Football League Alignment
From Sim Dynasty Rulebook
When a league is first created, or if it is realigned (this happens in free lewagues when new teams are added or in Premium leagues when the Commish requests it), it must be aligned into conferences and divisions.
Here's how alignment works:
Conferences
First, the league is split into conferences. Basically, looking in this order, the first half of the teams in the league that match this list go to the NFC, the rest to the AFC. For 32-team leagues, some cities (those in Tier 0 or Tier 1) have division preferences, listed here:
| City | Code | Pref. Div |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | LAN | West |
| New York | NYN | East |
| Arizona | ARI | West |
| Washington | WAS | East |
| Green Bay | GB | North |
| Tampa Bay | TB | South |
| St. Louis | STL | West |
| Anaheim | ANA | West |
| Seattle | SEA | West |
| San Francisco | SF | West |
| New Orleans | NO | South |
| Minnesota | MIN | North |
| Philadelphia | PHI | East |
| Detroit | DET | North |
| Atlanta | ATL | South |
| Carolina | CAR | South |
| Chicago | CHI | North |
| Toronto | TOR | |
| Dallas | DAL | East |
| Colorado | COL | |
| Memphis | MEM | |
| Winnipeg | WIN | |
| Montreal | MON | |
| Boston | BOS | |
| Hartford | HAR | |
| Hamilton | HAM | |
| Rochester | ROC | |
| New Jersey | NJ | |
| Sacramento | SAC | |
| Nashville | NAS | |
| Omaha | OMA | |
| Brooklyn | BRO | |
| Louisville | LOU | |
| Milwaukee | MIL | |
| Norfolk | NOR | |
| Birmingham | BIR | |
| Florida | FLA | |
| San Antonio | SA | |
| Arkansas | ARK | |
| Toledo | TOL | |
| Tulsa | TUL | |
| Portland | POR | |
| Virginia | VIR | |
| Saskatchewan | SAS | |
| Shreveport | SHR | |
| Las Vegas | LV | |
| Orlando | ORL | |
| Providence | PRO | |
| Edmonton | EDM | |
| Syracuse | SYR | |
| Newark | NEW | |
| Calgary | CAL | |
| San Jose | SJ | |
| Charlotte | CHA | |
| Baton Rouge | BR | |
| Michigan | MIC | |
| Phoenix | PHX | |
| Cleveland | CLE | North |
| Cincinnati | CIN | North |
| Baltimore | BAL | North |
| Buffalo | BUF | East |
| Denver | DEN | West |
| New England | NE | East |
| Pittsburgh | PIT | North |
| Miami | MIA | East |
| San Diego | SD | West |
| Tennessee | TEN | South |
| Kansas City | KC | West |
| Jacksonville | JAX | South |
| Indianapolis | IND | South |
| Houston | HOU | South |
| British Columbia | BC | |
| Oakland | OAK | West |
| New York | NYA | East |
| Los Angeles | LAA | West |
So the top 16 teams on this list are guaranteed to be NFC, the bottom 16 are guaranteed to be AFC, and the ones in the middle will go either way depending on how the list fills up. But if an owner wants to guarantee being in one conference or the other, they can do that by picking one of the top 16 or bottom 16 cities.
Divisions
Next, divisions are picked. Imagine each division having a "team captain" picking team members on a schoolyard. The AFC goes first, and picks its teams round-robin: West then East for leagues split into two divisions per conference, West North, then South, then West, then East. It asks the database for the next team that fits the following criteria:
- Team not already assigned to a division - Team has a preference for this division - If team doesn't have a preference for this division, check to see if it doesn't have a preference for another division - Find the team with the closest matching geography
So let's say the AFC consists of NYA, TEN, SD, MIA, PIT, NE, BUF, CLE, PHX, SJ, SYR, ORL, LV, SAS, POR, and TUL. North picks first. PIT and CLE both have preferences for North, but CLE is farther north so it is assigned to North. South picks next; TEN has a preference for South so off it goes. West picks next; SD has a preference so it goes to West. East next; there are four teams with preference for East but NE is farthest east so that's where it goes.
Next round: North gets PIT, South has no teams with a preference for South so it picks a team without a preference, the farthest south is ORL. West goes; no teams left with a preference so it gets POR. East still has a preference so it gets NYA.
Next round: North is out of teams with a preference and takes SAS. South takes the next southernmost team, PHX. West takes SJ. East gets its next preference, BUF.
Final round: North gets SYR, South gets TUL, West gets LV, and East gets its final preference, MIA.
So if the teams at the offseason are the same as they are now, the AFC will be:
North: CLE, PIT, SAS, SYR South: TEN, ORL, PHX, TUL West: SD, POR, SJ, LV East: NE, NYA, BUF, MIA
