We spent all year trying to tackle the FFPC Weekly Challenge. Even Friday guests like Bob Harris, Rich Hribar, Ian Hartitiz and I would break down the slate and make a weekly lineup. And, sure, we had a lot of fun and made some money. But that was only the warm-up for this format. Now it’s time for the MAIN EVENT. The FFPC Playoff Challenge!

If you tuned in with us on any of the shows this year, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how it works. But we’ll give a recap here as well as some basic strategy just to make sure everyone is on the same page.

 

 

 

And, to help out you first-time players get set up, you can sign up right here and use FFPC promo code ALARM right now, where MyFFPC.com will give you $25 in bonus credits when you deposit $35 or more with your first deposit!

Now, let’s dig into the basics of the FFPC Playoff Challenge for 2025!

**All information on the contest itself is from MyFFPC.com and the data regarding past winners is courtesy of our friends over at FantasyMojo.com**

 

 

 

FFPC PLAYOFF CHALLENGE CONTESTS

There are two major contests. The flagship event with a $200 entry fee. And then a secondary event for $35. With one there is a higher entry fee but fewer opponents and the other has a lower fee but a lot more teams in it. With both, it’s important that you sign up early because they WILL sell out. 

You can register in advance now and reserve your spot, so I suggest you do that. And I suggest you use that promo code ALARM we mentioned earlier when you sign up at MyFFPC.com to get the $25 bonus for first-time depositors who put in $35 or more. If you deposit $45, for instance, you’ll have enough for two entries at the $35 level!

 

 

 

PRIZES

Each contest obviously has different prizes. The full prize list for the $200 contest can be found here and the full prize list for the $35 contest can be found here. You’ll want to check that out to see what percentage you need to finish in to get your money back, double up, etc.

But here’s what everyone really cares about. The $35 contest has $476,500 in total prizes and the winner gets a cool $100K. The $200 contest has $1,387,750 in total prizes and the winner takes home half a million dollars. Whew lad.

 

 

 

ROSTER SETTINGS

For this format, there is no draft or salaries. You can select any player you want with one catch - you cannot select two players from the same team. So no “stacking” Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes. You have to make a big decision with each team.

Here are the roster spots you need to fill:

  • 1 QB
  • 2 RB
  • 2 WR
  • 1 TE
  • 4 FLEX (RB, WR, TE)
  • 1 K
  • 1 D

If you add that all up you’ll see that there are 12 roster spots. And 14 teams make the NFL playoffs. So you will have two teams that you don’t have any players on but you’ll need at least someone from the other teams. And obviously not every team will advance so you have to be careful with how you allocate those players.

 

 

 

SCORING SETTINGS

The scoring settings are actually pretty straight-forward for most fantasy leagues with a couple of exceptions. The full scoring can be found here.

  • It is Tight End Premium which means that it’s one point per reception for running backs and wide receivers, but tight ends get 1.5 points per reception. More on that later.
     
  • Turnovers are only -1 for both interceptions and fumbles.
     
  • It is four points for passing TDs and six for rushing TDs.
     
  • And the most important unique scoring rule - points in the Super Bowl are worth DOUBLE.

 

 

 

GENERAL ADVICE

Here is some general advice. I’m also going to do another article with some specific advice as well as have a special guest, Theo Gremminger of Player Profiler, on the Fantasy Alarm YouTube on Thursday at 1 PM ET to talk strategy and put together our own lineup entry. So, make sure you are subscribed to the Fantasy Alarm YouTube for that!

Let’s hit some basic points here first:

THE MYTH OF THE “PLAYOFF MAP”

Obviously, you need to plan ahead to some degree. Later on, we will talk about allocating your positions and to what teams. But trying to map out the entire playoffs is far more difficult than you might think. 

If you could reliably do that then you should probably just bet on the winners of the games with your sportsbook and take out the middleman. It obviously helps to have players go deep but, more important than necessarily mapping out the exact outcomes of the entire playoffs, is simply picking the RIGHT PLAYERS from each team that you think has a shot.

The Chiefs have won the Super Bowl two years in a row now. Last year Christian McCaffrey and Patrick Mahomes were the top players. You would think that, in the year prior, Mahomes would have been the play too as the winning QB. But that actually wasn’t the case - it was Travis Kelce. 

First off, it’s tight end premium scoring and Travis Kelce did really well so he got a big boost You might say, “But wait a minute Coop, Mahomes had three passing TDs in the Super Bowl, he scored more than Kelce?”. And he did. But he didn’t score more than Jalen Hurts, who had one passing and three rushing TDs. This scoring favors rushing TDs. 

