dgnmrwrw Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Here's an idea I had for a new developmental football league. The NFL Spring League would provide an opportunity for college players who flew under the radar (especially NCAA Division II and III or Canadian players), unrestricted free agents looking for a contract, AFL or CFL players trying to get into the NFL, or even current NFL players who need to rehab before mini-camps. These players could get in a few weeks of (almost) NFL-speed action in front of NFL GMs, coaches, and fans, maybe landing themselves a roster spot in the fall or at least a tryout in the summer. It could even give coordinators or position coaches the opportunity to get head coaching and game management experience. The league would be broken down into four 4-team divisions for a total of 16 teams. (Thanks to sizemorematters for this sugestion) I chose warm weather southern cities, where spring games wouldn't be bitterly cold. Also, each city already has a football stadium of at least 30,000-seat capacity. Many of these cities are home to college football programs.Pacific DivisionPasadena RocketsSan Jose GrizzliesLas Vegas BanditsTucson MinersPlains DivisionSan Antonio ScorpionsEl Paso BlazeOklahoma VulturesNew Mexico SpiritsGulf DivisionBirmingham BulldogsMemphis JackalsMobile MudbugsShreveport RivermenAtlantic DivisionRaleigh VoltageNorfolk TritonsColumbia Spiders*NEW*Orlando HeronsEach team would play the other teams in its division twice--home and away--for a total of 6 games. Playing so few games only in the same division would help cut down on operating costs. The top team from each division would advance to the playoffs. The Pacific and Plains division winners would play, as would the Gulf and Atlantic division winners. The winners of those two games would play for the championship.This would be a brief 10-week season (with one bye week and one week at the beginning for training camp) that could be played in March and April, just before the NFL draft, which would be moved to the beginning of May.I'm open to discussion on all these details. I know this idea itself would almost certainly never happen, so we don't need to argue over that issue, but it's a fun way to build a league around some ideas I've been working on. Most of the team nicknames have been chosen, and I've started a few of the identities. I'll have the first concepts posted very soon. HURRICANES | PANTHERS | WHITE SOX | WOLFPACK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashcarson15 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Technically it would be a nine week season because you would need one bye week, but I'm ready to see what you've got.What about making it a 16 team league and adding Birmingham and OKC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TalktoChuck Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 This sounds exciting. I can't wait to see the logos you come up with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayJaxon Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 This seems like a very interesting idea. I'm looking forward to seeing what you produce. Â Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgnmrwrw Posted February 22, 2009 Author Share Posted February 22, 2009 Technically it would be a nine week season because you would need one bye week, but I'm ready to see what you've got.What about making it a 16 team league and adding Birmingham and OKC?I wasn't including any bye week because the season would be so short. I thought they could just play 6 straight weeks (8 weeks for the two teams that made it all the way to the championship). But I guess there could be a bye week in there.My original idea was for a 16-team league, with Birmingham and Austin (OKC is probably a much better choice). But then that produced a 7-game season which was longer and didn't allow for the same number of home and away games. I thought about adding one game versus the opposite division, but that made the season even longer. So I settled on the 14-team set up. I'd be willing to listen to other suggestions to fix this to make it an even 16 teams, if they could keep everything balanced and keep a short season. HURRICANES | PANTHERS | WHITE SOX | WOLFPACK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashcarson15 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Technically it would be a nine week season because you would need one bye week, but I'm ready to see what you've got.What about making it a 16 team league and adding Birmingham and OKC?I wasn't including any bye week because the season would be so short. I thought they could just play 6 straight weeks (8 weeks for the two teams that made it all the way to the championship). But I guess there could be a bye week in there.My original idea was for a 16-team league, with Birmingham and Austin (OKC is probably a much better choice). But then that produced a 7-game season which was longer and didn't allow for the same number of home and away games. I thought about adding one game versus the opposite division, but that made the season even longer. So I settled on the 14-team set up. I'd be willing to listen to other suggestions to fix this to make it an even 16 teams, if they could keep everything balanced and keep a short season.You'd need the bye week because 7 isn't divisible by two, thus one team would be off each week.Here's an idea for 16 teams; 4 divisions of 4; each team plays each division team twice; division winners make playoffsPasadenaSan JoseLas VegasTucsonSan AntonioEl PasoAustin/OKCAlbuquerqueBirminghamMemphisMobileShreveportRaleighNorfolkColumbiaOrlando Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mantleisthebest7 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 No Salt Lake City??Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake could easily be a good staudium for a league like this. Or you could even go further south into Provo and use LaVell Edwards Stadium, which believe it or not actually seats more than Rice-Eccles. All of Utah is begging for any kind of outdoor team, all we have is indoor (Arena). So don't worry about a fan base, i'm sure that'd be taken care of. Jimmy Eat World Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBGKon Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 No Salt Lake City??Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake could easily be a good staudium for a league like this. Or you could even go further south into Provo and use LaVell Edwards Stadium, which believe it or not actually seats more than Rice-Eccles. All of Utah is begging for any kind of outdoor team, all we have is indoor (Arena). So don't worry about a fan base, i'm sure that'd be taken care of.He did say above that the cities were in warmer areas of the US.As for an OKC team, would the play in Norman at OU or somewhere else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhans203 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Technically it would be a nine week season because you would need one bye week, but I'm ready to see what you've got.What about making it a 16 team league and adding Birmingham and OKC?I wasn't including any bye week because the season would be so short. I thought they could just play 6 straight weeks (8 weeks for the two teams that made it all the way to the championship). But I guess there could be a bye week in there.My original idea was for a 16-team league, with Birmingham and Austin (OKC is probably a much better choice). But then that produced a 7-game season which was longer and didn't allow for the same number of home and away games. I thought about adding one game versus the opposite division, but that made the season even longer. So I settled on the 14-team set up. I'd be willing to listen to other suggestions to fix this to make it an even 16 teams, if they could keep everything balanced and keep a short season.You'd need the bye week because 7 isn't divisible by two, thus one team would be off each week.Here's an idea for 16 teams; 4 divisions of 4; each team plays each division team twice; division winners make playoffsPasadenaSan JoseLas VegasTucsonSan AntonioEl PasoAustin/OKCAlbuquerqueBirminghamMemphisMobileShreveportRaleighNorfolkColumbiaOrlandoI don't know if I would choose places like Pasadena, Orlando and Memphis. I would place teams in stadiums of 50,000-45,000 seats or less, because you won't sell out every game. I would add some more northern cities like Salt Lake City and Portland, these cities I think would support any type of football team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgnmrwrw Posted February 22, 2009 Author Share Posted February 22, 2009 sizemorematters, I really like the alignment you've come up with. I didn't think about how to calculate for a bye week, so thanks. I think I'll go with the suggestions you made, with an Oklahoma franchise. They could either be in Norman and be called "Oklahoma City" or they could play their games at OSU in Stillwater, more or less halfway between OKC and Tulsa, and just be "Oklahoma."Both Salt Lake City and Portland are a bit too far north for what I want to do with this. Also, I just did concepts for both of those cities in my CFL Project. HURRICANES | PANTHERS | WHITE SOX | WOLFPACK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashcarson15 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 I'd go with Norman as it is closer to OKC than Stillwater is to OKC or Tulsa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashcarson15 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 How about the Pasadena team instead playing at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California?EDIT: You don't need a bye week if you have an even # of teams in each division. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crkraider22 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Technically it would be a nine week season because you would need one bye week, but I'm ready to see what you've got.What about making it a 16 team league and adding Birmingham and OKC?I wasn't including any bye week because the season would be so short. I thought they could just play 6 straight weeks (8 weeks for the two teams that made it all the way to the championship). But I guess there could be a bye week in there.My original idea was for a 16-team league, with Birmingham and Austin (OKC is probably a much better choice). But then that produced a 7-game season which was longer and didn't allow for the same number of home and away games. I thought about adding one game versus the opposite division, but that made the season even longer. So I settled on the 14-team set up. I'd be willing to listen to other suggestions to fix this to make it an even 16 teams, if they could keep everything balanced and keep a short season.You'd need the