Board 8 > Sign-ups for B8's best project

(+) Yeah! (+)

Board 8 National Football League League (B8NFLL) just wrapped up its 13th season where the Minnesota Vikings defeated the Columbus Pioneers in the Super Bowl. That means its time for new blood or old blood returning to be able to get in on the action for Season 14. Signups will last until at least mid-August, so there's no rush.

What is this?
B8NFLL is a simulation league using Madden 06s franchise mode where users build rosters while managing the salary cap to have fun and/or accomplish something over the course of multiple seasons (no hard figure, but the game can't exceed around 30 seasons)

What do we do in a season?
Here is an oversimplified breakdown of what we do each season:
1. Offseason
- Ownership changes <---- We are here
- Player retirements
- Restricted free agents
- Unrestricted free agents
- NFL Draft + signing draft picks
- Free agency
2. Preseason
3. Regular Season
4. Postseason

The beginning of the offseason is the only time that I can change ownership of teams, and I personally think that it makes most sense to end the season with the playoffs, so this is where we begin. The majority of your work in this league will be in the offseason. The pre, regular, and postseason is basically seeing the fruits of your labor and making any adjustments that you see fit. You can ask questions now if you have any about the offseason events, but I go over them in full detail when the time comes.

This is the kind of project where you can be as active or inactive as you want. I of course like to see it when people put in a lot of effort, but I totally understand that people have different lives and schedules that might affect the amount of time they are able to put into this. We've had a wide variety of successful levels for those active and inactive. We've even had users who literally did nothing all season who went on to win Super Bowls or make it far into the playoffs. If you are interested in joining this but are hesitant based on your availability, let me assuage some possible concerns. I end up doing like 95% of the work on this project, and I give users plenty of time to do their tasks. A large number of offseason segments I give users at least a week to complete. Should you idle during any of those segments, I have very forgiving rules in place. Your team will not be screwed over if you ever forget to do something.
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In the OP of every topic we have, there are four links you will see. They are as follows:

1. Hub Spreadsheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10gIP0JkVqOaoUc4aQX_NyDM8dB31FOPm_dUx6DVTWPk/edit?usp=sharing

This is where you will find all pertinent information on the current state of the league. In it you will find several sheets, most of which should be self-explanatory if you understand the NFL. You might want to look at to get familiar with it and if your choice of team depends on its roster and not fandom. If your choice of team does depend on the roster it unfortunately is not fully accurate.

Due to the amount of time it would take to update each time players' ratings change, ratings for all teams are reflected based on what they were entering the preseason unless a player was signed or traded after it. Also, the team financial sheet which gives you contract info and ages for all your players are only shown for user teams based on how much time and effort it takes to work on it. Do not hesitate to ask me any questions regarding any teams you might be interested in taking over.

2. Word Doc
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RVeEIyjqIiEkS0VYvbsI02dWMDXyOgdVQAgThNJyIfc/edit?usp=sharing

This was re-worked, but it still a very wordy 14-ish pages worth of info that should be helpful to understand how B8NFLL works within Madden 06. I wouldn't say it is essential and it doesn't cover everything, but I think it covers most of the important stuff and might answer many of the questions you have.

3. Wiki Page
http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/Board_8_National_Football_League_League

This is starting to get ridiculously long and may prompt me to move it elsewhere as I can't seem to make new articles on the B8 Wiki, but the basic history (such as who was in charge of what team each season, final regular season records, playoff results, award winners, and end-of-season stat leaders) of every season of B8NFLL is on record here.

4. Previous Topic
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78630850

That topic covers the entirety of the regular and postseason, so you can check it out at your convenience to see how everything during that span is presented. We are also part of the B8 Discord and can be found in the B8NFLL sub-channel under Sports.
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Here are the 32 teams in the league by division. I have made notes for any team that has relocated since this started. A team in bold is one that is occupied by a user who will be coming back in season 14. A team in italics is one that is currently occupied by a user who has yet to inform me of their plans for season 14. A team that is neither bolded nor italicized is open (you can also tell because there's no username to the right of them) for the taking. If an italicized team is the one you want the most, you can sign up for X open team with the stipulation that you would like to change to Y team if their incumbent user does not return.

