The BFSL (Best Football Sim League) is a long-standing sim league designed for only the most competitive online franchisers. Here in the BFSL, we pride ourselves on competitiveness week in and week out. As a result, there's no such thing as an easy win in our league. For those who seek a league where they will feel challenged to develop a championship roster against other competitive sim players, look no further! The league typically runs from early September to late July. We play 2 seasons and then sim 1 season to increase the number of seasons played and add to the dynastic feel of team building. League news and stats are broadcast through a combination of articles on Discord, DaddyLeagues, and Twitter. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, please continue reading below. To request to join the league, please post in the New User Application thread or email me at
[email protected]. Please elect your top 3 teams in the email.
General League Settings
Skill Level - All-Madden
Game Style - Simulation
League Type - Custom Coaches
Quarter Length - 11 Minutes
Accelerated Clock - On
Minimum Play Clock Time -18
Advance is every Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday at 10pm EST. Advance will not be held up unless confirmed with a commissioner beforehand. A Twitch stream (archived) by the home team is required for all games.
Rules:
Communication
—SCHEDULING— A user has 18 hours from the last advance to indicate their availability to their opponent via DM or scheduling thread (preferred) before they are subject to being placed on auto that week (per the discretion of their opponent).
—FORCE WINS— If 2 user-controlled teams are scheduled to play and one user does not indicate their availability and/or cannot make the scheduled game time (>30 minutes late), the available user can elect to take a force win.
—CPU GAMES— If a user-controlled team is scheduled to play a cpu-controlled team, they must play the game or take a sim. No force wins will be granted against cpu-controlled teams.
Gameplay
—GAME RECORDING— All games are required to be broadcast by the home team using Twitch. The twitch settings are required to be set to archive and will also be required to be broadcast for any/all CPU games. Having a strong enough internet connection to stream and play is a requirement.
—NO USER SWITCH – NO USER CATCH— Under no circumstances may a user switch to a receiver to catch the ball on offense. In addition to this, a user may not press the catch type (RAC, Possession, Aggressive) while the ball is the air – let the player ratings and traits decide the outcome. On defense, a user may not switch defenders, after the snap of the ball, until a pass is completed. A user on defense IS allowed to switch on run plays.
—PLAY CALLING— We ask that coaches vary their play calling. We don't want coaches running the same plays/concepts/formations over and over again. As a result, we will be using play limits to allow a play to be called a maximum of 3x per game. 4 Verts has always been an issue, and there is no way to control it using the play cooldown/limit feature, therefore we specifically mandate that you can only use it once per half regardless of formation. This includes end of half/game situations.
—DEFENSIVE MOVEMENT AND SHIFTING— Coaches may make position movements before the snap of the ball using the pre-selected defensive adjustments (Example: (DL, LB, DB Hot Routes, Shifts, Stunts). However, if you move a player pre-snap manually out of alignment, you must user him for the entirety of the play. Also, coaches must keep their adjustments locked in once they have executed them. For example, a coach is not allowed to adjust their coverage to press the receivers then back them off right before the snap. Another example would be pinching the defensive line then spreading them out again before the snap. If the offense makes an audible or adjustment, a coach may reset again.
—QUICK SNAP AND NO-HUDDLE— On offense, if a coach motions a player to across the formation, you must allow a brief moment before the snap. The no-huddle option may be used in the last 2 minutes of the 1st half, 2nd half, or overtime.
—ONE HOT ROUTE— Coaches are allowed one hot route per play. Blocking changes do not count against this limit.
—RUN/PASS COMMIT— The run commit and pass commit mechanic IS allowed.
4TH DOWN ATTEMPTS— You can go for it on 4th down in the following situations:
• 4th and 2 or less in your opponent's territory
• Any distance when losing by 20+ points, losing in the 4th quarter, or in overtime
• In all other 4th down situations, you must either punt or kick a field goal.
• Final 4 minutes, if winning by 8 or less points, then you can go for it on 4th and 2 or less to go any where on the field.
—CHEW CLOCK— Unless agreed upon by both coaches, coaches may not chew clock until under 4 minutes in the game.
—SPECIAL TEAMS FAKE— Special Team’s fakes are prohibited under all circumstances.
—PLAY ACTION— Play Action on 3rd and 7+ yards to go is prohibited.
—SCREEN PLAYS— If a screen pass is called, the ball must be thrown to the intended screen route or thrown away (or take a sack). The other routes are dummy routes and cannot be thrown to.