bye week because 7 isn't divisible by two, thus one team would be off each week.Here's an idea for 16 teams; 4 divisions of 4; each team plays each division team twice; division winners make playoffsPasadenaSan JoseLas VegasTucsonSan AntonioEl PasoAustin/OKCAlbuquerqueBirminghamMemphisMobileShreveportRaleighNorfolkColumbiaOrlandoDude, seriously, this isn't your project so quit trying to set it up to your liking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashcarson15 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Technically it would be a nine week season because you would need one bye week, but I'm ready to see what you've got.What about making it a 16 team league and adding Birmingham and OKC?I wasn't including any bye week because the season would be so short. I thought they could just play 6 straight weeks (8 weeks for the two teams that made it all the way to the championship). But I guess there could be a bye week in there.My original idea was for a 16-team league, with Birmingham and Austin (OKC is probably a much better choice). But then that produced a 7-game season which was longer and didn't allow for the same number of home and away games. I thought about adding one game versus the opposite division, but that made the season even longer. So I settled on the 14-team set up. I'd be willing to listen to other suggestions to fix this to make it an even 16 teams, if they could keep everything balanced and keep a short season.You'd need the bye week because 7 isn't divisible by two, thus one team would be off each week.Here's an idea for 16 teams; 4 divisions of 4; each team plays each division team twice; division winners make playoffsPasadenaSan JoseLas VegasTucsonSan AntonioEl PasoAustin/OKCAlbuquerqueBirminghamMemphisMobileShreveportRaleighNorfolkColumbiaOrlandoDude, seriously, this isn't your project so quit trying to set it up to your liking.I was helping him out with his idea of a 16-team league and how it could work, as well as pointing out a flaw in the original idea. He even thanks me in his edited first post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crkraider22 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 All I'm saying is that this is a football version of baseball's Winter League. There is really no need to expand from the original 14-team concept to a 16 team league to have more games. All that does is make it more like the NFL. The idea of out-of-season leagues is to serve as a tuneup/developmental league with a short season, not drawn out with bye weeks. IMO, I would stick with the original and just release the others like how it was done with the CFL expansion and redesign that he did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgnmrwrw Posted February 22, 2009 Author Share Posted February 22, 2009 The idea of out-of-season leagues is to serve as a tuneup/developmental league with a short season, not drawn out with bye weeks.I agree, but as sizemore pointed out, in a division with odd-numbered teams someone would have to be on a bye-week each week. His version is simpler, and teams still play only 6 regular season games, just like I originally had. But now they play each divisional opponent twice, which is actually better, because it could create tighter rivalries AND show GMs how well the Spring League coaches do at adjusting gameplans and strategies against the same team twice in one season. So I'm gonna stick with the new version.Anyway, the first two teams will be up soon. Also, for now I don't plan to do the action templates for this project. I did them for the CFL, but they were taking a lot of time to produce, and I don't think they showed much more than the regular templates. HURRICANES | PANTHERS | WHITE SOX | WOLFPACK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgnmrwrw Posted February 22, 2009 Author Share Posted February 22, 2009 #1: Las Vegas BanditsThe nickname choice seems obvious. Colors are black, orange, and gold. Here's the secondary logo, which is a simple stylized LV monogram. The Bandits' uniforms are fairly old-school. No modern striping or piping. They do have crazy numerals. They wear black helmets, orange jerseys, white pants at home. White jerseys and black pants on the road. Alternate sets for home and road are included.I've tweaked the heck out of that logo, and it still seems to need touching up. Any specific suggestions or spots on the logo to address would be greatly appreciated. HURRICANES | PANTHERS | WHITE SOX | WOLFPACK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAB Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 There isn't a single one of your football concepts that I haven't liked. If there is one thing I would change on the logo, it would be to add more detail to the eye. I'm eagerly awaiting more from this series. Keep up the good work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast Mode Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Looks great. It's like Frankenbird.Help Fort Atlantic grow! Help Fort Atlantic's industry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashcarson15 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Something on the eye just doesn't look right. You should also make a black monochrome jersey, as the team is the Bandits and I usually think of Bandits as being dark.Good Work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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