My Commish Rules

You're the Commish. Make your own rules.

Facebook Twitter Instagram

My

Commish

Rules

Scheduling

Points To Playoffs

A Rule About Scheduling

IT’S TIME TO TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS. Most of the time the best teams get in and all is hunky dory in the world and nobody complains. WRONG! Somebody always complains. And nobody complains more than the owner with the most points with tough in-season matchups who juuuuust misses the playoffs. This rule is for that owner.

 

How It Works

If you’ve been playing fantasy football long enough, you’ve probably seen a team in the top three of Total Points For completely miss the playoffs due to a tough schedule slog. And we hate to see that. This owner put in all the hard work to roster a high scoring team, only to play their way out of the Toilet Bowl? A shame. 

 

This rule is a playoff structure predicated on the thought that if an owner consistently puts up high point totals, they deserve a shot at the title. The top teams based on record will enter the playoffs, just as any normal league operates. However, the last playoff spot is awarded to the team not already in the playoffs with the highest Total Points For scored season-to-date.

 

For example, imagine a 10-team league where four teams make the playoffs. The top three records are 13-1, 12-2, 10-4. Congratulations to those three teams, their playoff spots are finalized based on record. They managed their team in such a way that they succeeded in the whole point of fantasy football – winning games. But to determine the fourth and final spot in the playoffs, all remaining owners are compared based on their season-to-date Total Points For. The owner with the most Total Points For is awarded the final playoff spot. Their place in the standings does not come into play. This could be the fourth team in the standings or the 10th place team.  

 

Now at this point, some might say “but wait – that’s the whole beauty of scheduling. Its random. And we’re discounting this randomness factor and messing up the whole thing, wahhhh!” 

 

To that we say “look, this really is the best of both worlds. By using both record and Total Points For, those owners who might have started the season 0-4 still have a fighting chance at making the playoffs. They always have a shot if they are scoring points and will keep engaged in the league. Isn’t that the whole reason why you’re here on MyCommishRules reading this rule?” We are not suggesting you draw names out of a hat or throw darts or completely switch up your playoff rules. We’re talking about one spot.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Determine amount of teams that will enter the playoffs based on the size of your league and preference. 
  • No league settings will need to be modified, other than noting somewhere in your rules or publically to leaguemates how playoff allotments will be decided.
  • Top playoff seeds will go to the teams with the best records.
  • Last playoff spot will be manually added based on the team with the highest Total Points For outside of the current allotted playoff teams.

Change Ups

You can put some stipulations on this rule if you’d like. It was created in order to restore justice to those high-scoring teams with tough matchups. BUT, what if there is a really small difference in points between owners vying for that last spot and one team has the better record? You could add a buffer to when this rule applies and when it doesn’t. Say the would-be final playoff team based on record has 10 Total Points For fewer than one of the other teams already out of the playoffs. Would seem tough to tell that would-be playoff team – “it was really close but, sorry”. Instead, have a rule that would require a non-playoff team to have considerable more Total Points For than a would-be playoff team (say by 50 or more points) in order to leapfrog them into the final spot.

 

Download the rule summary now!
Download the FREE "Scheduling" Rule Summary to share with your leaguemates now!

Related Rules

Playoff Seed-Based Schedule

Imagine its week 12. With the playoffs looming, you find yourself on the fringe of playoff contention. What’s worse, you take a peek at the schedule, you are set to […]

Read More »

Two-Week Playoff

Let us paint you a little picture. It is the first week of the playoffs. You have gone 13-1 and have the clear-cut best team in the league. Your […]

Read More »

Rivalry Week

North Carolina-Duke. Michigan-Ohio State. Green Bay-Chicago. Rivalries are one of the major reasons why we love sports. The “Us v.s. Them” mentality keeps us coming […]

Read More »

Points To Playoffs

IT IS TIME TO TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS. Most of the time the best teams get in and all is hunky dory in the world and nobody complains. WRONG! Somebody always […]

Read More »

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

Rivalry Week

A Rule About Scheduling

North Carolina-Duke. Michigan-Ohio State. Green Bay-Chicago. Rivalries are one of the major reasons why we love sports. The “Us v.s. Them” mentality keeps us coming back year after year. Besides that one week where you take out your workplace frustrations on Jeff in your office league, most Fantasy Football leagues don’t have those kind of heart pumping rivalries. The matchups that you circle on your calendar are the ones that make it all worth it. Rivalry Week formalizes these matchups that may or may not serve as mini-Super Bowls to your owners.

