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Tiered PPR
A Rule About Scoring
Today, the Point-Per-Reception (PPR) scoring format is becoming pretty much ubiquitously used in fantasy football leagues. It’s a fun and easy way to add more points to your league.
This format does come with its drawbacks though. Mostly, the format broadly attributes a point to any reception regardless of yardage or the location on the field. But we are here to say there is an alternative to the archaic standard PPR system. Similar to the Long Play Bonus Rule, the Tiered PPR format reflects our understanding that not all catches are created equal. A 5-yard checkdown is not the same as a 37-yard shot downfield. So why are you still treating them the same in your league?
How It Works
In this format, the first thing to consider is how many reception tiers you want and at what yardage ranges they should encompass. These can be as simple as an extra full point bonus for crossing each 10-yard tier or, you could split it out to award only fractional points in the smaller tiers. We suggest using a scoring system that disincentivizes easy short dump offs that get gobbled up at the line of scrimmage but rewards long ball plays. That would look something like this:
- Receptions of 0 – 4 yards = +0.25 points
- 5 – 9 yards = +0.5 points
- 10 – 19 = +0.75 points
- 20 – 29 = +1 point
- 30 – 39 = +1.25 points
- 40+ = +1.5 points
You could apply these points in addition to your normal full point or half point PPR scoring such that a 4 yard catch equals 1 standard PPR point plus a 0.25 Tiered PPR bonus (plus whatever individual yardage scoring you have in place). Or, you can eliminate your standard PPR format altogether in favor of this fractional structure.
Now, we know that implementing this scoring format on your traditional league site might be difficult. ESPN, Yahoo, and NFL so far don’t allow this kind of detailed customization. If you are interested in implementing this scoring format though, MyCommishRules recommends you move your league over to our friends at Sleeper.app. They allow hyper-customization of your league and if you have questions about how to do that, their customer support is top notch.
Nuts and Bolts
- Establish the structure of your Tiered PPR system. How many Tiers, the yardage ranges, and how many points to award each tier. (Our example above had six tiers each with various yardage ranges. Remember that is was to award more points to longer plays.)
- Once your league has settled on the number of tiers and the yardage ranges, determine if this format will be in addition to your typical PPR format (i.e. act as extra bonus points) or replace your PPR format entirely.
- In order to implement this scoring format, you may have to make a league site move to one that offers this kind of built-in customization. We suggest using the Sleeper.app for your Tiered PPR league (or any league for that matter – it’s that good, honestly).
Change Ups
The bonus amount you wish to attribute to the yardage of each is obviously up to you. Our numbers are only a starting place.
We also wonder if there is some possibility to integrate a few subjective factors into your PPR scoring system. Currently, PPR scoring only considers numerical factors – yards, number of catches, etc. But what if you could add points for the non-numerical factors of a catch such as a difficulty rating (using contested catch data) or a “clutchness” rating (catches under the two mintue warning or on 4th downs)? Admittedly, this change up requires a bit more dedication on the part of The Commish to administer but wow that would be fun!
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