The 13 game schedule is introduced in S16 alongside the expansion to ten teams. Doing so creates an imbalance because there will need to be 7 games at home or away, and 6 games opposing that. Balancing the schedule year to year will in fact go on to become a bit of a struggle (spoilers!) as there are of course no tools or inventions that would allow the person in charge of making the schedule to have any knowledge of what was done the previous season or seasons. Thus requiring them to simply guess until hopefully one day such things can be invented. Like.. perhaps some kind of sheet, maybe attached to something where you could store the information spread out over the seasons. Some kind of...sheet...spreading. I dunno. I’ll let the big brains work on those wacky ideas. In the meantime, here is the season by season breakdown of the schedules we have and how the balance of home and away games might have affected the league in each season (and possibly beyond?).
Season 16 is the first season of the new 13 game schedule and sure enough the choice of who has home and away games does have an important role in the outcomes over the course of the season. Orange County, Arizona, Yellowknife, Baltimore, and Colorado enjoyed home field advantage this season. Let’s look at some teams affected by this.
San Jose
OOC Road Games:
Baltimore (7-6)
Chicago (10-3)
Colorado (1-12)
Oh what a different world it might have been for San Jose. You see they went 4-3 on the road. Colorado and Baltimore constituted two of those wins. Had that Chicago game been at home instead (and Chicago did have 7 home games, an important consideration when changing schedules), San Jose could have won instead of lost and they would have been the ones hosting Arizona. Given that Arizona took that home playoff win and ultimately won the title, this would have huge implications.
Philadelphia
OOC Road Games:
Orange County (10-3)
Arizona (7-6)
San Jose (7-6)
Well, there’s something to be said for the eventual runner up to have dealt with the entire slate of ASFC playoff teams on the road. Including their future Ultimus matchup. All three of these road games were losses and with OCO and Arizona both having 7 home games, either of those could have instead been flipped for Philly. And hey..that OCO game was ultimately a 3 point loss. That’s a potentially flippable game that changes nothing else. Except that it would have given Philly home field in the Ultimus.
The first 13 game season in the books and a few alternate possibilities begin to take shape already and both of them revolve around Arizona’s improbable run to the Ultimus, and how having seven home games buoyed them there. So let’s move along to the season 17 details. Chicago and Philly gain home field for the first time while Arizona, Orange County, and Colorado return for their second year in a row of 7 home games. This will constitute Arizona’s last appearance on the list as well. The NSFC also had the majority of home games for the 2nd straight year. That said, those three teams who got 7 games at home finished in the bottom three slots with only one making the playoffs. The 2nd seed upset the 1st seed and went on to lose the Ultimus. Meanwhile in the ASFC it’s a similar picture. Flipping the one eligible road game to a home game (vs the Yeti) doesn’t really change their playoff position as they won it anyway. On the flip side though, some interesting draft situations would have changed.
New Orleans
OOC Road Games:
Colorado (5-9)
Yellowknife (8-5)
Philadelphia (5-8)
Well look at that. The eventual #1 overall pick was Nola where they selected consensus choice Bjorn Ironside, richest person in NSFL history. And there in the schedule were two teams competing for that pick who both had 7 home games. Flipping either of those games with a Nola win changes things a lot. There was infamously a 3 way tie after Nola. In this scenario a 5-8 Nola and a 5-8 Austin (whose pick was conveyed to Orange County) would have a different three way tie than the one that happened. One of Colorado or Philly gets a game changing Ironside who then comes into the big league under different circumstances. If Philly does so, then their #2 pick (Hallmoniter, their real current GM) is likely to be in Colorado at #2 or Orange County at #3 and also potentially GM’ing in either. If Colorado gets the #1 Pick, Philly falls back to #4, having beaten both Austin and Nola. Ausitn moves to #2 and we get a similar OCO decision. Which could then have significant implications down draft as we start playing what ifs with what will eventually be a round stuffed with 3 GMs, a Simmer, and a Commissioner. A shuffle of people and eventually important situations that could literally change the face of the league as we currently know it. That’s not an understatement. Look at the names in the S18 draft. Think about how situational many of these stories and events were and how much could easily change with a couple different contracts and/or various people being in different locker rooms and environments.
