MBFL Simulations - NFL, CFL, NCAA, CIS Based

[Mykal]

Cripes MB,
Let me grab a coffee before I sit down to read this "magazine" sized post [;)]

[mbsports]

[font=tahoma]Some news and notes from the MBCFL as week 4 has passed us by now in Season 3.  Ottawa off to a quick start, Windsor really pretty bad so far and the Silvertips surprisingly mediocre.  Expect some roster changes coming as MBFL Free Agency comes upon us around week 8 time.  There could be some changes for the teams as players get brought back into MBFL.  MBCIS will start on Wednesday.  It's hard to know what to expect as none of the teams have a history yet but I'm looking forward to a very interesting season.  I'll also start posting Season 2 prospects for MBCIS so we'll have some in-season profiles there too.[/font]
 
[font=tahoma]Novak Leading New Look Renegades to Quick Start
September 8, 2008[/font][font=tahoma][size=-2]

[/size][/font][font=tahoma]The Ottawa Renegades are off to a 4-0 start with rookie Gary Novak leading the way.  Novak came out of Bowling Green as a decent talent but no one could have expected this kind of start.  Novak has completed 74% of his passes for 1,404 yards and 9 touchdowns to start the season.  His primary receiver has been Chris Davis who has caught 31 for 569 yards and 5 scores.  This type of change has allowed more to be shown out of Henri Childs who has already rushed for 8 scores on the season.  Ottawa's start has come at the expense of Halifax, Newfoundland, Winnipeg, and Saskatoon.  The 69-13 destruction of the T-birds will stick for a while.  Novak threw for 487 yards and 4 scores, 3 of which went to Davis.  Childs only carried 12 times but put 107 yards and 3 scores on the board while Fred Russell added 2 dives.  Of course Adrian McPherson helped by launching 5 interceptions on the day.  Ottawa faces their toughest opponent to date when the Quebec Bulldogs  host the Renegades for a Week 5 showdown.[/font][font=tahoma]

[/font][font=tahoma]Western Conference Starts Off Tight
[/font][font=tahoma]September 8, 2008

[/font][font=tahoma]The Western Conference is off to a tight start with no team setting a convincing pace to start off.  The Lions started off hot with wins against the Argos and the Stampeders but a 48-16 drubbing by the Alouettes left a mark.  They bounced back nicely against the Silvertips but until they take on Ottawa for week 6 B.C. is a hit or miss proposition.  Calgary has beaten up the Quebec Bulldogs but wins over Windsor and struggling Edmonton were hardly enough to convince that they're going to contend.  The Winnipeg Blue Bombers complete the trifecta up top at 3-1 but all 3 of their wins are suspect with a loss to the Renegades tossed in for fun.  Week 5 should start to separate the teams as the Stampeders host the Roughriders while Winnipeg hosts a much improved Halifax Devils squad.  BC again get's an expansion patsy as the Thunder Bay Griffins come to the left  coast.

[/font][font=tahoma]Struggles in Windsor Deserve Attention
[/font][font=tahoma]September 8, 2008

[/font][font=tahoma]The Windsor Wolves are off to a dreadful start and the overall talent level just might not be enough to pull out.  Cleo Lemon has already shown that he probably isn't the answer at QB with 2 TDs to 5 INTs and a bunch of sacks, but when Brad Banks took over the results stayed the same.  Without a quarterback you can't succeed in this league and right now the Wolves do not have a pivot.   Fred Reid and Kenton Keith have run the ball effectively but Stefan Logan has been a severe disappointment.  Finally only Darrell Jackson, exiled from the MBFL, has shown much of anything.  The concern for the Wolves is that Jackson may find a new contract on that side of the border.  If that happens this is a team without the talent to contend.  Look for the Wolves to scour the MBFL FA list if nothing good happens as the team heads way out west to take on Victoria and then returns via Thunder Bay.

