REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE
ESPN has set fourteen(14) weeks in the regular season for Public Leagues. This is a fixed setting and thus can not be altered. If you wish to play in a league which offers flexible regular season and playoff schedules, you must create or join a League Manager league.
REACHING THE PLAYOFFS
The top four teams in a league make the playoffs. These four are comprised of the two division champions and two wild-card teams. Division champions are the teams that win the league divisions. The next two teams according to the tiebreaker below are the wild card teams.
PLAYOFF BRACKET SETUP
All teams continue to compete throughout the playoffs. The two Divisional Champions and two wild-card teams (teams with the next best overall records) compete for the League Championship. The wild card teams may come from either division and are selected by their records, with ties resolved according to the tiebreaker categories below. The top-ranked division champion plays the lowest-ranked wild card team i.e. the first place team faces the fourth place team while the second place team faces the third-place team.
The remaining teams compete in the consolation bracket. Throughout of the running for the championship, this consolation bracket is still competitive since no one wants to finish in last place!
PLAYOFF SEEDING AND TIEBREAKERS (Public/Standard Leagues)
Public League Playoffs: Playoff Seeding and Tiebreakers
In the event that two or more teams have identical won-loss records at the conclusion of the Fantasy Football regular season, the following tiebreaking system is employed.
- Overall points-for
- Head-to-Head record
- Division record
- Overall points-against
- Coin Flip
NOTE: The Overall record is based on winning percentage. Therefore, a team that is 9-5-0 and a team that is 8-4-2 have the same winning percentage, and thus would be considered tied for overall record.
PUBLIC LEAGUE PLAYOFFS: TIEBREAKER FOR PLAYOFF GAMES
In the event that two teams have the same number of points at the conclusion of their two-week playoff game, the tiebreaker for playoff games is each team's original seeding in the playoffs. In short, the team with the higher seed wins.
PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
Winner's Bracket: In the first round of the playoffs, the division winner with the best win-loss record plays the wild-card team with the worst win-loss record; the other division winner plays the wild-card team with the better win-loss record. In the second round, the winners of the first-round games compete for the league championship. Each round of the playoffs spans a two-week period. The 5th through 10th-seeded teams in each league compete in the Consolation bracket.
The Winner's bracket:
- 1st place - Winner of game 1, round 2
- 2nd place - Loser of game 1, round 2
- 3rd place - Winner of game 2, round 2
- 4th place - Loser of game 2, round 2
The Consolation bracket:
- 5th place - Winner of game 1, round 2
- 6th place - Loser of game 1, round 2
- 7th place - Winner of game 2, round 2
- 8th place - Loser of game 2, round 2
- 9th place - Winner of game 3, round 2
- 10th place - Loser of game 3, round 2