Commish/Owners agree to changes

By Scott Pierson, PFL Reporter

The Professional Football League have set out their plans for the 2017-18 season and the near future. The PFL Executives and the sixteen representatives of the league members set out the format for the reduced league structure . Here’s the rundown of what’s been decided:

• Abolishment of conferences/Re-alignment. The teams will play as four groups of four teams. The structure being the same as the NFC or AFC in the NFL. New Jorg move into the Eastern division, Caligara move into the North, Rochester into the Central. This was decided to shake up the divisonal match-ups as well as make the play-offs as open as possible- meaning some fresh match-ups, instead of the usual suspects being in Conference finals.
• PFL Team Roster updates. The limit of players active in as quad increased in a squad is raised from 50 in 2016 to 54 in 2017. The Salary Cap has been increased to ß75 Million ($50m) as the Television contract remains the same, with the number of games being shown exclusively live remaining unchanged.
• Reduction of play-off teams. With four less teams, the league has reduced the play-off teams competing for the Crystal Bowl, from 10 to 8. This eliminates the bye week for each conferences top three teams. The four Divisional champions will all automatically qualify, with a guaranteed home game. The following next four best-teams determined by record will qualify. The Top two-ranked teams after the first round will also have the home-field advantage.
• Start of Season delayed by one week. The season has been delayed by one week, meaning pre-season games will also shift. the season openner will be on Friday September 22nd  2017 and it all finishes on February 4th 2018. This means that the league will run for 20 consecutive weeks, followed by the eight team play-off tournament, culminating in Crystal Bowl XLVIII on March 4th Each team retains their two bye weeks during the regular season.

New PFL Divisonal Alignment: