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Whoa Nellie Association Rules

This league intends to have a LONG, SLOW burn to build up your coaching resume and eventually the program that you want to leave as a legend. As you read through the rules, hopefully, this point will be clear.

Additionally, in terms of gameplay, our goal is to accurately represent the game of college football. Therefore, if you feel the need to run the same cheese/exploit plays, routes, etc., then you will not last long here. Play like what you see on Saturdays is the best way to sum up the gameplay rules.

🔴 League Format 🔴

  • 32 teams
  • All humans will be a custom head coach.
  • All coaches will begin their career at WNA Regional League schools (70 OVR max)
  • Promotion & relegation will be determined by:
    • Conference Champion (1 spot)
    • Overall record
    • Conference record
    • H2H record between all tied teams
    • Points scored
    • Coin flip
  • Each team will play 12 games. 4 non-conference games and 8 conference games.

🟩 Recruiting 🟩

  • Coaches may only recruit players that have their school listed in their top 10 OR are from the same state as their school.
  • In the event that a school doesn’t have any recruits that are interested or from their state, they may recruit 1-star players from their pipelines in those positions.

Recruiting Restrictions

  • You can only have a net of +4 players in the transfer portal.
    • This is for players entering the portal only. Players leaving for the draft are NOT included.
  • Teams will be be limited in the amount of scouting "sessions" that they can have for each player. A scouting session is considered hitting the scouting button one time. These limits are:
    • 0-1.5 star school - 1 scouting session
    • 2-4 star school - 2 scouting sessions
    • 4.5-5 star school - 3 scouting sessions
    • Coaches can upgrade their scouting abilities to make their limited sessions more effective.

🟣 Coaching Jobs 🟣

  • All coaches begin with a 3-year contract.
    • You must play out the length of your first contract at each school you go to.
    • After 3 years, your contract will automatically renew, but you will be allowed to take a new job if offered, and your coach qualifies.
    • The only way to leave a job before your contract is up is if your alma mater offers you a job.

Coach Rating

The WNA utilizes a rating system for coaches that determines if they can take a job or not.

The criteria taken into account for this rating are:

  • Winning %
  • Coach level
  • Coach prestige
  • Top 300 recruits
  • Bowl game appearances
  • CFP Appearances
  • CFP Titles
  • Conference Titles
  • Rivalry Wins
  • Total average offense
  • Total average defense

Each school will have a modifier % so that working miracles at Eastern Michigan and exceeding expectations at Pitt are not weighted the same.

Coaches can always take a job that is below their current team's prestige, if offered, and the coach has honored their first contract.

Coach ratings will be updated once per season after the regular season, so bowl appearances and bowl wins will count toward your next year's rating.

🟡 Coordinators 🟡

  • After year 1 at a school, you can fire your coordinators to get “your guys” but after that first offseason, the only way you can fire a coordinator is if they finish outside the Top 30 in yards (with cause). Choose wisely.
  • Any coordinator you hire, you have to run their scheme and can only select plays in Coach Suggestions (remember they call the plays in real life); you can only overrule them for special teams purposes like whether or not you will go for it or inside of the two-minute warning.
  • You can select any default playbook that matches your coordinators' schemes

🟠 Gameplay 🟠

  • As stated above, realism is the goal of this league, so anything that is remotely unrealistic will not be allowed. Gameplay issues will have zero tolerance, you will be removed from the league, so consider this your warning.
  • If there is a situation where you would see backups playing in real life, then your backups should be in.
  • When playing a human opponent, the golden rule is "don't be a dick." Follow that and you'll be fine.

In-Game Settings

  • Game Difficulty: Heisman
  • Coach Firing: OFF
  • Coach XP Setting: Slower
  • Player Edit Permission: Commissioner Only
  • Injury: ON
  • Manual XP Progression Penalty %: N/A
  • Pre-Order Bonuses: OFF
  • Playcall Cooldown: 10 plays
  • Playcall Limit: None
  • Quarter Length: 12 minutes
  • Accelerated Clock: ON
  • Minimum Play Clock Time: 20 seconds

Wear and Tear Settings

  • Wear and Tear: ON
  • Normal Tackle Impact: 50
  • Catch Tackle Impact: 50
  • Hit Stick Impact: 50
  • Cut Stick Impact: 50
  • Defender Tackle Advantage Impact: 50
  • Sack Impact: 50
  • Block Impact: 50
  • Impact Block Impact: 50
  • Per-Play Impact: 50
  • Per-Timeout Recovery: 50
  • Between-Quarter Recovery: 50
  • Halftime Recovery: 50
  • Week to Week Recovery: 50
  • In-Game Healing Reserve Pool: 50

Transfer Portal Settings

  • Max Transfers Per Team: 20
  • User Player Transfer Chance: 50
  • CPU Player Transfer Chance: 50

Sliders

  • There will be no sliders used for season 1. We can assess this after each season and change accordingly.

Streaming

  • All games must be streamed by at least one party in the Discord OR on Twitch.
  • If you cannot stream, please let the commissioner know.

Playbooks/Playcalling

  • No custom playbooks
  • You can only select plays in Coach Suggestions; you can only overrule them for special teams purposes like whether or not you will go for it or inside of the two-minute warning. This is an integrity rule since we can't see everyone's playbook all the time. Your OC and DC were hired to call plays, run the plays they call. 

🔷 Player Persuasion 🔷

During the Players Leaving portion of the offseason, the following rules apply as to who you can persuade to stay:

  • If you win the national championship - you can persuade no one to stay.
  • If you make the CFP - you cannot persuade projected rounds 1-3 draft picks or transfers.
  • If you do not make the CFP, you can persuade all players to stay.
  • Players who are Heisman finalists (top 5) and receive a draft projection cannot be persuaded to stay.

Being able to persuade players does NOT guarantee that they will stay.

🟤 Player Progression & Position Changes 🟤

You may choose your player progression method, automatic or manual.

You may change player positions, but you do so at your own risk. Players will gain a significant amount of ratings caps when switching positions, so if you are ok with that risk, go for it!

⚠️ Sanctions ⚠️

If a player is found to be in violation of WNA rules, they will be subject to any of the following sanctions depending on the severity of the offense:

  • Force loss against the CPU
  • Total roster limitations
  • Scholarship reduction
  • Player persuasion limitation
  • User game force loss
  • Bowl ban
  • Death Penalty

The Death Penalty will be reserved for only the most severe offenses and will be voted on by the league. It will be a combination of any of the above sanctions, again, based on the severity of the offense.