Description: Every Franchise Football culminates in the playoffs and finally the Galaxy Bowl. The playoffs start at the end of the season and include the top 8 teams from each conference.
Topics
Division Champions
Wild Card Teams
Determining Home Field
Tie Breakers
Playoff Rounds
Related Topics
Division Champions: The best team in each division automatically makes the playoffs. These teams are the division champions. Since there are four divisions in each conference, there are 4 teams (out of 8 per conference) that are division champions and therefore make the playoffs. The remaining playoff teams are wild card teams.
Wild Card Teams: In addition to the four division champions that make the playoffs there are also 4 wild card teams. Unlike professional football in the United States, there are four teams instead of just two. This is partially so that more teams get to compete for the Galaxy Bowl, and is also partially so that all playoff teams enjoy the same amount of revenue throughout the playoffs. The four wild card teams are the best four teams after the division champions are selected.
Determining Home Field: Home field is often confusing in the Franchise Football playoffs. A division champion playing a wild card team will always be at home (exception the Galaxy Bowl). This is despite the possibility that the wild card could have a better record than the division champion. If two division champions play each other, the team who is the highest seed (best record with tie breakers) is the home team. Likewise if two wild card teams meet, the higher seed wild card is the home team.
Tie Breakers: Often times the record of two teams is not enough to determine the higher seed, division champion, or even a playoff spot all together. In all cases, ties are broken with this formula: First, the wins, losses and ties of a team are compared, if those are the same, then the divisional record of the teams are considered. If those are the same, the conference record of a team is analyzed. If all of those are the same, the tie breaker results in the difference between points scored and points allowed. Unfortunately, tie breakers including like opponents, strength of schedule and other somewhat subjective and difficult to calculate criteria are not able to be used.
Playoff Rounds: The playoffs start in week 21. There are 16 regular season games and 4 exhibition games before the playoffs start. There are 4 rounds to the playoffs. Round 1 is the Wild Card round. Round 2 is the Division Championship round. Round 3 is the Conference Championship round. Finally, the 4th round is the Galaxy Bowl.