—QUARTERBACK SUBSTITUTIONS— If a coach substitutes a new QB into the game, he must finish the drive before substituting back out. This prevents situational substitutions that the defense cannot see (i.e. a fast QB entering the game but defense won't know that until pre-snap).
—NO PLAYMAKER— Playmaker as in-game option is not allowed.
—ICE THE KICKER— "De-ice" the kicker is prohibited. If you select a field goal, you must not call time-out, or otherwise alter the play, unless a penalty alters the kick setup. Example: you cannot select FG, opponent calls timeout. You run a play, then select FG again to try and take away "ice kicker" option.
Team Management:
—TRADE RULES— Trades must have three (3) approvals from the Trade Committee before being executed. Each team is allowed three (3) trade slots per league year (a new league year starts the week after the Super Bowl). A trade slot is a player that is LEAVING your team. For example: The Vikings send Player A to the Packers for Players B and C. The Vikings have used one(1) slot, the Packers have used two(2).There are no limits on trading draft picks, but a team can only have 10 picks in 1 draft. You cannot make a trade with CPU (including CPU initiated trades during the draft). You cannot make a trade until 4 weeks in the league.
—POSITION CHANGES— You cannon change a player’s position until after 4 weeks in the league. All position changes must be requested through the position change channel before being carried out on the console. Below is a list of acceptable position changes:
Offense
QB: can be changed to TE (Minimum Height 6’3”)
HB: cannot be changed
FB: can be changed to HB (no cutoffs) or TE (Minimum Height 6’3”)
WR: cannot be changed
TE: cannot be changed
OL: can be changed to any other OL position
Defense
DE: can be changed to DT (Minimum Height 6’1”, Minimum weight 285 lbs, Minimum Strength 80, Maximum Speed 85) or OLB (Maximum Weight 265 lbs, Maximum Strength 85, Minimum Speed 80)
DT: can be changed to DE (no cutoffs)
OLB: can be changed to DE (Minimum Height 6’1”, Minimum Weight 265 lbs, Minimum Strength 75, Maximum Speed 85) or MLB (no cutoffs)
MLB: can be changed to OLB (no cutoffs)
CB: cannot be changed
FS: can be changed to SS (no cutoffs)
SS: can be changed to FS (no cutoffs)
K: cannot be changed
P: cannot be changed(edited)
—ROSTERS— All regular season rosters MUST have a minimum of 2 QBs and 9 Offensive Linemen and 53 total players. Player edits are not allowed. All player edits will via commissioner via request.
—FREE AGENCY— Advance will take place at some point within a 4 hour to limit sniping.
—RESIGNING— When resigning your own players, you cannot offer 5 or more years unless they are requesting it ahead of time. You must post player asking for 5 or more years in the discord channel. This year we will be using contract minimums for players during the in-season resigning period. This is meant to add a layer of GM strategy to our league as you won’t be able to retain everyone from hitting the open market. Once they have hit the open market during the off-season period, you may bid on them without any salary floors with the only requirement being a score of 40 (which is our only current restriction now). Minimums can be found in the discord channel. You cannot resign a player until after 4 weeks in the league.
Resign Salary Floor
The following scales are to be used during IN SEASON re-sign periods. These numbers are the minimum base salary + bonus ANUALLY:
(Fullbacks, Kickers/Punters, and non-QB's 70 OVR and below are excluded . You may re-sign them for any salary that they accept)
Tier 1 QBs (80 OVR and above): $12M
Tier 2 QBs (70-79 OVR): $7.5M
Tier 3 QBs (69 OVR and Below): 3.5M
HB: $4.5M
WR: $8.5M
TE: $5.5M
T: $7.5M
G: $5M
C: $3.5M
DE: $7.5M
DT: $6M
OLB: $6.5M
MLB: $5.5M
CB: $8.5M
S: $6.5M
Quarterback Resigns
The #1 QB on your roster MUST get a minimum of $12 million annually when he's resigned, regardless of OVR.
(EX: If your quarterback retires, you can offer no less than $12 million to the highest-rated QB that you re-sign, even if he's a 60 OVR. You'd often be much better off picking up low tier QB's during off-season free agency.)
Multiple Year Contracts
Multiply salary floor by the number of years requested in the contract to get the minimum value of the total contract.
One reminder, if a illegal contract is signed it will be manually altered by the commissioners to reflect the minimum floor.
In preseason and season, you may sign 1 Free Agent 70 OVR and above per advance period. There are no limits to under 70 players.
