7. Team Management Rules

7a. Team Rules:

• Initial rosters must mimic current FBS roster names as much as possible. All recruits should be named after actual players RECENTLY (within last two seasons or upcoming seasons) recruited by your NCAA team to maintain realism on an ongoing basis. We will use * for recruits before they are renamed. Recruits who will definitely remain on IR all season can keep the * name but must be renamed the following season.

• Only NCAA FBS level (formerly referred to as Division I) teams are allowed.
• It is preferred that league teams are limited to major conference teams or mid-major teams that are notoriously considered good teams (e.g. Boise St., UCF, etc.). Golden rule: If a team has never been ranked in the BCS, AP or Coach’s Poll top 25 in real life, it is unrealistic to have it represented in our league.
  
  

7b. Roster Rules:

• Number of players on a roster: Because college football teams usually have large rosters, XFBS teams may carry up to 63 players. That said, XFBS teams must carry a minimum of 46 players.
  
  
• Position Requirements/Exemptions: You are not required to have FBs or TEs on your roster so long as the A/O roster minimums are met in full by HBs and WRs respectively. [This differs from the PNFL which requires TEs]
  
  
• Player aging: Players will be aged R(0), 1, 2, 3, and 4. All 5 year players are automatically retired – no exceptions.
  
  
• A/O Roster Minimums:
  • Rosters during the regular season must conform to all position and slot requirements of the game itself so that a team is eligible to play a game. At a minimum, every team must have these player depth positions in (A)ssigned or (O)pen active status during the Season. They can not be (I)nactive. Parentheses indicate allowed equivalents. If a player is OUT (O-##) due to injury, they do NOT fill the A/O requirement.  Players with P-, Q-, D- injuries can play in A/O slots but if you do this it is at your own risk because the game will reduce their ratings.
    
    

• • 2 QBs:  QB1 QB2
  • 3 RBs:   [FBs are optional in the XFBS]
    • HB1 HB2(FB) HB3(FB)
  • 5 RECEIVERS: [TEs are optional in the XFBS]
    • WR1 WR2 WR3 WR4(TE) WR5(TE)
  • 6 OL:
    • C1
    • G1 G2
    • T1 T2
    • 1 other OL (either C, G, or T)
  • K1
  • 4 DL:
    • DE1 DE2
    • DT1 DT2
  • 5 LBs: LB1 LB2 LB3 LB4 LB5
  • 7 DBs:
    • CB1 CB2 CB3
    • S1 S2 (new requirement in 2026)
    • 2 other DBs (either CB or S)
  • P1
    
    

• • If one of these A/O depth spots cannot be filled due to O- injuries, e.g. T2 gets injured O-6 and you have only 2 Tackles on your entire roster, you must sign a Free Agent or promote a redshirt to fill the spot before the next week's games.
  • ***Also, in addition to the above, the commissioner has the right to ask any owner to add a player at a certain position at any time. The game requires a minimum at each position group and to avoid simulation issues he may make such a directive.***
    
    
• Handling redshirt recruits during the regular season:
  • Redshirt recruits “R” must be on IR or (I)nactive to keep that status. If you choose to skip their year of redshirt status and use them in the current season by moving them to an A/O slot at anytime, they lose their 'redshirt' recruit status but keep their 'injury redshirt' eligibility. This means they will automatically be aged to 2 years the following season. Although the commish will leave ALL 'R' players moved into A/O slots at their 'R' age throughout the season, it is for awards purposes only (and because the game needs at least one R player to have stats in order to start the next season [yeah, stupid game flaw]).
  • Teams are allowed to play a redshirt for 4 games in the season and/or playoffs without losing their redshirt status. These games do not need to be consecutive. This is useful for filling injuries, providing depth and showcasing new talent to see what they can do. Coaches must inform the commissioner of the player they would like to activate under the '4 Game Redshirt Activation' rule - the commissioner will track all 4 game redshirt activations on the website.
    
    
• Non-recruits on IR:
  • Before week 7 games are run, you can move injured non-redshirts to IR/redshirt status in order to maintain a year of eligibility if and only if the injury is severe enough that they will not return to full health in the current regular season. Must be at least O-12 in week 2, O-11 in week 3, O-10 in week 4, O-9 in week 5, O-8 in week 6, O-7 in week 7. That said, you must activate an R redshirt if you do this. Example: If a 3 year player with an O-12 is moved to IR in week 6, an R redshirt must be activated to give up the IR spot. The R redshirt becomes a 2 next season, but the 3 stays a 3 for the following season.
  • Because some teams simply won't have 10 recruits to put on IR, any team can put non-injured, non-recruits on their IR without penalty. That said, they do not get an extra year of eligibility from this. They basically just didn't make the trip with the team that week.

