1255 words
Last night, the Colorado Yeti and Arizona Outlaws battled each other in the fight for the first ever NSFL Ultimus Trophy. Now, the Expansion draft and S2 draft fill up the radar screen. Let's look beyond the immediate future of the NSFL and try to see what the next several years hold.
TIMELINE
What follows is my best guess as to what will happen in the future of the League. We'll go season by season, and try to predict the state of affairs at that time.
Last night, the Colorado Yeti and Arizona Outlaws battled each other in the fight for the first ever NSFL Ultimus Trophy. Now, the Expansion draft and S2 draft fill up the radar screen. Let's look beyond the immediate future of the NSFL and try to see what the next several years hold.
TIMELINE
What follows is my best guess as to what will happen in the future of the League. We'll go season by season, and try to predict the state of affairs at that time.
- Season 1: Inaugural Season
The first season of the NSFL is done, so there's not much to write about. The season was successful, but some positions were crowded while others desperately needed more players.
- Season 2: 2 Expansion Teams
The Expansion draft still needs to be refined, as many disagree with the process of letting expansion teams trade for players. The two new teams, Las Vegas and Philadelphia , each get assigned to different conferences.
- Season 3: Stablization Year
The NSFL is now proven after two successful years, but they decide to let things sit for a little while after all the chaos caused by the expansion. Position switches are slowly becoming more common. TEs switch to OL, RBs switch to WR, and DEs switch to DT, among others. The charge for position switch changes from a flat rate to one based on how much TPE is moved.
- Season 4: 1 Expansion Team, Realignment
Many in the league will hope for two, but one team gives enough continuity to keep many players where they are. In addition, the NSFL splits into three divisions: Atlantic, Central, and Pacific. The new playoff format still includes 4 teams, but they are the division winners and a wild card. The divisions are as follows:
Atlantic:
Expansion team, likely in Florida
Central:
Pacific:
This preserves rivalries like vs. and vs. .
The schedule works as follows:
-Reduced slightly to 12 games
-1 Home, 1 Away vs. every division opponent
-Play every other divison once (so a NSFL Pacific team would play the Yeti, Wraiths, and Legion exactly once as well as the NSFL Atlantic teams exactly once).
-Play the teams with the same division finish once (so the 2nd place team in the NSFL Pacific would play the 2nd place team in the NSFL Atlantic and the NSFL Central).
- Seasons 5 - 7: Stabilization Years
To deal with the tumult caused by the new schedule and new conferences, the NSFL wisely decides to keep the expansion to a minimum.
During this time, competition for roster spots grows fierce as more players enter the NSFL hoping to be a star at QB, only to wind up fourth on the bench. However, quality of play gets higher due to the intense competition at virtually every roster spot. Teams can finally fit 5 OL on their roster.
- Season 8: 3 Expansion Teams
New teams are added, one to each conference. The FO of the teams are not allowed to make any trades or deals with players until the expansion draft, which makes it more fair for all of the three teams participating. Teams protect their best 14 players, and they are required to protect their player with highest TPE. This is designed to reward active players (though most active players would be protected anyways).
The new teams bring the schedule up to 16 games, using the same method as before. There is some discussion about changing the playoff teams, but for now, it stays at the division winners and one wild card.
- Season 9: Practice Squad, Roster Limits
The maximum roster size is set at 45, and 15 additional are allowed on the practice squad. This helps prevent "mass signings" in the hope that you pick up bad players that will become more active or good players that have since become inactive.
A rule is put into place to keep rosters balanced: no more than 2/3 (30 players) of the roster may be on the same side of the ball: offense, defense, or special teams (because @Ballerstorm really wants to make sure we don't have 31 punters on our teams :lol: ).
Practice Squad regulations:
-Players may not spend 3 consecutive years on the practice squad of one team.
-Players may not spend 2 or more consecutive years on the active roster of one team and then return to the practice squad
-Players with 5 or more years of experience may not be on the practice squad.
-Practice Squad Players may be declared active for any game in the regular season or playoffs but may not start (ie, pull in a PS QB for mop-up duty).
- Season 10: Player Regression
Now that the administration has a pretty good idea of how players progress, regression can be put into place. It is needed since many of the stars of the NSFL are S1, S2, or S3. Certain attributes are affected by player regression:
Speed goes down
Strength goes down
Arm goes down
Accuracy goes up slightly
Agility goes down
Intelligence goes up
Hands go up slightly
Blocking goes down
As you can see, it's not a strict regression, as some attributes go up. Here's how a "regression" works:
1. The irrelevant attributes are filtered out of the list above. For example, Blocking and Hands would be removed for a QB, and maybe strength too.
2. 3 of them are randomly selected.
3. If that attribute has 'goes down' after it on the list above, 5 TPE is drained from that attribute. So, if a player regresses in speed where they have 60, losing 5 TPE brings them down to 57.5 speed. If they have 95 speed, the regression will bring them down to 94.67.
4. If that attribute has 'goes up' after it on the list above, 3 TPE is added to that attribute. If it says 'slightly', only 2 TPE is added.
From years 1-8, no regressions are conducted.
From years 9-10, 1 regression is conducted every year.
From years 11-12, 2 regressions are conducted every year.
From years 13-15, 5 regressions are conducted every year.
From years 16-20, 10 regressions are conducted every year.
After that, a regression will be conducted after each game.
Some positions, however, are more resistant to regression. For example, Quarterbacks, Punters and Kickers. Those positions will regress 2 years behind the norm. Here's a full chart of regression adjustments.
QB: 2 years behind
RB: 3 years ahead
FB: Base
OT: Base
G/C: 1 year behind
WR: Base
TE: Base
Interior DL: Base
EDGE (4-3 DE or 3-4 OLB): 1 year ahead, will be negated (not turned to ILB/MLB time) if a switch inside occurs during that time.
MLB/ILB: 1 year behind
CB: 2 years ahead, will be negated if a transition to safety occurs during that time.
S: Base
- Seasons 11-14: Stabilization Years
The new player regressions and practice squads help level the playing field and make things more engaging for in coming rookies. S1-S4 players still have a chance at being star players, but the regressions are a little difficult to keep up with. Player retirement sees a slight uptick. Meanwhile, new active players keep the League interesting. There is plenty of parity between the teams as trades are uncommon when draft picks are worth as much as they are.