After two seasons of looking at the alternate possibilities, we’ve already got major Ultimus implications and league wide changes that could have potentially happened. With S18 on its way, I’ll let you in on a big potential change right away. Behind the scenes the scheduling of the first two seasons was brought up several times to point out that three teams had yet to receive 7 home games (San Jose, New Orleans, and Austin). We don’t know what the schedule would have been had it not been for the intervention of a specific GM making a big deal about it. I’m gonna assume that most people reading this can take a guess which GM might have done that. If not, figure out which team’s end zone art didn’t get fixed for a month after this time frame. Anyway, we came into the season with those three teams finally having 7 home games and also saw the first time the ASFC had the majority, too. They are joined in the NSFC by Philadelphia and Chicago, both returning from 7 games in S17 as well. This will be Austin’s only time appearing in the 7 home game list, Philly’s last, Chicago’s last, and the only time Orange County does not appear. However, S18 doesn’t really create any waves. All 6 teams with 7 home games finish in the bottom six. No draft implications, playoff changes or title game locations really crop up. Good job creating the most boring part of my articles…me from 4 months ago!
So, let’s roll on to S19 and see what it has in store for us now. Baltimore and Colorado represent the NSFC. Orange County returns to their schedule alongside Nola and San Jose. This marks Colorado’s 3rd and final season of 7 home games thus far. And this season it gets at least a bit interesting.
Arizona
OOC Road Games:
Baltimore (8-5)
Philadelphia (6-7)
Yellowknife (9-4)
Now of these games, only Baltimore can actually change. Especially important though is that Baltimroe had not had 7 home games since S16 so they’re a bit less likely to do so, but had Arizona won that game at home (and they were within 5 points in the 4th quarter on the road), they’d have finished 6-7 and have edged out the improbable Austin playoff team that won three straight games to finish the season. Arizona might have had more luck going into Nola that season (though their regular season games suggests not) and also this would have changed both teams’ draft places. Ultimately this likely affects Philly and Austin more as Arizona would likely have gotten their real world pick at #5 still.
Well, again not much changed as it turns out. You could argue that Chicago and their 6 home games playing San Jose in San Jose determined who got #1 overall but Chicago didn’t even own that pick and also the top two players picked likely don’t change. San Jose was always going to go for the recreate QB of their old GM and Austin was always going to take the DLineman with the big personality. So let’s move along to S20. Yellowknife has 7 home games for the first time since S16 and is joined by Baltimore. The ASFC gains the advantage for the 3rd straight season as Nola, San Jose, and Orange County once again represent their conference.
Chicago
OOC Road Games:
Arizona (7-6)
New Orleans (7-6)
San Jose (6-7)
There’s a few things that could have happened here. Nola for example could have had a 7th road game and completely changed their odds of becoming the #2 seed in the ASFC. Chicago blew threw home games against Yellowknife, Orange County, Austin, and Colorado. They beat three of the final four teams at home and the 4th was New Orleans, who got to play them in Nola. A little Chicago magic would have really blown up the ASFC playoffs. On the other side of the coin, the game in San Jose ultimately decided who had the #1 pick. If that game is in Chicago instead thigns could be very different right now. For Orange County, who owns the pick. Chicago itself would still have Orange County’s #6. On the other hand, had they rearranged the ASFC playoffs in the previous possibility, that could have negatively affected them.
Yellowknife
OOC Road Games
Austin (8-5)
Arizona (7-6)
San Jose (5-8)
Well, there’s two good potential scenarios here. The first is Arizona, who faced YKW on the road and eventually missed the playoffs to two different 7 home game teams in OCO and New Orleans, by virtue of tiebreaker. Had they played YKW at home and won, they would instead have been the 2nd seed in the ASFC. In such a scenario, Nola would have swapped places with them, going from #2 seed to #4 pick. The second scenario actually may come into play in the next few days. In the Ultimus we have Yellowknife once again facing Austin in Yellowknife due to having a one game better record. The one deciding game? The 37-24 victory Yellowknife has over Austin. A game in which Austin actually held the lead from the last 2 minutes of the second quarter until the Wraiths went up for good with 6:28 left in the 4th quarter. The location of the week two game could very well end up as the deciding factor in the league’s championship game.
Well there you have it. A brief history of the scheduling imbalance since expansion on the eve of contemplating an additional expansion. To help you a bit more, here’s a list of each team and the seasons in which they have had 7 home games, ordered by the first occurrence for each team.
