Last Week's Question: Does your league have post-season action for non-playoff teams?

The question above has come up repeatedly in this column, and it usually produces answers like the ones that came in this week. Noah summarized the main reason for keeping non-playoff teams engaged as well as a standard method of incentivizing engagement:

Every league I've ever done has a consolation bracket. In the league I commish I started paying out the winner of it with half their money back. There were a few unhappy about it but didn't hear much past the draft. I've found that it keeps the teams that are out of it involved. Just last week the guy tied for last traded for Melvin Gordon with the express purpose of wining it. I've also found that once teams are out of it this becomes their goal and they appear to be taking it seriously. I did it because while I have only been in a consolation bracket twice and I always take every week seriously, not all [fantasy owners do]. I feel when there is no reward, people give up at the end of the year and don't [bother setting] their lineups. This can affect the playoff picture if they play teams that are in it. I hated this with a passion, so I decided to try and get rid of the problem. In my other league I don't commish we've already run into the issue with about three teams that have thrown in the towel. They've tried to trade their best player for nothing to friends or of course not set their lineup. There are only two games separating 6th to first and one game separating 5th to 10th with 14 teams involved. A few weeks ago it was a 7 way tie for second, so as you can see it's a tight race and every week matters. All these reasons and more are why you should keep the teams out of it involved and motivated.

I commish a 14 team league,and 8 of them make it to the playoffs. The other 6
teams all play in our Toilet Bowl, which is three weeks long. The 6 teams submit a starting lineup as usual, but they don't play a match, instead their teams total points for the entire three weeks earns the highest scoring team half off the next years entry fee into the league. This has kept the teams owners more interested, and everybody puts their best foot forward. The Toilet Bowl teams are allowed to add/drop players, but their priority falls to below the teams in the regular fantasy playoffs. The only drawback is that going into the third and final week there is a team in front, and a couple of teams way out back, so it becomes a two or three horse race.

Returning the yearly entry fee (or a portion of it) to the winner of the consolation bracket is, as both readers suggest, an easy way to keep owners interested beyond the point when they might otherwise check out. SonOfaBolt recommends using this strategy in addition to a weekly payout to the highest scoring team to keep all owners active.

But there are other incentives that don't have to impact the purse awarded to the league champion. In GMHoya's league, for example, the order of finish in the consolation. Craig finds this approach especially effective in keeper leagues:

It encourages people to keep trying to win because you want to get that #1 pick in the draft. Especially because we are a keeper league and the top 20 guys are usually gone anyway. For example, I barely missed the winners bracket last year and won the [consolation tourney]. I picked first and was able to get Zeke with the first pick. That means I essentially got Zeke in the 3rd round. That’s good value and provided excellent incentive for me to keep trying to win.

This year I finally stripped out [payouts for high scores] and can use all that savings to enhance the winning prize pots with "the Cinderella rule," [which puts] the hot team from the bottom into the playoffs. How it works is all the teams that don’t make the playoffs and the team in the last playoff spot as of week 13 (the last week of our regular season), compete to score the most points from week 11-13. The team with the most points out of that group gets the final playoff spot. Right now, everyone in the league is still alive and it’s week 11, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say that before. I'm still receiving mixed reviews from the league members about it, but I'm loving it.

#3: N.Y. Giants at Cleveland: (8-3, JAX, OAK, DAL, MIN, PIT, NE, CIN, TN, GB, AZ, DET)

Until Cleveland wins, you just play the odds. In fact, if you play weekly fantasy games, this may be the week to put the three-headed monster in of Manning, Jennings and Beckham in your lineup. It has worked two of the last three weeks. The Browns are 31st in total points allowed, 31st in total yards allowed, and in the last three weeks they have given up an average of 28 points per game while scoring only 9. Look for this trend to continue against a much improved Giants defense.

#2: Buffalo over Jacksonville: (9-2, HOU, AZ, CAR, WAS, GB, TN, NE, MN, SEA, NYG, PIT)

Late season, winter weather games make for very interesting survival pool choices. Any player who normally likes playing at home in 60 degree weather is not going to enjoy a trip to Buffalo in late November where the forecast is a balmy 42. More importantly, the Jaguars defense has given up the more rushing yards than 80 percent of the league. This statistic should fall right into Buffalo’s rush first philosophy. Once that Bills get a lead, Rex Ryan and his defense will then blitz Bortles into turnovers that will only make this game more lopsided. There’s a trend here people.

#1: New Orleans over the Lams (I Mean Rams): (10-1, SEA, CAR, MIA, CIN, NE, PIT, GB, DEN, DAL, BAL, NYG)

Los Angeles is a team that is trying to find its identity both geographically as well as on the field. Last year’s rookie sensation, Todd Gurley, is having a sophomore headache and the coaching staff made a change at quarterback to first round draft pick Jared Goff. Last week, Goff was playing with training wheels on. He hardly made any mistakes, but his performance reeked of a “not to lose”, instead of I know how to win attitude. Make no mistake, both of these future stars should have a terrific 2017 season. In the meantime, we should see flashes in this game, but not enough to keep pace with Drew Brees who has finally got his offense going in the Bayou.