Points To Playoffs
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.
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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 […]