SFL to expand season to 14 games Summer 2024; SFLm getting overhaul
The Simulation Football League is rolling out a number of new initiatives as it builds towards the future. Now in its first season of the SFL4K23 era, the building blocks to a successful future are being laid in multiple areas. While some of these projects are not complete, there are many areas around the league that are under construction.
"Coming off the heels of one of our most competitive and exciting regular season weeks in our deep history, I am incredibly excited to begin rolling out these new additions to our league," said Commissioner Cameron Irvine. "Our vision for the future is substantial and we are looking forward to making these investments into the community."
Each area is broken down below:
Expanded regular season
Starting Summer of 2024, the SFL will move from a 12-game, 14-week regular season to a 14-game, 17-week regular season. One additional game will be in division and another additional game will be against a team that finished in the same divisional position, not currently slated to be an opponent in divisional rotation. The additional bye week will allow for more rest for coaches, an additional week of progression for players and to not overload different departments involved with production.
- This season will conclude Thanksgiving Weekend, Saturday November 25.
- The final 12-game regular season will begin the weekend of January 13 2024, lasting through Saturday May 11.
- The Summer 2024 season will begin the weekend of June 29 and conclude Saturday November 16.
- The Winter 2025 season will start the weekend of January 4 and last through Saturday May 24.
These changes cut off-seasons down from nine weeks to roughly six weeks. The league has provided each league calendar year of events all the way through the Winter 2025 season, which can be found at the bottom of this release.
SFLm reborn in 4K23
Entering its eighth season, the SFLm is getting a facelift, with teams now being owned by individuals or ownership groups like in the SFL. This will start a pipeline for future SFL competition and for incoming teams to get hands-on experience in building brands and team staff, while getting to work with the league's newest players. This new minor league system will be where future expansion candidates will get to showcase their abilities for future SFL competition.
The league has confirmed three teams so far for competition in the Fall 2023 season, which will begin Friday November 10.
- The Lexington Miners will return under the direction of Marco Swift and have gotten new marks to celebrate the franchise's continued participation in the league.
- The 3x Champion Albuquerque Atoms will return under the direction of Joshua Williams, adding brother Jason Williams to the ownership group. It's refreshed branding is still in development and will be released soon.
- The leadership of the Lincoln Rattlesnakes, led by Chris Britton III, is adding Jason Peace to its ownership group and relocating the franchise to Philadelphia, launching the Philadelphia Cougars.
The remaining spots in SFLm are now up for grabs, for just $10 a month. More SFLm brands you've come to know and love may still play in the fall season, but those applications will be compared with the rest of the applicant pool and have missed the initial launch window. Unclaimed SFLm brands can be purchased from the league - see Commissioner Cameron Irvine for details. All players will remain with their current franchises while new leadership is approved for those teams. The process of branding and approving new ownership groups plus the addition of the SFLm Schedule Release will conclude by the end of September.
To apply for SFLm ownership, you must have professional branding prepared and examples of stadium/uniform design in 4K23 prior to applying. The deadline to apply is three weeks from today, Thursday September 21. Please see Commissioner Irvine for team inquiries.
Speaking of the schedule, to coincide with the shortened SFL off-season, the SFLm schedule will be getting some exciting changes. The first part of the schedule will consist of round-robin group play, organized at random each season. Group play will determine playoff seeding. Teams 1-4 will host teams 5-8. Teams 1-4 will only need one win to advance, while teams 5-8 will need two wins to advance. If the worse seed forces a second game, they'll host the second game.
The first round of the playoffs will be followed by a double elimination, two week semifinal round. The winner of the winner's bracket will host the Championship Game in their home stadium, while the winner of the loser's bracket will travel for the title game.
New Development Team
The SFL has begun the work on its new 'development team' which will provide additional time to players in the league most disadvantaged (bottom 7%) by their join date. Players who have had the least amount of weeks to develop and are furthest away from being a maxed out player will receive development status and progress at the minor league cost values while still playing on their SFL team.
The first development team will consist of 52 players across the league. This will help teams invest in players who have lower overalls, knowing that they can continue development in the minor league to improve against better competition in the pros.
The start of the development team is reliant on the portal's ability to calculate these averages out for the league to examine. There are still projects in development on the portal, including the inactive list, progression submission checks/fixes and player pages not displaying purchased progression properly. The development team calculations will go into effect once the previously mentioned projects have concluded.
Regardless of when the development team starts, the most disadvantaged players will have a place on the team, giving players the advantage of not 'falling behind' in waiting for the assignment determination.
UPDATED SALARY CAP FOR SEASON 22
The league has set a roster minimum of 27 players with a $31 million salary cap for Season 22. Hitting the roster minimum of 27 players prior to the draft will allow teams to draft players at their full value without that value counting against the team's salary cap for the first season. The average amount of players in the league currently, per team, is 27.7 and the average salary cap hit is just over $30 million. Currently, teams with a salary cap under 31 million have a 28-30 record. Teams over 30 million have a 29-27 record - nearly identical. The salary cap serves more as checks and balances for gameplay within 4K23 more than it guarantees wins and loses in competition.
