RULES

Rules will now be found under the 'Seasons' link above and you will shortly be re-directed to this page, if not then please click here.

Alex Thomas, BFL Commissioner, designed the rules and affiliates as a means to collate the statistics for his ultimate goal of finalising the playoffs teams and therefore be the only time in the season where BFL teams would be scheduled to play other teams. The main issue has been to create a schedule to make the standings more in line with that of traditional professional leagues but, with NFL teams having bye-weeks, it was deemed more complicated and therefore a more simplified structure was used instead.

As each NFL Affiliate changes from season to season, this enables the BFL to maintain competition. If teams were given the same affiliate each season, this could hinder the continued competition of the league and possibly mean that some teams could be restricted to from ever qualifying for the playoffs.

1. REGULAR SEASON SHEDULE

There is no BFL schedule, per say, and is decided in the following way:

  1. NFL Weeks 1-16 schedule have been used as this means the BFL season would end in the same year. Both Weeks 17 & 18 begin/start and end in the following year.
  2. The North Division represents the AFC and the South Division represents the NFC, with BFL teams affiliated with NFL teams in alphabetical order by NFL city/region (not team nickname) per NFL conference.
  3. BFL teams are given their NFL affiliated team following the end of the previous NFL season in late December/January based around final playoffs teams. The top 6 NFL affiliates are chosen by way of their overall record and not by using the NFL's system which includes division champions, therefore teams with better records than the NFL's top 5 will be promoted instead.
  4. The schedule follows the NFL Regular Season Weeks 1-13.
  5. Following Week 13 (Week 11 prior to 2020), the final BFL standings will be released as per the BFL schedule, with a drawn result automatically given a win if no other BFL team has drawn a game.

2. REGULAR SEASON TIED GAMES

  1. This only applies if both NFL affiliates have tied games in the same week either versus another NFL affiliate in the same game or if independently.
  2. If only one NFL affiliate has a tied game, then this is automatically changed to a win for that team so that there are no unbalanced records going into the playoffs.

This has only happened once during the 2021 season when the Tyneside Mariners' NFL affiliate Pittsburgh Steelers drew in their Week 10 game but no other NFL affiliate drew in their games.

3. REGULAR SEASON TIEBREAKERS

Tiebreakers are broken by using Net Points (NP), which are made up of the Points For (PF) minus Points Against (PA). Teams that have a higher negative NP will be deemed the winner over a team with a lower negative NP i.e. -2 would beat -29.

4. PLAYOFF TEAMS

3.1 Since the 2020 season, the following rules apply:

  1. Top 3 per division, at the close of Week 13 OR 1-11 if a shortened season, will compete in the Playoffs.
  2. BFL Playoffs follow the NFL Regular Season Weeks 14-16 (12-13 in 2015-2019).
  3. Playoffs are played within the division i.e. North vs North and South vs South.
  4. Due to Week 14 (opening round of the BFL playoffs) being the final by week of the NFL's regular season, any BFL playoff teams' NFL affiliates having byes during this week, will use their Week 13 result instead.

5. PLAYOFF GAME SCORING

This is achieved as follows, in this order, and should be sufficient to break tied games:
1. The final full time score for each team is the primary score for the game.
2. If this results in a tie, then each quarter score by each team is added as overtime until an outright winner is found. Therefore a maximum total of 4 OTs.
3. If this still results in a tie, then the very first score (touchdown or field goal or safety) by each team is added as overtime and this procedure will be added until no more scores are available for that week and ultimately this should result in an outright winner. This means that there is no limit as to how many overtime scores are used to break the tie.
4. If the tie still cannot be broken, then Rule 4.3 is repeated as many times until the tie is broken.

6. PLAYOFFS TEAMS BYE WEEKS (IF APPLICABLE)

From the 2021 season, since the NFL has expanded to a 17 game/18 week season and therefore, unlike the 2020 season, there will be the potential of bye weeks during the playoffs.
1. Week 14 will be the sole bye week during the BFL playoffs. Team(s) that have a bye week during the playoffs, will use their Week 13 score or previously played week for the score.
2. The Division Champion automatically gets a bye week.
3. Each team, with a bye week, will use their previous week's score for that week.

7. PLAN B

The BFL introduced PLAN B for the 2020 season and beyond, for the league to address situations that may arise that might threaten the possibility of playing a full season.

If the league is unable to play a full season (12 games/13 week season as of 2020), the following steps would need to be followed:
1. Kickoff is later than 10 September, would mean the season would revert back to the 2019 season of 10 games and the previous Rule 4 would apply.
2. 8 game season (with or without bye weeks) if season is pushed back to the first week of October.*
3. Any later would restrict the season to a 4-6 game season*.
4. Playoffs would be announced once a revised NFL schedule has been released.
5. If the NFL cancels its season or shortens it in such a way in which no BFL season would be possible, the BFL would have to cancel the season.
6. If a season starts but is abruptly ended, then there would be no BFL champion and the next season would include the NFL affiliates carried over from the incompleted season.

* - A shorter regular season, compared to previous seasons of 10 games, does diminish the potential of less successful NFL teams being affiliated with BFL teams and therefore this could possibly affect future seasons.