After years of playing Fantasy Football, I have come to really dislike the typical Playoff system most Leagues employ of using the a single elimination style tournament with the NFL's Week 16 or Week 17 being used for the Championship game. Those weeks are typically the least important weeks of the year for the majority of NFL Teams. Star players end up having limited playing time on Teams that have a playoff berth secured, and on Teams that are out of the NFL Playoff picture, it seems players who get dinged seem to go to the bench much earlier then they normally would. Bad weather also has a much higher chance to have an adverse affect on games late in the season. I have always felt that the typical Fantasy Football League playoff system results in an overly high degree of luck being involved in winning the League Championship. The very least that can be done is to have the Championship game played during Week 16 as opposed to Week 17, but a lot of the negative issues of Week 17 are there in Week 16 as well. The goal of any Fantasy League should be to try to reward the best Team with that League's Championship. The way most League's Playoff systems are set up though, it really becomes more of a crap shoot as to which Team will be lucky enough to have its good player's even playing at the end of the year.
Something that I tried and liked a couple years ago in a League I was in was to have all the playoff Teams play in a Round Robin style Tournament during Weeks 14, 15 & 16 of the NFL Season. If there are five Teams in the Playoffs, each of those five Teams would play the other four Teams that are in the Playoffs each Week. That results in each Team playing a total of 12 games. (I recommend giving the higher seeded Teams a set number of points for each game. That would work like a home field advantage as a reward for a better regular season record.) The League Champion would be the Team that has the best record in those 12 games. The runner-up is the Team with the second best record and so forth. Ties would be broken by the Team with the best head-to-head record during the three weeks of the Playoffs. It's basic math that a higher number of samples in a group results in less random results. By equally spreading the weight of the Playoffs over a three week time period, there would be a much better chance at rewarding the most deserving Team with the League Championship. An added benefit is that the five Teams in the Playoffs continue to have meaningful games all the way through Week 16 of the regular NFL season. While it's possible that a Team could dominate during Weeks 14 and 15 and have the Championship all but won going into Week 16, the more likely scenario is that at least two and possibly all five Teams would have a shot at winning it all going into the final Week. I know that this would be a fairer way to crown a League Champion, but I also think that this would be a much more interesting and entertaining Playoff System as well.
Has anyone tried anything similar to this or have different Playoff systems that they like?
Something that I tried and liked a couple years ago in a League I was in was to have all the playoff Teams play in a Round Robin style Tournament during Weeks 14, 15 & 16 of the NFL Season. If there are five Teams in the Playoffs, each of those five Teams would play the other four Teams that are in the Playoffs each Week. That results in each Team playing a total of 12 games. (I recommend giving the higher seeded Teams a set number of points for each game. That would work like a home field advantage as a reward for a better regular season record.) The League Champion would be the Team that has the best record in those 12 games. The runner-up is the Team with the second best record and so forth. Ties would be broken by the Team with the best head-to-head record during the three weeks of the Playoffs. It's basic math that a higher number of samples in a group results in less random results. By equally spreading the weight of the Playoffs over a three week time period, there would be a much better chance at rewarding the most deserving Team with the League Championship. An added benefit is that the five Teams in the Playoffs continue to have meaningful games all the way through Week 16 of the regular NFL season. While it's possible that a Team could dominate during Weeks 14 and 15 and have the Championship all but won going into Week 16, the more likely scenario is that at least two and possibly all five Teams would have a shot at winning it all going into the final Week. I know that this would be a fairer way to crown a League Champion, but I also think that this would be a much more interesting and entertaining Playoff System as well.
Has anyone tried anything similar to this or have different Playoff systems that they like?
