OFFICIAL OSFL RULES -- PLEASE READ

Old School Football League

BYLAWS

PS4
MADDEN17
ALLPRO
8 MINUTE QUARTERS
PRESEASON ACTIVE
INJURIES ON REG SEASON + PLAYOFFS
INJURIES OFF PRESEASON
PRE-EXISTING INJURIES OFF
NO PRACTICE SQUAD STEALING
25 SECOND ACCELERATED CLOCK
CREATED COACHES ONLY
NO RELOCATION

A. GAMEPLAY

1. PLAY CALLING: Players are to mix up play calling (not spam money plays or similar plays like HB or WR screen) and although everyone's style and philosophy may be different there is still an expected ratio of 30/70 run and pass at games end. No team should finish a game with 4 run plays and 37 pass plays. It's not realistic and it's not accepted by OSFL. If you're getting hammered early you gotta mix some draws in here or there too with all the 3 and 4 wide sets to get your minimum in, likewise, there should never be a 40 run to 8 pass ratio. Report these occurrences and we'll confront those that violate.
2. 4TH DOWN: As in the real NFL, 4th down is for punting the ball to the opponent to keep them from getting numerous cheap scores cause you made a poor and risky decision. There are, however, times where in the real NFL and in OSFL that a team can and would go for it on 4th if the odds were better. Such as:
- Inside your opponents 2 yard line.
- On or across the 50 into enemy territory @ 4th and 2 or less.
- Losing by 21, anywhere or anytime, no matter the distance.
- Losing in the 4th quarter, no matter the distance.
3. NO HUDDLE: Can be used in typical NFL situations such as 2 minute drills at end of each half, or in the 4th quarter when down 14 or more as a strategy to get out of bounds. IF USED, ALWAYS ALLOW OPPOSING PLAYERS TO GET SET. Any forced penalties due to no huddle should be reported to the league office.
4. ONSIDE KICK: Can only be used to begin the second half if used by a team trailing by 14 pts or more. Onside kicks can only be used by a losing team in the second half.
5. MONEY PLAYS: Are not tolerated. Madden 17 keeps track of playcalling and incorporates it into the weekly training report and by showing last play called. So players running say, ISO runs or cover 3 in vast abundance will be outed by this report. Mix up the formations and plays and you'll be fine. USE YOUR ENTIRE PLAYBOOK. Standard sets, shotgun, big or extra TE, wildcat. Show some variety in your game.
6. PLAYERS IN MOTION: must come to a complete stop unless part of the predesigned play format controlled automatically by the CPU. PLAYERS SHOULD NEVER BE MOVED IN THE WAY OF DEFENDERS TO BE OBSTRUCTIONS AT THE HIKE. These players MUST be set. Using them as human shields will be deemed unsportsmanlike.
7. ALWAYS BLITZ 3: every defensive play called must have 3 players rushing the QB. No personal adjusting players out of initial blitz role if it leaves less than 3 at ANY time. Spamming player zones like this will be deemed unsportsmanlike.
8. MANUAL SHIFTING: there are numerous controls for global shifts of D line, LB, secondary etc. these need to be used. MANUAL shifting of numerous defenders pre snap is frowned upon and indicative of money play behavior. You can drag a safety a few steps down in the box, or move a man defender over closer to his mark, BUT KEEP THIS BEHAVIOR LIMITED PLEASE.

B. STREAMING GAMES

1. PRESEASON AND REGULAR SEASON: No one is forced to use Twitch or YouTube to broadcast preseason or season games, but streaming season games is encouraged to allow added vigilance for cheese/exploit plays and potential rule abuses. Just the fact of knowing others are watching discourages illicit behavior. I recommend each player stream their season games when possible. Just good policy.
2. PLAYOFFS: Playoff games MUST be broadcast by one of the participants. Home team is customary to do this, however if agreement is made for away team to do so as long as one streams then that's ok.
If you do not know how to stream you have the 16 game season to practice. Don't make the playoffs and play dumb please.

C. CONNECTION ISSUES/LAG

1. QUITTING: the deliberate disconnect of a game due to poor sportsmanship or "rage" is severely frowned upon and will be grounds for removal from the league.
2. DISCONNECT: Will be handled as such-- at first occurrence of a league game interrupted by disconnect a photo must be taken showing the screen with(ALL IN SAME PICTURE):
a.The box displaying the disconnect or boot window
b.The score of both teams
c.The quarter and time left in the quarter.
Submit it to The league GroupMe or to Brian or Kevin for record keeping. Because at the occurrence of the SECOND disconnect for this same game, after another cell phone picture is taken, the league office will determine if a third replay is to happen or wether to add both teams total scores up and force win to the team with highest point total. Both teams will be recorded on league archives as having a disconnect result. Teams for which this become a problem can be forced to display an internet connection report before playing future league games, or be asked to leave if their internet does not improve. It will be handled case to case and team to team based on evidence.
LAG: will not be tolerated as a device to gain advantage or pester opponents. Prior to a game or if early in the first quarter a game can be mutually agreed to be suspended or ended to run a connection test for both teams. It must be mutual. This is one of many reasons why streaming your game is of benefit to you. A player can reach out to the league office to observe if a streamed game's lag is too excessive. Decisions are final but internet tests and mutual agreement is to be the first actions.
If a game with slight lag hangs up in between quarters as the screen changes, just call a timeout. That typically fixes the issue.