[/font][font=tahoma]What's Wrong with the Tips?!
[/font][font=tahoma]September 8, 2008

[/font][font=tahoma]After a Grey Cup appearance the Victoria Silvertips had some excitement going into the season but so far the high expectations haven't been matched by the play on the field.  Clint Dolezel, at age 40, is extraordinary for his level of play and has looked better then Season 2 at times, but we fully expect Buck Pierce to take over at some point this season. Joe Smith and rookie Mark Hinton have been good, but the run game hasn't been what it was last season. The biggest issue has been the defense which has allowed more over 30 points twice this season and 28 in another.  Victoria needs a big win against Windsor in week 5 and then to show that they can hang with the big boys when they get to the backend of the season.  The Grey Cup expectations may not be realized but this is likely to be a season where Victoria starts to set up shop for the next 5-6 seasons.[/font]
[font=tahoma]Bulldogs Continue to Show
[/font][font=tahoma]September 8, 2008

[/font][font=tahoma]Mark Grieb and the Bulldogs continue to be one of the better teams in the Atlantic Division despite some big time issues.  Following their opening week loss to the Stamps the Bulldogs have rattled off 3 wins against the Alouettes, Silvertips, and Griffins. Dominic Rhodes has been key with 5 touchdowns and 552 yards this season while Dan Alexander has been a nice change of pace, scoring 4 on his own.  The receivers have struggled a bit but Damian Harrell at age 35 is showing why he's one of the top burners in the league with 4 scores.  Dallas Baker looks to be an inspired signing as well as he's put up 221 yards with only 7 catches. The best player so far though may be Tearrius George who looks certain to be an Eastern All Star with 4 sacks and 26 tackles thru 4 weeks.  Quebec gets a big test with the Renegades this weekend.  A win will show that this team may just be the best in the Atlantic this season and force Montreal and Halifax to battle for the other playoff spot.[/font]

[mbsports]

Well the big news in the MB World over the last 10 days or so is that the CIS league has kicked off!
 
After 2 weeks the biggest surprise is probably the Varisty Blues at 2-0 with wins over York and Guelph.  The pollsters weren't too convinced though as the Media has Toronto at 10th and coaches have them at 7.  Waterloo had the first week off but blew out the Gee Gees 42-27 to start off at 1-0. Western Ontario also is 1-0 after a 33-4 drubbing of McMaster.  Quietly the Golden Gaels are 2-0 as a strong defense has led them to wins over Windsor and York.  Out west the Dinos are on top after back to back wins over Simon Fraser and Alberta.  In both games Calgary has only allowed 11 points.  Laval and Bishops are currently dominating Quebec both at 2-0.  Laval won their first one against St. Francis 26-17 and followed it up against McGill 25-18.  The Gaiters beat Montreal 15-11 and Concordia 28-25.  In the Atlantic every team is 1-1 right now so there's a fight for the top going on. 
 
Concordia's QB Greg Fonua has been one of the best players so far along with Laval's Ed Sanchez.  The Concordia pivot has 594 yards thru 2 games with 6 touchdowns.  Ottawa has been the rushing leader so far with Dennis Walcutt and Zach Jones both diving into the endzone early and often.  Roger Ferguson is the leading rusher though with 331 yards and a pair of scores. We would be remiss if we didn't mention Windsor's Harold Ceja who has 14 catches after 2 games and 279 yards to lead both categories.  Jerry McCullum for Concordia and Frederic Konkel for Acadia both have 3 TD catches.  Montreal's Adam Matthews has put up 5 sacks so far to solidify his spot as the top pass rusher while Tony Resendes has been a ballhawk for Mount Allison with 4 picks.  Ted Diefenderfe has been the top kicker for UBC going 7 for 7 to start the season.
 
You'll notice I haven't had a chance to write up stories for the page yet but they're coming shortly and I'm also working on putting up the first class of recruits so expect to see those coming soon as well.
 