AFC West
Denver Broncos
Kansas City Chiefs - Ranlom
Oakland Raiders
Portland Express (formerly Washington Hawks and San Diego Chargers)

AFC East
Buffalo Bills - stevr
Miami Dolphins
New England Patriots (formerly Birmingham Cougars and New England Patriots) - Jukkie
New York Jets

AFC North
Baltimore Ravens
Cincinnati Bengals
Mexico City (formerly Cleveland) Browns - VI
Pittsburgh Steelers - Shattered

AFC South
Columbus Pioneers (formerly Houston Texans) - KCF
Indianapolis Colts - mccheyne
Jacksonville Jaguars - Sultan
Tennessee Titans - Socko

NFC West
San Francisco 49ers - Scare
Seattle Seahawks
St. Louis Rams
Toronto Wildcats (formerly Arizona Cardinals) - prof

NFC East
Dallas Cowboys
Las Vegas Pumpkins (formerly Philadelphia Eagles)
New York Giants - Eddv
Washington Redskins - Wiz

NFC North
Chicago (formerly Los Angeles, Richmond, and Chicago) Bears - Stan
Detroit Lions - Nee
Green Bay Packers - Tangicide
Minnesota Vikings

NFC South
Anaheim Lightning (formerly New Orleans Saints)
Atlanta Falcons - MMX
Carolina Panthers - Emerald
Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Chris
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In a little bit, I will do some mini-writeups for all the available teams.

@imthestuntman
@muddersmilk
@Maniac64

I know that you had expressed interest in joining last season but did not for various reasons, so I decided I would ping you in case the case would be different six months later.
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your honor, leading the witness

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Former Super Bowl Champions

The Dallas Cowboys have been the league's most talented team for roughly half of the league's existence. However, I institute a limitation on collective annual player expenses (called a salary cap) that is lower than what the game gives, and taking over the Cowboys would mean you would have your work cut out for you getting them under the salary cap. You would still end up with a Super Bowl-caliber team that might even be the favorites.

The Miami Dolphins have a slightly less talented team than the Cowboys, but they too have financial issues related to the cap that would require some work, but not to the same level as the Cowboys. Like the Cowboys, you should still end up with a team that would be among the Super Bowl favorites.

The Denver Broncos are about as talented as the Dolphins and have a smaller issue with the salary cap than them but still would require some work. They have the longest SB and playoff drought of the four in this category, but they haven't had a losing record in the past six seasons.

The Minnesota Vikings are fresh off of a SB victory. Their talent level is similar to the Dolphins and Broncos, but they are in much better financial health, and had at one point the most cap space among all 32 teams during the season. After years of losing tons of players to retirement, they will probably only lose a few this offseason and can run back their championship team next season.

Perennial Playoff Teams

The St. Louis Rams have made the playoffs 10 times in 13 seasons, which I am assuming is the second most in the league behind the Dolphins. They are in good financial health and have a nice mix of veterans and youth. Defense is one of the league's best, but the offense will probably need some work.

The Baltimore Ravens have won the AFC North and finished 10-6 in three straight seasons. Every team in the division has nipped at their heels during that span, so they would need to navigate the offseason well enough with their salary cap issues to win the division for the fourth straight season.

Playoff Caliber

I hate putting the Oakland Raiders in this category because I think they are one of the best teams in the AFC. The underlying stats suggested they were too last season, but poor luck resulted in a losing season. The defense is set, but the offense could use a little work, especially with some impending OL retirements. Cap space should be good.

The Portland Express have gone 20-12 the past two seasons with two playoff wins, but they are expected to lose their starting QB and #1 WR to retirement, so there will be major decisions to be made on the offensive side of the ball.

The Las Vegas Pumpkins have won between 7-10 games in eight of the past nine seasons, so they are always in the playoff hunt despite playing in the NFC East, which is universally considered to be the most talented division in the league for most of the league's existence. They are always in good financial health, but this will be a critical offseason for the offense as a few long-time faces might retire and superstar QB Chris Leak's career will soon end.

The New York Jets are coming off of two straight losing seasons, but the underlying stats peg them as unlucky teams who have also suffered among the most injuries and games lost due to injuries. They play in a rather rough division, but they have very few weaknesses and could just use a bit of luck and a small retool to get back into the groove.

Work In Progress

The Cincinnati Bengals finished with the league's worst record, and the offense is the main culprit as it's kind of a mess with uncertain futures pretty much everywhere. The defense has a few building blocks, but development has stalled for some. If you want a challenge, this is probably the team to go with.

It is probably unfair to put the Seattle Seahawks in this category, but I didn't want to make one just for them. There are plenty of stars and rising players on both sides of the ball, but their are also as many question marks. Their talent has rarely resulted in a suitable record. Every team in the division finished with 5-9 wins, so with a little work and luck, they could have a quick turnaround in terms of getting back into the playoffs.

The Anaheim Lightning luckily play in one of the league's worst divisions (easy argument to make that it is the worst), and were in the playoff race until the very end. They also have a ton of talent. Yet, they are coming off of a season with a losing record for the ninth time in the past 10 seasons. Many of their best players on defense are beginning to age, so this will take some work to get them in a position for sustainable moderate success.
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Will vouch for this being the best run project I've been apart of on B8. I've been in the league for 8 seasons now (so ~4 years) and this is one of the main things that keeps me on B8.

