I also like it as-is but will adapt as needed. I like that if you are in, you are in and it's exciting. If you lose, don't have what it takes to win it all and be involved in the last 3 weeks...you get to concentrate on real baseball without that fantasy bias. If that makes sense...
What most of us don't like about week #26 is that a lot of teams that have clinched sit a lot of regulars for many games. So I believe is we can go 1 of 2 ways. First leave things as it is but move everything 1 week; meaning, let the regular season go 19 weeks instead of 20. Second way is to let regular season stay at 20 weeks, but only the top 8 teams qualify for the playoffs and the other 4 play a consolation playoffs. I know we had a #9 seeded win the overall last year, but how often is that going to happen? I like the top 8 teams qualify for the championship only. My 2 cents worth. If no one likes either of these, then I'm for leaving everything the way it is.
Thanks for your input Jose. I'll add my feelings on this now.
I will say this about shortening the regular season. It's something I don't believe in as it takes away a week of play for all 12 teams so 2 teams can play week #25 instead of week #26. Something we need to keep in mind, week #26 effects only 2 of the 12 teams in our league, and if you look at previous results, the 2 out of 3 series, sometimes the 3rd week isn't even used.
Using a weekly lineup I can see this being more of an issue, but with the ability to change lineups each day there's really not that much to be concerned with in using week #26. JMO
But, if there is enough owners who want to do away with it, going to the 8/4 system is an option too. This is something that does not need to be decided on right now, meaning we do have time here.
My first comment is this highlights just how lucky I was this year as using the other two formats, I don't even finish in the top 4.
My experience with playing week 26 this year is I ended up with only 7 pitching starts and was barely able to even make a full lineup each day and took some zeros from guys getting rested. That kind of sucked but I don't think it mattered in the end as Brian had some of the same problems and the final game wasn't really very close. Jimi pointed out earlier there's only a 50% chance you use week 26 anyways and both teams deal with the same stuff so I say give us Free Agent moves up till the bitter end and leave the season and playoffs alone. One request I would make though is that once a team is eliminated from the playoffs, they aren't allowed to make any more moves.
Wow, I'm surprised everyone is so nice. lol I would say the 8-4 set up is good. I cant say my teams the past couple years have deserved a shot at the title. Sometimes that's just the way it is. 25 or 26 weeks doesn't matter as much to me.