• Position Changes: NOT allowed in the XFBS. You must sign a player from the Free Agent pool if you have a roster gap due to injury or take advantage of the 4 game redshirt activation rule. 
  
  
• Free agents "walk-ons":
  • After recruitment is complete, players in the free agent pool can be signed anytime during the season (preferably no later than Friday during game weeks so the commish can provide updated league files and you can then send an RMUPDATE).
  • Normally, FA Signings are first come first serve based on the date/time the email was received. HOWEVER, if a player is cut during the regular season (after training camp), the player will be signed via waiver wire approach during the 1st 24 hours of his release. This means the worst-to-best order of the current rankings (or the latest recruitment order before week 2) will be used as a waiver wire. After the 24 hours have passed, the player falls under the first come, first served rule.
    
    
• Retirements:
  • At the end of the season, all 4 year players that did not receive redshirt protection due to a season-ending injury are automatically retired.
  • In addition, any juniors (i.e. 3 year) listed on the All-Pro Team generated by the Annual Awards utility will also be retired. Players who make the All-Pro team will only be retired if they are a 3-year player in the season they made the All-Pro team. Basically, this is our way of determining which of the best juniors in the league will declare early for the draft. Just like in the NCAA, juniors and seniors are eligible for the pros, so if your super star freshman LB just so happened to make it onto the All-Pro team, he will not be "retired" to go pro. He'll be back next season.
  • Any team that has a bracket pool prize can use it to unretire one of their ALL PRO 3-year players.  This is the only instance where a coach can unretire a player.
  • The commish will always unretire any R-3 players the game engine retires that should not have been retired.
    
    
• PRIOR TO THE START NEWS SEASON BUTTON: The commish will use the final rankings from worst-to-best to ensure all CPU teams are filled via any R-3 players still available in the FA pool.  This is done to 1) ensure those teams only need 10 recruits and 2) conserve available player IDs. Human coaches will then be able to sign FAs via list draft from what is left AFTER THE START NEW SEASON BUTTON IS PRESSED.
  
  
• Player Ratings:
  • Although we use the same MIN/MAX ratings of the PNFL, most XFBS players will have actuals far below players on PNFL rosters - essentially on the low end of their scale. The only players that will fall within PNFL roster talent range will be the "blue chip" players in each recruiting class. These players are intended to be men among boys and will have several ratings close to actual/potential maximums. This helps create a college-like set of rosters.
  • The XFBS has also established a player ratings matrix to promote realism at the player position level for QB, WR, LB, and S to encourage the use of schemes that fit your roster (or to recruit players that fit your schemes).
  • Player ratings changes will only be made to draft pools so the impacts are more gradually felt. Of course, the commish can make a global change in the best interests of the league when needed.
    
    

• Recruitment Rules

• • Rounds 1-7
    • Round 1 (Reward for Final Four) will include the 4 teams that were in the XFBS Final Four Bowls from best to worst XFBS Ranking.
    • Round 2 (Rebuild for Non-playoff teams) will include the bottom 10 teams from worst-to-best based on final week 12 rankings.
    • Round 3 (Reward for Playoff Teams) will include all 8 playoff teams from best to worst based on playoff finish (ties determined by ranking).
    • Rounds 4 onward (Normal Draft) will include all 18 teams in order of worst to best (First 10 will be based on XFBS ranking; remaining 8 based on playoff finish).
    • Player potential ratings will not be masked during the recruitment. Although it is somewhat unrealistic to know a recruit’s true potential, this ultimately reduces the work for the Commissioner by reducing the likelihood that coaches will cut recruits.
    • Recruitment draft will be handled per the below:
      • For CPU teams, the commish will pick the best available from the master draft list based on the team's style of play and/or major talent need.
      • Recruitment is through the forum pick approach. Players will generally have 24 hours to make a pick. After 35 hours, the commish picks the player using the CPU pick process and the slacking coach must make their next pick timely or they will have their team run like a CPU the rest of the draft.
    • At the commishes discretion, this style of drafting can be conducted for some or all of rounds 7+.
    • If a team has filled their roster, their draft ends. The draft continues until each team has filled their roster.

• • Rounds 7+:
    • Usually handled via list draft.
  • Transfer recruits: Any underclassmen aged 1-4 that are cut by teams during recruitment are considered eligible for transfer to other teams via being selected by another team during recruitment. They can only be signed in subsequent rounds after they were cut, not during the round they were cut. This ensures all teams have a shot at signing the transfer in worst-to-best waiver order. Transfers aged 1-4 signed by other teams do NOT get any redshirt status. They are basically free agents.
    
