League Rules

The purpose of this league is to replay NFL history beginning with the 1998 season. Owners will control real NFL franchises, inherit their 1998 players, and receive future rookies originally acquired by their franchise.

Players will progress through their real-life statistical seasons, but league trades, contracts, free agency, and results will create an alternate NFL history.

The league will follow real NFL expansion, relocation, franchise names, divisions, schedules, and playoff structures whenever reasonably possible.

1. League Conduct

Keep all league communication respectful. Disagreements involving another owner, a trade, league administration, or the commissioner should be handled through private messages.

Competitive disagreement is allowed. Personal attacks, repeated public arguments, collusion, and intentional disruption are not.

The commissioner may resolve situations not explicitly addressed in these rules in the manner most consistent with fairness, competitive balance, and the league’s historical-rewrite concept.

2. Team Selection

The league will begin with the 30 franchises that played during the 1998 NFL season.

Owners must maintain the historical identity of their franchise, including its city and team name. Logos and team details will be updated as franchises relocate or rebrand in real life.

The Cleveland Browns will enter in 1999, and the Houston Texans will enter in 2002. This league will not do an expansion draft, and rather, the players that were on the first roster of the Browns and Texans will be moved to their respective team.

3. Initial Rosters

Each franchise will begin with players who appeared for that team during the 1998 NFL season.

Players will use their 1998 statistics during the inaugural season. Each offseason, players will advance to their next real-life statistical season.

A player does not automatically change teams because he changed teams in real life. Once the league begins, league transactions determine where players play.

4. Rosters and Positional Minimums

The regular-season roster limit will be 45 players.

Each team must maintain enough active players to run simulations, including at minimum:

1 quarterback
1 running back
3 wide receivers
1 tight end
5 offensive linemen
11 defensive players
1 kicker
1 punter

Owners are responsible for maintaining legal depth charts and sufficient positional coverage.

If an owner does not submit a legal roster by an announced deadline, the commissioner may make the minimum necessary changes for that team to participate.

5. Salary Cap

Each team will operate under a $200 million salary cap.

A team may not begin a season or complete a transaction that places it over the salary cap.

6. Standard Contracts

The maximum standard contract length is five seasons (so in PC language, 4 years, as the expiring year is also a playable one).

A player under contract remains with his team unless traded, released, retired, or otherwise removed under these rules.

7. Lifetime Franchise Contract

Each team may have one player on a Lifetime Franchise Contract.

The Lifetime Franchise Contract has the following terms:

Salary: $20 million per season
Length: Indefinite
Limit: One per franchise
The contract does not expire while the team retains the player.
The player counts against the salary cap every season.
The designation may be used on any player currently controlled by the team.
Using the designation does not count against the annual re-signing limit.

Once designated, the player remains the team’s Lifetime Franchise Player until he:

Retires permanently;
Is released; or
Is traded.

A team may not remove the designation merely to place it on another player while keeping the original player.

If a Lifetime Franchise Player is traded, his lifetime contract immediately ends. The acquiring team must either use its own available Lifetime Franchise Contract on him or give him an eligible standard contract.

Once a team releases or trades its Lifetime Franchise Player, it may not use the newly opened designation until the following offseason.

8. Initial Contracts

Before the inaugural 1998 season, every team may sign players using the PC function.

All teams must remain beneath the salary cap.

9. Rookie Imports

After each season, players who made their NFL debut in the following year will be imported using their first eligible PennantChase statistical season.

Rookies will be assigned directly to the NFL franchise that they first played for.

10. Rookie Drafting Rights

There is no draft in this league as is noted in rule (9), but seeing as draft picks are an important part of trades for competitive gameplay, this league will allow rookie rights to be traded. That is, in a trade, you can send player(s) in exchange for rookies that are not in the league yet, essentially simulating the trading of draft picks.

10. Re-Signing Players

Each team may re-sign a maximum of two expiring players per offseason.

A re-signing:

May last between one and five seasons;
Must fit beneath the salary cap;
Must be declared before free agency begins; and
Uses one of the team’s two annual re-signing opportunities.

The Lifetime Franchise Contract does not count as one of the two re-signings.

Unused re-signing opportunities may not be traded, saved, or carried into future seasons.

All expiring players who are not re-signed become unrestricted free agents.

12. Free Agency

FA Bidding will occur in a Google Sheet in a rolling bidding manner for all to see.

13. Releasing Players and Dead Cap

A player may be released before his contract expires.

The releasing team will owe the following dead-cap charge:

Contract years remaining Dead-cap charge
One year 25% of annual salary
Two years 50% of annual salary for one season
Three or four years 50% of annual salary for two seasons

Dead-cap charges will be rounded up to the nearest $1 million.

