Fantasy Magnoball League

by Foggy Brume
Answer: STEWART, TREVINO, ORANTES, SYMONDS

The 1st through 7th teams each consist of seven MIT professors. Determine each professor's department number, then either add it or subtract it to the stats given. Convert to ASCII (as hinted by the initials of the positions) to get these messages (reading column by column):

The Amaranth Albacores

THE NUMBER OF THE LARGE CRANIAL SPIDER IN INTERSTELLAR PIG (2, in William Sleator's novel Interstellar Pig)

The Crimson Carp

THE LATERALS ARE HOW MANY YARDS APART ON A HUSSADE GRIDIRON (4 yards, in the Jack Vance Alastor series)

The Damask Dories

HOW MANY PLAYERS ARE ON A FINAL FANTASY X-2 BLITZBALL SQUAD (6)

The Erubescent Eels

DOUBLE FANUCCI'S 174 CARD DECK IS SPLIT INTO HOW MANY SUITS (15, from the computer game Zork Zero)

The Magenta Marlin

IN 43-MAN SQUAMISH # OF OGRES THE GAME LASTS IF IT IS RAINING (8, from Mad Magazine #95's description, a game takes 7 15-minute ogres normally, but 8 if it's raining)

The Ochre Opah

THE NUMBER OF BASES IN GAME LOVED BY WINSTON NILES RUMFOORD (3, in the game of German batball, in the Kurt Vonnegut novel The Sirens of Titan)

The Umber Upoku

NUMBER OF THE JERSEY WORN BY DOUG REMER IN A 1998 COMEDY FILM (17, in the film BASEketball)

The last team is called The Red Herrings (taken from the first themed MIT Mystery Hunt), and the last names of the characters correspond with past mystery hunts. First initials have been excluded; each corresponds with the initials of one of the other teams. Use the numerical answer to each question to adjust that Hunt character's statistics and reorder the rows by year of the Hunt for that character:

Depending on the quarter, you'll get one of these four clues (reading down each column, then left to right):