From my 12-team, 5-keeper (max 2 per/pos.) league rule book. These have worked well over the years. We play in 3 divisions.
“PLAYOFFS”
G1: SIX (6) TEAMS MAKE THE LEAGUE PLAY-OFFS EACH YEAR. ONLY ONE (1) WILL WIN THE LEAGUE TITLE.
G2: THE SIX (6) PLAY-OFF SPOTS ARE DETERMINED BY THE THREE (3) DIVISION WINNERS AND THE NEXT THREE (3) BEST TEAMS FROM ALL DIVISIONS. PLAYOFF SEEDING (& NEXT YEAR'S TOP HALF DRAFT ORDER, PICKS 1 - 6) IS DETERMINED USING THE PLAYOFF TIEBREAKERS (G4.)
G3: PLAY-OFFS ARE THE LAST THREE (3) WEEKS OF THE NFL REGULAR SEASON.
G4:
TIE-BREAKERS FOR MAKING THE PLAY-OFFS ARE AS FOLLOWS:
1st - WIN/LOSS RECORD
2nd - HEAD TO HEAD COMPETITION FOR SEASON
3rd - DIVISION WINS IF IN SAME DIVISION
4th - TOTAL POINTS FOR SEASON
5th - HEAD TO HEAD POINTS (COMBINE TOTAL POINTS OF BOTH GAMES)
6th - HALF DOLLAR COIN TOSS.
(G5 through G8 deal with weekly playoff matchups.)
G9: IN ADDITION TO RULES B5 & B6
(starting roster requirements rules) YOU MUST START TWO (2) ADDITIONAL PLAYERS OR TEAM DEFENSES DURING THE PLAY-OFFS IN CASE OF A TIE GAME.
G10:
TIE-BREAKERS FOR PLAY-OFF WINS ARE AS FOLLOWS:
1st - THE TWO (2) ADDITIONAL PLAYERS OR TEAM DEFENSES WILL BE TOTALED FOR AN OVERTIME SCORE, HIGHEST TOTAL WINS
2nd - HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL TOTAL OF THE FOUR (4) PLAYERS
3rd - OVERALL REGULAR SEASON RECORD - NOT NECESSARILY THE HIGHER SEED.
Just last year we started a basement bowl for the teams that didn't actually make it into the cash playoffs. It runs through weeks 15 - 17 also. Tie-breakers are the same for them in the sense that the are viewed oppositely. The worst record in the regular season gets Basement seed #12. That team and seed #11 have a bye in week 15 thus providing them a better opportunity to win the basement bowl. (Seed #7 vs. #10, #8 vs. #9 in week 15, etc.) While the Basement Bowl does not alter the draft order of the bottom 6 teams the following year, it provides the winner a 1-week window of opportunity after cut-down date to swap out one of his keepers for a player that was released. It's a small bonus for winning the basement bowl and looks to be somewhat valuable to the team who will get to do that this year. Of course, it's not required to swap players, that one team simply has the right to exercise that option for a 1-week period only.
Sorry, didn't mean to fly off on a tangent there, but the tiebreakers are tied in heavily to a bunch of league specific annual settings and I thought it better framed the whole issue to put it all out there.