Post Season Post

 

Yes, it is time to wrap up the 2025 season in a pretty orange box and move on to 2026, our 47th season. The '26 site is online and ready to go. Unlike last year when I was wrestling most of the summer with the new template and the many new-to-me modules, this time it was simple...accept the update, clear the rosters, shuffle the schedule, add back and/or adjust a few modules, and pick a color and new header logo. I was done in an hour or so. Easy, peasy.

Here is the inside dope, what you need to know for 2026:

➤The '26 league site is here: EHFL 2026. You can just change the year in your bookmark to get there as well. 

➤Rosters will be reduced from 17 to 16. No other rule changes are in the works other than one related to drafting, which will be discussed below.

➤If I'm feeling ambitious over the summer, I may dig into our standings/playoff seeding tiebreak system and clarify or modify the list. As mentioned previously, some of what is in the document we use now is outdated, confusing, or just doesn't apply to our current situation. 

➤Entry fee will be $23 for 2026. And in a related note, PayPal won't let me put a button up on the page without creating a 'business' account. Booo! I'll be emailing everyone my PayPal and Venmo addresses over the summer to collect the fee. Check, cash, or MO is fine as well. Paying via PayPal should be via the Friends and Family option. Details will be included in the email. Your prompt attention to the payment request is much appreciated. 

➤No pay, no play. I'm trying to finance Ellis' Harvard education, and how can I do that and carry your butt as well? 😜😉

➤Keep Labor Day open for drafting and expect a new online draft site. I may solicit some testers late in the summer for the new draft page. 

➤Speaking of the draft.. we are going to go back to something we did some years back, a 'Pick Your Spot' system that I liked a lot. When I generate a list of clubs via the random generator site, that list will not be the draft order but the priority choice order. In other words, each owner, in turn, will pick his own draft slot. So, the list that is generated looks like this:

1. Heroes
2. Nats
3. Rbacks
4. Sticks
5. Legends
6. Flyers
7. etc...

And then the Heroes will get to choose any draft position for 2026. The Nats would have their pick, then the Rbacks, Sticks, and so on through the 12 franchises. I don't have all the details in place, but teams will have a time limit to choose a slot (likely 48 hours) before they fall to the end of the line, and we move on to the next team in the queue. 

Once slots have been chosen, trading of slots (with a TBD limited amount of waiver cash involved) would be allowed. Note that only initial slots would be eligible to be traded, NOT individual draft picks. For example, in the above scenario, the Heroes might select the #5 slot, which is what I was hoping for. I end up with #7 (or #3 or whatever). I could offer the Heroes X amount of waiver cash to swap positions. There would be a hard deadline on that as well, since I need time to set up the draft site with teams, logos, etc. 

Feedback on this is welcome, but my initial discussions with a few owners have been positive. It sort of goes against my philosophy of 'less work is better' that I've adopted recently, but it isn't much trouble. And when you see the research I've done into the 'slots vs wins' included in the Yearbook, you might find getting a choice is a nice option. 

Speaking of the Yearbook...

I'm just polishing it up this week. It's done, and was sent to you via email. I sent it out in MSExcel format, and I included a link to a Google Sheets version for those who prefer that or don't have Excel access.

I've added/updated a ton of stuff this year. It's a super fun project for me, and I hope you will take the time to check it out. I've done quite a bit of error checking, but fresh eyes are always welcome, as are suggestions for new additions. 

Here is a summary of what is coming:

This is a Changelog/Addition List for the 2026 Yearbook:

• I updated all the applicable team and league pages with 2025 records and 300 Win Club badges.
• Scores have been added to the Playoff Games tab.
• The Hughes Bowl Results page has been enhanced with high and low scores per era and game totals.
• I cleaned up the Champs Lineup page with added initials to differentiate players and fix some NFL team identifications and other errors.
• Research shows I had for decades listed the final score of the 1984 Hughes Bowl incorrectly. The Giants scored 59, not 69 points in beating the Holes. It is fixed now and a new, corrected Hughes News Champs Edition published.

---------------------

• I added box scores for every Hughes Bowl, including lineups and scoring for both clubs.
• I added scores for every game in our history. Regular season scores are on six pages divided (roughly) by era and/or decade.
• I used the history function on our league site to find individual game high scores as well as combined one-game high scoring totals.
• I did some old-fashioned hand research to find those same records for games prior to 2003. See the 'Fun Facts' tabs for scoring records and oddities.
• There are some oddball stats highlighted on the Scores pages themselves as well. 
• I added a page showing my Draft Slots research. It is basically a look at how slots result in wins. Take it for what it's worth. Note: It covers the current redraft era that began in 2022.
• Added a page with some Hughes Bowl trivia and data
• Added a Second Season winners list to the Contest page

Please let me know what you think once you get a chance to dig into it. 

I don't plan to publish any updates to this blog before the summer but if something comes up that you need to know about I will update everyone, either here or through an email.