Best Playoff Format (1 Viewer)

[Mr. Know-It-All]

We have 6 of 12 teams make the playoffs after Week 13. Top two seeds get a bye. 3 plays 6, 4 plays 5.

The question is, is it better to have Team 1 play winner of 3 v 6, Team 1 play winner of 4 v 5, or Team 1 play lowest remaining seed after Week 14?

In our playoffs both the lower seeds won, meaning what is left is 1, 2, 5, 6.

 

[beercat]

We have the same setup in our league and the matchups for the 2nd round would be #1 seed vs lowest seed #6 and #2 seed vs. #5. Same system as the NFL uses.

 

[dhockster]

We have the same setup in our league and the matchups for the 2nd round would be #1 seed vs lowest seed #6 and #2 seed vs. #5. Same system as the NFL uses.

That's how I would do it.

We have an 8 team playoff with a typical bracket set-up. In the 2-7 matchup, team 2 scored the most points for the week and team 7 scored the 2nd most points in the week and lost. Does anyone do a quarterfinal where top 4 team scores

advance, a semifinal where top 2 scores advance, and a h2h final? That seems the most fair system. And no, I was not team 7.

 

[Anarchy99]

I personally like a 4-team, two week final. Not head to head and no one is eliminated after week one. Highest scorer over the two weeks wins. Atypical, I know, but it gives all 4 teams a chance to overcome fluke weeks (good or bad).

 

[Mr. Know-It-All]

I personally like a 4-team, two week final. Not head to head and no one is eliminated after week one. Highest scorer over the two weeks wins. Atypical, I know, but it gives all 4 teams a chance to overcome fluke weeks (good or bad).

I love that idea - would never fly in our league as there is a morbid fascination with H2H - and anytime I bring up that random nature of H2H tied to scheduling quirks I am quickly shot down.

 

[hines]

6/16 make the playoffs and it's a two-week final like the one above where no one is eliminated after week one. the top 5 regular-season point scoring teams are rewarded with a bonus of 25% above the team who scored the fewest and still made the playoffs. it means teams who lucked into a good record to make the playoffs are required to have monster weeks to win the title. been a huge hit and everyone loves it

 

[doowain]

My leagues (that I commish) are set up this way and 1 always plays the lowest remaining seed in week 2 of the playoffs.

HOWEVER, I'm going to propose to my league this offseason to alter our playoff format for Week 1 of the playoffs.

Instead of having matchups, the four teams just submit their best lineups and the top two scorers advance. Maybe it's an anomaly (or I've just been more aware of it this year), but I've seen in a lot of leagues where the two highest scoring teams of Week 1 of the playoffs just happened to play each other. That is brutal.

I've seen other's post that their leagues run this format. Anyone have any experience with it?

 

[theplayer11]

I personally like a 4-team, two week final. Not head to head and no one is eliminated after week one. Highest scorer over the two weeks wins. Atypical, I know, but it gives all 4 teams a chance to overcome fluke weeks (good or bad).

we have similar, but top 2 scorers move on. 6 teams, first 2 by record get byes. I know we are mixing head to head during the regular season with highest points in play-offs, but I firmly believe that the 2 highest scoring teams should move on.

 

[jerry jones]

I personally like a 4-team, two week final. Not head to head and no one is eliminated after week one. Highest scorer over the two weeks wins. Atypical, I know, but it gives all 4 teams a chance to overcome fluke weeks (good or bad).

That's close to our league...5 teams make it, all 5 play for weeks 14 & 15, highest 2 scoring teams go to the final

 

[Keith R]

So that your top two seeds don't just sit around during your bye week, I would have them play each other. Winner of that game gets lowest remaining seed in the semifinals.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

In my league 6/14 make the playoffs.

Playoffs are all-play against other playoff teams Weeks 14-16.

Lowest scoring team is eliminated in Week 14 and worst 2-week all-play record is out after Week 15, except that the #1 seed cannot be eliminated in Weeks 14 or 15, and the #2 seed cannot be eliminated in Week 14

Best 3-week, 12-game all-play record among final four teams wins.

 

[Morton Muffley]

We also have six teams and have the two highest scoring teams move on each week (first week the top 2 get a bye).

But if you want to keep the H2H element I'd suggest that the top seeded team pick the match-up they prefer. We did this for a number of years and it's great fun. We called it "pick your poison' and on more than one occasion the top-seeded team chose badly and had to go the entire off-season with the slings and arrows that ensued. Benefit of this is that FF is very match-up and injury-dependent so it's possible that the #6 really is the best team now or that the #4 seed has incredibly difficult match-ups. So why not reward the top team with allowing him to choose who HE thinks is the worst team?