Orange County Otters
S16, 17, 19, 20
Arizona Outlaws
S16, 17,
Yellowknife Wraiths
S16, 20
Philadelphia Liberty
S16, 17, 18
Baltimore Hawks
S16, 19, 20
Colorado Yeti
S16, 17, 19
Chicago Butchers
S17, 18
Austin Copperheads
S18
New Orleans Second Line
S18, 19, 20
San Jose Sabercats
S18, 19, 20
Season 16 is the first season of the new 13 game schedule and sure enough the choice of who has home and away games does have an important role in the outcomes over the course of the season. Orange County, Arizona, Yellowknife, Baltimore, and Colorado enjoyed home field advantage this season. Let’s look at some teams affected by this.
San Jose
OOC Road Games:
Baltimore (7-6)
Chicago (10-3)
Colorado (1-12)
Oh what a different world it might have been for San Jose. You see they went 4-3 on the road. Colorado and Baltimore constituted two of those wins. Had that Chicago game been at home instead (and Chicago did have 7 home games, an important consideration when changing schedules), San Jose could have won instead of lost and they would have been the ones hosting Arizona. Given that Arizona took that home playoff win and ultimately won the title, this would have huge implications.
Philadelphia
OOC Road Games:
Orange County (10-3)
Arizona (7-6)
San Jose (7-6)
Well, there’s something to be said for the eventual runner up to have dealt with the entire slate of ASFC playoff teams on the road. Including their future Ultimus matchup. All three of these road games were losses and with OCO and Arizona both having 7 home games, either of those could have instead been flipped for Philly. And hey..that OCO game was ultimately a 3 point loss. That’s a potentially flippable game that changes nothing else. Except that it would have given Philly home field in the Ultimus.
The first 13 game season in the books and a few alternate possibilities begin to take shape already and both of them revolve around Arizona’s improbable run to the Ultimus, and how having seven home games buoyed them there. So let’s move along to the season 17 details. Chicago and Philly gain home field for the first time while Arizona, Orange County, and Colorado return for their second year in a row of 7 home games. This will constitute Arizona’s last appearance on the list as well. The NSFC also had the majority of home games for the 2nd straight year. That said, those three teams who got 7 games at home finished in the bottom three slots with only one making the playoffs. The 2nd seed upset the 1st seed and went on to lose the Ultimus. Meanwhile in the ASFC it’s a similar picture. Flipping the one eligible road game to a home game (vs the Yeti) doesn’t really change their playoff position as they won it anyway. On the flip side though, some interesting draft situations would have changed.
New Orleans
OOC Road Games:
Colorado (5-9)
Yellowknife (8-5)
Philadelphia (5-8)
Well look at that. The eventual #1 overall pick was Nola where they selected consensus choice Bjorn Ironside, richest person in NSFL history. And there in the schedule were two teams competing for that pick who both had 7 home games. Flipping either of those games with a Nola win changes things a lot. There was infamously a 3 way tie after Nola. In this scenario a 5-8 Nola and a 5-8 Austin (whose pick was conveyed to Orange County) would have a different three way tie than the one that happened. One of Colorado or Philly gets a game changing Ironside who then comes into the big league under different circumstances. If Philly does so, then their #2 pick (Hallmoniter, their real current GM) is likely to be in Colorado at #2 or Orange County at #3 and also potentially GM’ing in either. If Colorado gets the #1 Pick, Philly falls back to #4, having beaten both Austin and Nola. Ausitn moves to #2 and we get a similar OCO decision. Which could then have significant implications down draft as we start playing what ifs with what will eventually be a round stuffed with 3 GMs, a Simmer, and a Commissioner. A shuffle of people and eventually important situations that could literally change the face of the league as we currently know it. That’s not an understatement. Look at the names in the S18 draft. Think about how situational many of these stories and events were and how much could easily change with a couple different contracts and/or various people being in different locker rooms and environments.
