Create A Football League From Scratch

[Suicane75]

You are the overlord of a new football league. You decide when, where and how it is played. League structure, cities, rules, etc. Bind yourself somewhat by sensibility, like, I'm sure Football on skates would be fun, but let's try and stay in the real world. How would you do it?

[Suicane75]

I'd do something along the lines of two conferences of 8 teams, divided by East and West. Conference winners go to the Conference finals, 2nd and 3rd place teams play in a wild card game.

Clock stops on out of bounds and doesn't restart till the snap. First downs stop clock. Canadian length field. Extra points are 40 yards, 2 point tries are from the 2. Overtime is 15 minutes automatically, team winning after 5th quarter wins, if it's still tied, it's a tie. Each team plays each team it's conference twice, and 4 teams from the other conference for a 18 game schedule that begins the first week of February and runs through the title game in June.

That was fun.

[stevew]

Hrm.

18 week schedule, from the first weekend in march until late July.

4 regions of 4 teams each. Each team plays its own region twice, and plays the other groupings 1 time each.

Playoffs 6 teams make the playoffs, each region winner makes the playoffs and two at large teams. Bye week for top two records.

Championship held on homefield of highest remaining seed.

Gameplay-
Timing rules similar to existing NFL rules.
1 foot down=catch
College/HS rules apply in regards to downed players. Knee down, play dead.
All calls reviewable.
After each team's 2nd personal foul, subsequent fouls result in ejection.
2 forward passes may be thrown on each play, provided that the second is thrown within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage.
All incomplete passes thrown within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage are treated as a live ball.
Common sense prevails on catches.
Replay official is in a soundproof room with monitors. In the event a call is challenged, he is unaware of the call on the field and must evaluate the play and make a decision within 90 seconds.
Once a team crosses into the red zone, all field goals must be attempted on third down.
"Kickoffs" are from the 35 yard line and teams line up in a punt formation. The kicking team may elect to "go for it" and retains possession if they are able to complete a play out to the 50 yard line.
Single point PAT attempts are run from the 5 yard line. No kicking is permitted.
In the event of a defensive interception/sack/fumble recovery/tackle for loss on the PAT, the defensive team may elect to start their drive from the end of the play.
No Phil Simms.
Punts are always live.
Each coach is given 2 plays per game where they can report in a legal 12th man but this player is an ineligible receiver.

[bryce]

No kicking or punting:

Instead of kickoffs, teams start at the 35ish - not sure exactly what would work best here, given the rest of it:
4 downs, no punts, if don't get first down, turnover on downs.
No field goals or PATs.
Touchdowns are now 'goals' and worth 1 'point.'
Safeties becomes 'own goals'.
Most importantly, no Phil Simms.

[BillJasper]

I'd start a Rugby league.

[murrayyyyy]

Each team is assigned to a state. East and west using the Mississippi as the divider but Illinois and Wisconsin are in the west(with Hawaiian Islands and Alaska dropped). So two 24 team conferences. You play each team in your conference once with no bye weeks so 23 straight weeks. Top 4 from each Conf make the playoffs.

Regular NFL rules except when it comes to players. Your states pool is decided two ways, either from players who played high school or college ball in your state. 60 man roster limit on active players for a game but unlimited roster moves which means no IR. Players have the option to choose their pool before the season starts but can't change it after he makes the choice for that season.