As our league continues to grow, we’re always looking for ways to improve the overall playing experience. Please read below to learn about changes to our roster and playoff eligibility policies for the upcoming season.

Roster Sizes

First, in your Spring end of season surveys, we saw an overwhelming desire to reduce our roster sizes. We had hoped that the 17-person rosters would allow more people to participate in our league but realize that it made it difficult to find playing time for so many players. In response to your feedback, we’ll be reducing rosters to 15 players for the Fall season. Thank you for your feedback and for helping us continue to improve the playing experience.

Attendance-Based Registration Priority

Because teams will have smaller rosters this season, attendance becomes more important. In an effort to provide the best experience for our players and to ensure our rostered teams remain balanced and active, we’ll be prioritizing registration for players who can attend a minimum of four of the seven weeks for our Fall Season. If registration fills up, players who cannot attend a minimum of four weeks may be moved to the waitlist until a spot opens up. Once all players who can commit to four weeks have been registered, all other players will be registered until we reach our league max of 210 players.

Last season, for the first time in our league’s history, we were unable to take everyone off our waitlist and more than 30 people (two teams worth of players) did not get the opportunity to participate. At the same time, we had several registered players who were only able to attend one or two weeks. Because our Fall season is longer than our Spring season, and roster sizes will be smaller, team captains need to know that they’ll have 15 players who can reliably attend games in order to keep all our teams competitive across the full season.

Playoff Eligibility

To further emphasize the importance of attendance/availability, and to ensure our teams are seeded fairly for the playoffs, this season we’re adopting a best practice from several other leagues regarding playoff eligibility. Players must attend four or more weeks (out of seven) during the Fall 2023 Season in order to be eligible to play in the Playoffs & Rhody Bowl. Rostered players who get injured during the season but expect to be healthy in time for Playoff games will still be eligible to play in the Playoffs as long as they continue to come to the field with their team for at least four weeks.

Please know that even if you are unable to commit to four weeks of participation, there are several ways for you to stay engaged with the PVDGFFL community. You can still register to play, and we’ll place you on a team as long as we have available space (but you’ll switch to a supporter role for the playoffs). There are also other ways to stay involved! Consider registering as a Non-Player Supporter or getting involved as a volunteer referee by contacting Red McSwiggan (red@pvdgffl.org).

We hope these changes will provide more opportunities for those who have previously been unable to participate and ensure balanced and competitive teams throughout the season.

If you have any questions, please email board@pvdgffl.org.

Please refer to the SportsEngine (SE) has created this Getting Started Guide for instructions.

League registration requires a SportsEngine account. We STRONGLY recommend you set up an account prior to registration. If you haven't already created your account, please follow the steps below:

• Go to https://app.sportngin.com/user/welcome
  • If you have an existing account, please ensure you can sign in and update your information under Account Settings and under Household > View Profile. Please contact SportsEngine support to fix any issues in advance.
  • If you do not have an account, please create one.
• We recommend adding all your information prior to Monday evening in order to speed up the registration process. 
• Please have a current and clear headshot ready when you register - see SE article for more information.
• Recommendations from some of our partner leagues:
  • We recommend that you log into SportsEngine on a separate tab at the time you're registering. 
  • We also recommend that you use Google Chrome as your browser on a desktop (not mobile) for the smoothest registration experience.
• Again, when all the spots are filled, the registration form will stop taking payments and the only option available will be Waitlist.

Registration will cost $85 per player. Your registration fee covers field rentals, referees, jerseys, and events. Players may also opt to purchase additional shorts and/or jerseys during registration.

We continue to offer discrete and private financial support, including extended payment deadlines or discounted/free registration. We're here to support our LGBTQIA+ football family and never want the cost of registration to be a barrier towards participation. Please contact our Commissioner,  Chris Almonte, if you're interested in discussing financial assistance in advance of registration.

Registration Support

For any issues or concerns, please reach out to board@pvdgffl.org and a Board Member will get back to you as soon as possible.

Please note that issues with your SportsEngine account may need to be addressed by SportsEngine support directly.