You can be as hands on or hands off as you like. Some people are incredibly active whilst others are not and both sides are fine. KCF is also willing to run sides on a temporary basis if something comes up that prevents your participation which for the most part after the offseason is seeing how things pan out.

KCF is also willing to go above and beyond to help people out if they don't understand or need advice on what to do. There's also measures in place to ensure fairness is maintained in case there's a misunderstanding with the valuations of players/etc.

Last season every gameweek was live simmed on Discord (with results posted on B8 after). That may or may not be the case next season but we do just chat on Discord too.

Yeah I just dont have time these days.

I will vouch for what a great project this is though

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superstar QB Chris Leak's career will soon end.

sadness

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Also someone come take the Ravens. Or Bengals. Or both.

Come fite me!

Evening bump
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Surely we will get out first sign up today!
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Evening bumpo.

Also sign up!

This is starting to get ridiculously long and may prompt me to move it elsewhere

Have you thought about using a dead game board?

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where's the best project

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I am only interested if I can move a team to England.

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North America only
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GildedFool posted...

I am only interested if I can move a team to England.

There's probably a city available that stole it's name from an English city and you can pretend it's in England!

If only New England weren't already taken...
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New York always gets me since I'm from Yorkshire and I know that York is pretty much as far as it possibly could be from being like New York.

Everything in the York city centre is still contained within the original medievil castle walls with a lot of the houses/shops within the walls still being their original structures from the 1300s

I'll play Portland but I'll just be an idle slot but eddv asked me so I have to help him and my cool friend kfc

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Posted a quick little ad on our summersim page. Hopefully get one or two coming over

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Gonna post here for Penny since his acct is too new but he might be taking LV
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How does the draft work?

Do you use scouts to gather any intel on the guys?

Also Madden 06 has coaching contracts for 2 to 3 years and its pretty easy to snatch another teams OC or DC and make them your HC. Is any part of the offseason used on looking at and signing coaches?

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Bloodychess posted...

How does the draft work?

Do you use scouts to gather any intel on the guys?

Also Madden 06 has coaching contracts for 2 to 3 years and its pretty easy to snatch another teams OC or DC and make them your HC. Is any part of the offseason used on looking at and signing coaches?

Nobody gets to scout (which I guess theoretically puts AI at a slight advantage). You just get the combine stats and then the relevant categories for that position. So like Throw Power, Throw Accuracy, Interview for a QB / Run Block, Pass Block, Interview for an O-lineman / Etc

Nobody gets to do anything with coaches in the offseason. Basically we let the AI sim it and whoever you end up with, you end up with. KCF says it doesn't seem to make any difference for the purposes of how he sims games.

You can change your head coaching strategy so if you get stuck with a head coach who doesn't match your team philosophy it's not a big deal, you just adjust it to whatever you want.

ShatteredElysium posted...

There's probably a city available that stole it's name from an English city and you can pretend it's in England!

Birmingham is a good one

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Not even England wants Birmingham though to be fair

(I have never been to Birmingham, AL. I'm assuming)

Bloodychess posted...

How does the draft work?

Do you use scouts to gather any intel on the guys?

Also Madden 06 has coaching contracts for 2 to 3 years and its pretty easy to snatch another teams OC or DC and make them your HC. Is any part of the offseason used on looking at and signing coaches?

The draft is a live three-day event (Rounds 1-2 Day 1, 3-4 Day 2, and 5-7 Day 3). There is an in-game scouting event, but it's just a waste of my time for various reasons, but a big one is that all the info becomes available during the draft anyway. If you attend the live draft, you can get all the info the game has available then.

Coaches and their respective ratings are completely meaningless. They are just a name. The only thing a coach affects is on coaching strategies, which users are able to change (I give coaching strategies out before the preaseason). You can request for me to fire a coach, but I really, really, really do not want to expend any time or energy going through the hiring process and just let the AI take care of it.
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I would like to enroll, credit @DoubleTangicide for his summersim ad. Be sure the referral bonus is hefty.

I am deciding on a team and will be hopefully finalizing it tomorrow! Still reading through the material as well but this looks awesome.

Apologies in advance to whichever team I end up murdering with my awesome cap manipulation!

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Welcome muffinz!

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@PatrickMahomes I'll trade you the Chiefs for all your picks in the next two drafts

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I'll take Oakland

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Ranlom posted...

PatrickMahomes I'll trade you the Chiefs for all your picks in the next two drafts

I may be a new GM but I must say this sounds like an amazing deal

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I have a question -- looking through team financials in the hub, I see some teams have lots of players listed, and some have none at all. What is the significance of that / who are these players? For example, teams like Seattle Seahawks and St. Louis Rams have no players listed, but the Tampa Bay Bucs and San Francisco 49ers have lots of players listed. Can I get a quick rundown on this?

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AI teams don't have their financials listed, only user controlled teams do.

