The Worst Fantasy Football High-Stakes Rules in the Industry: FFPC Is Charging $2,000 for a Broken Format

The 2026 NFL schedule release highlights major flaws in the FFPC’s outdated all-play and playoff structure, raising fresh concerns about fairness in high-stakes fantasy football.

Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley (26) looks on before the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The 2026 release of the NFL season is a significant strike to the outdated, lazy schedule rules for the Fantasy Football Players Championship. Their original concept was built on a game: “For the Players, By the Players”, but unfortunately, it has settled into what Alex Kaganoski says rules their fantasy world. 

Bye Week 6 Flaw

New starting in 2021: The FFPC Main Event now has 12 regular-season weeks. Each team will still play every team in the league one time during the regular season. Week 6 will now be an all-play week. This means that week 6 will not have individual H2H matchups, rather it will be a full league total points battle. The top six scorers will get a Win and the bottom six scorers will get a Loss. Any team(s) that are tied for the sixth most points scored in week 6 will each be awarded a Win.

In 2021, this rule wasn’t well thought out, just by seeing four teams on a bye week (Atlanta, New Orleans, New York Jets, and San Francisco 49ers). Why does it make sense to have an all-play when four teams are on a bye? Each NFL season, all 32 teams typically play over the first three weeks, creating the best window to use in an all-play format, which is needed to extend the regular season to 12 weeks for their format (play every team once plus the all-play week). They use two playoff rounds to determine league winners and postseason prizes, followed by a three-week run over their overall prizes.

I don’t support the all-play in Week 1 due to the high-stakes market already having free look games, which influences drafts after the Thursday night game (this year, the NFL starts on a Wednesday with a second free look game on Thursday). 

The late start to the 2026 NFL season has led to no teams being on a bye in Week 4. In addition, Thanksgiving falls on Week 12 this year, creating another chance at an all-play, but I would prefer any all-play to come earlier in the season when drafters have a better idea of who is injured pre-draft and more likely to have a healthier full roster.

Here’s the FFPC's schedule each season:

Part 1 – Regular season Weeks 1-12

Part 2 – League Playoffs Weeks 13 & 14

Part 3 – Championship Round and Consolation Round Weeks 15-17

In this event, I would use weeks 2, 3, or 4 as their all-play in 2026. I would adjust the all-play week each season to matchup any changes to the NFL schedule. 

League Playoffs Schedule Issues

The second part of the FFPC's flawed schedule is having teams on bye during the championship rounds of their league playoff. Before this season, Week 13 (the first week of the league playoffs), every team played, so it was a fair schedule for all. Their problem fell in Week 14, when multiple teams have had a bye for over 10 seasons. Instead of addressing the issue and making the game better for their players, the FFPC wrote this rule:

Week 13/14 – NFL Teams on BYE – The NFL threw us a curve back in 2013 by scheduling bye weeks late into the regular season. In 2022, there were two teams on bye in week 13 and six teams on bye in Week 14. While having players on bye in the playoffs is unusual and may seem problematic on the surface, since this is a known fact to all FFPC owners prior to the draft, it does not put any owner at a disadvantage and is fair to all. Owners ultimately will make the decision to draft or not draft players from the bye week teams. This now adds a new wrinkle to player evaluation and draft strategy for the FFPC Main Event owners.

In essence, the FFPC never tried to address its flaws in its playoff schedule. Here is why it is critical for all teams to be playing in the postseason:

Seeds #1 and #2 Earn Cash Prizes and Automatically Advance to the Championship Round – As just reward for top performance over the 12-week regular season, the #1 and #2 seeds from each league will receive two benefits. First, is that each team will receive a cash prize (explained below) for their regular season performance. This is done so that the league playoff series does not overly emphasize one game, yet allows for exciting head-to-head playoff action. Second is the top 2 seeds also will automatically get placed into the Championship Round. These top 2 seeds will advance regardless of the outcome of their league playoff games.

The premise for the top two seeds makes sense, and I support this part of their playoff equation.

The 3rd and 4th seeds in the League Playoffs not only have a chance to win their league and make the Championship Round, but also get their own Consolation Round, if they do not. Typically, a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 2 teams per league will be placed in this Consolation Round, so there will be fewer teams to beat should your team get hot in weeks 15-17.

The way the third and fourth seeds playoff paragraph was written up, I should be excited to have a chance to win my way into the championship rounds. If I draft a team that narrowly misses out on the top two seeds, my chance to advance to the championship of their main event and potentially win one million dollars is severely compromised. My team must win in Weeks 13 and 14 to get to the big dance while having to negotiate some players on bye weeks. 

This year, four teams are on byes in Week 13 (Indianapolis, Las Vegas, New York Jets, and Baltimore Ravens) and two teams in Week 14 (Dallas and Arizona). 

So the game operators at the FFPC want me to handicap the player pool, along with understanding the ramifications of 10 teams (31.25% of the league) having a bye in three critical weeks (6, 13, and 14). 

The Solution

To fix their playoff problem in most years (2026 should be an outlier due to Week 12 falling on Thanksgiving), the FFPC should award the third and fourth seeds a trip to the overall championship if they win in Week 13 and face one of the top two seeds. This removes the issues with bye week players being a factor in Week 14, along with forcing a third/fourth seed matchup in the championship game to win their way into the big dance.

Schedule leak: The 2026 NFL Thanksgiving slate is out and it’s 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/weFfMCKrra

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) May 14, 2026

The FFPC will balk at this idea, as they have an approach where they don’t want too many teams in the championship round. If they look back at the history of their game, I would be surprised if a team in the consolation round has even scored enough points to win their overall championship if they qualify for it. If it happened, that is the dream. Live another day with a shot at a massive payday. More teams in the overall championship round give more game managers fantasy football juice/sweat for another week, possible more, along with a reason to play again.

With an entry fee of $2,000 online ($1,600 for each additional team) and $2,125 live, there should be more bang for the buck for their customers. Chasing $1,000,000 prizes should be about the dream, with a great experience. The FFPC’s playoff rules are presented with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude, with no willingness to make their game better for the players who built it for them. 

They are the biggest fantasy football game in town by size and ego, but their management team hasn’t changed their rules to match the evolving NFL schedule or tried to stay in tune with their frustrated drafters, who pay thousands of dollars for a third-rate fantasy football schedule experience.

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Full Disclosure: I have participated in all three high-stakes formats: the FFPC, FFWC, and NFFC.