While there are teams above this cap number currently, this is largely in part to having multiple players being close to maximum attribute ratings from high rookie contracts, or from players getting close to max attribute status in a particular attribute. The closer players are to max in an attribute, the more the attribute costs against the cap. Hundreds of thousands of dollars per player can be saved by trimming an attribute by just a few points. Players who have added attribute points to less progressed areas of their build have seen less of an impact to their cap hit.
Summer 2023 SFL Calendar
July 29 - Week 1
August 5 - Week 2
August 12 - Week 3
August 19 - Week 4
August 26 - Week 5
September 2 - Week 6
September 9 - Week 7
September 16 - Week 8
September 23 - Week 9
September 30 - Week 10
October 7 - Week 11
October 14 - Week 12
October 21 - Week 13
October 28 - Week 14
November 4 - Wild Card
November 11 - Quarterfinals / SFLm Season 8, Group Play Week 1
November 18 - Semifinals / SFLm Season 8, Group Play Week 2
November 25 - Championship / SFLm Season 8, Group Play Week 3
December 2 - SFLm Double Elimination, Round 1 (8 teams) / Re-signing period; SFL Awards
December 9 - SFLm Double Elimination, Round 2 (4 teams) / Free Agency Frenzy; Schedule Release
December 16 - SFLm Double Elimination, Round 3 (4 teams) / SFLm Combine, Days 1 & 2
December 23 - League off (Christmas Break)
December 30 - SFLm Championship/Draft Weekend (3 teams)
Winter 2024 SFL Calendar
January 13 - Week 1
January 20 - Week 2
January 27 - Week 3
February 3 - Week 4
February 10 - Week 5
February 17 - Week 6
February 24 - Week 7
March 2 - Week 8
March 9 - Week 9
March 16 - Week 10
March 23 - Week 11
March 30 - Week 12
April 6 - Week 13
April 13 - Week 14
April 20 - Wild Card
April 27 - Quarterfinals / SFLm Season 9, Group Play Week 1
May 4 - Semifinals / SFLm Season 9, Group Play Week 2
May 11 - Championship / SFLm Season 9, Group Play Week 3
May 18 - SFLm Double Elimination, Round 1 (8 teams) / Re-signing period; SFL Awards
May 25 - SFLm Double Elimination, Round 2 (4 teams) / Free Agency Frenzy; Schedule Release
June 1 - SFLm Double Elimination, Round 3 (4 teams) / SFLm Combine, Days 1 & 2
June 8 - League off (Summer break)
June 15 - SFLm Championship/Draft Weekend (3 teams)
Summer 2024 SFL Calendar
June 29 - Week 1
July 6 - Week 2
July 13 - Week 3
July 20 - Week 4 - Convention Week
July 27 - Week 5
August 3 - Week 6
August 10 - Week 7
August 17 - Week 8
August 24 - Week 9
August 31 - Week 10
September 7 - Week 11 - NFL Opening Week
September 14 - Week 12
September 21 - Week 13
September 28 - Week 14
October 5 - Week 15
October 12 - Week 16
October 19 - Week 17
October 26 - Wild Card
November 2 - Quarterfinals / SFLm Season 10, Group Play Week 1
November 9 - Semifinals / SFLm Season 10, Group Play Week 2
November 16 - Championship / SFLm Season 10, Group Play Week 3
November 23 - SFLm Double Elimination, Round 1 (8 teams) / Re-signing period; SFL Awards
November 30 - SFLm Double Elimination, Round 2 (4 teams) / Free Agency Frenzy; Schedule Release
December 7 - SFLm Double Elimination, Round 3 (4 teams) / SFLm Combine, Days 1 & 2
December 14 - SFLm Championship/Draft Weekend (3 teams)
December 21 - League off (Christmas Break)
Winter 2025 SFL Calendar
January 4 - Week 1
January 11 - Week 2
January 18 - Week 3
January 25 - Week 4
February 1 - Week 5
February 8 - Week 6
February 15 - Week 7
February 22 - Week 8
March 1 - Week 9
March 8 - Week 10
March 15 - Week 11
March 22 - Week 12
March 29 - Week 13
April 5 - Week 14
April 12 - Week 15
April 19 - Week 16
April 26 - Week 17
May 3 - Wild Card / SFLm Season 11, Group Play Week 1
May 10 - Quarterfinals / SFLm Season 11, Group Play Week 2
May 17 - Semifinals / SFLm Season 11, Group Play Week 3
May 24 - Championship / SFLm Double Elimination, Round 1 (8 teams)
May 31 - SFLm Double Elimination, Round 2 (4 teams) / Re-signing period; SFL Awards
June 7 - SFLm Double Elimination, Round 3 (4 teams) / Free Agency Frenzy; Schedule Release
June 14 - SFLm Championship/Draft Weekend (3 teams) / SFLm Combine, Days 1 & 2
June 21 - League off (Summer break)