Thanks,
 
Mb
 

[Mykal]

Jeepers

A bleek start for Sherbrooke
will have to take another look at that depth chart

[mbsports]

OK Well we're caught up finally for CIS up to Week 4 which corresponds with our CFL status as of this week - so good times. 
 
I'll put some more info in tomorrow with all the statistics, but for tongiht just a quick recruiting dealie oh...
 
Best name I've seen in the randomizer: Louie Lua
 
and yes I would make sure his name was always pronounced Louie Lou-aye
 
other popular ones pulled from the latest test
 
Danny Argo - wonder where he ends up in CFL eh?
 
Warren Cronan "The Barbarian"
 
Warren McFadden <not Darren>
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Wiley White
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Fastest Player
Howard Heston, WR from Grande Prairie GPA of 3.13 most important to him is Location
Top Guys in Strength
Willie Teed, a LB out of Montreal with a 3.95<yikes> GPA who's looking at the Montreal schools.&nbsp; 2nd was a QB - workout beast I would say... Jose Golder out of Regina.
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I would say strength needs a tweek, so I'm putting that in as I think you should see more of the big boys in there then the QBs and RBs and LBs that I'm seeing...
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Good times with this thing though, it's a lot of fun to play with - if you have Excel with the analytics pack installed let me know and I'll send it over.&nbsp; There's about 20-30,000 formulas or something working on this little thing for 400 players
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[Mykal]

I'll have to let the cpu control my Sherbrooke for the time being
hopefully I'll be back up and running very soon but I aint there yet

I have to book a turn on my daughters pc just to see whats going on in here [8|]

[mbsports]

Heh no worries, Season 1 is kind of a crapshoot anyways with the rosters as they are.&nbsp; You'll prob. be back in business before we start any of the Season 2 recruiting stuff so you should be a'ight.
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[Mykal]

Yer but I still like to have my hand in all the same

But...........................

I should be back up and running tomorrow
fitting a new harddrive into my old pc, even though I've a new pc in the making and on its way

gonna try slaving the old drive aswell to see if I can recover anything
Its probarbly to far damaged (or so my recovery software says) but still worth a shot

then when the new pc comes my 6 yr old can have the old one
she has a whole loada Dora the explorer games she's itching to play [;)]

[mbsports]

LOL it's going to a good use, which is always good.
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I actually have a cadre of machines here.&nbsp; I have my Dell machine family which contains the
MB Workhorse
MB Fam1
MB Fam2
MB CB CPU
MB Vaio
MB Lat1
MB Trashpaq
MB CB LT
and the twins... 2 old 486s that run dos...
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oh and the server.&nbsp;
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Basically run stuff off anything that may possibly display a screen including TVs and a few other tricks.&nbsp; Basically though workhorse, Fam1, and Vaio are at my desk and do about 90% of the work...
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I wish the Dogs were more productive so they could help out some.
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[mbsports]

We have an opening in our flagship MBFL league for the Baltimore Ravens so we're looking for a GM there and might have another pro opening soon.&nbsp; We're in the Off-Season following Season 4 and our draft is on Saturday so if you're interested it is one of the better times of the year.&nbsp; Baltimore has a high draft pick but have struggled to find a QB since McNair retired.

If there's someone who would like to give it a go, just email me at mb@mbsportsnet.com - PM me here or AIM IM me at MBFL Commish

Thanks,

-Mb

[mbsports]

Welp got CIS going and Sherbrooke did it, they won a 17-16 squeaker over Bishop's!!!!

OK that's a good note for Mykal b/c I think he was going to go nuts if they didn't pull one out eventually.

As for the Vanier Cup Playoffs
Canada West
4 spots here Calgary is all but in at 6-2 and then Manitoba and UBC are in the driver's seat for the next 2 spots with Saskatchewan and Simon Fraser looking at the last spot.
Ontario
6 spots open and that means that Laurier is all but in at 6-2.&nbsp; Toronto, Western Ontario, Queen's are likely all at 5-3.&nbsp; That would give us 4 but the last 2 spots are most likely going to be Waterloo and York but Ottawa may have something to say about it.&nbsp; Waterloo has 2 games against Laurier so that should be an interesting little matchup.

