League Concept
Participants will be playing the part of a “GM”, putting together and maintaining a team over several seasons. Teams will be maintained through free agency and the draft with the possibility of trades in the future. Hopefully it will be possible to mimic the natural rise and fall of franchises as the various teams change with time.
For discussion purposes player positions are designated as follows:
QB (quarterback), FB (fullback), HB (halfback), RB (generic running back), SE (split end), FL (flanker), TE1 (starting tight end), TE2 (tight end 2), TE3 (tight end 3), TE (generic tight end), WR3 (wide receiver 3), WR (generic wide receiver), LT (left offensive tackle), LG (left guard), C (center), RG (right guard), RT (right offensive tackle), OL (generic offensive line), K (kicker), P (punter), KR (kick returner), PR (punt returner), LE (left defensive end), LDT (left defensive tackle), L or R/NT (left or right nose tackle), RDT (right defensive tackle), RE (right defensive end), DL (generic defensive line), LOLB (left outside linebacker), LILB (left inside linebacker), L or RMLB (left or right middle linebacker), RILB (right inside linebacker), ROLB (right outside linebacker), LB (generic linebacker), LCB (left cornerback), RCB (right cornerback), SS (strong safety), FS (free safety), Five (nickel back), Dime (dime back), DB (generic defensive back).
At linebacker a team may have a LILB and a RMLB or a RILB and a LMLB. On the defensive line a team may have a LDT and a R/NT or a RDT and a L/NT.
Following is a list in alphabetical order of how different areas of the league will be handled.
Bailey Rule
Since we are not bound by the physical requirements of humans actually playing football games the final playoff spots between teams with equal records are not determined by tie-breakers but by playoff games between the teams involved. No team with an equivalent won-loss record will be eliminated from the playoffs without a chance to play. There is one exception to this, the Berkeley Exemption. The Berkeley Exemption states that the Bailey Rule does not apply to division titles. Division titles are determined by normal tie-breakers. The team that loses in the tie-breaker steps for the division title must make the playoffs based on its record in comparison with other wild card teams.
A team is awarded a “bonus year” for each round of the playoffs they reach. A maximum of four bonus years can be earned in any given season.
Making
a Bailey Rule Round or the first found of the playoffs gets each team
one bonus year (one year awarded for Bailey Rule or first round, no
team will be awarded a second bonus year without reaching the second
round).
A team earns another bonus year for making the second
round (Semi-Finals or Conference Championships) of the playoffs.
A team earns another bonus year for making the third round (Championship Game) of the playoffs.
The Championship Game winner is awarded another bonus year.
Each bonus year accumulated can only be used once by a team in one of the following four ways:
1. If a team goes over the Years Cap (see 'Years Cap') they must decide to cut players to get below it or use bonus years to raise it (or a combination of the two). The bonus year(s) used is only good for that season and the Years Cap is reset at 196 after the season ends. Teams may extend their cap a maximum of 10 years using bonus years in any given season.
2. A team may extend the career of a player (see ‘Player Career Length and Roster Limits’) by using two bonus years for every additional year added to a player's career.
3. If a team needs an extended draft after the final post-preseason draft round to fill its roster to 49 players because of forced cuts to get under the cap, they are charged one bonus year for each additional pick.
4. Bonus years may be used to make up differences in trade points in any trades (See 'Trades').
Once a team uses a bonus year for any purpose it is gone. Teams that trade for bonus years may use them as if they had acquired them normally.
Coaching Options
Once the team is set up there will be limited coaching options. The computer coach will control both teams during the games. The team “GM’s” will be able to change coaching options before a game (conservative, balanced or aggressive for the offense and/or defense). The GM will select replacements for injured starters and can make changes to the starting lineup prior to a game. If the GM has done his job the team will perform well.
There will be eight “college” teams playing a total of 10 games each. After each season their players will be available to the league teams for a five round player draft (see ‘Draft’). After each season twelve players from each team will be randomly selected as having “graduated” and will become free agents if not drafted. In addition, each team will be able to select one additional player to “graduate”. Further, to keep college teams from accumulating players that are essentially undraftable due to poor skills, players that are below average in all skills will become free agents after two seasons and players that are tied or below average on a majority of skills will become free agents after three seasons. Players lost by college teams to the draft or to “graduation” will be replaced by unused players from other original XOR teams and/or randomly generated "created" players.
After each season there will be a five round draft of “college” players (see ‘College Teams’). Although there will be a number of players per college team designated as “graduating” teams may draft any of the 49 players on any college team’s roster. These players will be used to improve weak areas on your team and replace players that “cost” more against the years cap (see ‘Player Career Length and Roster Limits’).
The draft order will be in inverse order of record for non-playoff teams followed by the order teams were ousted from the playoffs with the last team picking being the Championship Game winner. Any ties in the selection order will be broken using standard tiebreakers (see ‘Tie-Breakers’).
