even if talent distribution is similar, I doubt the results would be the same. I think it would be interesting to see how the stats/scores would play out with such a distribution.

Yeah, or knowing the guys available in free agency are like 90% as good as a lot of your starters.

[Huckleberry]

That's just it, though. I think a minor league free agent pool would actually be less talented relative to your basic starter than the "major league" talent pool. Based on the normal distribution.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

That's just it, though. I think a minor league free agent pool would actually be less talented relative to your basic starter than the "major league" talent pool. Based on the normal distribution.

I would think the opposite. There'd be a lot of college-level talent available that wasn't good enough to cut it in the NFL.

[Doug5984]

Another thing to consider in FOF- when there are lesser rated players they aren't always lesser rated across the board. For instance you can have a 30/30 DT but that DT might be a 65 in run stopping (and horrible everywhere else).

So basically you could build your team to be very specific at certain things (Run Stopping DTs, LBs, Zone DBs, etc.)

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by Doug5984

Another thing to consider in FOF- when there are lesser rated players they aren't always lesser rated across the board. For instance you can have a 30/30 DT but that DT might be a 65 in run stopping (and horrible everywhere else).

So basically you could build your team to be very specific at certain things (Run Stopping DTs, LBs, Zone DBs, etc.)

For the most part, this is how I build my team anyways.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

For the most part, this is how I build my team anyways.

But I think he's saying it would be a lot easier to do that, with minor leagues. There'd be more specialized players, so guys like that would be easier to find.

What about trying to modify the player set to include guys that would fit Arena Football better? I assume they play with more WRs, no FBs, no TEs (?), more scat-back like RBs, etc. Or, threadjacking even more, an "all run and shoot" or "all five-wide league" with certain positions just completely left out of the player set, would also be interesting.

[Doug5984]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

For the most part, this is how I build my team anyways.

I do that as well, but it would be much more exaggerated in a league like this. If you draft a stud DT he is going to be a stud across the board, in Kodos' league your 30/30 DT could be 30's across the board or a 60 in run stopping and pretty bad everywhere else. In a normal FOF world your 90/90 is going to be 90 across the board for the most part...this would be like having a DT with 150 in run stopping

I think that makes more sense than my original post.

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I was thinking it might be interesting to have a league that would be a parallel to the minor leagues in baseball. Teams would be in lesser cities making finances harder, and the talent pool would be shallow. Maybe the salary cap would be set real low too.

FOF2007
9 - Rare Superstar - 0.3% (nc)
8 - Superstar - 0.4% (-1.0%)
7 - Near Superstar - 0.6% (-1.2%)
6 - Elite Starter - 1.1% (-0.6%)
5 - Excellent Starter - 1.5% (-2.0%)
4 - Very Good-Plus Starter - 2.6% (-1.7%)
3 - Very Good Starter - 3.9% (-2.1%)
2 - Good Starter - 12.2% (-4.0%)
1 - Replacement-Level Starter (decent backup) - 23.9% (-3.3%)
0 - Roster Filler - 53.4% (+15.8%)

Instead of the standard number of superstars from above, the talent pool would top out in the Good Starter level, and the bulk of the league would fall in the roster filler level.

Anyhow, just an idea I had for a twist on the usual type of dynasty. Draft classes could be edited to ensure that the league remained full of marginal talent.

I think it would be interesting to see. I would imagine it would look alot like using the historical files in the 60's and 70's. You will definately see the impact of the superstar players and players who you would normally consider backups/poor starters will turn into long term starters for your team. One thing i would mention is that the roster file included with the game doesn't reflect the percentages you list above (eventhough they are quoted in the help file). I think the percentages you have corespond more to after the league is created and a lot of filler level players are added to the roster file.

[MIJB#19]

You have to be careful with how you start the league though. I tried creating a test league with the 32 teams (1 my own, the 31 others being top-notch) set to go with their 53-men roster, while all the free agents were Joe Blow's (even by name ). the game didn't like it and decided to add a couple hundreds of rookies, with some of them in the xx/60s range...