PIHA-Are league rules consistent in all four divisions

[Jim16]

Now that our season is over I thought I would open this topic for discussion. Are all four divisions playing with the same set of rules? This season is my second as the head coach of the Littleton Fire. The first year I was told that I would be able to protect 5 franchise players only to find out that the rules changed and went to three only to find out that this rule didn't exsist anymore, losing my last year's leading scorer. What is the rule in the other divisions? There are other conflicts as well. The first season I was able to pick up a player mid-season and this year I was told I couldn't(There was something on the PIHA site stating there was a week that this occured). We have never heard of being able to trade players, it appears this is going on in other divisions. This year I was told that Mike Ciolli couldn't play for my team but was able to play for a team in Pittsburgh, that makes no sense at all. Everyone who reads these treads know how that turned out. I'm not disgruntled but just looking for a fair playing field for all divisions to go by. I also beleive it will be very important for the continuing growth of this league.
Good luck to all the teams still playing.
Jim Drapal
Littleton Fire

[Dave Garland]

Jim,

As far as I know:

1. The date for picking up players this year was Feb 1st.

2. How you keep your rosters between seasons is dependant on the division (as in protecting, etc.)

In my opinion, consistency is very important in teams of games played, league rules, etc. Each region probably has a little different roster rules. The maximum and minimums are the same; however, each region has different talent levels across the board and different situations. For example, many of the east teams are spread out which can determine where a player plays. In St. Louis (and Colorado) teams are very close together so everyone is essentially pulling from the same talent pool. For the league to work, there has to be parity among rosters...of course one team is going to win and everyone else is going to lose but you want competitive games.
Our Gateway-specific policies this year included: 12 player limit on pro rosters. 10 player limit on minor rosters. Next year we will be changing around our numbers a bit and also having more players on the minor/taxi roster.