Fantasy Football '98 Rules: Playoffs

Rules Index The fantasy playoffs begin in the 14th week of the NFL's regular season. Round One of the playoffs takes place during the 14th and 15th weeks while Round Two spans the two final weeks of the NFL regular season (weeks 16 and 17). Each playoff team will have the opportunity to change their active roster between each week of playoff play.

Making the Playoffs
The top four teams -- two division champs and two wild-card teams -- compete for the League Championship. Division champs are the teams that win the East and West league conferences. The next two teams according to the tie-breaker below are the wild card teams. The best division champ plays the lower ranked wild card team, the other two play each other.

The 5th through 10th place teams compete in the consolation bracket.

Tie-Breakers
In the event that two or more teams have identical win-loss records at the conclusion of the season, or score an equal number of points in a postseason matchup, the following tie breaking systems are employed:

Tie Breakers for Division Championship/Playoff Seeding
1 - Overall record
2 - Head-to-head record
3 - Division record
4 - Head-to-head points
5 - Overall points

In the event that two or more teams have the same number of points at the conclusion of their two week playoff game, the following tie breaking systems is employed:

Tie Breaker for Playoff Games
1 - Head-to-head record
2 - Head-to-head points
3 - Division record
4 - Overall points

Playoff Schedule
In Round One of the playoffs, the conference winner with the best win/loss record plays the wild-card team with the worst win/loss record; the other conference winner plays the wild-card team with the better win/loss record. In Round Two, the winners of Game 1 and Game 2 in Round One (see table below) compete for the League Championship. Each round of the playoffs spans a two week period. The 5th through 10th seeded team in each league compete in the consolation bracket.

LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP PAIRINGS
GAME ROUND 1 - WKS 14 & 15
SEED VS. SEED
ROUND 2 - WKS 16 & 17
MATCHUPS
1 1 vs. 4 W1 vs. W2*
2 2 vs. 3 L1 vs. L2

CONSOLATION BRACKET PAIRINGS
GAME ROUND 1 - WKS 14 & 15
SEED VS. SEED
ROUND 2 - WKS 16 & 17
MATCHUPS
1 5 vs. 6 W1 vs. W2
2 7 vs. 8 L1 vs. W3
3 9 vs. 10 L2 vs. L3

Final league standings following the second round of the playoffs

From the League Championship 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

From the Consolation bracket:
5th place - Winner of game 1, round 2
6th place - Winner of game 2, round 2
7th place - Loser of game 1, round 2
8th place - Winner of game 3, round 2
9th place - Loser of game 2, round 2
10th place - Loser of game 3, round 2

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