Hey guys, we're trying to improve our keeper next season so that the standings are a bit closer. The past 2 seasons, 2 teams (each year) have made the playoffs with a sub .500 record - this is with using 12 catergories. (10 teams - 6 make the cut)

I noticed that in my one-year league, we have 9 catergories and 7/10 teams are currently above .500, which is definately more realistic

Just wondering what you all have used or been in leagues that have used "x" amount of catergories and the league has been close for the most part all year.

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12 Team H2H Yahoo Keeper (Year 6)
Champion 2008-09, 2009-10 & 2010-11, Runner-up 2010-11
Keep 5 (4 Skaters, 1 Goalie)

G | A | PTS | PPP | +/- | SOG | HIT | W | SV | SV% | GAA | SO

C - Stamkos, Malkin,
LW - Ovechkin
RW - Perry
D -
Util -
G - Lundqvist

I don't think the number of categories should have much effect on how many teams are above/below .500. Of course, on average about half the teams will be above .500 and half below. I think it has much more to do with the competitiveness of each team. I have seen your own team in this keeper league and you have a dominant team. It is no surprise that more than half the teams are below .500 as you would (I assume) be way above .500 dominating teams taking not letting them win any categories on a given week. The opposite is also true, if you have 1 (or probably more) teams that are much worse than others they are going to be picking up very few wins leaving more to be shared by the rest of the league.

In my 4 leagues (all Salary cap Dynasty), here are the stats.

League 1: 10 teams, 10 categories = 5 teams above & 5 teams below .500
League 2: 14 teams, 11 categories = 6 teams above & 8 teams below .500
League 3: 14 teams, 10 categories = 8 teams above & 6 teams below .500
League 4: 16 teams, 10 categories = 10 teams above & 5 teams below & 1 team at .500

League 2 has definite teams a league above the rest. Leagues 4 has 3 basement dwellers and no one above the rest and league 1 and 3 are fairly balanced (the 8th place team in league league 3 is just barely above .500).

Maybe it has something to do with "lucky" stat categories (short handed points, game winning goals, shutouts, etc), where they are hard to predict and a lesser team can upset a superior one in these categories (rather than just the number of categories, but more categories would probably equal more "lucky" categories). Unfortunately I don't have any data to back this up, but just a though.

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10 Team Dynasty League ($89.4 cap), 2009-2010 Champion (RS and PO)
C: Crosby, Getzlaf, Carter, Ott, Hanzal
R: Semin, Pavelski, Langenbrunner, Little, Benn
L: D. Sedin, Eriksson, Laich, Burrows, Tanguay, Macarther
D: Green, Weber, Burns, Ehrhoff, Enstrom, Robidas, Foster
G: Rinne, Howard

IR: Oshie, Stafford, Miller

Minors: McCollum, Lindberg, McBain, Franson, Niskanen, Hodgson, Grabner, Schroeder, Tedenby, Colborne, Kreider, Tatar, R. O'Reilly, Skille, Radulov etc, etc

yeah I've also noticed it to be fairly random in most leagues, but since we're cutting down the keepers my team wont be quite as dominant next year. Theres alos another very good team, and 2 very bad teams in that league, so i'm not surprised by the standings as much.

However my thought was that maybe with less catergories, less points will be given every week.. lets say we take 2 cats out for next year.. thats 4 points per game (x 5 games) and you eliminate 20 points a week.

With 12 catergories, I've noticed that most weeks end in 8-3-1 or 7-4-1 weeks, and there are few ties.

While in the 10 cat leagues, I notice alot more 6-4 games

But I'd say that differs quite substantially in every league

Hmmmmm, perhaps the more stat categories there are, the more of a dominating matchup one could have on any given week (given that most stat categories are at least somewhat related and a resultant of a player's performance). I'd say this would beg disparity, whereas less categories would allow for teams to be more closely bunched. This effect on teams above and below .500 I'm not sure though. I really have no clue, I'm just throwing out ideas.

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10 Team Dynasty League ($89.4 cap), 2009-2010 Champion (RS and PO)
C: Crosby, Getzlaf, Carter, Ott, Hanzal
R: Semin, Pavelski, Langenbrunner, Little, Benn
L: D. Sedin, Eriksson, Laich, Burrows, Tanguay, Macarther
D: Green, Weber, Burns, Ehrhoff, Enstrom, Robidas, Foster
G: Rinne, Howard

IR: Oshie, Stafford, Miller

Minors: McCollum, Lindberg, McBain, Franson, Niskanen, Hodgson, Grabner, Schroeder, Tedenby, Colborne, Kreider, Tatar, R. O'Reilly, Skille, Radulov etc, etc