Quebec
Only 3 openings for the Dunsmore and while Laval looked so good getting off to a 5-0 start Concordia has taken the lead.&nbsp; It looks like we'll see Concordia clinch they're at 6-3 now.&nbsp; Laval and Montreal would be the probable 2-3 semi-final, but Bishop's is right on top of things and could sneak in.&nbsp; McGill and Sherbrooke are probably looking towards next season.

Atlantic
Mount Allison is 5-3 and Acadia/St. Francis 4-4.&nbsp; That's your likely playoff scenario unless St. Mary's turns things around in a hurry.

CFL
Halifax has turned around in a huge way - incredible job this year by them to be at 12-2 they're in for sure and will get either Montreal or Quebec with the other playing to cross-over to take Hamilton's spot in the Lakes division.&nbsp; Ottawa is in at 11-3 they're not likely to fall far enough to not win the division.

Out in the Prarie division Thunder Bay and Saskatoon are still 1 win teams and still horrific.&nbsp; Saskatoon is a disaster - this is what happens when you have a team with 3 defensive linemen total, but 10 defensive linemen.... they also have no QB.&nbsp; Toon's only win was against Thunder Bay and TB somehow upset BC... dunno how that happened but they're both out of the playoffs. Winnipeg and the Roughriders are both 8-6 so they're most likely going to face off in the Prarie Division Final while the Silvertips are most likely to clinch in the Pacific.&nbsp; Edmonton, BC, and Calgary are all 6-8 so there's gonna be a shootout in the West. Joe Smith held the previous mark with 10.

Biggest word in Canada is that with MBAFL Arena Ball coming some players who would have come into the MBCFL now will end up there.&nbsp; I'm likely to let the Matt D'Orazio's and Damien Harrell's of the Sim World continue to play in both leagues.

The MBCFL rushing record has been erased.&nbsp; Jamal Robertson, Avon Cobourne, Joe Smith all passed it with the previous mark of 1,321 falling easily. Robertson is at 1,496 at this point while Cobourne and Jesse Lumsden are racing for the TD mark along with Dominic Rhodes and Charles Roberts.&nbsp; Cobourne is in the lead at 16 right now.

Darrell Jackson has re-written the receiving record books shattering the mark of 1,726 yards in a season with 2,372 so far and 125 catches.&nbsp;&nbsp; Jackson is the only option for Brad Banks to throw to obviously and it's all they can do to hang on in Windsor.&nbsp; Jackson still doesn't have a MBFL contract but chances are good Windsor will have another option next season so this could be a record that stands for a long long time.

[Mykal]

.

[mbsports]

Well after a 12 week regular season where each team played 10 games we're ready for the MBCIS playoffs.&nbsp; This is the first season we've done of the CIS and I have to be honest I really enjoyed tracking players thru the first season and now I'm busy putting some of those players into our MBCFL Draft for the next season there.&nbsp; I still could use a few victimteers for CFL GMs if anyone is interested in an expansion team or taking over the lowly Ti-Cats