After a five round College Draft there will be a four round pre-preseason free agent draft. After the preseason games there will be a four round post-preseason free agent draft.
For the first several seasons the possibility may exist for upgrading a player to their best version available. A GM may choose to upgrade an existing player (if an upgrade for that player is available) instead of making a free agent draft pick.
Upon reaching ten years a player may be designated as a franchise player without the cost of bonus years. This allows a team to extend the maximum career of that player two years. Barring a loss of year(s) due to the injury rule (see ‘Injury Rule’) the maximum career (see ‘Player Career Length and Roster Limits’) for a franchise player would be 14 years. Only one player may be designated as the franchise player at any given time. The franchise tag may be moved to any other player who has reached the 10-year level. However, once a franchise player starts his first extra season the franchise tag cannot be applied to another player until the franchise player is retired or cut.
By the fourth or fifth season at the very latest it will become necessary for GM’s to manage rosters with consideration of the total years cap (see ‘Player Career Length and Roster Limits’). In order to do this careful manipulation of rosters by cutting veterans and adding new college draft picks and free agents will be necessary.
After each season there will be a five round draft of “college” players (see ‘College Teams’). Prior to the draft there will be twelve college players from each team selected at random as “graduating”. In addition, to keep college teams from accumulating players that are essentially undraftable due to poor skills, players that are below average in all skills will become free agents after two seasons and players that are tied or below average on a majority of skills will become free agents after three seasons. Any of these graduated players who are not drafted in the college draft will become free agents.
Any players cut from a NAXFL roster become free agents. A player who becomes a free agent and does not make another NAXFL roster in the next two seasons will be “retired” and removed permanently from the list of available players.
After the college draft and before the preseason games there will be a free agent draft that will have available any free agents from previous seasons as well as any undrafted “graduated” players from college teams.
The preseason free agent draft will consist of a four round draft of any free agents available.
Teams forced to cut extra players to get under the Years Cap (See 'Years Cap') and unable to replace all of them in the college draft and the preseason free agent draft can extend the free agent draft until they have at least 45 players. It will cost one bonus year for each extra pick required. Teams without enough bonus years will forfeit a free agent draft pick in the next season's draft for each additional pick required. Note: It will take gross mismanagement to reach this point and I do not believe it will ever occur.
A second free agent draft will be held at the conclusion of the preseason after the years cap and the 49 player roster limit has been reinstated (See ‘Rosters and Preseason Games’). The draft order for this draft will follow the college draft order.
A player "graduating" college and/or becoming a free agent will accumulate years whether or not they are on a NAXFL team roster.
See Injury2011.rtf document.
New Entries into the League
At this time the league has its full complement of twenty teams. Any new participants will be taking over an existing team.
Player Career Length and Roster Limits
This rule is intended to create a natural progression of change in rosters leading towards a balance of veteran and younger players on each team with a maximum of variability. Although all teams will start very “young” they will eventually develop into more realistic rosters over time. It is based on the average NFL career length being 4 years. Actually the average is slightly less but we’ll go with 4.
Understanding this section is critical to long term success in the league!
Teams have 49 roster spots times 4 years equals a cap of 196 total career years for a roster. What this means is the total number of years added together of all the players on the roster cannot exceed 196 unless a team has “bonus” years (See 'Bonus Years' and 'Years Cap').
New teams started out at 1 year for each player. The total for a team at that point was 49 years. After the first season each player will be changed to 2 years and the team total increased to 98 years. And so on until the team total is 196 and a team will be forced to cut some players and replace them with rookies or free agents with fewer years.
Of course, if a team is intelligently managed they will be continually replacing players with draft picks and free agents so they are not forced into a position where they have to make massive roster cuts to get under the cap. If just the five one year college draft picks replace original players each season the total by years will be 49-93-132-166-195-219. As you can see you could get six years before the cap is enforced using just the drafting of 1 year players in the college draft.
Any college players start at one year once they are league eligible either by being drafted or by becoming a free agent (see ‘Free Agents’) except as noted below.
Rosters must be at 49 players for the regular season.
The maximum career length for any given player will be 12 years. These years will accumulate 1 year per season from the first season they were in the league or available to the league as a free agent whether or not they were on a league roster. There will be four exceptions to this:
1. Teams replaced by a new entry into the league had their players released to the college teams. Those players have their years frozen at their current level (not set back down to one!) until they are drafted or released to league availability via free agency, at which point they begin accumulating years again normally. After Season Four this will no longer occur, although there may be players remaining on college rosters with more than one year for several seasons until all are drafted or “graduate”.
2. The second is covered by the injury rules (see ‘Injury Rule’) where a player who misses starts more than twice in a season due to injury has their maximum career length shortened by one year.