A player released after his contract expires creates no dead-cap charge.

14. Trades

Teams may trade players and eligible future assets approved by the commissioner.

The acquiring team assumes the full remaining contract of every acquired player.

Teams may not retain salary in a trade.

A trade will be reversed if it places either team over the salary cap or prevents a team from meeting positional minimums for its next game.

The trade deadline will occur after Week 12. Trading will reopen after the season has been archived.

15. Trade Review

Trades are presumed valid unless there is evidence of:

Collusion;
Roster dumping;
Extreme competitive imbalance;
An owner abandoning a team;
Salary-cap circumvention; or
A significant misunderstanding of the players or contracts involved.

A trade committee may review disputed transactions. Committee members involved in a trade must abstain.

The purpose of trade review is to protect the league, not to require every trade to be perfectly equal.

16. Real-Life Statistical Progression

Players will advance through their real-life statistical seasons.

For example, a player using his 1998 statistics will normally use his 1999 statistics during the following league season.

A player remains with his PennantChase team during progression even if he changed franchises in real life.

If a player has no eligible statistics for the next season, he will be handled under the Franchise Hold rule.

A player’s contract continues to run when he misses the corresponding real-life season.

18. Retirement

A player retires from the league after exhausting his final eligible real-life statistical season.

If a retired player later returned in real life and has another eligible statistical season, he may return to his former team only if that team used a Franchise Hold when he initially left. Otherwise, he returns as a free agent.

19. Injuries and Training

Injuries will be enabled to the max.

Player training will be enabled for one game.

Owners may not intentionally manipulate lineups, injuries, or positional eligibility in a manner that violates the spirit of the simulation.

20. Season Format

The inaugural season will use the 1998 NFL structure as closely as PennantChase permits.

The league will play a 16-game regular season with no preseason.

Future changes to the real NFL schedule, divisions, playoff format, expansion, and franchise alignment will be adopted when reasonably practical.

21. Playoffs

The playoff format will mirror the corresponding NFL season as closely as PennantChase allows.

For the 1998 season:

Three division winners from each conference qualify.
Three wild-card teams from each conference qualify.
The top two division winners in each conference receive first-round byes.
Teams are reseeded after each playoff round.
The AFC and NFC champions meet in the Super Bowl.

Home-field advantage belongs to the higher seed.

22. Tiebreakers
Two Teams
Head-to-head record;
Division record, when applicable;
Conference record;
Point differential;
Points scored;
Points allowed;
Commissioner-administered random drawing.
Three or More Teams
Head-to-head record, if all tied teams played one another;
Division record, if all tied teams are in the same division;
Conference record;
Point differential;
Points scored;
Points allowed;
Commissioner-administered random drawing.

When only two teams remain tied, the process restarts using the two-team procedure.

23. Tanking

Owners may rebuild through trades, releases, younger players, and future planning. Rebuilding is not tanking.

Owners may not intentionally lose games by:

Benching clearly superior healthy players without a strategic reason;
Using players in unreasonable positions;
Leaving an illegal or incomplete lineup;
Repeatedly failing to replace injured players; or
Making transactions intended primarily to weaken the active lineup without a legitimate rebuilding purpose.

Because rookies are assigned to their historical teams rather than selected in reverse order, losing intentionally provides no rookie-draft advantage.

25. Abandoned Teams

Owners are expected to remain active, maintain legal rosters, respond to commissioner messages, and participate in required offseason procedures.

If an owner becomes inactive, the commissioner may:

Make necessary lineup corrections;
Prevent damaging transactions;
Place the franchise under temporary control; or
Replace the owner.

The commissioner will not make unnecessary long-term roster decisions for an abandoned team.

26. Commissioner Authority

No rulebook can anticipate every unusual historical player, contract issue, statistical gap, expansion problem, or PennantChase limitation.

The commissioner may make reasonable rulings consistent with:

Historical franchise identity;
Competitive balance;
Owner fairness;
Salary-cap integrity; and
The long-term health of the league.

Major permanent rule changes should be announced before the following season unless immediate action is necessary.

League Settings

Year Range of Stats	1901 - 2026
Roster Size	40
Rules	Pro (NFL)
Two Point Conv	Yes
Defense	Draft Whole Team
Def. Franchise	One Allowed
O-Line	Draft Individual Players
Keepers	(100 keepers)
Change Stats Allowed
Free Agency
Drops
No-Drop List
Injuries	(17 games max)
Player Training	(1 schedule days)
User Sims	(every 24 hours)