GFL Seasons
A year is broken into seasons for the Galactic Football League. Each tier of football has its own schedule, but there is a bit of overlap that can result in back-to-back seasons with little break when being promoted to Tier 1, or a lengthy delay in fighting back To Tier 1 when demoted from Tier 2.
Contents
Seasons
Tier 1 Season
The Tier 1 season starts at the beginning of the year, in January, and continues through the post-season, which ends in May.
Pre-season
The Tier 1 pre-season runs for the entire month of January, for four weeks.
Regular season
The Tier 1 regular season runs from February through April, for 13 weeks.
Post-season
The Tier 1 post-season runs for three weeks in the month of May.
Off-season
The Tier 1 off-season runs from the end of May through December.
Tier 1 Season chart
| Tier 1 pre-season | Tier 1 regular season | Tier 1 post-season | Tier 1 off-season | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | P2 | P3 | P4 | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | R11 | R12 | R13 | P1 | P2 | P3 | O1 | O2 | O3 | O4 | O5 | O6 | O7 | O8 | O9 | O10 | O11 | O12 | O13 | O14 | O15 | O16 | O17 | O18 | O19 | O20 | O21 | O22 | O23 | O24 | O25 | O26 | O27 | O28 | O29 | O30 | O31 | O32 |
| January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tier 2 season
The Tier 2 season starts after the middle of the year, in July, and continues through the post-season, which ends in December.
Pre-season
The Tier 2 pre-season runs from late July to the end of August, for four weeks.
Regular season
The Tier 2 regular season runs from August through early November, for 12 weeks.
Post-season
The Tier 2 post-season runs for three weeks in November.
Off-season
The Tier 2 off-season starts in December and runs through late July.
Tier 2 Season chart
| Tier 2 off-season | Tier 2 pre-season | Tier 2 regular season | Tier 2 post-season | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O5 | O6 | O7 | O8 | O9 | O10 | O11 | O12 | O13 | O14 | O15 | O16 | O17 | O18 | O19 | O20 | O21 | O22 | O23 | O24 | O25 | O26 | O27 | O28 | O29 | O30 | O31 | O32 | O33 | P1 | P2 | P3 | P4 | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | R11 | R12 | P1 | P2 | P3 | O1 | O2 | O3 | O4 |
| January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tier 3 Season
Challenges in relegation/promotion
Promotion challenges
When a Tier 2 team is promoted to Tier 1, there is precious little time between the two seasons. Rather than being able to rest players in preparation for a more difficult and competitive season, newly-promoted teams have only a four-week period after the T2 post-season before the T1 pre-season begins. During this time, the newly-promoted T1 team owners meet with the other T1 owners at the annual owner's meeting prior to T1 pre-season.
Because the two teams that play in the T2 finals are both guaranteed promotion, a typical strategy is to rest all first-string starters during the final T2 championship game. Although it is an opportunity for second-stringers to get quality playing time, the outcome of the game is almost completely irrelevant. But the rested first-stringers get five weeks rest while the rest of the team only gets four before the start of the T1 season.
The grueling back-to-back schedule for newly-promoted teams often results in the battered team being immediately relegated after their first T1 season.
Relegation challenges
When a Tier 1 team is relegated back to Tier 2, they have a 12-week period of rest between the end of T1 regular season (not counting post-season, as relegated T1 teams do not appear in the post season) and the start of T2 pre-season. If the team does well in Tier 2 and is promoted again, they have the same promotion challenge with the added complication that in a two-year span, they play three complete seasons of football.