Without further adieu here's the wrap up stories of the regular season
Vanier Cup Playoffs Set
The Final Games of the first MBCIS regular season have concluded and the Vanier Cup playoffs loom on the horizon.&nbsp; This week the Ontario Quarterfinals feature Queen's Hosting York and Western Ontario hosting Waterloo. The winners will face Wilfrid Laurier, who claimed the top seed and the University of Toronto who won tie breaks to land second place.&nbsp; The winners from the Semis will meet in the Yates Cup Final.&nbsp; In the Maritimes Mount Allison is the regular season title holder while Acadia and St. Francis will play for the second finalist spot in the Loney Bowl Championship.&nbsp; Out west Manitoba and Calgary are 1-2 in the polls and 1-2 in the Hardy Cup playoff.&nbsp; Manitoba will host UBC and the Dinos will host the Regina Rams.&nbsp; Finally in Quebec Laval is still smarting from a mid-season collapse that saw them win their first 5 and then lose the next 5 inexplicably.&nbsp; The Rogue et Or draw the Montreal Carabins on the top side of the bracket while Concordia hosts Bishop's on the other side.&nbsp; The teams that didn't make it had some heart break as the Saskatchewan Huskies lost out on a 3-way tie break with UBC and Rivals Regina.&nbsp; Ottawa lost out to Waterloo and York in 3-way tie break but the margin for them to get into the playoffs was only 1.&nbsp; They lost their final game at home to Windsor by a score of 18-17.

Canevazzi Awarded Creighton Trophy

Del Canevazzi's remarkable season for Waterloo was honored with the presentation of the Hec Creighton Trophy.&nbsp; Every time Waterloo took the field, win or loss, it seems that Canevazzi was destined to pick up 150 yards.&nbsp; Canevazzi led the league in receiving with almost 400 yards to spare and 21 catches.&nbsp; He also set the touchdown mark at 10.&nbsp; Canevazzi's competition for the award was split between several candidates.&nbsp; UBC's Greg Saunders was the top defensive vote getter and took the President's Trophy for his efforts.&nbsp; Tommy Brunston got some recognition finishing 4th while Brenton Bullock and Scott Finley picked up 2nd and 3rd respectively.&nbsp; Greg Fonua was 5th.&nbsp; The Peter Gorman Trophy for Most Outstanding First Year Player went to Anderson Manansala from St. Mary's.&nbsp; Laval's Hot Start Disintigrates

At 5-0 with Ed Shancehz and Dennis Dunn clicking on all cylinders you would have thought Laval was headed for a potential 10-0 season.&nbsp; It all collapsed after that start.&nbsp; Week 6 at Acadia the Axemen kicked their way to victory as Dunn could only muster 55 yards while Sanchez was sacked 7 times. The team brushed off the 18-3 loss but a trip to Concordia 2 weeks later revealed a trent.&nbsp; The Laval offensive line surrendered another 5 sacks on Sanchez and a 147 yard effort from Dennis Dunn wasn't enough to overcome the Stingers 25-20.&nbsp; At 5-2 worry was starting to set in just a little bit.&nbsp; Against Bishops it was a total disaster Donnie McKeague threw 7 touchdowns and another 5 sacks showed that beating the Rogue et Or required one thing - a pass rush.&nbsp; McKeague's 18 completions for 7 touchdowns were an indicator of just how pourous the Laval defense had become as they gave up over 650 yards. The Carabins would add 570 the next weekend in a 41-20 romp in which Earl Lemm scampered for 255 yards.&nbsp; A struggling Sherbrooke team would host Laval and beat them 26-7 the next week.&nbsp; Laval limped into the playoffs with the loss in which Mohammad Alejandre ran for 125 yards and a score.&nbsp; Laval looks extremely vulnerable after looking extremely unbeatable.&nbsp; Look for them to pull out all the stops and to try everything in the book against Montreal in the Quebec Semi-Final.
As always we welcome more teams to step into the MBCIS world and we'll have recruiting coming up shortly as well as about 20% of the league heads off into careers in whatever and about 2% of those end up in the MBCFL!

[Mykal]

At last a good victory to see out the season 26-7 over Laval
and a total of 3 wins in the last 5 games

that depth chart shake up must have done something[:D]
cos we were on course for an 0-10 season[X(], 3-7 looks a lot better on the eye
and gives Sherbrooke something to build on

[mbsports]

I'll start writing up game results and everything later today but the Concordia Stingers are the first ever MBCIS Champions beating Wilfrid Laurier to take the Vanier Cup.

