The link to the whole spreadsheet is here. I didn't know how to copy the table on to the forums, sorry!

Season 26

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Looking at the data from season 26, there are 3 big things that I noticed.

1. The big winner of this season was Jamar Lackson (congrats!) and I was frankly surprised with how far ahead he was. Jamar was on 13 of the 33 of the group winning teams (39%), where the second place players were on 8 of the 33 group winning teams (24%)

2. I think a general rule of thumb is to draft a RB in the first round. While Lackson was the most present, the next closest running back was Ashley Owens, who was on 6 of the 33 group winning teams. In fact, out of the 16 different running backs other than Lackson on this list, the average amount of appearances for each running back was 3.6. The position group that had the highest average was Tight Ends, with an average of 4.1.

3. According to the sheet, Jamar Lackson only scored 156.0 fantasy points in season 26. I don't know if that's an exact number, but if that is the case, they would be tied with Kicker Blago Kokot for the 48th highest scoring player. Seems off, but a pretty crazy finding if that is true. The number one fantasy player of season 26 was QB Colby Jack with 331.5 points. They were only on 6 of the 33 group winners (18%).

So, season 26 crowned Jamar Lackson as the big winner! Interesting, but not very surprising as they've been a prolific fantasy player throughout their career. Going into season 27, I was excited to see the impact that the addition of more players and a whole new position group would have. Now, quick heads up, the data from season 27 seemed incomplete on the sheet, and group 35 had missing players. I chose to omit group 35 from the final research because of this. 

Season 27

 

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Now, the addition of offensive line players didn't have as much affect as I would of hoped. In fact, the same position group actually took the crown. But there are a few points that I saw that piqued my interest.

1. There were 98 unique players on the season 26 winning teams. In season 27, there were 105. There were 13 unique linemen. Out of the 92 other players, the positional percentage actually stayed pretty similar. Both Season 26 and 27 had the most unique WRs. 

2. Star RB and my sportsbook nemesis Zoe Watts was this seasons big winner (congrats!). No surprise because again, there is a very prolific career in both fantasy and the ISFL. Zoe was on 14 of the possible 35 group winning teams (40%). The primary difference I saw between this season and season 26 was that there 5 players in double digits, 3 of them being running backs (Watts, Yoda, and Rogers). My point about running backs from season 26 seems like an outlier, running backs win fantasy groups.

3. This seasons highest scoring fantasy player was Tatsu Nakamura. He was only on 2 of the possible 35 group winnners, a shocking .5%. Watts was the 17th highest scoring player this season, scoring 259.5 points. A fun little tidbit about this fantasy season, Richard Gilbert was the third highest scoring player with 333.1 points scored. Guess how many group winning teams he was on. 

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So, really, the question has been answered, but to what extent? What caused Jamar Lackson and Zoe Watts to be on the most group winning teams, but not the highest scorers? And why, out of the possible 68 teams, are the highest scorers (Nakamura and Jack) only on 8 winners? I think the main point remains, not one player can completely carry you to a victory. Draft strategy, dumb luck, whatever your MO is, if you don't get the consensus 1oa, don't stress! Does this mean anything else than my attempt to get out of debt? Improbable. But I digress.