D. AUTOPILOT

1. AUTO: is only to be used for family emergencies, vacations, and MIA owners. A player must communicate to the league office the basic details of the absence including length if known.  Our goal at OSFL is to have as little CPU involved games as is possible.
2. PLAYING VS CPU: no one is to use Autopilot or CPU games to blow out the team and pad stats. Any lead of 40 or more becomes excessive and common sense must be used in these affairs.
3. INJURIES: will be ON for any autopilot, CPU, or league games. It's in your best interests to not have your games simmed to keep your injuries as low as possible.
4. CPU IS A LAST RESORT: It's no one's "right" to play vs the CPU if a team has no owner. If the league office finds a replacement coach for the CPU team you were about to play against before you've played for the week, you will play that owner instead.

E. GAME SCHEDULING

1. ADVANCE: we operate on a 72 hour advance cycle, and advances will be posted in the header of the current GroupMe league chat. It is every team's responsibility to contact their opponent via DM on GroupMe or text to set up a fair and adequate window of time to play your game for the week.
If your schedule is the hard one please do NOT expect the other person to be overly flexible. Work with each other to play it properly or the game can go to auto for one or both depending on the efforts made by both sides to schedule.

F. CUSTOM PLAYBOOK

1. CUSTOM PLAYBOOKS: are permitted for league play for both defense and offense.
2. DOESN'T IMPORT: EA online matches can be wonky, if you're using a created playbook take all your necessary precautions to ensure it is to be loaded. Once a league game has started if the default team playbook was imported by accident don't expect a restart and you MUST play with the default one.  

G. PLAYER EDITING
(Disclaimer: I'm not sure how important a player's shoes and or mask are to you as a madden CF player, but it's recommended and strongly suggested to make little to no changes (aside from position change) to your players and or keep to a minimum. Best to keep controversy away from your squad every way possible.)

1. EDITING OF PLAYERS: is extremely touchy in Madden 17. Due to the access to core stats and attributes, OSFL will allow player editing week 1 of preseason ONLY and only position change can be edited after that. Starting season 2, during week 1 of preseason, new free agents and incoming rookie class can be edited the same way.
THE LEAGUE OFFICE WILL SPOT CHECK PLAYERS ABILITY SCORES so be honest. There's no "accident" for tweaking a player's strength, speed, or catch. Once caught, you're gone.
2. POSITION CHANGE: is the only editing available after the week 1 edit. Any request for position change must be sent to a league official by GroupMe DM and they will handle the task. This is because the transaction screen will list position change players as edited players and no one wants an investigation/audit over moving a MLB to outside. Just submit the name of the player and the starting and ending position in the request. Example = KC Chiefs: Tamba Hali: ROLB to RE.
Normal, accepted position changes are: FS to SS, CB to FS or SS, OLB to MLB, MLB to OLB, LB to DE, DE to DT etc
RB or TE position change to FB only possible if the players overall is under 80 prior to switch. No studs at skilled position at FB on the depth chart.

H. TRADES

1. TRADE DEADLINE: will be observed during the season @ week 8 and will be announced when it's about to arrive.
2. SMALL TRADES: are unlimited. What makes a trade small is no player of 80 overall or higher, and no draft pick higher than 3rd. These trades are unlimited through preseason, regular season, and off season.
3. BIG TRADES: contain a player of 80 overall or draft picks in the first 2 rounds. These trades are limited to 1 per team per major league phase (Regular season, offseason, and preseason).
4. TRADE VOTING: The league office will not weigh in to judge every trade. Only those suspicious of one team helping another out or a very lopsided trade could be examined by the league office. Instead of squashing the trade, more from one side might be asked to balance it out for approval.
ALL TRADES MUST BE SENT TO BOTH COMMISSIONERS BY DIRECT MESSAGE FROM EACH TEAM INVOLVED THEREBY VERIFYING ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS.
If you neglect to do this first, it will be reversed and you will have to start again.
Be careful, smart, and conservative with your trades. If you leave the league one day, remember this team needs someone to take it over. Don't abandon all a team's QBs and leave a squad with Chase Daniel.
5. SALARY CAP!! Always consider your salary cap when trading. Both money and contract length. Don't put your team in a 2017 bind with a 2016 screw up.

I. FREE AGENTS

1. INITIAL WAIVER RUN: to begin our first season only there will be a one player per team Free Agent selection run based on the draft order of the 2016 rookie draft. 2015 records worst to first (Browns first, Broncos last) you are not required to take a player, you may pass. YOU MUST make sure you have to funds to sign this player or make drops on your own to do so. Once every team has selected or passed, a date and time will be preselected for the season to officially start and then we will be in first come first serve free agency from that point on. There's no way to have a time for all 32 teams to be there waiting at their consoles to dive into the FA pool, but notice will be given and the league will choose a considerate time that will benefit the most of OSFL owners as possible.
2. FIRST COME FIRST SERVE: will be the free agency policy of the OSFL starting at launch and ending when the CPU shuts it down at off-season.
3. CHURNING: will be grounds for termination. An owner cannot drop a player in an attempt to pick him up again at a renegotiated contract. This is not acceptable or sportsmanlike.

J. PRACTICE SQUAD

1. TEN MAN PRACTICE SQUAD: each team is free to stash 10 players deemed eligible by the CF here and develop them via XP for a mid season or future role with the team.
2. STEALING IS OFF: since there are no compensatory picks to do it right, the OSFL has lifted the ability to steal players via FA signing from the practice squads of others. It only promotes long term outlook, goals, and healthy contract and cap values to have this group of youngsters available and safe so choose them wisely for your needs!

K. OFF-SEASON DRAFT

TBA