 

Deets

We all have that one leaguemate that we just NEED to beat every time you two are matched up. Maybe you have some lingering need to get back at them for stealing your seat at lunch way back in 4th grade. Maybe they’re your boss and this is your one way of sticking it to the man. Maybe they’re your spouse. As Commish, we can capture these feuds and use them to our advantage in creating a well-rounded, ultra-competitive league.

 

On the chart of difficulty to implement and impact on the league, the Rivalry Week Rule is one of the shining stars. Extremely easy to implement but with a huge positive impact on the league’s competitive spirit.

 

Choose one week during the season to have all of these rivalry matchups play out in the schedule. Rivalry matchups can be created in a couple of different ways:

1) The Commish chooses who plays who, or

2) Owners choose who their rival is

 

Both options have pros and cons, but we suggest having owners choose as to avoid any push back on your choices as Commish. Once rivals are paired, you can go in to the league site and manually adjust schedules accordingly. Owners should be encouraged to stack on other Head-2-Head Wagers during these Rivalry Week Matchups to sweeten the pot and to take home something more than bragging rights.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Choose a week during the middle of the season and deem it Rivalry Week.
  • All owners should choose their preferred rival leaguemate.
  • Manually set schedules to pair rival owners for matchups during the chosen Rivalry Week.
  • Encourage side bets and other Head-2-Head Wagers.

Change Ups

How you choose to determine which owners are considered rivals is up to you and your leaguemates. If you are in a league together with a group of close friends that have known each other for a long time, this will likely be very easy to determine. However, if you’re part of a league with people you don’t know very well, you could use the previous season as a guiding light. Create rematches of last year’s playoff bracket or in final standings order. You could also use player rosters to set these matchups. Are two star RBs playing each other in the NFL that week? Match the owners of those players together.

 

Additionally, this Rule is literally made to pair with other Head-2-Head Wagers. Think of how much fuel you could add to the rivalry-fire if owners played for Player Pink Slips that week!

 

Download the rule summary now!
Download the FREE "Scheduling" Rule Summary to share with your leaguemates now!

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

Related Rules

Head-2-Head REMIX

Anyone who has played fantasy football has had the week where they score the second most points and lose to the top scorer in the league. UGH! And what do […]

Read More »

Head-2-Head REMIX

A Rule About Scheduling

Anyone who has played fantasy football has had the week where they score the second most points and lose to the top scorer in the league. UGH! And what do you have to show for it? A week’s worth of unanswered complaints and no resolutions would be our best guess. While complaining is fun, it does not get you anywhere so SHUT UP AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Start counting those high point losses for something. Each head-to-head matchup will play out how it does in a typical league with the high scorer getting the victory, BUT secondarily, the top-half of your league in points each week will be awarded a win and the bottom-half a loss.

 

How It Works

Here’s how it works. Per usual, each week will result in a 1-0 or 0-1 record based on your head-to-head matchup. Additionally, you have another 1-0 or 0-1 chance as the top-half of the league in points each week will get a victory and the bottom-half will suffer a loss. Therefore, each week your team can go 2-0, 1-1, or 0-2 depending on your matchup outcome and the rest of the league’s scoring. Too often do one or two teams miss playoffs with higher point totals purely because of scheduling matchups. And let’s be honest, most scheduling is very random, though we do have a few suggestions about that if you hop on over to the Scheduling section of the site.

