Projections, Strategies, and Lineups for the FFPC Playoff Challenge: The Wrong Read, Playoff Edition

Blair Andrews
January 10, 2026

The week between the regular season and the playoffs is one of my favorite weeks of the year. It’s the week of the FFPC Playoff Challenge. The FFPC Playoff Challenge is a contest that is deceptive in its simplicity. There is basically only one rule: you can roster only one player from each NFL playoff team in filling out your 12-person lineup. There’s no salary cap, no draft, and no other restrictions on how that lineup is put together. Players in the Super Bowl score double points.

Yet despite the simplicity, the contest provides numerous strategic decision points. In a contest in which there is nothing stopping every participant from playing something like an optimal lineup, game theory becomes paramount. Given the likelihood that the most popular lineups will be duplicated multiple times, what pivots are necessary to ensure we have a unique lineup that can also win? What levers can we pull to capitalize on the market’s overconfidence?

These questions can be answered along several dimensions, as they involve both team-level and player-level considerations. The most popular player combinations are likely to be overrepresented, and we can leverage this market inefficiency either by selecting players from less popular teams or by selecting secondary options from teams expected to do well. So how do we go about making these types of decisions?

The Ultimate FFPC Playoff Challenge Strategy Guide

Use the projections and this guide, along with Shawn’s contrarian strategies, to take down the $500,000 grand prize in the FFPC Playoff Challenge. New users get $25 off with the code 25ROTOVIZ!

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Blair Andrews

Managing Editor, Author of The Wrong Read, Occasional Fantasy Football League Winner. All opinions are someone else's.

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