How many teams do you invite to the Big Dance???

[Kensat30]

If you wanna keep your league competitive, have a weekly point scorer award. That way the deserving teams make the playoffs but even the doormats have a chance to win. Even if you are a playoff team and you lose in the first round, you're still competing in the Super Bowl for the weekly pot.

[Cornbread Maxwell]

4 team playoffs through 12 team leagues - once you get up to 14-16 teams I can understand 6 playoff spots.

As for competitiveness, ideally you want to screen owners for competitiveness, but if that doesnt work - try upping the $ until you get everyones attention for the yr.

[34=Sweetness]

There's a reason I don't care about March Madness. Too many teams.

No reason any team finishing in the bottom half of the league should have a shot at the title.

Most of the teams in March Madness won their conference and have 20+ wins. I like 6 in the playoffs, emulates the NFL with byes and such, and then for the 6 that don't make it, a consolation playoffs for bragging rights is nice. SO everyone gets to play out the rest of the season.

[chk57]

This is a very sore spot for me. I joined a league last year that a friend put together...and dumb me...didn't really read every fine point regarding it.

8 teams out of 10!!! made it to the playoffs. My #1 regular season record got knocked out week one of playoffs because number 8 had a phenomenal week, while I had a normal one.

I'm going 4 teams out of 12 for my league this year unless someone really argues a good point for 6.

[Mercer Boy]

This is a very sore spot for me. I joined a league last year that a friend put together...and dumb me...didn't really read every fine point regarding it.

8 teams out of 10!!! made it to the playoffs. My #1 regular season record got knocked out week one of playoffs because number 8 had a phenomenal week, while I had a normal one.

I'm going 4 teams out of 12 for my league this year unless someone really argues a good point for 6.

Exactly why I don't think scrub teams should make the playoffs. Sure, it keeps people interested, but if they just played the game out no matter how good/bad they were doing, you wouldn't need to give handout playoff spots to junk teams.

NFL teams normally don't just give up halfway through the year if they are losing...well, at least they say they don't.

If the NFL let 20 of the teams make the playoffs, there's very little chance those poor teams would make it past the first round. Better talent beats sub-standard talent. In fantasy football, however, anything can happen with the players on your team. Everyone has decent players or can have a random guy score 3 TD's in one week. To me, it's not fair to the teams that really deserve to be there. If you want in the playoffs, earn it.

And sadly, the NHL wants to do this next year in order to get fans re-interested in the sport and their playoffs.

[Azrael]

Depends on the size of the league. I figure this -

8 teams: 4 in the playoffs
10 teams: 4 in the playoffs
12 teams: 4-6 in the playoffs
14 teams: 6 in the playoffs
16 teams: 6 in the playoffs

EDIT: Corrected spelling.

I really don't like where half the teams make the playoffs once you get over 8 teams, i.e. 6 out of 12 making the playoffs. 4 teams makes it really exclusive.

[Ek]

My league just went from 10 teams to twelve and we increased the playoff size from four to six. Four was a very good amount for ten, but I like six as the top teams are playing for byes and most teams that are remotely decent will be in it until week 12 or 13 (we're doing playoffs in weeks 14, 15, and 16). Most leagues will have one or two crappy teams that don't have a realistic shot, but this can really only be prevented by letting everyone into the playoffs, which makes the regular season pointless.