Rules: Postseason 3.0

We introduced the Postseason 2.0 rules in 2019, along with a slew of other changes, including FAAB. As we head into the 2026 season, we are about to revamp again, to Postseason 3.0 rules. These rules go into affect for our upcoming season.

There will also be a new draft system, to be implemented for 2027, as outlined here: Draft and Draft Lottery 2027.

P L A Y O F F S 3.0

• The new revamped postseason will be a twelve-team playoffs for Power Rankings #1-12
• The top four regular season teams, #1-4, will receive a bye in the first round
• The bottom four teams, #13-16, will not participate in a postseason whatsoever
• The new playoffs will be extended by a week—so now at four weeks total
• Toilet Bowl is eliminated

The idea here is to get more teams into a position to play for something. The cellar dwelling teams will fight for a playoff spot, the top and middle teams will fight for a tangible reward with a RD1 bye, and everyone will then be tossed into a super tournament of the top twelve teams.

After much discussion and exchanged of ideas, this simple solution of expanding the playoffs was deemed the best one. Yes, it includes the loss of the Toilet Bowl, but overall this solution was deemed to fit all the criteria for what we want SlamNation to be. Also, we will be staying with this idea for the next five years, minus minor tweaks, so that we don't move anything else too quickly.

Playoff Bracket Reseeding

As before, we are reseeding every bracket in the playoffs—which ESPN now allow us to do as an option. This means the top seed will always face the lowest seed in each matchup.

Lock Transactions for Eliminated Teams

In addition, we are locking transactions for eliminated teams in the playoffs—also now an ESPN option. Those teams that didn’t make the playoffs have their rosters locked upon conclusion of the regular season.

Trade Deadline

As before, the trade deadline for all teams will be the conclusion of the regular season.

Regular Season Length

We’re going from eighteen regular season matchups to seventeen, to accommodate the extra week of playoffs. That means our fantasy regular season ends right after—or around—the NBA All Star break. We end our entire SlamNation season by about three weeks earlier than the NBA regular season to not have to deal with end of the year lineup shenanigans.

Weekly Caps Number

This will remain at 21 for the soft cap, and will undergo no changes. [ Weekly Games Cap Explainer ]

Elimination of Conferences

We eliminated divisions in 2019 and now we are also eliminating conferences. With the most important standings being the overall standings, it’ll be easier to see on the ESPN page what exact rank we are as we go along. [ Reminder: here is our tie-breaker system ]

Note: I will still likely use Russell and Chamberlain Conferences for color during blog and articles, but they are as they were in recent years: just for color. Note: TeamIDs are representative of the former conferences, as TeamID #1-8 was Russell Conference and #9-16 was Chamberlain Conference.

Regular Season Crown 👑

With the elimination of Toilet Bowl and Toilet Bowl winner, we shall be introducing a new award: The regular season wins crown!

Inattentive Owners

We’ll be keeping a closer eye on inattentive owners, and reserve the right to tell you to step it up or to consider replacing you. Generally speaking, we want owners who are engaged and at the very least putting in their lineups.

The general metric we’ll use is under 90% of the league average for Games Played, and if you have a quarter of the season with lineup violations. [ Sample of Owners Rating 2025 | Games Played Sheet ]

Most owners have been here a long time so it’s not a problem, and of course life gets in the way for all of us. So any decisions here won’t be hasty and would occur over a period of at least two seasons, unless someone is so negligent that we want to move them out asap. However, broadly speaking, just keep up with your teams!