 

Not only does this rule acknowledge point totals more than most leagues, it has some additional benefits. When it comes crunch time for playoffs sometimes teams throw a week in order to better their playoff matchups. But with 2 wins or losses on any given week, things can really fluctuate. OH THE DRAMA! 

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Create a head-to-head points league which will operate as most leagues do.
  • Each week assess scoring outcomes. As Commish, award top-half in scoring an extra win and bottom-half an extra loss.
  • Manually change record of each team to accurately reflect scoring

Change Ups

If you want to get crazy, we can get crazy. This extra win/loss can be reflected by whatever criteria you determine. Maybe it is the top half of the league’s highest scoring Kickers, not only putting a premium on the position but also lowering the predictability of the records.

 

Download the rule summary now!
Download the FREE "Scheduling" Rule Summary to share with your leaguemates now!

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

Two-Week Playoff

A Rule About Scheduling

Let us paint you a little picture. It’s the first week of the playoffs. You have gone 13-1 on the season and you have the clear-cut best team in the league. But guess what – your QB sits with a minor injury. Your RB1 gets vultured twice and your WR1 has a season low two-catch game. You lose by 20, which was the average amount you were winning by on a weekly basis throughout the season. 

 

HEARTBREAK! MISERY! SEASON-ENDING DUMPSTER FIRE HOGWASH! 

 

But what if you got a second chance to right this wrong? What if you got to play the same match up over again? Well call us Bob Ross because we are about to paint you a little picture to remedy this one and done playoff scenario. We like to call it “The Two-Weeker.”

 

How It Works

The NFL is just about the only professional sport with single game matchups in the postseason. That does not mean your league has to abide by these standards. Consider changing each of your fantasy football playoff matchups to two weeks in length. 

 

Two-Week Playoff Matchups offer less room for flukey one-week disasters like one we already described (a very real example, btw. NO, I’M NOT BITTER ABOUT IT!) and should give the overall better team an advantage. This is a nice format for those leagues who offer no payout for the leader at the end of the regular season.

 

The set up for this rule is pretty simple – decide how many teams will make the playoffs, when you want your playoffs to begin, and in the league site change the matchup length from one week to two. 

 

We do need to take just a second to make one big note here: this scheduling format really works best for a four-team playoff. This is because if you double the length of each matchup in a six or eight team playoff, you’re going to have to cut out regular season games. Not that this is a deal killer or anything but it’s a functionality thing you, as The Commish, need to be aware of. 

 

Logically, the playoffs continue in traditional fashion in this format. The only difference is that teams will face-off two weeks in a row upon entering the playoffs and point totals will accumulate for the entirety of those two weeks. After two weeks, the team with the most points will move on to the next round. The championship round works exactly the same way. For example, four teams enter the playoffs beginning in Week 13. The first round of playoffs will be Weeks 13 and 14 and the Championship round will run Weeks 15 and 16.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Many league sites provide the option for two-week matchups somewhere in the league settings.
  • You and your leaguemates will need to make a decision as to when the playoffs will begin, which will likely be earlier than they would in a one-week playoff matchup league. 
  • If you would like your league to avoid playing the championship match during the NFL’s Week 17, begin your playoffs in Week 13.

Change Ups

Implementing a Scheduling Rule such as this, will ultimately reduce the number of owners in the playoffs. This may prompt a discussion regarding the Payout structure of your Fantasy Football league. We suggest scrapping regular season champion payouts for an increased focus on first and second place overall payouts. As always, we suggest perusing the Last Place Wagers to find the perfect “punishment” for the owner at the bottom of the standings when it is all said and done. 

 

If you proposing to cut the number of playoff teams down to four raises talk of Commish mutiny (we can’t have any of that), consider looping in a two-week playoff for only a portion of the playoffs. How about a modified Wild Card round where you have six teams enter the playoffs in Week 12. The top two teams get a bye week and the remaining four teams faceoff in a one-week, single elimination playoff matchup. The two winners of the Wild Card round advance to join the top two teams in a four team, two-week playoff for the championship trophy beginning in Week 13 and ending in Week 16. Hey, that sounds pretty fun actually!