Later this afternoon the 3rd MBCFL Grey Cup game takes place between the Ottawa Renegades and the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

[mbsports]

Yes a guy refers to me as "THE" MB

Goes back to the days of MBMLB, MBHL, MBF1, MBBA, etc. etc.

God I've simmed too much sports...
I wanted to take a quick few moments to do one of my rambling and quite frankly long emails to give everyone an update on what's going on in the world of MBFL. As is my custom lets go league by league and give that update!

MBFL
The Flagship starts Season 5 Preseason in 2 weeks - big thumbs up there. Everyone's roster is legit for the start of the season so there are no emergencies that I'm aware of that have to be addressed prior to the start
As is customary for MBFL there will be no injuries in the pre-season. Call it the Schmucky Rule if you'd like this helps out a ton long term for all the GMs. We keep the injury settings fairly low because nothing is worse in a league like this then losing 4 or 5 players to season ending injuries and having your season done by week 4. Yes it is a little more kind then the real world but we still see the injury that hurts and it still ends up biting someone each year who doesn't have a solid backup at a critical position
Indianapolis has moved into their new stadium for Season 5
Some uniform updates and revisions occurred - nothing too dramatic but you'll see a little bit higher quality out of them
I know for a fact that there are teams out there looking for Receivers, Running Backs, and other positions. Make yourself available and you can get a good deal or a player that really fits your team still
Free Agency will move to the open phase where you won't be bidding against everyone else on Sunday. Until then the standard send em' in rules do apply

