Okay, folks, time for a look at how the battles are going in this year's Official Daily Norseman Fantasy Football League over at CBSSports.com. The league is actually going along quite well, and no team is really pulling away yet. Quite a bit of parity across the league, to be sure. . .in fact, after Week 2, we had one team that was 2-0 and one team that was 0-2. . .the other 10 teams in the league were all 1-1. I had never seen anything quite like it, and as I said, nobody has truly pulled away from the pack yet.
Here's what the standings in all three divisions look like so far:
| Division 1 | |||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | PCT | GB | Strk | Div | Wks | PF | Back | PA |
| Dead Parrots Society | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0.714 | 0 | W1 | 2-1-0 | 1 | 879.1 | 86.6 | 867.2 |
| VikingsRule | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0.429 | 2 | L1 | 1-2-0 | 1 | 863.9 | 101.8 | 853.6 |
| 8 Bit Bowling | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0.429 | 2 | L2 | 2-1-0 | 2 | 965.7 | 0.0 | 846.6 |
| Moss's Mooners | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0.286 | 3 | W1 | 1-2-0 | 1 | 805.9 | 159.8 | 818.5 |
| Division 2 | |||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | PCT | GB | Strk | Div | Wks | PF | Back | PA |
| Preying Amish | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0.714 | 0 | W3 | 2-1-0 | 0 | 870.5 | 95.2 | 735.2 |
| AP's 14 LB Balls | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0.571 | 1 | L1 | 2-1-0 | 0 | 869.8 | 95.9 | 837.2 |
| Maulers of America | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0.571 | 1 | W1 | 2-1-0 | 0 | 811.5 | 154.1 | 791.0 |
| REVENGE4FAVRE | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0.143 | 4 | L3 | 0-3-0 | 0 | 643.5 | 322.2 | 821.8 |
| Division 3 | |||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | PCT | GB | Strk | Div | Wks | PF | Back | PA |
| Purple Jesus Drank® | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0.714 | 0 | W2 | 2-1-0 | 1 | 924.0 | 41.6 | 872.6 |
| Metropolitan Upperdeckers | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0.571 | 1 | L2 | 2-1-0 | 1 | 755.6 | 210.1 | 816.2 |
| Shank's Redemption | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0.429 | 2 | L1 | 1-2-0 | 0 | 861.5 | 104.2 | 854.9 |
| It's Destiny | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0.429 | 2 | W2 | 1-2-0 | 0 | 765.0 | 200.7 | 901.1 |
Most of the teams in the league are within two games of the division lead. . .we're about halfway through the regular season (the regular season will run through Week 13), and there are no clear favorites yet.
The CBSSports.com leagues also compute "Power Rankings" based on a few various factors. . .based on a 1 to 12 stacking of the league, here's what those look like:
| Power Rankings | |||||
| Rank | Team | Record | Points | Brkdn | Power |
| 1 | Purple Jesus Drank® | 11 | 11 | 11.5 | 33.5 |
| 2 | Dead Parrots Society | 11 | 10 | 10 | 31 |
| 3 | Preying Amish | 11 | 9 | 9 | 29 |
| 4 | 8 Bit Bowling | 4.5 | 12 | 11.5 | 28 |
| 5 | AP's 14 LB Balls | 8 | 8 | 8 | 24 |
| 6 | VikingsRule | 4.5 | 7 | 6.5 | 18 |
| 7 | Maulers of America | 8 | 5 | 4.5 | 17.5 |
| 8 | Shank's Redemption | 4.5 | 6 | 6.5 | 17 |
| 9 | Metropolitan Upperdeckers | 8 | 2 | 3 | 13 |
| 10 | Moss's Mooners | 2 | 4 | 4.5 | 10.5 |
| 11 | It's Destiny | 4.5 | 3 | 2 | 9.5 |
| 12 | REVENGE4FAVRE | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
This week's match-ups could serve to break up some of the gridlock that the league is currently looking at. . .or, in something that's part of the beauty of fantasy football, it could make it that much more confusing. The featured match-up for this week would have to be the battle of the league's two top teams, as Purple Jesus Drank® will do battle with the Dead Parrots Society. Both teams are 5-2, leading their respective divisions and, as you can see above, are ranked 1-2 in the latest Power Rankings. GO DEAD PARROTS! (Yeah, that's my team. . .so I'm biased.) The rest of the Week 8 match-ups look like this:
REVENGE4FAVRE (1-6) vs. It's Destiny (3-4)
Moss's Mooners (2-5) vs. AP's 14 LB Balls (4-3)
Metropolitan Upperdeckers (4-3) vs. 8 Bit Bowling (3-4)
VikingsRule (3-4) vs. Maulers of America (4-3)
Preying Amish (5-2) vs. Shank's Redemption (3-4)
And there's the latest update, ladies and gentlemen. . .there will be another update on the league's progress as we get closer to the end of the regular season and playoff positions start to solidify.