1. Advance Timeframe: Advances are 24 hours in pre-season, 48 hours in regular season, 72 hours in post-season. Extensions are typically granted as long as the user makes it known asap. Life comes first.
As of right now, the advances are done at 8pm Central regardless of game completion. This is to alleviate any potential pressure on players' personal lives and avoids the feeling of the league being a 'job'.
The only exception is during the Playoffs.

2. Prize: In most seasons, the Super Bowl champion receives a PSN gift card, split between all players in the league. Please indicate the most comfortable way you want to pay to the commissioner during the off-season. Information will be provided for PayPal, Venmo Facebook Messenger and Cash App.
PSN gift card will be delivered to winner no later than the next Draft.
Pay-in amount will be provided in week 1 of preseason and is due by the end of preseason week 3 if participating.
If you are having trouble, you must contact a commissioner.

Note: This is completely optional. If you choose not to pay-in, you will be able to play for free for no potential winnings. If a non-eligible player wins the championship, the pay-ins will roll over to the next season.

3. Polling: Generally speaking, polling will not be used except in certain instances. Proposed changes to guidelines will be presented to the group at times when feedback is required. The commissoners will make final decisions and adjust guidelines accordingly.

4. Team Additions/Transfers/Retirements: Starting in the first season of Madden 19, all players are required to CREATE NEW OWNERS, not coaches. No active owners will be allowed.
New teams are preferred to go to divisions that need help in balancing the league.
If you want to change teams, you must make that intention known in the off-season, before the Draft. After changing teams, you must wait two seasons to potentially move again.
If you intend to leave the league altogether, please say so asap as it may have an effect on incoming players’ choices. Don’t just leave without a word, the players deserve better than that.

5.   Number of Times Played: All games must be played once (1 ‘start’). There are exceptions to this allowed if the user makes it known within the group chat BEFORE restarting the game. You should always be able to take a screenshot or picture of the error or issue. If not, please describe it best you can.
An unexplained violation will forfeit the next week’s game. The commissioners will typically double check before the forfeiture.

***NEW PLAYERS*** - TO CONFIRM THAT YOU'VE MADE AN ATTEMPT TO READ THE RULES BEFORE JOINING, PLEASE REPLY TO THE RECRUITING COMMISSIONER WITH THE WORD 'LOMBARDI'.

6.   Gameplay Adjustments: Everything here is in place for a reason. You may request a review of any guideline, and it will be considere with league input and transparency,  then a decision explained respectfully. Please understand that the decision is final after consideration. If you want to question it again at a later time, it must feature new reasoning or evidence.
The term I found time and time again in every CFM Guidelines posting is that AI Glitches from the Madden Community (known) are not allowed and could result in game forfeiture. Generally speaking, if you’re able to do something with an abnormally high success rate, ask about it before continuing. This is a competitive league, but not worth trying to get that extra edge.
Above all this is a SIMULATION league and should reflect real life as much as possible. This is to maintain immersion as well as keep competitions such as the Pro Bowl and yearly awards within reasonable reach.

a. No nano-blitzing. If you don’t know what this is, don’t worry about it.
b. Only one onside kick allowed per game, except in late-game desperation scenarios.
c. No auto-rollouts (speed burst to the outside directly after snap), unless the play is designed to do so (PA Rollout, etc.). Try to use pocket or rollout under pressure or with blocking.
d. No auto-scrambles for yardage with no attempt to make passing reads, unless designed to do so (QB Sneak, etc).
e. You are allowed 1 fake play per game. (fake punt, fake FG, etc.)
f. You may use only 1 hot route per play. (this does not count protection adjustments or smart routes)
g. Money plays -  If you find a play that works often enough against the CPU that it becomes a go to play, you must either remove it from your playbook or stop using it immediately.
h.  Generally speaking, do not call the same play or concept on offense more than once every 4 plays. Situation may vary (desperation verticals, etc.)
i. Do not use continuous defensive shifts pre-snap up until the CPU hikes the ball to create an advantage against the AI.
j. There is sometimes a glitch during hurry-up offense where a defender will run into an offensive player on the way to the line of scrimmage. This is not controllable and should be declined every time. Do not take advantage of this.

7.   Lag: Do what you can to prevent lag in a user game...for example lowering bandwith stress on your wifi network, testing internet connection in the PS5 network settings, resetting modem, etc. Ask the group for recommendations if there are continued issues.
If you are experiencing lag, you must speak up about it in the user chat in the first half of the game AND before either player is up by more than two scores. There should be time to recognize a problem before this point without penalizing the winning user.
Do not wait until the moment you get scored on to complain for the first time. Mention something the first time it happens.

