Ideas For My Planned League

[Orleanian In Exile]

So I continue to turn over in my mind just what sort of solitaire league I'll end up running and how to shape the season and championships.

For now, I'm inclining toward a 16-team NFL setup in an 11-game season, which gives me a good measure of control over the total number of games through the year. These would be the "old" NFL teams plus the 50s and 60s NFL/NFC expansion clubs arranged in two divisions (North and South). However, this "pro" league would have a college twist: a ranking system based on Brian McAtee's Quality Champions system to decide the six qualifiers for the three championship games to end the season with: an NFL National Championship (#1 v. #2), a Continental Championship (#3 v. #5), and an Interstate Championship (#4 v. #6). This makes the performance of the whole league through the season the deciding mechanism and pits the teams which not only had the best records but also faced the tougher or weaker teams through the year into their appropriate postseason slots.

I'm still toying with the idea of allowing regulation games to end in ties (which would put some interesting english on the rankings) or incorporating an overtime system which is a compromise between the NCAA multiple possession and the NFL sudden-death. In OT, each team would get a possession to score, starting from midfield. However, to win, the other team must outscore its opponent. There can be no tying the game again to extend OT. If the one team kicks a FG, the other team must score a TD. If the one team scored a TD and the other team then manages to do so, it must go for a two-point conversion to either win with eight or lose with six. If one team turns over the ball and its opponent scores, the first team will get one more possession to go for the win, with a second turnover here resulting in sudden-death. If neither team scores on their possessions, however, the game does end in a tie —unless its a championship game, in which case there must be a winner.