NOTE: This FAQ mainly applies to leagues that use H2H records as seeding tiebreakers.
NOTE: In all public leagues, Points For is used as seeding tiebreakers. and if teams have the same Points For, then the H2H record is the secondary tiebreaker and if ties remain, then their IntraDivisional Record is used, followed by Points Against, and finally, by coin flip.
The first step toward winning your Fantasy League Championship is to be seeded in the Playoff Brackets. This process can be confusing so the information below will help clarify potential scenarios.
Seeding Tiebreakers follow a sequenced process that is repeated for each bracket seed. Once a seed is determined, the process starts all over again until the next seed is determined. Then it begins again until all ties are resolved and the playoff brackets are complete.
When a league converts into Playoff Mode the system automatically generates a seed for each team in the league based on the Regular Season results. These seeds determine where the system places each team in the playoffs.
The primary factors used to determine seeds are:
- Division Winner(s)
- Winning Percentage
In the event that two or more teams have the same Winning Percentage at the conclusion of the Regular Season, the Tiebreaker processes illustrated below are used.
NOTE: LMs are able to manually select and reorder the seeding tiebreakers for their league.
SEEDING TIEBREAKER SEQUENCE
- H2H Record (overall) among the tied teams
- If these teams have not all played each other and for an equal amount of times then the H2H tiebreaker is invalid. The tiebreaking process proceeds to Points For
- Points For (NOTE: THIS IS THE DEFAULT TIEBREAKER IN ALL PUBLIC LEAGUES)
- Most points wins. If a tie remains, the process proceeds to IntraDivisional Record.
- IntraDivisional Record (best H2H record within the same division). If a tie remains, the process proceeds to Points Against
- Points Against
- Most points wins*. f a tie remains, the process proceeds to a virtual Coin Flip.
- Coin Flip
* In Fantasy Football you have no control over how many points your opponent scores against you, so Points Against is a proxy for the NFL's "strength of schedule" tiebreaker. Assuming a comparable schedule, the team with more Points Against played a stronger schedule and thus wins a tie.
Note: Once a team has been seeded, the process starts back at the H2H Record
Tiebreaker Process when Two Teams are Tied
- H2H records between the two teams are compared. (Best record wins)
- If the records are the same, we compare their Points For.
- If tied in Points For, we compare their IntraDivisional Record.
- If the IntraDivisional Record is tied, we compare Points Against. (Most points wins)
- If for some reason the teams remain tied, a virtual coin flip will determine the seed.
Tiebreaker Process when MULTIPLE Teams are Tied
When more than two teams are tied, it is essentially a 'rinse and repeat' process for each remaining seed.
- Compare the H2H record of all teams that are tied. The team with the best H2H record is the top seed.
- Out of the remaining teams, once again compare the H2H records.
- If the remaining teams did not play each other an equal amount of times, compare the Points For and the team with the highest Points For is the next seed
- Repeat step 2 until all tied teams are seeded
Below is an example of how SEEDING tiebreakers work
The main things to remember are:
- Teams must have played the same number of head-to-head games amongst each other
- The tiebreaker process starts over from the beginning after each tie is broken for each bracket seed
All five teams in this example have a season record of 7-5
- Team A: 3rd in division 1 with 825 Points For.
- They beat teams B and E, and lost to teams C and D
- Team B: 2nd in division 1 with 918 Points For.
- They beat team C, lost to teams A and E, and did not play team D
- Team C: 1st in division 2 with 725 Points For.
- They beat team A, and lost to teams B, D, and E
- Team D: 2nd in division 2 with 720 Points For.
- They beat teams A, C, and E, and did not play team B
- Team E: 1st in Division 1 with 920 Points For.
- They beat teams B and C and lost to teams A and D
FIRST, we SEED the division winners
- Teams E and C won their divisions.
- Team E beat Team C in their Head-to-Head matchup
- Team E gets the #1 seed and Team C gets the #2 seed.
NOTE: In some LM leagues, there may be no divisions, in which case, this step is skipped and (barring a tie) the top-ranked team is assigned #1 seed.
Now we have to DETERMINE the #3 seed
We begin this stage by comparing Head-to-Head Records against each other.
- Teams A, B, and D all have 7-5 records
- Team A beat team B and lost to team D, so they are 1-1 head to head
- Team B lost to Team A, and did not play team D, so they are 0-1 head to head
- Team D beat team A, and did not play team B, so they are 1-0 head to head
IMPORTANT NOTE: Since the three teams did not play the same amount of Head-to-Head games, we have to go the next tiebreaker - "Points For".
Using the "Points For" tiebreaker
Team B gets the #3 Seed as they have the most Points For of the three remaining teams.
- Team A has 825 Points For
- Team B has 918 Points For
- Team D has 720 Points For
Time to assign the #4 seed
Exactly as before, we start with Overall Record and work our way through the sequence of tiebreakers. Since teams A and D have identical 7-5 records, we look at their Head-to-Head matchup/s.
Since team D beat team A, D would get the 4th and final playoff seed.
- Team A beat Team B and lost to team D
- Team D beat Team A, and did not play team B
LEAGUE MANAGER (LM) LEAGUES
In LM Leagues, the League Manager has the ultimate say on which teams advance to the Playoffs. In LM Leagues only, the default tiebreaker process is used unless your League Manager elected to modify the tiebreaker system using the "Edit Playoffs" page in LM Tools.
If your league uses its own playoff tiebreakers, we highly recommend pre-defining them and posting them prominently on the League Office page.
NOTE: As an exception, "Most Points from Bench" is an option only available for grandfathered Custom Leagues, which used such a tiebreaker rule in past seasons.