Champions League – Playoff Implications

It’s Jim Mora’s favourite time of year again, and it’s a good time to take a look at Champions League implications with this year’s playoff fields.

Current Champions League Order

1. Greg Campbell (Manchester City) **
2. Mark Bryce (Real Madrid) **
3. Jamie Thompson (Pork) (Chelsea) **
4. Sean Laycock (RB Leipzig) **
5. Rick Scott (Manchester United) **
6. Nick Caric (Bayern Munich)
7. Shaun Tran (Tottenham)
8. Kyle Reinders (Paris Saint Germain)
9. Rick Gorton (Liverpool) **
10. Ryan Smith (Barcelona)
11. Scott McKay (Juventus)
12. Mike Bryce (Basel)

** – these teams are in the Champions League playoffs and vying for next season’s top spot.

Technically the bottom 4 are all in play to lose their Champions League spot each season, although amazingly enough, it’s yet to happen.  Let’s take a look at who could unseat them.  Teams with asterisks are already in Champions League.

Eskimo Bros Football League

1. Cole Beasley is an Idiot (Jon Tang)
2. Knuckle Ballers (Rob Coonrad)
3. Deadly Nagintas (Rick Scott) *
4. Tom Selleck’s Moustache (Ryan Smith) *
5. Long Snappers (Mark Bryce) *
6. Endzone Dancers (Scott McKay) *

The OG league in the stable likely has the best chance of producing a new champion, potentially pushing out the OG champion of the league in the process.  Both Jon and Rob are in a good spot, and it could come down to the two of them as a play-in game to Champions League.  They’re less than 7points apart on the year, have half of the league’s weekly top scores between them and put up at least 10 points per week over the rest of the teams.  That said, the Ballers have been in this position a few times and choked hard in the playoffs.  Will this be another bitter disappointment, or will they finally get over the hump? 

REEL Football League

1. West Canaan High (Jamie Thompson) *
2. Blue Mountain State (Kyle Reinders) *
3. Polk High Panthers (Steve Leacock)
4. Mean Machine (Cole Davidson)
5. Eastern State University (Rick Scott) *
6. East Dillon High (Sean Laycock) *

There are also a pair of squads in the REEL with a chance to unseat one of the 12 Champions League managers, but they aren’t likely to be favoured, as they both rode some schedule luck to their playoff seeding, with Polk being 5th and Mean Machine being 6th in overall scoring.  Polk definitely has the easier route, getting the Lions off the hop before getting the weaker of the Bye teams as well.  That said, Leaker has already passed on the Champions League once, so someone may not lose a spot if he wins.  Mean Machine does have some solid players, but likely a tougher route, as they were outscored during the season, and walloped in Week 14 by their Week 15 opponent.

Best of the Best

1. Three Penis Winos (Rick Scott) *
2. Bryce Is Right (Mark Bryce) *
3. Devil’s Rejects (Shaun Tran) *
4. Chalupa Batman (Sean Laycock) *
5. Tyrodosaurus Rex (Greg Campbell) *
6. The Cocks (Mark Fitzgerald)

Only one team that could crash the party here, with Fitzy back in the playoffs again.  His team isn’t as strong as it was last year, and the Winos and Bryces have to be considered heavy favourites as both teams averaged over 240 points.  As the 6 seed, the Cocks could have to go through all 3 division champs to win it all, although he’s probably going to be favoured in Week 15. 

Small School Glory

1. Northwestern State (Kyle Reinders) *
2. Towson (Greg Campbell) *
3. UC Davis (Jamie Thompson) *
4. Richmond (Rick Gorton) *
5. Delaware (Corey Carley)
6. South Dakota State (Rick Scott) *

Only one team here with a shot at Champions League as well.  That said, I think this is Kyle’s to lose.  He has the only squad to average over 230, at almost 250 per week.  Delaware comes in as the 5 seed and has to get through a hot Richmond team that jumped them in the standings late, just to get a likely date with the Northwestern juggernaut.  Odds are it’s status quo out of the SSG.

 

Good luck to all of you vying for fantasy football glory over the next 3 weeks!  Don’t forget about all of the Saturday games going forward, and may the odds be ever in your favour, unless you play me of course.