ULTIMATE NFL TOURNAMENT

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Frequently Asked Questions

How did the teams get selected?

We didn't want to go with just Super Bowl champions, or even conference champions. Too many great teams didn't get that far, and some of them would fall under the category of "best ever" had they not stumbled at some point before grasping the Lombardi Trophy.

So, going back to 1960 (the earliest we could go, considering anything before that doesn't quite resemble the game played today) we chose the following teams:

• Every Super Bowl team
• Every conference game runner-up (includes AFL/NFL championship games from 1960-1965)
• Every conference #1 seed that didn't reach the championship game
• Teams that tied for the best record in the conference, even if they didn't qualify as a #1 seed

Doing this allowed at least one representative from every franchise, except one. Because the Houston Texans never achieved any of the above, a decision was made to include one representative from the Texans franchise, one which could be argued was the best team in franchise history.

In all, 309 teams qualified for the tournament.

How did the teams get seeded?

The teams were sorted into 32 groups, with 9 or 10 teams in each group. They were seeded using a power rating provided by pro-football-reference.com, then placed in groups using serpentine placement. A handful of teams were shifted to other groups to avoid multiple teams from the same franchise, or from the same year, in one group. The final placement of those groups can be found here.

How is the tournament set up?

It gets a bit complicated, so bear with us.

In Round One, teams play other teams in their own group in a round-robin format. The two teams with the best record advance to Round Two. The third-best through sixth-best teams move on to a Round One Playoff. The rest of the teams are eliminated.

A good example of this:

TEAM NAME	W	L	T
Team A	7	1	0
Team B	6	2	0
Team C	5	3	0
Team D	5	3	0
Team E	4	4	0
Team F	3	5	0
Team G	2	6	0
Team H	2	6	0
Team I	2	6	0

In this example, teams A and B advance to the second round. Teams C, D, E, and F go to the Round One Playoff.

If teams share the same record, we use tiebreakers to determine seeds in future rounds, but we do not use tiebreakers to determine who advances. Those have to be decided on the field, in special tiebreaker games. In the above example: if Team B and Team C actually had identical 6-2 records, they would play one play-in game, with the winner advancing to Round Two and the loser going to the Round One Playoff.

The Round One Playoff goes like this:

• The 3rd- through 6th-place teams from four consecutive groups go to a 16-team pool, where they are divided into four groups of four (making sure no two teams from the same group meet again).
• Teams in the four-team group meet once in a round-robin format
• The top two teams based on W/L advance to Round Two.
• If teams have identical records, play-in games are necessary

When Round One is wrapped up, 128 teams advance to Round Two.

Round Two is played similar to Round One. There are 16 groups of 8 teams (each group has four qualifiers from the round-robin phase and four from the Round One Playoff phase). Just like Round One, teams in each group play each other once, with the top two advancing to Round Three and the next four advancing to the Round Two Playoff.
Round Three, with 64 teams, is played the same way.

Once we get to 32 teams, we play what amounts to a 16-week regular season, with teams grouped in divisions as closely as they would in real life (AFC East teams together, NFC West teams together etc.).  Four division winners and four wild cards from each conference advance to a double-elimination playoff format in each conference.

The single surviving teams from each conference play in one final game, the Ultimate Super Bowl, to determine the greatest team of all time.

What about the rules of the game?

Because it's being played out on Madden 12, I'm using the NFL rules from that time period. The only difference is overtime.

• In round-robin games, we play overtime similar to 2024 league rules: OT ends on the first drive if there's a touchdown or a safety; otherwise, both teams get the ball. There is a 15-minute clock (unlike today's 10-minute clock). The game can end in a tie.
• In play-in games and all Playoff games, there is a unique playoff format. We play a new game, but with 4-minute periods instead of 15-minute periods. There is a halftime and two kickoffs, just like a real game. The winner is the team that leads after the mini-game. If the score is tied, a brand-new mini-game begins. There MUST be a winner.

How did you build the teams?

I used a Madden builder I acquired that allows me to alter player attributes and tendencies. The only thing it doesn't allow is changing the face of the player, so there are a lot of classic players in this tournament who resemble early-2010s NFL players. Otherwise, they look and act very much like the real counterparts. I use a scale to alter tendencies, so there is no personal bias whatsoever.

Once research is factored in, and players are assembled on the roster, it takes me about 5-6 hours to build one team. I could spend more time if I wanted to, making sure every player has the exact padding/facemask/etc. but, in the interest of time and interest, I focused mainly on recognized starters.

When testing this, I built several Super Bowl teams and replayed the Super Bowls. None of the outcomes were exactly the same, of course, but many of the scores were close, and the general nuance of each game replayed mirrored the original game nicely. Very nicely, actually. So I have confidence that this tournament would be very much how it would play out in real life.

(Yeah, I know. Today's players are bigger and stronger, and no team from the 70s and 80s would stand a chance against them. Yes, I believe that's true. But, just imagine that those classic teams were given the same time in the offseason to work out, and the same facilities as today. That's how this tournament is being done; classic players are retro-graded to match current players.)

Why are you doing this?

I'm insane.

Actually, I'm a football fan. And I'm curious. And I'm insane. Did I say that?