Last Week’s Question:

What website does the best job of hosting fantasy leagues during the NFL playoffs?

Jeremy’s question about fantasy leagues that focus on the NFL playoffs was echoed by another reader named Jerry:

I too run a fantasy playoff league every year. Actually, I enjoy this type of league more than the normal regular season FFL leagues. We run the league very similar to Jeremy. We draft just a starting lineup and you keep those players throughout the playoffs. There are no waivers, trades or any type of pickups due to injuries.

As far as strategy, the winners in our league in previous years have always had a combination of players from teams in the bye week and wildcard teams. This year, I think you can foresee some wildcard teams playing deep into the playoffs [which would mean getting even more productivity out of them].

I also have to run our league manually! From the draft to calculating players’ points each week, I have to manage the league by hand. Like Jeremy, I would like to know if there are any websites that can host and run a playoff fantasy league online.

It is amusing to me that so many FF-aholics seem to have independently adopted similar approaches to squeezing FF competitions out of the NFL playoffs. As I indicated in last week’s column, I have participated in playoff leagues such as the one that Jeremy describes. At the time, I thought they were freakish leagues-of-last-resort for diehards who simply couldn’t let go of their fantasy teams just because the regular NFL season was over.

Apparently such post-season leagues are more common than I imagined, but I only heard from one owner-turned-commissioner who is happy with his solution for automating the scoring of such leagues. According to Daryl:

I participate in a post-season fantasy league with two other owners from my regular league every year. After the regular season championship game, the real commissioner of our league makes me the commissioner on our website. The 3 of us who compete in the playoffs are the only owners who remain active. We have a mini-draft; I change our teams to reflect what they are supposed to look like in the playoffs; and the website handles everything from there just like in the regular season. Our league is hosted by RTSports.com, but I assume this would work [with other league-hosting services].

I know that many of the regular readers of and contributors to this column are busy traveling over the holidays, so I will invite anyone who wants to chime in on the discussion of managing post-season fantasy leagues to get back to me at their convenience. If I receive enough additional material, I will be happy to return to this topic for next season.

Next Season's Questions:

You have from now until June to help set the agenda for FFToday’s Q&A in 2011.

This is the final Q&A column for the 2010 season. I am grateful to all of the readers who submitted questions and/or answers to the column. I am especially grateful to Mark Den Adel for providing the Last Man Standing picks each week (even though the Dallas Cowboys had it out for him this year). Of course, I remain grateful to Mike Krueger and the whole team at FFToday for providing the FF community with this forum for discussion.

Assuming that labor and management in the NFL will have everything worked out for the 2011 season, Q&A should return in June with more questions and answers from commissioners who continue to tweak their leagues. Please contact me before June with any questions you would like to see addressed in the 2011 season.

Last Man Standing Picks (Courtesy of Mark Den Adel)

Mark’s struggles last week were at least in part attributable to the delay of the Eagles game (which apparently affected Michael Vick in much the same way that it affected Mark’s prognosticating prowess). Mark is now 34-13 on the year, and there are 11 teams that he cannot use this week. I wish him the best of luck in the final week of the regular season and would like to echo the thanks of the many readers who consult this column primarily for his picks.

#1 – St. Louis over Seattle
Sam Bradford played great last week in the win over the 49ers. LeGarrette Blount managed to run all over the Seahawks, so Steven Jackson should do at least as well this week. It seems likely that Hasselbeck will be out, and Seattle has won only 3 times since mid-October.

#2 – Kansas City over Oakland
Be warned that it is not clear whether KC will be playing many of their starters in this contest. If you are willing to gamble on the Chiefs wanting to finish the regular season on a high note (as I am), then this pick should pay off for you. The Chiefs’ running game has been great all year, and I think they can continue that at home against Oakland. If Cassel doesn’t play and Croyle does, this pick may be in trouble (as Croyle is 0-10 as a starter).

#3 – NY Jets over Buffalo
I’m not sure if the Jets will use their starters or not, but then again I’m not sure that it takes starters to beat Buffalo. My best guess is that the Jets will be feeling some pressure to make the Bills look as bad as New England did last week. Rex Ryan and company should have little trouble with a Bills team that clearly just needs to make it to the offseason to lick its wounds.

Upset of the Week – Arizona over San Francisco
My record on upset picks this season is a disappointing 5-10, but I have consistently been drawn to picks that come down to the wire. The lesson here is that my picks may be wrong more often than not, but you will probably be biting your nails down to the quick even if you decide to pick against my upset choices. This week I suspect that the 49ers will turn in a flaccid performance as they are out of the playoffs and their coach just got fired. Coaching changes obviously fired up both Minnesota and Dallas earlier this year, but those clubs had enough time left in the season to redefine themselves in the eyes of their fans. The 49ers are in a different emotional place, and it looks to me like the air has simply gone out of the team.