8.   User Lag Resolution: In the event that you lose connection during a user game, the winning player has the right to choose how to proceed.
a. Restart the game from scratch.
b. Restart the game and play the number of quarters remaining (rounding up or down to the closest quarter). Add the new game’s score to the previous game’s score, and let the commissioner know the result so it can be applied.

Order of recommended actions during user game lag:
1. Pause. Do not attempt to restart for at least a minute or two (do not trigger the timer). This should fix most cases by allowing the connections to sync.
2. Check for any other active wifi signals and disable them for the game.
3. Restart game and change hosting player. Test each player's connection for accuracy in PS4 network settings.
4. Reschedule during non-peak hours (late evening).

9.   Scheduling/Broadcasting User Games: You must schedule, or attempt to schedule, user games within 24 hours of the advance happening. Do not wait until the day of the advance to contact a user opponent for the first time. After 24 hours, any user not responding will be placed on autopilot at the request of the opposing team, possibly both. Unavailability of the other user does NOT result in a force win. Play the CPU. We want to get every game on the field if possible.
ALL GAMES MUST BE BROADCAST BY ONE OF THE PLAYERS, EVEN IN A CPU GAME. These recordings must be made permanently available on Twitch or YouTube to go into a database and be available for later viewing.

Failure to broadcast a game without contacting a commissioner for reasoning will result in one warning per season. All subsequent violations will result in a forced loss, no matter the result of the game.

10.   Injury Timeframe: Injuries are now activated in pre-season, as well as regular season.

11.   Off-season Awareness: The regular season is relatively simple to advance, but the off-season is a completely different beast because of the different schedules of the members. It is difficult to get the Draft and off-season situated, and there are frequent stalls on things like free agency signings where there shouldn’t be. Some people finish their bit and then ghost without saying something.
You MUST become more aware of -the chat and page during the off-season. Please pay attention to potentially needing to ready your account, answer questions/trades, etc.
If you are finished with your week, do not forget to ready up.
If you are finished with the rest of a segment (free agency signings, resign players, etc.) then make that known in the chat so there is no wait trying to figure out if you still need to do something.
If you do not reply for two consecutive weeks, you will be placed on autopilot until the draft.

12.   Draft Day: The Draft will take place on the first Sunday following the Super Bowl at 7PM central (unless there is less than 24 hours between the final stage of Free Agency and that following Sunday).
Pay attention to the league calendar, and plan accordingly for the draft. In the later weeks of the season, and especially the playoffs, you should have a general idea of where the draft will fall (and the commissioner will provide a tentative date in Week 16).
If you cannot make the draft night, you will also have ample time to properly set your draft board. The CPU will automatically select for you the top player left on your board.
In some instances, the commissioners may elect to perform a 'rolling draft'. This is typically done when a substantial number of users are unavailable to advance the offseason in a timely manner.
It is also recommended to download and set up PS Remote Play either on a computer or mobile device to be able to participate in off-season away from home.

13.   Draft Pick Caps: Draft picks are capped as follows:
a. 1st round, 2 picks
b. 2nd round, 3 picks
c. 3rd round, 4 picks
d. 4th round, 5 picks
e. 5th round, 6 picks
f. 6th round, 7 picks
g. 7th round, 8 picks
You CAN have more than the cap at any given time, so long as it’s resolved before the start of the Draft. If you break the cap, the excess picks (the latest pick you own in that round) will be automatically traded to the lowest record team.

14.   Draft Procedure/Next User Pick: Starting in round 4, the Draft will be skipped to the next user pick if CPU teams are involved.
The reason is that at any one time there are players navigating the menus looking at their rosters, draft boards, trades, or just taking a break and doing something at their house.
Every time that question is asked, it requires a check with every player to make sure they’re ok with that. It’s impractical for the commissioner to do this every time, when the time to do this will likely be the same as waiting for the next user pick anyways.
On that note, you MUST speak up when you’re done. Do not sign off and just leave. Please declare you’re finished with all Draft activity as a courtesy to players left waiting.
After the commissioner notes all players are ready, the Draft will be sped up to advance to next user pick.

