2003 Expert League and Expert Poll Results

The following is a recap of how BTG fared in expert competitions in 2003. 

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED EXPERT LEAGUE 

The SI.com league was a 12-man, overall-performance league that featured experts such as Bob Harris from the TFL Report, Mike Nazarek from FFMastermind.com, James Quintong from SI.com.  I managed the BTG team, and despite drawing the last spot in the first round of the draft, my squad finished tied for the best overall record at 10-4 and led the league in total points with 1,354.  A complete list of the league members and their draft picks can be found at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/fantasy/08/17/experts.draft/index.html.  

The core of the BTG team was QB Matt Hasselbeck (5^th round), running backs Jamal Lewis (2^nd round) and Fred Taylor (1^st round), TE Tony Gonzalez (3^rd round), wide receivers Hines Ward (4^th round) and Peter Warrick (14^th round), kicker Jeff Wilkins (added on Sept. 24), and the Kansas City defense/special teams (added on Sept. 17).  Thanks to a couple of other savvy waiver pickups, my squad featured great depth at running back – Brian Westbrook (added Oct. 1) and Domanick Davis (added Oct. 22).  However, with Ashley Lelie (8^th round) and Jerry Porter (6^th round) turning out to be flops, I struggled to find a decent No. 3 receiver (the league required three starters at wideout).  I tried numerous players at that spot, and finished the season with three viable options – Marcus Robinson (added Dec. 4), Charles Lee (added Dec. 18), and Todd Pinkston (added Dec. 20).  In fact, with Warrick injured in Week 16, I was forced to use Lee and Pinkston in the championship, and they both posted good numbers.   

The playoffs consisted of Harris, Quintong, Joseph Levit, who contributes to SI.com and TheHuddle.com, and myself.  In the first round (Week 15), I faced off with Quintong, who had won our division via a tiebreaker with a 10-4 record and finished second in total points 1,286.  I won an 84-80 squeaker to advance to the championship against Levitt.  The Super Bowl was not as close as the first round, as I defeated Levit by 47 points.  Levit’s squad, which featured RB Shaun Alexander and WR Chad Johnson, scored a respectable 95 points, but led by a combined 399 rushing yards and three touchdowns from Lewis and Taylor, my team produced a season-high 142 points.   

A complete write-up on the SI.com Expert League playoffs and the final standings can be found at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/fantasy/12/16/experts.recap.15/index.html and http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/fantasy/12/22/experts.recap/index.html.     

GRIDIRON GRUMBLINGS EXPERTS LEAGUE 

For the fourth consecutive season, I represented BTG in the Gridiron Grumblings Shootout, a 14-man, overall-performance expert league that emphasized scoring and included individual defensive players.  The league champion was based on total points scored in the season, as opposed to using a playoff format.  The 2003 Shootout featured experts such as Greg Kellog of FantasyAsylum.com, Matt Pitzer of USA Today Sports Weekly, and Carl Weatherford of CoachBox Fantasy Sports.  You can view the all the league details at http://football.myfantasyleague.com/2003/home/24837.  

I returned as the defending champion, but in a non-keeper league, my 2002 title did not give me an advantage.  I quickly found out that repeating would be no simple task, as I spent the first month of the season in last place.  The core of my squad was QB Brett Favre (6^th round), RBs LaDainian Tomlinson (1^st round), Brian Westbrook (added Oct. 4), and Michael Bennett (added Oct. 18), TE Tony Gonzalez (3^rd round), K Matt Stover (added Nov. 22^nd), DE Mike Rucker (added Sept. 27), LB Keith Bulluck (8^th round), and DB Darren Sharper (13^th round).  Favre, Tomlinson, Gonzalez, Bulluck, and Sharper all rebounded from slow starts, and combined with the additions of Westbrook, Stover, Rucker, and WR Andre Johnson, I shot up the standings to as high as third place by midseason.  However, my team could climb no further, and Mike Krueger of Fantasy Football Today survived a very tight four-team race to capture the league title.  Krueger finished with 1,286.5 points, Tucker Smith of FLF Yearbook Magazine finished second with 1,285.5, Weatherford was third with 1,276.5, and I finished fourth with 1,276.    