After two seasons of looking at the alternate possibilities, we’ve already got major Ultimus implications and league wide changes that could have potentially happened. With S18 on its way, I’ll let you in on a big potential change right away. Behind the scenes the scheduling of the first two seasons was brought up several times to point out that three teams had yet to receive 7 home games (San Jose, New Orleans, and Austin). We don’t know what the schedule would have been had it not been for the intervention of a specific GM making a big deal about it. I’m gonna assume that most people reading this can take a guess which GM might have done that. If not, figure out which team’s end zone art didn’t get fixed for a month after this time frame. Anyway, we came into the season with those three teams finally having 7 home games and also saw the first time the ASFC had the majority, too. They are joined in the NSFC by Philadelphia and Chicago, both returning from 7 games in S17 as well. This will be Austin’s only time appearing in the 7 home game list, Philly’s last, Chicago’s last, and the only time Orange County does not appear. However, S18 doesn’t really create any waves. All 6 teams with 7 home games finish in the bottom six. No draft implications, playoff changes or title game locations really crop up. Good job creating the most boring part of my articles…me from 4 months ago!
So, let’s roll on to S19 and see what it has in store for us now. Baltimore and Colorado represent the NSFC. Orange County returns to their schedule alongside Nola and San Jose. This marks Colorado’s 3rd and final season of 7 home games thus far. And this season it gets at least a bit interesting.
Arizona
OOC Road Games:
Baltimore (8-5)
Philadelphia (6-7)
Yellowknife (9-4)
Now of these games, only Baltimore can actually change. Especially important though is that Baltimroe had not had 7 home games since S16 so they’re a bit less likely to do so, but had Arizona won that game at home (and they were within 5 points in the 4th quarter on the road), they’d have finished 6-7 and have edged out the improbable Austin playoff team that won three straight games to finish the season. Arizona might have had more luck going into Nola that season (though their regular season games suggests not) and also this would have changed both teams’ draft places. Ultimately this likely affects Philly and Austin more as Arizona would likely have gotten their real world pick at #5 still.
Well, again not much changed as it turns out. You could argue that Chicago and their 6 home games playing San Jose in San Jose determined who got #1 overall but Chicago didn’t even own that pick and also the top two players picked likely don’t change. San Jose was always going to go for the recreate QB of their old GM and Austin was always going to take the DLineman with the big personality. So let’s move along to S20. Yellowknife has 7 home games for the first time since S16 and is joined by Baltimore. The ASFC gains the advantage for the 3rd straight season as Nola, San Jose, and Orange County once again represent their conference.
Chicago
OOC Road Games:
Arizona (7-6)
New Orleans (7-6)
San Jose (6-7)
There’s a few things that could have happened here. Nola for example could have had a 7th road game and completely changed their odds of becoming the #2 seed in the ASFC. Chicago blew threw home games against Yellowknife, Orange County, Austin, and Colorado. They beat three of the final four teams at home and the 4th was New Orleans, who got to play them in Nola. A little Chicago magic would have really blown up the ASFC playoffs. On the other side of the coin, the game in San Jose ultimately decided who had the #1 pick. If that game is in Chicago instead thigns could be very different right now. For Orange County, who owns the pick. Chicago itself would still have Orange County’s #6. On the other hand, had they rearranged the ASFC playoffs in the previous possibility, that could have negatively affected them.
Yellowknife
OOC Road Games
Austin (8-5)
Arizona (7-6)
San Jose (5-8)
Well, there’s two good potential scenarios here. The first is Arizona, who faced YKW on the road and eventually missed the playoffs to two different 7 home game teams in OCO and New Orleans, by virtue of tiebreaker. Had they played YKW at home and won, they would instead have been the 2nd seed in the ASFC. In such a scenario, Nola would have swapped places with them, going from #2 seed to #4 pick. The second scenario actually may come into play in the next few days. In the Ultimus we have Yellowknife once again facing Austin in Yellowknife due to having a one game better record. The one deciding game? The 37-24 victory Yellowknife has over Austin. A game in which Austin actually held the lead from the last 2 minutes of the second quarter until the Wraiths went up for good with 6:28 left in the 4th quarter. The location of the week two game could very well end up as the deciding factor in the league’s championship game.
Well there you have it. A brief history of the scheduling imbalance since expansion on the eve of contemplating an additional expansion. To help you a bit more, here’s a list of each team and the seasons in which they have had 7 home games, ordered by the first occurrence for each team.
Orange County Otters
S16, 17, 19, 20
Arizona Outlaws
S16, 17,
Yellowknife Wraiths
S16, 20
Philadelphia Liberty
S16, 17, 18
Baltimore Hawks
S16, 19, 20
Colorado Yeti
S16, 17, 19
Chicago Butchers
S17, 18
Austin Copperheads
S18
New Orleans Second Line
S18, 19, 20
San Jose Sabercats
S18, 19, 20