📆 Week 17? Still Gotta Get There, Bro

In this week's P.O. Box:

I have videos with more views, but I don’t think any one video I’ve made has instigated as much discussion as the “Week 17 is all that matters” video that I posted on the Deposit Kingdom channel just under two years ago.

Like any polarizing topic, a little hyperbole in the title certainly helped fan the flames of debate. But the math supported it, as did the winners of three straight Best Ball Mania tournaments who won a combined $6 million in prizes while all prioritizing Week 17 on their squads:

• ChessLiam’s BBM2 winner had the infamous Amon-Ra St. Brown (30.5 points) / Rashaad Penny (30 points) mini-correlation from the DET/SEA game

• Pat Kerrane’s BBM3 squad had three different game stacks, with 12 of his 18 players coming from just three Week 17 games

• Farid Shaheed, a man who still has not told his girlfriend and mother about his $3M win in BBM4, featured two big Week 17 game stacks (GB/MIN & DET/DAL)

Still, a fairly intuitive strategic concept with millions of dollars in proof has been met with continued resistance over the years.

The skeptics got tossed a bone, though, after Underdog threw us a fun curveball with a very different structure for its 2024 flagship contest, Best Ball Mania V.

A much flatter payout structure—the Top 20 finishers will all win six-figures—potentially threatens the evergreen nature of the Week 17 is all that matters thesis. Would BBMV force us to [GASP!] prioritize other weeks?? Week 16 bros were coming out of the woodwork to align their brand with a hot new meta.

Naturally, I had to dig in and make a sequel: Is Week 17 *still* all that matters??

Here’s what I found…