    

7d. Training Camp Rules:

• After the draft, the XFBS runs an "individual" training camp for teams that have coaches. These are your choices:

• • Use Camp Complete (http://www.pnfl.biz/Utilities/CampComplete.zip) with max of 55 per rating (benefit: can go up to 55 and gives you a preview
  • Use RosterViewer (http://www.xfbsfootball.net/files/rosterviewer.zip) with max of 25 per rating (benefit: it rounds up better than CampComplete; drawback: can't do more than 25)
• The Commish will use RosterViewer to process training camp as this utliity will round up all .5 values (unlike Camp Complete).
• These are the guidelines regardless of utility used:
  • Min must be set at 5 for each rating.
  • Max must be set at 55 for each rating.
  • Total allotted across all ratings cannot exceed 100.
  • Make sure you generate a .C## extension file - send this file to the commish.
  • Because the commish uses RosterViewer to process TC files, all .5 or higher increases WILL ALWAYS round up (e.g. 76.5 = 77; 77.5 = 78; 77.4 = 77; 77.55 = 78).
• All CPU teams will receive positional training camps. The commish reserves the right to target NCAA power houses or cellar dwellers for individual training camps when needed.

Ratings Boosts (effective 2024 regular season and 2025 offseason onward):

• Boost restrictions:
  • ACT/POT boosts can never exceed maximum POT ratings.
  • Players can only get one boost of 1 ACT or 1 POT point in their lifetime - you can't use multiple boosts or combinations of POT and ACT boosts on one player - we are not making supermen.
  • Coaches can only make boosts to 0 year recruits, not upperclassmen (1, 2, 3, 4 year players). CPU teams that get positional TCs are the only teams that are exempt from this rule.
  • POT boosts earned based on postseason status, regular season participation and draft participation will always be applied BEFORE TC to recruits in the new recruit class.
  • ACT boosts will always be applied AFTER TC to recruits in the new recruit class. Tip: Keep your ACT boosts in mind when doing your team's TC allocations: if, for example, you have a recruit 1 point away from max in SP and you will likely earn the ACT boosts don't waste 55 TC % on that rating - use one f your three ACT boosts.
  • If a coach leaves the league and their team gets any CPU team automatic boosts as outlined below, and then they come back, then they will be ineligible for any boosts for one season. Sorry, you can't game the system.
• Coached team boosts:
  • The bonus point can be applied to any (R)ecruit's rating but can not push them above that player type's MAX POTENTIAL. Must be an 'R' player; players aged 1-4 are ineligible even if they were signed during recruitment.
  • A player cannot get both an ACT and POT boost.
  • Boosts you can get:
    • 3 ACT boosts [after TC if you send in your camp by the league deadline - usable after TC only for 3 separate (R)ecruits]
    • 1 ACT boost   [if you fail to make the playoffs (to help you next season) - usable after TC only for a (R)ecruit]
    • 1 POT boost  [if you make the playoffs - usable before TC only for a (R)ecruit]
    • 2 POT boost  [if you participate a majority of the regular season/playoffs - usable before TC only]
      • Participate = send in PPPs/RMUPDATEs during the season; attend live games; respond to roll calls and league votes; informs the commish you prefer to go on automode throughout the season after submitting a PPP for the season or at any point in the season
    • 1 POT boost  [if you participate in the draft every round until the end or inform the commish to run your draft for you (e.g., no bonus point if you disappear mid-draft without informing the commish to run the rest of your draft) - usable before TC only]

• CPU team boosts:
  • Their boosts are automatic (not earned) because they need to keep pace with human coaches who basically make better recruitment decisions, get individual TCs and make the playoffs a lot more.
    • 3 ACT boosts [all CPU teams - usable after TC only for 3 separate (R)ecruits]
    • 7 ACT boosts [only if a CPU team receives a positional TC from the commish - usable after TC only]
      • 1 ACT boosts to one 1 year player
      • 1 ACT boosts to one 2 year player
      • 1 ACT boost to two 3 year players
      • 1 ACT boost to three 4 year players
      • Don't you dare complain about this being unfair! They don't get 55% TC point allocations to max out ratings like human coaches can get through individual camps. Plus, many of their juniors & seniors get zero gains from positional camps.
    • 1 ACT boost   [if a CPU team fails to make the playoffs (to help them next season) - usable after TC only for a (R)recruit]
    • 1 POT boost  [if a CPU team makes the playoffs - usable before TC only for a (R)recruit]
    • 3 POT boosts [automatic - usable before TC only for three separate (R)ecruits]
      
      

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