How To...  Set Up Your Fantasy Playoff System

There are a variety of ways to define your league's fantasy playoffs.  This 'How To' document will explain the solution for the most widely used playoff types

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Common Types of Fantasy Playoffs

1. Head-to-Head, Single-Elimination.

This most common type of playoff setup uses brackets to define matchup pairs.  Each week the winner (and any predefined bye teams) advance and the loser is removed from future championship matchups.

The setup for this style of playoffs, is performed using the Setup > General Playoff Setup screens.

(Option A)

Select A Packaged Playoff Bracket.  Designed for leagues that can use one of the six pre-defined, common fantasy playoff brackets.  Simply name the bracket & title of the champion, specify the starting week, and choose the number of teams involved.  Once a packaged playoff bracket has been selected, you can later edit it on the General Playoff Setup (see option b below) screen. 

Seed Playoff Teams.  Once your playoff brackets have been defined AND your league's regular season has ended, you'll need to use this screen to define the seeds for each of the playoff brackets. Simply select each seed from the list of teams and assign accordingly.   If your league has multiple brackets, the seed positions are independent from bracket to bracket and always start with seed #1.  Furthermore, if the winners/losers of one or more brackets are then seeded into another bracket, you will need to use this screen once the 'preliminary' bracket has been completed (and the teams are known).

(Option B)

General Playoff Setup.  This screen will allow you to define up to ten separate playoff brackets for your league.  While most leagues will only use one for playoffs and some will use another for a "toilet" bowl, it's also not uncommon for some leagues to use additional brackets to determine 3rd place, 5th place, etc.  Although not necessary, some leagues have also defined separate brackets for each conference and one final bracket for the championship game.

Playoff Schedule Setup.  The next step in the playoff setup process is to define your matchups.  For the first round, you'll be required to specify the specific seeds for each game. It's common to schedule the highest and lowest seeds like this: Seed #1 vs. Seed #4, Seed #2 vs. Seed #3. Of course, you are free to seed your teams as needed.

NOTE: If your league awards a first-round bye to one or more franchises, be sure to not schedule these teams in the first round.

You'll also need to define the teams that should play in each additional round through the championship.

NOTE: Some league require that the highest advancing seed plays against the lowest advancing seed each week.  As these teams are not known until after the games for a given round have completed, you may be required to adjust matchups each week to ensure these seeds compete against one another.

Seed Playoff Teams.  Once your playoff brackets have been defined AND your league's regular season has ended, you'll need to use this screen to define the seeds for each of the playoff brackets. Simply select each seed from the list of teams and assign accordingly.   If your league has multiple brackets, the seed positions are independent from bracket to bracket and always start with seed #1.  Furthermore, if the winners/losers of one or more brackets are then seeded into another bracket, you will need to use this screen once the 'preliminary' bracket has been completed (and the teams are known).

2. Head-to-Head, Multi-Week.

This style of playoffs is similar to the above single-elimination bracket, however, two teams play against one another for more than one week (typically two).  The winner is determined by adding the scores for each franchise across the defined weeks.  As in single-elimination, the loser is removed from future championship matchups.

Currently h2h multi-week playoffs are not automatically supported by the system.  As a result, the simplest way to use this playoff format is to have each playoff owner submit their lineup and manually add up the point values across weeks as necessary.  The Weekly Summary report can be used as a good reference for each franchise weekly score.

3. Multi-Way Matchups.

In this scenario, three or more teams play in a given week and a subset advance to the next round.  Like H2H multi-week, this style is not automatically supported.  Also like H2H multi-week play, the best way to offer this is to have each playoff owner submit their lineup and use the Weekly Summary report to determine which team(s) advance.  Only allow these advancing teams the ability to submit another lineup.

4. Total Points.

In total points playoffs, each franchise participant submits a weekly lineup for the duration of the playoffs.  At the end of the playoff term, all weekly lineup scores are added together and the franchise with the most total playoff points declared the winner.

This playoff format is supported by having each playoff owner submit their lineups each week and manually add up the point values across weeks as necessary.  The Weekly Summary report can be used as a good reference for each franchise weekly score.

5. Combination.

While any combination of the above is possible, the most common approach is to use a head-to-head, single elimination (#1) with a total points (#3) system for playoffs.

To setup a combination playoff league, please see the individual setup requirements as detailed above.

NFL Playoffs:  New League vs. Existing League

MyFantasyLeague.com offers free playoff league so existing customers can either extend their regular season league for their fantasy playoffs or choose to use a new playoff league altogether.  Typically the decision is best made based on a few specific playoff league requirements.  Please ask yourself the following questions regarding your playoff league:

1. Does my league's playoff keep the same rosters as in our regular-season league?

YES: It's much easier to simply extend your regular-season league's season through week 21.  Go to Setup > General Scoring Setup and change the 'Calculate Fantasy Results' option to run through week 21.

NO: You might want to copy your regular-season league to a new, playoff league.  More information will be available in December.

2. Does my league's standings continue to accumulate through the NFL playoffs?

YES: You will need to continue using your regular season league.  Go to Setup > General Scoring Setup and change the 'Calculate Fantasy Results' option to run through week 21.

NO: You might want to copy your regular-season league to a new, playoff league.  More information will be available in December.

NOTE: Weekly fantasy playoff points will always add to the regular season YTD total points calculation for each franchise.

NOTE: For NFL playoff leagues, use the Setup > Appearance Setup > Other Settings screen to enable the restricted display of playoff team players in all free agent lists.