Three rings, a .596 all-time win percentage, and a 75% playoff appearance rate, which is the highest in the league alongside Bed Time. Hope is Coming has made the postseason in 9 of 12 seasons including three straight, and has finished 9-5 or better in four of the last five. There's no reason to think the machine slows down as this is the most consistent team in the league, and now they're playing with house money. An odds on favorite for the 2026-2027 season.

It's difficult to find the bear case here. 10-4 in back-to-back regular seasons and a league-best 134.0 points per game in 2025 while outscoring the field by nearly 14 points a week. A +28.0 point differential nobody else came close to touching. By every measure outside of the bracket, this was the best team in the league last year. So why am I hesitant? Because we've been here before. The 2018 ring is the only championship Kraemerica has converted from a strong regular season, and the playoff math has been brutal ever since. Bank on another strong draft from Kraemerica. Championship windows close, that 2nd ring is the big question for this team.

Zaddy is coming off two stellar seasons, going 10-4 in 2024 and 9-5 in 2025. Before that he went just 1-12 in 2019 and missed the playoffs in seven of the previous nine seasons. The drafting is sharper, the roster construction is cleaner and the points are showing up: 119.8 PPG in 2024, 115.5 in 2025. Two straight playoff runs say this isn't a fluke. Will Zaddy keep the hot streak going or revert back to old sad habits?

The Fellowship is a December team. He won the 2023 title at 8-6 and made the championship game in 2024 at 11-3 with a league-best 136.3 PPG. Made it to the title game again in 2025 with a NEGATIVE point differential. Two of the last three Decembers have ended in the championship round. The regular season can look ugly, the matchups can break the wrong way, but when the lights come on, the fellowship shows up. Can this team scrap their way to another championship appearance? It's not easy to do when you don't have the Cardinals Defense (MVP) saving your a**.

Bruisers went 9-5 in 2025. It's the best record this team has put together since the 2019 bull run that ended with a podium finish. A runner-up finish in 2017 and a third-place run in 2019 tell you the ceiling is real when this owner gets hot. The four-year playoff drought from 2020-2024 also tells you nothing is guaranteed here. But the 2025 reset looks legitimate, the scoring jumped to 114.3 PPG, and the trajectory is pointed in the right direction. After looking at the chart, I'm buying back in.

After spending four full years on the sideline, Bedtime came back to a 7-7 season and snuck into the playoffs with a very questionable roster. Some are calling it rust, others are saying he lost his fastball, a few believe he's just getting warmed up and the league should be on notice. As far as stats go, Bed Time's 12-1 campaign in 2014 remains the best single-season record in league history, and he added an 11-2 season in 2017 for good measure. Three rings, a .610 career rate and now he's tied with Hope is Coming for most all-time titles, with a clear chip on his shoulder. All eyes are on Bedtime's 2026 draft. Let's see if he can shake the nickname of "Rusty Bill"

Stay with me here. Bridge Four scored the 4th-most points in the league in 2025 (119.5 PPG) and went 6-8. In 2023, they scored 116.9 PPG and went 4-10. I mean wow! This team got absolutely buzzsawed by schedule luck. Four years out of the playoffs is the longest active drought in the league, but it's also one of the more misleading stats you'll find. The 2016 campaign (10-3, 2nd place) is the proof of concept. Eventually, regression to the mean shows up. I have Bridge Four pegged for a 9-win bounce-back and a return to the bracket. First ring isn't out of the question.

Two career runner-up finishes (2022, 2023), a four-year playoff streak from 2020-2023 and a 9-4 regular season in 2020 that resulted in a 4th-place finish. The résumé is strong but the championship is missing. CKWade has been a reliable playoff team in this league for half a decade but still has a zero in the rings column. Recent years have been a bit shakier (back-to-back missed playoffs in 2024-2025). Rumor has it this team has been working ferociously in the offseason, look out!

I keep coming back to the 2025 numbers for the Commish. Wolfhounds went 6-8 with a +0.2 point differential, the very definition of a team that simply lost the close ones. This is a 2024 champion we're talking about. Two rings on the résumé. A 9-5 season in 2024 with 118.7 PPG. The owner's track record across 12 seasons (.534 win rate, 6 playoff appearances) tells you this isn't a team in decline but rather one that had a frustrating regular season after winning the whole thing. Buy low on the Commish and bet on the tenacity.

If you're going to miss the playoffs once a decade, do it the way Scalabrine did in 2025: 120.1 points per game (4th-best in the league) with a positive point differential. The 6-8 record is misleading. This is the same owner who put up six consecutive playoff appearances from 2017 through 2022, including back-to-back championships in 2021 and 2022 and an 11-2 regular season in 2019. Talent like that doesn't evaporate in a single year. The .553 career win percentage (3rd-best in the league) is a much better indicator of where this team belongs. This owner is fortunate he didn't attach his career to Hackenberg, who he was originally very bullish on.

This is one of the more interesting teams in the league to forecast. The career win percentage (.450) is bottom-three. The playoff appearance rate (33%) is the lowest among current owners. And yet 137.1 PPG in the 2018 season (a league record), a 2016 championship, and a runner-up finish in 2024 with the second-most points in the league. When HoW peaks, it's a problem for everyone. The 2024 finals run is fresh enough that nobody should be sleeping on the firepower here. The regular season floor is lower than most. The ceiling? Championship-caliber.

Haha has a pretty wild resume, no beating around the bush. He has gone 12-2 (2022, the second-best record in league history), 1-12 in another season and has finished as high as 3rd in the playoffs and as low as 12th. The variance is large but that's what makes this owner so dangerous when it clicks. The 4-10 finish in 2025 was rough. But the 2022-2023 stretch (12-2 followed by 9-5) is the proof of ceiling. Given how this team has historically swung from one extreme to the other, I'd circle this name as a sneaky 2026 playoff team.