15.   Draft Trades, Pausing: During the Draft, you must inform the commissioner if you are attempting a trade with either a user or the CPU.  There is not enough time to pull off a trade with the clock running, so it will be paused during these transactions for a reasonable amount of time. 
Note: Currently Madden 22 has a bug that causes the draft to become glitched if paused, especially in early rounds. Because of this, pausing the draft will not happen for the foreseeable future.

16.   Draft Trades for New Picks: If you trade during the Draft for another pick..you have to note this. The pick comes up as still belonging to the original team up until the actual second you make the pick. This is important to know so that your pick isn’t skipped when we’re in the ‘next user pick’ phase.

17.   New Player Trades: No players signed in that season’s preseason free agency are eligible to be traded, only released.

18.   Trade: There is no trade approval process. Everyone is an adult and can make a decision based on their own needs. However, do NOT trade with a CPU under any circumstances. Trade is unlimited with other users.

19.   Player Editing: Player edits are NOT required to be mentioned, but you are only allowed to change the player’s archetype, position, equipment or number. Please do NOT change player names as this interferes with the website.
The following are approved player transitions:
QB/HB/FB/WR/CB/FS/SS
MLB/OLB/OL/DL
K/P
(TEs may not be altered)
You can not play a DB in the SUBLB role
Violation will result in loss of player.

20.   New Player Cap Clearance and Contract Adjustment: New players will have their cap space cleared, since they were not involved with the previous transactions. In addition, you are allowed to reduce one previously existing contract to a minimum (bad deal exception). This must be used by the end of preseason following the user's first full season.

21.   Users Speak Up: If a user notices anything being potentially violated, such as broadcasting viewing rules, player edits, draft picks, etc. you must say something as it happens..not later.
I trust that most players have the right intentions, sometimes things just get missed.

22.   Stadium Creation/Relocation - If you are relocating or building a new stadium, you must let the league know about this and keep them updated on the process via the Madden page. Do not simply have this pop up at the start of the next season. Pitch in to create content for the group to digest. Take screenshots of construction options, etc.

23.   Madden SEK Webpage
If there is content you would like included, let the commissioner know.
If you are moving stadiums, rebranding the team, rebuilding the stadium, etc. take some screenshots and share the new place and uniforms, thoughts on the season, etc.

24.   Ideas/New Rules: If you have any recommendations on rules or procedures changes, make sure to spark a discussion in group chat. Everything will be considered. Decision is final and will include explaination.

25. Pro Bowl - 24 hours will be allotted for the Pro Bowl, the week before the Super Bowl.
Users are welcome to play the Pro Bowl at their discretion, however there will be one Offiical Pro Bowl game.
The best finishing users, excluding Super Bowl teams, will represent their conference in the Official Game. If that top eligible user in a conference refuses, the representation falls to the next top finisher.
This special game will have 8 minute quarters and come with the following stakes...
The winning conference's users will have the option of choosing a dev upgrade for one player on their roster OR choose to reduce a player of their choice one dev grade from a roster in the losing conference.

27. Team Selection: Selection of teams for the next Madden title will be based on seniority for those that have played a complete season with that team. This rewards long-time and consistent players.
If a season begins with someone's seniority team selected and they have chosen not to join, they will forfeit seniority for that season and can not retain it until the current owner changes. This could result in the new owner overtaking them in seniority after enough seasons.

28. Division Bonuses: ***NOTE - the following rule is currently being reviewed and adjusted...currently inactive***
Interconference games in the NFL are played division versus division (meaning you will play three teams from the opposite conference, all from the same division). The user games in these interconference matchups will be tallied, which will reveal a winner both in the division vs. division matchups and NFC vs AFC.
For defeating the other conference's division, the winning division will receive a $5 million bonus in owner funds.
The teams belonging to the winning overall conference will also receive $5 million, for up to $10 million.
Conference and division pride are on the line.
*If a player enters the season on 'inactive' status, that team will not factor into the matchup count, even if they return later in the season. The returning player will also not be eligible for rewards.

29.   The Next Game: The commissoners will announce the final season in the off-season it is about to occur, before the change to the newest version of Madden.

30. Activity Rule - If at any point in the league a user goes inactive and stops all communication without a reason for more than 2 in-game weeks, they will be put on auto-unlimited and warned. If they are still inactive after an additional in-game week, then that user will be removed from the league and labeled as “inactive”.
They will forfeit their team to any other user to help encourage team growth and consistent gameplay in the franchise.

If you have any questions or need clarification...or if you just need something advanced or activated, we try to be as alert as possible.
If not, call or text.
Current Commissioners
T.J. - 913.220.7019
Danny -