Madden Football League

The Madden Football League (MFL) is a virtual football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The MFL's current 18-week regular season features each team playing 17 games. Following the conclusion of the regular season, seven teams from each conference (four division winners and three wild card teams) advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Super Bowl, and is played between the champions of the NFC and AFC.

Founding
The league was founded in Spring 2017, using a randomized schedule for the upcoming 2017-18 NFL season. Every following season would use the rotating schedule designed by the NFL.

Regular Season
The Madden Football League runs a 16-week, 256 game regular season. NFL regular season matchups are determined according to a scheduling formula. Within a division, all four teams play fourteen out of their sixteen games against common opponents – two games (home and away) are played against the other three teams in the division, while one game is held against all the members of a division from the NFC and a division from the AFC as determined by a rotating cycle (three years for the conference the team is in, and four years in the conference they are not in). The other two games are intraconference games, determined by the standings of the previous year – for example, if a team finishes first in its division, it will play two other first-place teams in its conference, while a team that finishes last would play two other last-place teams in the conference. Starting with the 07 season, a 17th week was added, giving each team a bye during the course of the season.

Postseason
Following the conclusion of the regular season, a twelve-team single elimination tournament, the MFL Playoffs, is held. Six teams are selected from each conference: the winners of each of the four divisions as well as two wild card teams (the two remaining teams with the best overall record). These teams are seeded according to overall record, with the division champions always ranking higher than either of the wild card teams. The top two teams (seeded one and two) from each conference are awarded a bye week, while the remaining four teams (seeded 3–6) from each conference compete in the first round of the playoffs, the Wild Card round, with the third seed competing against the sixth seed and the fourth seed competing against the fifth seed. The winners of the Wild Card round advance to the Divisional Round, which matches the lower seeded team against the first seed and the higher seeded team against the second seed. The winners of those games then compete in the Conference Championships, with the higher remaining seed hosting the lower remaining seed. The AFC and NFC champions then compete in the Super Bowl to determine the league champion.