Question about Playoffs Setup

[Kane Ryker]

My league is 12 teams H2H multi category. We have divisions broken into East, Central, West and a division winner from each will advance to the playoffs along with the three 3 best non-division winners earning wild card births. In total, 6 of 12 teams advance to the playoffs.

We have set it up where seeds 1 & 2 earn bye's in first round of our H2H playoffs. That is the best two records from the three division winners.

in Round 1:

3 vs 6
4 vs 5

Round 2:

1 vs remaining low seed
2 vs remaining low seed

Round 3:

Championship

My question is what to do with the 3rd division winner? 2 of the 3 division winners earn bye's. What's the benefit to that 3rd division winner?

Any ideas / suggestions around this playoff setup that would be better?

[LeTrefle]

The 3rd gets to play the weakest of the playoff teams (6th).
Not good as a bye, but fair enouhg.

[rataylor22]

We use 4 divisions, and 8 teams with no byes. I like having as many teams in playoffs as possible.

I also think byes in fantasy are silly. In actual sports, the point is to give the bye teams rest to theoretically make them healthier and more prepared. The rest aspect doesn't really apply in fantasy. If you like 6 teams however, why not drop it to 2 divisions and have the top of each division get a bye and then the next best 4 make up the 6?

[LawMan]

My question is what to do with the 3rd division winner? 2 of the 3 division winners earn bye's. What's the benefit to that 3rd division winner?

Any ideas / suggestions around this playoff setup that would be better?

If you're going to do 6 teams in the playoffs then top 2 seeds get a bye while the 3rd division winner is assured the 3rd seed (even if they have the 4th or 5th best record).
We have the same 12-team, 3 divisions of 4 setup as you and give the division winners top 3 seeds (like the previous NHL format). Though we go 8 teams make the playoffs.
No way to give 3 teams bye in your format.

We use 4 divisions, and 8 teams with no byes. I like having as many teams in playoffs as possible.

I also think byes in fantasy are silly. In actual sports, the point is to give the bye teams rest to theoretically make them healthier and more prepared. The rest aspect doesn't really apply in fantasy. If you like 6 teams however, why not drop it to 2 divisions and have the top of each division get a bye and then the next best 4 make up the 6?

The equally important advantage of a bye is it equals a win! You have no risk of not making the 2nd round and that's certainly a strong argument in favour of rewarding the top-2 seeds who dominate 20+ weeks of the regular season.

[rataylor22]

The equally important advantage of a bye is it equals a win! You have no risk of not making the 2nd round and that's certainly a strong argument in favour of rewarding the top-2 seeds who dominate 20+ weeks of the regular season.

You get rewarded with playing the last and second last teams, which should be beatable anyways

[Kane Ryker]

Thanks guys!

We've been discussing this setup in our league this afternoon and we've whittled it down to now having just 2 divisions of 6 teams. We are talking about 8 teams instead of 6 teams making the playoffs, but nothing decided. So far we are just in good discussions bouncing ideas off each other. Anyway it's a fluid situation and was looking for others inputs to expand the idea base. Thanks for the feedback.

[Pengwin7]

Thanks guys!

We've been discussing this setup in our league this afternoon and we've whittled it down to now having just 2 divisions of 6 teams. We are talking about 8 teams instead of 6 teams making the playoffs, but nothing decided. So far we are just in good discussions bouncing ideas off each other. Anyway it's a fluid situation and was looking for others inputs to expand the idea base. Thanks for the feedback.

Just curious.
With your divisions... how does the schedule shake up?
Do you play division opponents more often?

One think I like about 12-team leagues in H2H is that MOST years, the standard fantasy hockey season is 22 weeks + 3 playoff weeks.

This works great in 12-team leagues, because you play each of your 11 opponents x 2 times.
So, regardless of whether you have divisions, it's fair match-up against everybody equally.

Then, you do the 3v6, 4v5 in Playoff Week#1, as you have it.

[Kane Ryker]

The schedule will be default setup with the exception of not using the last week of the season. We aren't custom making a schedule. No weight one way or the other. But in H2H we do not want that final week to be the week a team wins due to stars resting for the real NHL playoffs etc. So much wrong can happen that week in a fantasy league!

Just curious.
With your divisions... how does the schedule shake up?
Do you play division opponents more often?

One think I like about 12-team leagues in H2H is that MOST years, the standard fantasy hockey season is 22 weeks + 3 playoff weeks.

This works great in 12-team leagues, because you play each of your 11 opponents x 2 times.
So, regardless of whether you have divisions, it's fair match-up against everybody equally.

Then, you do the 3v6, 4v5 in Playoff Week#1, as you have it.

[rataylor22]

Just curious.
With your divisions... how does the schedule shake up?
Do you play division opponents more often?

One think I like about 12-team leagues in H2H is that MOST years, the standard fantasy hockey season is 22 weeks + 3 playoff weeks.

This works great in 12-team leagues, because you play each of your 11 opponents x 2 times.
So, regardless of whether you have divisions, it's fair match-up against everybody equally.

Then, you do the 3v6, 4v5 in Playoff Week#1, as you have it.