 

[iamkoza]

We have 6 of 12 teams make the playoffs after Week 13. Top two seeds get a bye. 3 plays 6, 4 plays 5.

The question is, is it better to have Team 1 play winner of 3 v 6, Team 1 play winner of 4 v 5, or Team 1 play lowest remaining seed after Week 14?

In our playoffs both the lower seeds won, meaning what is left is 1, 2, 5, 6.

in my league i commish i give the #1 seed to choice of who he wants to play between #5 or #6 in your case.... its a nice little perk that adds value to being the #1 seed. because even following the NFL format is not necessarily advantageous for the #1 seed if the #6 seed happens to have the best team/matchups....

Ironically the first two years of using this rule the #1 seed has lost each time.

 

[jagbag]

I personally like a 4-team, two week final. Not head to head and no one is eliminated after week one. Highest scorer over the two weeks wins. Atypical, I know, but it gives all 4 teams a chance to overcome fluke weeks (good or bad).

I love that idea - would never fly in our league as there is a morbid fascination with H2H - and anytime I bring up that random nature of H2H tied to scheduling quirks I am quickly shot down.

Same here.

 

[Ketamine Dreams]

So that your top two seeds don't just sit around during your bye week, I would have them play each other. Winner of that game gets lowest remaining seed in the semifinals.

We have the division champs play each other in week 14 and the winner gets to pick their opponent from the remaining two teams.

 

[Jack White]

I personally like a 4-team, two week final. Not head to head and no one is eliminated after week one. Highest scorer over the two weeks wins. Atypical, I know, but it gives all 4 teams a chance to overcome fluke weeks (good or bad).

I love that idea - would never fly in our league as there is a morbid fascination with H2H - and anytime I bring up that random nature of H2H tied to scheduling quirks I am quickly shot down.

If you play H2H all season, why would you change it for the playoffs?

 

[tangfoot]

So that your top two seeds don't just sit around during your bye week, I would have them play each other. Winner of that game gets lowest remaining seed in the semifinals.

I love this idea, combined with the suggestion that the winner of this game gets to pick who they play against.

 

[Jack White]

So that your top two seeds don't just sit around during your bye week, I would have them play each other. Winner of that game gets lowest remaining seed in the semifinals.

So a guy earns the 1 seed over 13 weeks, then loses it in Week 14? Regular season results shouldn't be negated in one game.

 

[chickensoup]

4 teams make it, playoffs start week 13 instead of 12. 2week playoffs. Mixes H2H with a little less variance due to one bad week

 

[Pokesfan]

A league I'm in is adding a new wrinkle next season. 4 teams make the playoffs starting week 14. 2 week playoff. None of that is changing.

For the first round of the playoffs, the 2 division winners can swap out ONE player from their 3 backup slots with a player in their starting lineup. Final game is played straight up.

 

[Mr. Know-It-All]

I personally like a 4-team, two week final. Not head to head and no one is eliminated after week one. Highest scorer over the two weeks wins. Atypical, I know, but it gives all 4 teams a chance to overcome fluke weeks (good or bad).

I love that idea - would never fly in our league as there is a morbid fascination with H2H - and anytime I bring up that random nature of H2H tied to scheduling quirks I am quickly shot down.

If you play H2H all season, why would you change it for the playoffs?

Well, I also don't like H2H in the regular season either - but that is a non-starter. I got lucky to make the playoffs at 6-7 this year, got the final spot by having two teams lose the final week in upsets....this despite having the 2nd highest scoring total. Why? Horrible scheduling luck this year. My 6-7 team would have been 8-5 at worst playing any of the other 11 schedules. Against one schedule I would have been 11-2.

 

[Deamon]

We have 6 of 12 teams make the playoffs after Week 13. Top two seeds get a bye. 3 plays 6, 4 plays 5.

The question is, is it better to have Team 1 play winner of 3 v 6, Team 1 play winner of 4 v 5, or Team 1 play lowest remaining seed after Week 14?

In our playoffs both the lower seeds won, meaning what is left is 1, 2, 5, 6.

Lots of people talking about their own formats and ignoring the question.

The "right" way is totally up to you.... only one I would for SURE eliminate, is the 1 seed playing the 3 vs 6 winner. That makes no sense as you can't predict the lower seeds to upset the higher seeds in round one.

You could do it like the NFL and re-seed so 1 vs lowest seed.... or you have it as 1 vs the 4/5 winner. I actually prefer it this way as it is more like the traditional tournament is laid out and the 1 seed can follow the 4/5 game and know they play the winner. Always assume the higher seeded team (lower number) will win a matchup and then set up the next round accordingly so 1 would play the lower seed if that happens.