Preseason will be only a single week from here on out. This fits better with the schedue.
Dates of note for 2009 MBFL:
MB Vacation weeks are January 11th, May 3rd, July 12th, and November 1st
Season 5 Postseason Draft is April 12th
Season 6 Postseason Draft is October 11th
MBCFA
The college league has some additions for the first time this year. We have FCS which a few of you noticed awhile back. What you didn't see and what you haven't seen yet and won't see for a few days is that we also have Division II out there in the MBD2 directory of the site. Don't feel obligated to take part as a GM if you're not interested in doing so but FCS and Division II are more like MB Solo leagues that I'm asking if you want to take part in them. They're more under the radar and you won't see nearly the amount of detail out of them but they're for my enjoyment and if someone else wants to give them a shot I'm all in favor of that.
I'm still creating all of the drafted players - we had a larger draft this year because we wanted to make sure every team got more then a single player this year. It's worked out well so far but they are time consuming. My goal is to have them set by November 23rd as weeks 1 & 2 will be run that week.
I'll be working on schedules later this week and getting those all set. As with everything in the collegiate sim it does take more time - the reason I can't just let the cpu have at is because it doesn't do a good job of setting 12 game schedules, only 11. I work hard to get you that 12th game! Heh.
Key Dates for College would be Recruiting the week of March 8th and the draft on April 5th. We also have a recruiting session on September 6th and a draft on September 20th.
MBCFL
The Canadian League has our 3rd Grey Cup game coming up this weekend between the Ottawa Renegades and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. In the old days it would be an all Roughrider affair with these two cities. Congrats to the GMs: Koz runs Ottawa and Rod Anello recently inherited the Riders.
I'd be remiss if I didn't note Bobby Lantaigne's Halifax Devils made a terrific switch in direction this season. Nice work Bobby in sticking with this team and getting them going.
We have 2 new teams to the league with David Harvey taking the New Brunswick Whalers and Mykal Buckle has brought his Yellowknife Sabercats into the mix. Few of you here know of Mykal but the guy is fantastic with graphic editing and designing uniforms particularly on the Maximum Football platform. Mykal's site is at www.maxmykal.com and if you ever wondered what kind of graphics for Max FB were out there this is a spectacular place to take a look. Max FB is more user responsible for the actual gameplay so you have to do some things to get a good game of football out of it. Mykal is one of the guys that makes that happen
This upcoming CFL season will be a bit of a quick scramble as it gets on track and onto it's normal spot on my calendar. If we had begun everything the way I would have liked years ago the CFL would be on about week 12 right now. As it stands it is behind by a season from the start and we want to synch these up as soon as possible. I won't be rushing 10 weeks into a single day or anything but it will likely start with 2 weeks simmed each week and will continue until completion. Expect the season to end in a similar time frame to the NFL season but then another abbreviated off-season and a start up on March 15th for the 5th season of MBCFL.
MBCFL seasons will assume a traditional start time immediately following the MBFL Super Bowl and will have the Grey Cup championship around Week 10 of the NFL simulation. This keeps it nicely staggered with a reasonable off-season that hopefully isn't too long. I'll monitor it to make sure we're not having too much downtime.
All MBCFL players who were inked to a MBFL contract will be coming off of their roster - start booing now those of you who built NFL light teams.
The Expansion draft is currently on my calendar for November 15th-16th but I will make sure that both GMs are avaialable so that we can take care of it properly. Mykal I know is a little bit East of us<England> so I will make arrangements based upon both schedules to make sure we can get things set.
The MBCFL draft will be held on November 22nd if we are able to get the expansion draft handled by then. It will be a live draft, however lists will be accepted and no shows will be auto drafted. Please note that teams that have Arena Football League players will not lose those players automatically despite our starting of an Arena league. The 2 schedules will not overlap however when a player retires from the CFL league they will continue to play in the AFL league and vice versa.
Speaking of retirements - retirements in the CFL league will be handled by the simulation, not based upon real life CFL retirement.
And injuries will be coming to the CFL league next season as well. Roster size will be 42 for game roster, and 45 overall not including season ending injuries.
MBCIS
MBCIS is the most fun league that you're not participating in really. We're just about to wrap up our Vanier Cup playoffs with Semi-Final games for the Uteck and Mitchell Bowls tomorrow and then the Vanier Cup this weekend.
The CIS is the Canadian University schools - we've made some allowances to make it a little more similar to NCAA while retaining a more Canadian style
Our scheduling for CIS will be similar to the CFL schedule where we're off kilter right now but will be making some adjustments to get things back on track
As with the CFL league we're adding in Injuries for the next season where we'll have a 55 man game roster and up to 65 on the squad. This season it was 65-65 and most players rode pine
Recruiting will be run on November 15th and is not a draft style of recruiting. Each GM can choose which players to recruit and will then be able to extend scholarships to the players who decide to attend their institution of higher learning.
Other Stuff
I have 2 things in the hopper that I'm not even mentioning because they're about 2-3 months off but know that there's some things that will be added that I think will be interesting. One is the aforementioned Arena League that most of you know I've been working on tweaking for it for about 14 months now. The other is more developmental in nature and will exist as an avenue for MBFL teams to bring players along that aren't ready to compete in MBFL. You will get some benefit out of assigning players to that league. It won't be extraordinary but you'll see low tier players progress to the point where they're capable of playing in MBFL without being totally out of their league.
That is all I have.


As always if anyone is interested in a football league that delivers in terms of being there relentlessly let me know. We may not have every detail you want in a league but what we try to do is to maintain a level of functionality that is sustainable and broad while keeping it boiled down enough so that we aren't going out of business and we're consistently able to provide on the promises made. Part of that is the scheduling noted above. We're setting it up with MB Vacations planned, we're setting it up so that we don't have 50 things on a single day. As I work thru the initial set-up of everything, I'm finding that I have what I need to work with and that makes it fun for me and rewarding. The league structure is daunting and I'm working on a final solidification of what we do that will drop early next year. Expect the following as the final lineup
MBFL, MBCFL, MBCIS, MBCFA FBS, MBCFA FCS, MBCFA DII, MBAFL, MBAF2, and MBUFL<Spring League for us to give teams the opportunity to develop MBFL talent>

That is quite simply a football universe that I think anyone can get behind something in. It also means that a player from Grand Valley State can put a college career in the books and join an Albany Firebirds and maybe progress to the San Jose Sabercats someday or to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The goal is to make it a series of leagues that correspond with one another and allow for a rich and robust history to develop over time where we have players who the GMs can say "remember so and so".