We had a big issue with this last year. Our commish decided that in division would play each other more than outside the division (which at the time nobody really thought through or cared) because it simulates real life. We have a payout for the team that finishes first in the regular season ($100 money back) and then top 3 in playoffs pay out.

Let me tell you, Unbalanced schedule is STUPID. I think our commish thought this through more than anyone else as his division was super weak. ESPN is down right now so I can't check actual records, but the way it worked out we played the other 2 teams in our own division 5 times, 1 different divison twice, and the other 6 teams once. Our commish ended up finishing first in the league with a 10-0 record against his division (who combined finished like 6-38 with inactive owners) and a 9-3 record against other teams (to be fair, he was a good team). Me (second) and the third and sixth place teams this year (by record) ended up in the same division and just beat up on each other and cannibalized wins. I have no doubt with a balanced schedule the three of us would have all finished a place higher with a balanced schedule.

In summary. Unbalanced is dumb.

[Pengwin7]

As a "prepper" for this NHL season.

The season opens with Wednesday night games.
This is really interesting because it makes Wed-Sun = 5 days. This is just long enough for a H2H "week", but perhaps Yahoo! (or others), decided to combine it with a full week.
I don't know.
We'll call this "Week 0".

Oct 08-Oct 12 Week 0 *5-Day NHL Week. May or may not get combined with the next week.
Oct 13-Oct 19 Week 1
Oct 20-Oct 26 Week 2
Oct 27-Nov 02 Week 3

Nov 03-Nov 09 Week 4
Nov 10-Nov 16 Week 5
Nov 17-Nov 23 Week 6
Nov 24-Nov 30 Week 7

Dec 01-Dec 07 Week 8
Dec 08-Dec 14 Week 9
Dec 15-Dec 21 Week 10
Dec 22-Dec 28 Week 11
Dec 29-Jan 04 Week 12

Jan 05-Jan 11 Week 13
Jan 12-Jan 18 Week 14a *Full 7-day NHL week, but might get combined with next week.
Jan 19-Jan 25 Week 14b *NHL Games only M/T/W. Thurs-Mon NHL is off for All-Star Weekend. So, this is likely to be combined with week before (or after)
Jan 26-Feb 01 Week 15

Feb 02-Feb 08 Week 16
Feb 09-Feb 15 Week 17
Feb 16-Feb 22 Week 18
Feb 23-Mar 01 Week 19

Mar 02-Mar 08 Week 20
Mar 09-Mar 15 Week 21
Mar 16-Mar 22 Week 22. Likely end of H2H Regular Season.

...
Mar 23-Mar 29 Week 23 (H2H Playoffs Week 1)
Mar 30-Apr 05 Week 24 (H2H Playoffs Week 2)
Apr 06-Apr 11 Week 25 (H2H Playoffs Week 3) *Note this is only a 6-day NHL week. All teams end on Saturday night.


So - looks like there is a lot of weeks this year.
Minimum 25 H2H weeks (two possible "combos"), maximum of H2H 27 weeks.

[rataylor22]

Playing in what P7's list would call week 26 is like playing in week 17 for football. Nobody should ever do it. Its a big disadvantage for theoretically the best teams, as the best players on those teams definitely could be sitting.

[Pengwin7]

Playing in what P7's list would call week 26 is like playing in week 17 for football. Nobody should ever do it. Its a big disadvantage for theoretically the best teams, as the best players on those teams definitely could be sitting.

Sort of true... though very few players rested, I think.
I know Boston gave their players some days off.
Lucic, Chara, Bergeron (?), Iginla, Krejci - all skipped the last game vs. NJ (Marty's last Devils start).
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=400485464

The Bs actually started Rask/Johnson/Rask/Johnson to end the season.
http://espn.go.com/nhl/team/schedule.../boston-bruins
(One reason why I don't value goalies to highly in H2H, might be sitting end of season.)

[rataylor22]

Lets see. Off the top of my head.

Getzlaf
Crosby
Kunitz
Benn
Toews?
Parise
Datsyuk

and a few D too I think, but couldn't name them.

[LawMan]

You get rewarded with playing the last and second last teams, which should be beatable anyways

Should be beatable is quite different from a guaranteed win. One week upsets happen all the time, your hot goalie has 1 stinker, some random 3rd liner gets his first ever hattrick, a D-man gets 15 PIMs late in a game to swing that category. Every single year during the playoffs the forums are littered with bad beat stories about guys dominating the regular season only to be bounced in round 1 by an 8 seed who got all the right bounces. I'm sure those teams would have preferred the first round bye...

[vitun-tyhmä]

One think I like about 12-team leagues in H2H is that MOST years, the standard fantasy hockey season is 22 weeks + 3 playoff weeks.

This works great in 12-team leagues, because you play each of your 11 opponents x 2 times.
So, regardless of whether you have divisions, it's fair match-up against everybody equally.

Then, you do the 3v6, 4v5 in Playoff Week#1, as you have it.

Same here, in H2H that is important that everyone has the same strength of schedule.
I don't like divisions, in several of my leagues we'll often have 4 or 5 teams in the middle with virtually the same record (12-10, 13-9, etc), I'd hate to see an 11-11 team get in over them just by virtue of being first in a weak division