Ultimately, a lackluster receiving corps was my team’s downfall.  Ironically, I considered the position to be a strength early in the season when I added Johnson to a group that already included Eric Moulds (2^nd round) and Donald Driver (4^th round).  I was so confident that Driver would pick up after a slow start that I traded Moulds and RB Trung Canidate (5^th round) to Kellog for RB William Green and WR Joey Galloway on Sept. 24.  It turned out that all four players were disappointments, and neither team benefited from the deal.  I was stuck relying upon Driver, who continued to slump, Johnson, who hit the proverbial rookie wall in the second half of the season, and mediocre free agents such as Charles Lee and Tai Streets.   

BTG EXPERT LEAGUE HISTORY 

BTG SPORTS 2003 PRESEASON EXPERT POLL

For the second consecutive season, BTG hosted a preseason expert poll.  In all, 15 experts (14 guests plus myself) ranked 10 quarterbacks, 15 running backs, 15 wide receivers, 10 tight ends, 10 kickers, and 10 team defenses from best to worst for overall performance scoring system.  To calculate an overall score, we weighted each selection.  The weight equaled the total number of players at each position minus the player’s rank plus one.  For example, if an expert ranked Peyton Manning as the No. 1 QB, Manning’s weight would be 10 (10-1+1).  Each expert’s score was equal to each ranked player’s fantasy points for the season multiplied by the weight that was assigned to that player by the expert.  For example, Manning racked up 322.8 fantasy points this season, and any expert who ranked Manning No. 1 (weight = 10) earned 3,228 points from the Colts QB.   

This year’s BTG Expert Poll winner was Mike Krueger of FFToday.com with a total of 85,549 points.  He was closely followed by Matt Pitzer of USA Today Sports Weekly (85,307 points) and William Del Pilar of KFFL.com (85,191).  Becky Jenson of ChicksonFootball.com, Terry Cannon of Youth Fantasy Football, myself, and Greg Kellog ranked fourth through seventh, respectively.  Interestingly, five of the top six experts from 2002 (Kellog – 1^st, Cannon – 3^rd, myself – 4^th, Jensen – 5^th, and Krueger - 6^th) finished in upper half of rankings for the second consecutive year. 

Krueger won this year’s contest on the strength of his picks at quarterback.  Being the only expert to rank both Steve McNair and Trent Green among the top 10 while staying away from Kurt Warner and Drew Bledsoe, Krueger earned the most points at this position. 

Del Pilar, the only expert to rank Priest Holmes as the No. 1 RB, earned the most points at the running back spot, while Ryan Houston of FantasyAsylum.com, who finished 12^th overall, had the most points at wide receiver.  Houston smartly gave more weight to receivers such as Derrick Mason (5^th), Torry Holt (6^th) and Chad Johnson (13^th) than Eric Moulds (8^th), Plaxico Burress (11^th), and David Boston (14^th). 

At tight end, Pitzer led the way by correctly naming six of top ten, and he was also one of the few to rank Shannon Sharpe among the top five. 

Cannon earned the most points at kicker despite ignoring top scorer Jeff Wilkins.  He did, however, stay away from Martin Gramatica, one of the biggest busts of the season, and he was also one of the few experts to give Matt Stover a top-10 ranking.

To show how unpredictable team defenses/special teams can be, Kellog won this category even though he correctly named just four of the top ten.  Those four teams (New England, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, and Miami) were all ranked among the top five, and the points from those squads gave last year’s champ enough points to win the position by a slim margin.  

A complete list of all the experts’ rankings can be found at 2003 Expert Poll.

BTG 2003 PRESEASON EXPERT POLL FINAL STANDINGS

BTG EXPERT POLL/CONTEST HISTORY