3. The third is covered by the “Franchise” player designation (see Franchise Player) where a player may have their career extended for a maximum of two years.
4. The fourth is the use of “bonus” years (See 'Bonus Years' and 'Years Cap'). It will cost the use of two bonus years for each year a player's career is extended. Players who have their career length shortened because of injury may not have it extended through the use of bonus years.
Player Position Changes
Realistically, players who reach the “pro” level have and need skills so specialized they are rarely capable of successfully changing positions. Therefore any such changes are limited to those specified in the “Player Position Changes” document.
Regular season rosters must be kept within 45-49 players. 49 is the normal roster size, smaller may be necessary to get under the Years Cap (See 'Years Cap').
After the post season ends rosters will be updated by having each roster and free agent players' years increased by one. If this brings a roster over the years cap (see ‘Player Career Length and Roster Limits’) that team must cut players until they are at or under the years cap. Any players cut are entered into the free agent pool available to any team in the free agent drafts.
There will be six preseason games before each regular season. These games may be meaningful as team dynamics change with new roster additions and it is wise to discover the best setup before the regular season starts.
Rosters will be maintained at 49 players for the regular and post seasons unless a team is forced to cut players to comply with the Years Cap. Rosters may be expanded during the college and free agent drafts before the preseason games until the preseason games end. At that point rosters must be cut back to 49 players.
The years cap is temporarily suspended for the period between the start of the college draft until the final preseason cuts. However, during all other times rosters must be kept at or under the years cap.
It is suggested that rosters be cut to 49 players for the preseason games unless you are genuinely trying to choose between two players for a roster spot. The preseason games are for determining your team's optimum setup. There are no injuries (except for in game injuries controlled by the computer) and there is no need to rest computer players. Using players that have no chance of making your final roster only hinders your efforts to determine the best setup for your roster.
After the preseason ends there will be another free agent draft of four rounds as teams may decide to cut players on their roster in exchange for those cut by others. This may especially be the case if older teams are forced to release quality players in order to fit under the years cap. Since rosters are set at 49 at this point a player must be cut for each free agent chosen in the draft. The cut player immediately becomes a free agent eligible to be drafted. A team may pass at any point during the free agent drafts.
Running of Games
This is the simple part. The games will be played with computer coaches using the season.com program to schedule the set of games to be played and run automatically in “season” mode. The computer will play all pre and regular season games in extra fast mode. Playoff games will be played at regular speed. There will be no manual changes or input made to the games in progress and once the program starts all substitutions will be made by and at the discretion of the computer coaches.
The slate of games for a given week may be split and run in two or more sets depending on time or other issues. The program writes the results to the STATS.LOG file at the conclusion of each game. If there are any program, PC, power or other issues that cause the program to be halted before all games are completed only those games that have finished and have been completely written to the STATS.LOG file will be counted. All others will be replayed in their entirety.
See Tie-Breakers.xls spreadsheet.
Trades are currently not allowed but may be if I can become satisfied with a ratings system I'm developing for players and there are enough participants in the league. They will be based on trade points with all trades having to be equal or close to equal in total value. Bonus years (See 'Bonus Years') may be traded with players to make up differences in trade points in any given deal.
The Years Cap is set at 196 total years (See 'Player Career Length and Roster Limits'). If a team is over the cap they must cut players until they are under the cap except for the period between the start of the college draft and the end of the post-preseason free agent draft.
The Years Cap may be extended by the use of bonus years (See 'Bonus Years').
SEASON SCHEDULE
01. The Years Cap for each team is reset to 196 years.
02. Years of individual players on rosters and all free agents are each increased by one. Teams must cut players or use Bonus Years to get at or under the Years Cap if necessary.
03. College Draft – Five Rounds – Rosters may be expanded and Years Cap is suspended.
04. Preseason Free Agent Draft – Four Rounds – Rosters may be expanded and Years Cap is suspended.
05. Non-mandatory player cuts. Recommended to cut players that have no chance of making final roster.
06. Preseason games (six in total)
07. Mandatory player cuts to roster limit of 49
08. Post-Preseason Free Agent Draft – First Two Rounds – Each player chosen means one player must be cut to keep rosters at 49 players.
09. Years Cap reinstated - Teams must cut players or use Bonus Years to get at or under the Years Cap.
10. Post-Preseason Free Agent Draft – Final Two Rounds* – 49 player roster limit and Years Cap in effect. *Draft may be extended if a team needs more rounds to fill roster after making cuts to reach Years Cap with the penalty of a bonus year per extra round.
11. Final team rosters prepared. All teams must have a minimum of 45 and a maximum of 49 players and be at or under the Years Cap (including any bonus years used).
12. Regular Season
13. Playoffs & Pro Bowl