You can only pick one quarterback. And you can only pick one Chief. So the top combination was actually Jalen Hurts and Travis Kelce. No team that picked Mahomes even finished in the top 2,000 that year.

 

 

 

LEAN INTO THE SCORING

We mentioned that there are a few scoring quirks above including the scoring for tight ends, turnovers, and double points for the Super Bowl. Lean into that. 

It’s pretty obvious how the QB scoring helps - gunslingers who run are valuable. Jalen Hurts was on the VAST majority of winning teams in the year we referenced above. In 2022, it was Josh Allen by far. As for the tight end premium, you don’t necessarily need to go crazy. But the winner of the $35 contest in 2023 actually had FOUR tight ends (Travis Kelce, T.J. Hockenson, Evan Engram, and T.J. Hockenson). 

In fact, the top four teams all had at least two with Kelce and Hock. The winner of the $200 challenge only had Kelce but three of the top four had at least two tight ends. That’s definitely something to consider, especially when it comes to this next point.

 

 

 

UNIQUE BUILDS

Here’s the thing - there will be some lineups that are obvious. And those lineups probably won’t win. Not only will they not win, but any prize level they do finish at, they will be splitting with others. If they DO win, then you could be chopping up that prize with a bunch of other people. You don’t want that. 

Last year for the first time ever, the same lineup won both the $35 and the $200 contest. The previous year, the team that won the $35 challenge had four tight ends and only two wide receivers. That’s pretty wild. And since they were the only team that started those exact players, they kept the $100K themselves. So don’t be afraid to get a little crazy - especially if you are putting in multiple entries. 

 

 

 

NUMBER OF ENTRIES

This is up to you. The max is 150. And in 2021 at least, the one person that did 150 entries did win the $35 contest. But a lot of folks have walked away with big prizes in this contest with just one entry. I’m personally going to do a few because I’ve got some wacky ideas, and I want to try them out. 

The golden rule for any sort of gambling or fantasy sports is always going to be the same though - NEVER bet more than you can afford to lose. This is a fun contest that makes the playoffs even more interesting which, for me, is enough. If I win a little money doing it, even better. 

 

 

 

ALLOCATING YOUR POSITIONS

This is the last general tip we are going to give here. And it might be obvious to some, but we need to get it out there. Some positions are simply better bets to score more than others. Like quarterback. 

Now, with that said, I do want to point out that you don’t NEED your quarterback to make the Super Bowl. Last year with Jalen Hurts you did. But in 2021 most of the top teams had Josh Allen at quarterback who lost in the AFC Championship. When the Rams won, Cooper Kupp went crazy in the Super Bowl so he was actually the play over Stafford for the Rams. See what I mean? 

The Super Bowl points are worth DOUBLE so having a star in that game is huge but it doesn’t need to be a QB. Just imagine the Sunday Night Football game between the Vikings and Lions was the Super Bowl. As crazy as it sounds, the top players for this contest would have been Jahmyr Gibbs for the Lions and, for the Vikings, it would have been kicker Will Reichard… 

 

 

 

Now, we do have to do some strategic allocating. The odds of a kicker being the top scorer for one of the teams in the Super Bowl is low. Same for defense. Six teams are going to lose in the first round of the NFL playoffs. Two of them you won’t have a player on but the other four you will. So you are picking some positions to get eliminated.

It’s going to increase your chances GREATLY if A. your quarterback doesn’t get eliminated and B. your kicker and defense do. It’s not the end of the world if your kicker makes the next round of course - a team with Riley Patterson came in third in 2024 in the $200 challenge and won $50,000. But you typically don’t want those teams going deep because that means your more valuable positions are losing. 

For your four losing players in round one you want your kicker, defense, and then some valiant efforts from RB/WR/TE in a loss. For one game only, that tight end premium can go a long way. In round 1 last year, Puka Nacua scored 32.9 points in a losing effort to the Lions. But he wasn’t the top play. Jake Ferguson scored 42.3 points in the Cowboys loss to the Packers.

And the last note I want to make is on the bye weeks. And, personally, I ignore them. The Super Bowl is worth double and one seeds have the best odds of making the Super Bowl. If you avoided Christian McCaffrey because the 49ers had a bye week you didn't win. Focus on figuring out the best configuration of star players from good teams that you can squeeze in there. Period.

 

 

 

GOOD LUCK!

Good luck to everyone out there who took the time to read this - hopefully one of you takes down a big prize! Definitely tag me on Twitter @CoopAFiasco if you do. 

And make sure to use promo code ALARM when you sign up at MyFFPC.com and they will give you $25 in bonus credits if your first deposit is $35 or more!