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DataForce Seeding Explanation

DataForce's playoff seeding is a little different from other sites, where only the top teams in the standings makes the playoffs. Instead, we seed six teams into the playoffs based on both scoring performance and winning percentage.

Note that the following discussion regards playoff contention rules only, and not the formation of playoff brackets, which are driven by the standings. Once the playoff teams are selected via the following rules, the best team will play the worst team according to the standings in rounds one and two of the playoffs.

How Playoff Qualification Works

Six teams in each league qualify for the playoffs, and two of the six teams will receive a bye for the first playoff week. The qualifying teams are seeded for playoff berths as such:

1. The highest ranked division winner (according to win-loss record) is seeded #1 and will receive a first-round playoff bye
2. The winner of the other division is seeded #2 and will receive a first-round playoff bye
3. The remaining team who scored the most points during the season is in
4. The remaining team who scored the next most points during the season is in
5. The remaining team with the highest win-loss record is in
6. The remaining team with the next highest win-loss record is in

Why We Do It This Way

Our customers tell us they want a seeding system that minimizes the effect of luck. This method guarantees that the top four teams in the standings (with at least one team from each division) will make the playoffs, and it guarantees that the two best teams according to most points scored will make the playoffs.

The bane of Fantasy Football is abandoned teams. Boy, does it suck when you score a ton of points but get beat out of the playoffs by a team that got an easy matchup against some lazy dude who didn't bother to submit a decent lineup. The need to reduce the luck factor and reward the better teams seems obvious to many. But there's more.

Our customers like the idea that they're never mathematically out of the playoffs. Even if you get off to a bad start, you can make it up, so you still have something to play for, because you can still make the playoffs. That keeps the league more competitive by decreasing the number of abandoned teams. Combined with our toilet bowls, we find it nice that almost everyone has a meaningful game almost every week of the 16-week fantasy schedule.

Doesn't Seeding Points First Give Them More Emphasis Than Standings?

No. It does the opposite. Consider this simple example:

• Team A record 10-3 scores 1000 points
• Team B record 9-4 scores 800 points.
• Team C record 8-5 scores 900 points

If we need to pick two teams, one by standings and one by points, which two should make the playoffs? What do you think?

If we select the team with the most points first, and then the team with the highest standing, we get teams A and B.

If we select the team with the highest standing first, and then the team with the most points, we gets teams A and C

By choosing points first, we emphasize standings as more important. Most people feel this is intuitively correct.

Then Why Are Top-Scoring Teams Seeded Ahead of Top-Standings?

Even though our seeding methodology emphasizes standings, it still disturbes some people that teams with lower standings can be seeded ahead of teams with higher standings. This seems intuitively wrong to some customers, even though the better teams (the teams that score the most points) are seeded higher.

We have toyed with the idea of changing this. We could, for example, first select our six playoff teams by the method above, and then re-seed them by standings. This little bit of added complexity can make a difference. Is it worth it?

Most customers say no, it's not worth it. It will just be harder to explain. They point out the fact that the matchups in the quarterfinals won't change at all, whether top-scorers are seeded 3rd and 4th or 5th and 6th. There is no home-field advantage, so what's the big deal in seeding?

Why Not Just Use Victory Points?

We also have a large contingent of customers who think victory points is the answer. In this system, teams are awarded between 0 and 4 victory points each week, and there are no standings. The teams that accumulate the most victory points make the playoffs.

Victory point scoring works like this: You get 2 points for each win. You get 2 points for scoring in the top four teams each week. You get 1 point for scoring in the middle four each week. You get 0 points for scoring in the bottom four.

So why not use victory points to minimize the luck factor? Because purists seem to hate them, and the idea gets outvoted every year.

Why Have Divisions At All?

Mostly, it's a matter of catering to the larger crowd that likes to see standings emphasized. Playing for the top spot in your division becomes important because of that coveted first-round bye in the playoffs.

We're aware that this increases the luck factor, since the luck of the draw can put you in either a soft or a tough division. We're aware that you don't really play that many intra-division games anyway. We still find that people like the divisional competition.

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