Manual history

League Schedule

The PAFFL-OG schedule is composed of fourteen (14) regular season games, then a playoff (for those that qualify) and rookie lottery tournament (for those that don’t qualify for (and are eliminated from) the playoffs. The regular season schedule consists of head-to-head matches among a pair of teams. If there are 12 teams in the league, each team’s 13th head-to-head match will be set by an unsupervised machine learning model targeting parity on a year over year basis. The algorithm will be trained (annually) on the 35-year dataset produced by the PAFFL-OG. Features in the model include, but are not limited to: wins, losses, points scored, power rankings, playoff wins, Jankster Cup titles, league rule violations, auction attendance, message board comments, trades completed, salary cap management, and a heuristic score of each owner’s social contribution to the league. The social contribution scores will be voted on at each year’s auction after the rookie draft. If there are 16 teams in the PAFFL-OG, each team’s 14 regular season head-to-head matches will be chosen by said proprietary algorithm. Or, The Commissioner will just use the RANDBETWEEN() function in Google Sheets to determine the schedule for everyone.

The PAFFL-OG schedule is composed of:

Fourteen (14) regular season games

A 3 week playoff cage match (for those that qualify)

A 3 week cage-match rookie pick seeding tournament (for those that don’t qualify for (and those that are eliminated from) the playoffs).

The regular season schedule consists of single week head-to-head matchups. Head-to-head matchups are set by an unsupervised machine learning model targeting parity on a year over year basis. The algorithm is retrained (annually) on the 37-year dataset produced by the PAFFL-OG. Features in the model include, but are not limited to: wins, losses, points scored, power rankings, playoff wins, Jankster Cup titles, league rule violations, auction attendance, message board comments, trades completed, salary cap management, and a heuristic score of each owner’s social contribution to the league. The social contribution scores are voted on via blind-ballot at each year’s auction after the rookie draft. Or, The Commissioner will just use the RANDBETWEEN() function in Google Sheets to determine the schedule for everyone.

Playoffs

Eight seeded teams advance to the playoffs each year. Six of the eight teams advance based on the top win-loss-tie records after the regular season. The final two playoff teams are determined by their 14-week breakdown score. This split mitigates risk from 'unfair' scheduling. If two playoff teams have the same record, seeding is determined by regular season breakdown. Breakdown score is defined as the overall record against all the other teams each week of the season; as tracked by the league website. Seeding is necessary for playoff week 2 - where the cage match winners are seeded based on regular season breakdown, and the lower seeded team plays the bye week team, and the higher seeded team plays the 2v3 game winner.

Week 15 / Week 1 of the Playoffs

The top seeded team gets a bye

The 2nd and 3rd seeded teams play head to head

The 4th through 8th seeded teams play in a Playoff Cage Match

The winner of the 2v3 matchup advances

The top 2 scores from the cage match also advance to the 2nd round of the playoffs

The loser of 2v3 matchup score is included in the cage match and may advance if they are one of the top two scoring teams

The bottom teams in the Playoff Cage Match are relegated to the Rookie Pick Tournament (see below)

Week 16 / Week 2 of the Playoffs - The “Semi Finals”

The #1 overall seed plays the lowest scoring team advancing from the cage match

The winner of the 2v3 seed match from round 1 plays the higher scoring team advancing from the cage match

The winners of these head-to-head matchups advance to the finals

The losers of these head-to-head matchups are relegated to the Rookie Pick Tournament

Week 17 / 🎺🌤 The Jankster Cup Championship 🎺🌤 - The winners of each semi-final matchup play head to head

The Rookie Draft “Cage-Match” Tournament

In an effort to make the postseason interesting for the teams that have nothing left to play for, and to deter teams from dumping talent at the trade-deadline, the PAFFL-OG hosts a two part Rookie Draft “Cage Match” Tournament.

Part 1: The Rookie Pick Cage Match

All non-playoff teams are seeded based on the final regular season breakdown score from the PAFFL-OG website. These teams all play in a two week “Cage Match” during Weeks 15 & 16. The points from their Week 15 & 16 starting lineups are summed and determine who plays in Week 17 for the top two Rookie Draft picks. This “Cage Match” is made equitable with handicap points that are added to the Weeks 15 & 16 summed point total:

Seeds 9 & 10 are granted 0 handicap points

Seeds 11 & 12 are granted 10 handicap points

Seeds 13 & 14 are granted 20 handicap points

Seeds 15 & 16 are granted 30 handicap points

Part 2: The Rookie Pick Tournament

Following the two week “Cage Match” among non-playoff teams, head-to-head matchups in week 17 determine rookie pick order for the following season.

The two teams with the highest total points (including handicap points) face off for Rookie Draft selections #1 & #2

The next two highest scoring cage match teams face off in Week 17 for the #3 vs. #4 Rookie Draft selections

CAVEAT - If the worst scoring team in the regular season doesn't make either of these two rookie pick matchups, they are slotted into the matchup for the 3rd / 4th rookie picks. The goal here is to ensure that the worst team each year gets a top 4 rookie pick to help foster parity.

The next two highest scoring cage match teams (including handicap points) play in Week 17 for the 5th and 6th rookie picks

The last two highest scoring team (including handicap points) play in Week 17 for the 7th and 8th rookie picks

The four teams that lose in the Week 15 Playoff Catch Match, face off in Weeks 16 & 17 to determine Rookie Picks #9-#12.

Week 16 - The highest scoring team relegated from

Week 17 - best & two worst regular season record teams each are matched up in Week 16. The winners face off in Week 17 to determine #9, or 10 (if 16 teams) & #10, or 11, while the losers are matched up to determine #11, or 12 & #12, or 13.

The two teams that lose in the second round of the playoffs (Week 165) will match up in Week 17 to determine Rookie Draft selections #12, or 13 & #13, or 14.

The final two Rookie Draft selection slots will be held by the Jankster Cup Loser (#13, or 15) & Jankster Cup Champion (#14, or 16).

Pictures are probably easier:

Team Rosters

Week 14 - last week of the regular PAFFL season

Week 17 - Jankster Cup

Week 17 - 🎺🌤 Jankster Cup 🎺🌤

Last day in February - last day of the PAFFL year and last day to make transactions (e.g. buy out contracts)