We're starting to get some of that now. Gary Novak is a name that comes to mind. Novak played for a horrific Bowling Green team in Season 1 of MBCFA, he was sacked 27 times, threw for 2,519 yards in a run based offense. He ran for 450 yards in that season and although the team was bad he took over in Ottawa in his rookie year and led them to a Grey Cup championship. As time goes by we'll see if they continue to be a leading team and they'll continue to grow. I always come back to a trio of running backs as well. Levi Bernard out of Notre Dame, Antonio Pitts from Syracuse and Joseph Ornelas out of Iowa. These 3 just tore up defenses in MBCFA and they're now moving into the CFL's upper echelon of running backs. With the simulations that we have available today in Max FB, Madden, and Bowl Bound we have so many opportunities that I get somewhat giddy thinking about it. Focusing on Ornelas, who as a created player can't go into MBFL he had 360 rushes for 2,149 yards as a senior and added 66 catches for 852 yards and 17 total touchdowns. He lost 1 fumble all season for Iowa. I love having a full history of a player from high school recruiting all throughout a professional career and as I build up the MBFL sites into what they need to be I think the end product will be one that GMs rally around and see that their input, feedback, and efforts are shaping a football world.

Now we always need people who want to run teams or really do anything in the league, one thing we'll start to have happen is as players retire we're going to have a Hall of Fame - currently no one really leaps out as being worthy but in a few years we'll see players from around the leagues go in as true legends of the simulated leagues.

Quite frankly it is a huge undertaking, probably the largest thing I have going except for my career and marriage. I find myself enjoying little pieces of it more all the time and I really like sharing it with the community and I hope others can share some of the enthusiasm for a fake football world that has so many moving pieces but remains grounded in the love of the game.

[Reaser]

I've been in MB's Leagues for years, since I was a "kid" basically and I'm 25 now, ha...
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Football is by far my favorite sport so MBFL is the funnest league for me, he does a great job with it, but I do always wish that he hadn't stopped the MBMLB league because I built an all-time baseball team with the Padres and baseball is my least favorite of the major sports, but I had every single one of my favorite players plus the best put together team, even had all the youth, won the MB World Series in 1999, I loved that team then the league shut down the next year, ha...
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also his racing world was great as well, won a championship and daytona 500 in that...but football is the best sport, so thats the best way for sim leagues, still wish MB would put up on a MB sports history page somewhere my Padres team with the full roster...
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I'm the Seahawks in MBFL, UBC in MBCIS then trying to get out of the MBCFL (don't want to leave the team until a&nbsp;new GM is ready to take over)&nbsp;because I only want to focus on my MBFL team and a future MBUFL (or MBFL Spring League, still trying to talk him out of the name UFL) team...

[mbsports]

Amazingly you pretty much gutted your CFL team by sending most of the players back to the NFL to play for the Seahawks anyways!!!
Should be a hoot putting together MBFL Spring or whatever it ends up being - I'm in no way sold on using the "U" but I also won't do anything stupid such as adding "gridiron" to the league name.&nbsp;

[Reaser]

ORIGINAL: mbsports

Amazingly you pretty much gutted your CFL team by sending most of the players back to the NFL to play for the Seahawks anyways!!!
Should be a hoot putting together MBFL Spring or whatever it ends up being - I'm in no way sold on using the "U" but I also won't do anything stupid such as adding "gridiron" to the league name. 

Hah, the Gridiron league is a joke anyways, they should have just changed the entire league name instead of changing football to gridiron after getting the C & D letter from the NFL....

[Brodie]

Could you tell me what type of cycle the Canadian league will be on when do you think you willbe starting your next season?