 

Other variations on the Two-Week Playoff Rule include deciding when your playoffs will run. If you still want some unpredictability and excitement then have your playoffs run right up until the end of the NFL regular season. Week 17 often sees some of the best players on playoff teams sitting to rest up for their run down the stretch and could put owners in some tough predicaments. Or you can choose to have your championship matchup end Week 16 and begin earlier in the season. 

 

Afterall, you make the rules, we just provide options.

Download the rule summary now!
Download the FREE "Scheduling" Rule Summary to share with your leaguemates now!

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

Playoff Seed-Based Schedule

A Rule About Scheduling

Imagine it’s week 12. With the playoffs looming, you find yourself on the fringe of playoff contention. What’s worse, you take a peek at the schedule, you are set to play the league juggernaut. Meanwhile, the lucky dog you are competing with for that last playoff spot has a matchup with the league punching bag. Your playoff hopes have been dashed by an arbitrary scheduling coincidence. Playoff Seed-Based Schedule does away with scheduling randomness during those weeks when it matters most.

 

How It Works

The playoffs are a sacred part of the fantasy football season. It’s where Champions are made and legends are born. Why should an owner be kept from playoff glory because of flukey scheduling? By grounding the latter part of the regular season schedule in performance based metrics, we can not only create a more equitable schedule, but one that is also a hell of a lot more fun.

 

Playoff Seed-Based Scheduling pairs teams, based on their record, for head-2-head matchups in the last two weeks of the regular season.

 

In Weeks 1-11, set up a schedule as you and your league see fit (in a 12-team league, this works out perfectly to play each of the other 11 teams once). In week 12, the top two teams based on record will duke it out for league supremacy, the third and fourth place teams will battle to get into that upper tier, the fifth and sixth place teams try to hold onto the last playoff berth, the seventh and eighth place teams fight for playoff contention, the ninth and tenth place teams play to stay relevant, and eleventh and twelfth place teams faceoff to keep their pride. The Week 12 schedule should look like this:

 

Week 12:

Game A: 1st place team vs 2nd place team

Game B: 3rd vs 4th

Game C: 5th vs 6th

Game D: 7th vs 8th

Game E: 9th vs 10th

Game F: 11th vs 12th

As the winners and losers of each of these Week 12 games shake out, Week 13 games follow a similar playoff-seeding based format.

 

Week 13:

Winner of Game A plays the winner of Game B

Loser of Game A plays the winner of Game C

Loser of Game B plays the winner of Game D

Loser of Game C plays the winner of Game E

Loser of Game D plays the winner of Game F

Loser of Game E plays the loser of Game F

 

These games are sure to be competitive as they all have a direct impact on the final playoff seeds (which is more than we can say about the close of the regular season in normal random scheduling formats). And it creates a perfect transition into the intensity of what comes next – the playoffs in Weeks 14-16.

 

Thanks to the amount of flexibility in scheduling we are allowed on most league sites, it should be fairly easy for The Commish to facilitate this schedule change. The Commish can manually create matchups as described above.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Determine how the league would like to schedule the first 11 weeks of the season. We have a whole bunch of recommended formats in our Schedule Rules page.
  • Week 12 matchups should pair teams in order of league standings. First place vs second place, third vs fourth, and so on.
  • Week 13 matchups will be determined based on the results of Week 12 games.
  • After Week 13, final playoff seeds will be determined and the playoffs begin in Week 14.

Change Ups

There are many ways to schedule the first 11 weeks of the season. This format just so happens to work really well in 12-team league given that scheduling can be super simple – just play every other team once in those first weeks. But what about those beloved 10-team leagues? How about this – extend the Playoff Seed-Based Scheduling by starting in Week 10, after you’ve played all of the other teams once. You’ll go through two iterations of the Week 12 and 13 schedule format outlined above but at the end, there will be no question about who deserves which seed in the playoffs.

 

Download the rule summary now!
Download the FREE "Scheduling" Rule Summary to share with your leaguemates now!

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.