AI teams also operate under a different cap to user teams (self imposed) but the cap that is listed for them on the sheet is in relation to the user cap not AI cap

KCF does not list the financials of the AI controlled teams since there's no users running them, and if a user needs to know a player's financial info (for example, for trading purposes) they can just ask KCF. it's a lot less work for him than typing an additional 10-15 teams' worth of info.

Edit: ninja'd lol
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So if I pick a team, then he adds the relevant info to the tab?

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Also keep in mind what is listed there right now is for last season. It will change once KCF progresses into the next season which is when he will update. So some teams may look tight but have a lot of space on update whilst some teams may already be over cap.

PatrickMahomes posted...

So if I pick a team, then he adds the relevant info to the tab?

Yes that's correct
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PatrickMahomes posted...

So if I pick a team, then he adds the relevant info to the tab?

He will once he progresses into the next season yes. Doubt he is going to waste time adding last seasons financials

Bloodychess posted...

I'll take Oakland

I will try and give you the Raider players stats from this past season later today
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Thank you for the info. I will be moving forward as

THE CINCINNATI BENGALS

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And I will give you Bengals info.

Tangicide referred to you as Muffin. Should you be written as such or Patrick/Mahomes?
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KCF0107 posted...

And I will give you Bengals info.

Tangicide referred to you as Muffin. Should you be written as such or Patrick/Mahomes?

Whatever's easier for you. I respond to both.

Is there a discord channel for this?

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PatrickMahomes posted...

Whatever's easier for you. I respond to both.

Is there a discord channel for this?

http://discord.me/board8

Channel name is B8NFLL

Sweet, I'm in. So #b8nfll is the right channel to talk about this game in?

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Yep, that's the one.

AFC West
Denver Broncos
Kansas City Chiefs - Ranlom
Oakland Raiders - chess
Portland Express (formerly Washington Hawks and San Diego Chargers)

AFC East
Buffalo Bills - stevr
Miami Dolphins
New England Patriots (formerly Birmingham Cougars and New England Patriots) - Jukkie
New York Jets

AFC North
Baltimore Ravens
Cincinnati Bengals - Muffinz
Mexico City (formerly Cleveland) Browns - VI
Pittsburgh Steelers - Shattered

AFC South
Columbus Pioneers (formerly Houston Texans) - KCF
Indianapolis Colts - mccheyne
Jacksonville Jaguars - Sultan
Tennessee Titans - Socko

NFC West
San Francisco 49ers - Scare
Seattle Seahawks
St. Louis Rams
Toronto Wildcats (formerly Arizona Cardinals) - prof

NFC East
Dallas Cowboys
Las Vegas Pumpkins (formerly Philadelphia Eagles) - Penny
New York Giants - Eddv
Washington - Wiz

NFC North
Chicago (formerly Los Angeles, Richmond, and Chicago) Bears - Stan
Detroit Lions - Nee
Green Bay Packers - Tangicide
Minnesota Vikings

NFC South
Anaheim Lightning (formerly New Orleans Saints)
Atlanta Falcons - MMX
Carolina Panthers - Emerald
Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Chris
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Penny, chess, and muffinz should all have received stat PMs.

I didn't put this in bold, so you may have missed it, but signups will go on for another month at least as it hasn't even been a week since we crowned our SB champion. You are not locked into a team or spot, so if you want to switch teams or back out in the next month, it's cool. I understand.

I'm still technically on the last season in the game so that I can provide stats for your players and answer some questions that I wouldn't have access to the info otherwise, but since I am supposed to put in a relocation request for the Pumpkins to move back to Philadelphia, it probably won't stay that way for long. If you are anyone else has any questions that require me to look your roster, contracts, or stats, please try to ask them within the next week or two. Otherwise, I will end up having to go by memory to answer things to the best of my ability.
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One thing that I think was brought up in the Discord channel that I want to bring up here is about the draft.

For the past five or so seasons, I have been using Madden 06's generated classes. What I end up doing is looking up draft projections and basic scouting readily available in the game. For example, QBs are labeled as Pocket, Balanced, or Scrambling and they tell you their throwing power and throwing accuracy on a very poor to amazing scale. I then use that info to determine what the prospects will be renamed to when I am able to do that (once rookies are signed or rookies go unsigned and enter the free agent pool).

Some positions I will never run out of players to rename (HBs, WRs, DL), but I'm running pretty low on QBs, interior OL, and Ss, so as early as this upcoming draft, I might refrain from renaming players at a particular position to keep my rename reserves from being depleted.

Another big thing is that I have no idea what the pool of prospects is going to be until the draft is upon us. That's just the game's mechanic, so for the first half of the offseason (restricted free agency and unrestricted free agents), none of us will have any idea who is in the draft. For some, that might be an inconvenience, but it's what we have to work with.
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