Commissioner Guide

Everything you need to run your league in CFM OS, start to finish. Read it once and you should not have to ask how anything works. It is written so you can also point your staff and players at the sections that apply to them.

Jump to:

1. What CFM OS does for you
2. Getting set up (about 5 minutes)
3. Connecting Madden
4. Setting up College Football
5. Plans: Free, Standard, Prize League
6. Features (what each one gives your league)
7. Channels and roles
8. The Commissioner Hub (your control panel)
9. What your players can do
10. Running the league day to day
11. Making the league feel alive
12. Troubleshooting and FAQ
13. Getting help

1. What CFM OS does for you

CFM OS runs the busywork of a league so you can focus on playing.

• A franchise that keeps itself current. For Madden, your schedule, scores, standings, and every player stat land in Discord automatically when you advance the week. For College Football, results come from screenshots (there is no data feed for college), and the bot reads them for you.
• A home your players use. Every member gets a private hub with their profile, balance, schedule, and the latest league news.
• A media team built in. Game recaps with real numbers, weekly previews, power rankings, and press-conference panels for the games that matter.
• A currency you run. Reward great play, charge for trades, run a shop, hand out weekly allowances.
• Your identity. Your league name, colors, and voice. Every feature is yours to turn on or off.

Everything you run day to day is a button. You do not type commands twice.

2. Getting set up (about 5 minutes)

Setup is a guided, one-step-at-a-time flow. It tells you up front which steps are required, then walks you through them. You can save as you go and tweak anything later.

First: pick your league type

The very first screen asks what kind of league you are running:

• Madden. A Madden franchise. Connect your EA league and CFM OS pulls your games, stats, and standings automatically.
• College Football. A college dynasty. Build your conferences, draft teams, and run your season with recruiting and NIL.
• Both. Run Madden and College Football side by side, each with its own currency and channels.

Picking College Football or Both switches on the college tools, screenshot reading, and the NIL currency for you.

Then: choose how to build

Right after the intro, you pick how you want your server set up:

• Build it for me (recommended). CFM OS creates your whole server, channels and roles, in one tap. Rename anything after. Best for a brand-new server. It also gives you an "Undo Server Build" button in case you want to start over.
• Use my own channels. Already have a server? Point CFM OS at your existing channels and roles. Best for an established server.
• Walk me through it. Build it fresh, step by step, with guidance at each stage.

Moving into an old server? There is an Archive Old Channels button on that screen. It sweeps your existing channels into a hidden folder (you can name it, for example "Madden 26") so you start clean. Always archive first, then build, or the archive would also sweep the channels you just made.

The six steps

Required steps are 2, 3, and 5. Steps 1 and 4 have sensible defaults, so you can breeze past them and adjust later from the Commissioner Hub.

3. Connecting Madden

This is step 5 for a Madden (or Both) league. The bot pulls straight from EA, so there is no phone app to install.

1. Tap Open Dashboard on the connect step.
2. Sign into EA (the same login you play Madden with).
3. Pick your console and your league.
4. Choose All Weeks and tap Export.
5. Come back to Discord and tap Refresh.

From that moment, every time you advance the week in Madden, the data flows in on its own. You can also advance and pull from the Madden Sync Hub in the Commissioner Hub (Game Operations).

One thing to expect: a first "All Weeks" export can run for a few minutes. If the dashboard flashes "Export failed," that is usually just the browser giving up on a long job. The export keeps running and the data still lands. Give it a minute and confirm the weeks filled in (see the FAQ).

4. Setting up College Football

College Football has no data feed, so results come from screenshots. Your setup is quick.

At step 5 you get a three-item checklist, "Set Up Your Dynasty":

1. Set Season. The year or number you are playing.
2. Build Conferences. Your groups. The default is the four power conferences. Keep 8 members in each so every conference earns an auto-bid.
3. Load Team Catalog. The schools your players can pick, in one tap. Seed the full 136-school catalog or add your own.

When those three are done, your league is ready to open. Assigning GMs, generating the season plan, and running the draft come after, from the Commissioner Hub CFB section. The next section walks that flow.

Getting your GMs onto teams

Once you Lock It In, your league is open and your members can join. Getting everyone from "in the server" to "running a school" is a short, ordered flow:

1. Players join. Each member opens the Player Hub and taps Join the League to register their gamertag and enter the pool. You can see who has signed up on the Group Board (CFB section of the Commissioner Hub).
2. Place them in conferences. Tap Assign to Conference, pick the member, pick the conference. A member has to be in a conference before they can hold a school.
3. Give out schools. Two ways; use either or both:
   • Run the draft (the fun way). Tap Start Draft. The bot posts a live draft board and members pick their own schools in snake order, from dropdowns grouped by team strength. Late joiners can be added mid-draft, staff can pick for a no-show, and Show Draft Board re-posts the board if it scrolls away. Tap Complete Draft when everyone has a school.
   • Assign by hand. Tap Assign a School, pick the member, pick the school. Use this when teams were agreed ahead of time, or to fix a single assignment.
4. Check the Group Board. It shows every conference, who is in it, and which school they hold, so you can see what is left to assign at a glance.

Rank Lock (CFB section) caps how strong a school can be picked, so nobody grabs a powerhouse in a league that wants parity. Set it before the draft. 5.0 means unlocked.

After everyone has a school

1. Generate Season Plan builds the week-by-week schedule from your conference structure. View Plan and Verify Slate let you sanity-check it.
2. Open Week Channels (Game Channels section) creates a channel per matchup for the week. Your GMs play, submit the Post Game screen (next section), and results flow into standings and records on their own.

How your players report college games

After a game, a player opens their Player Hub and taps Submit Game Result, then drops one screenshot: the Post Game screen (the final score screen with both teams and the quarter-by-quarter box).

That one screen is all they need. Tell your players clearly: send the Post Game screen, not the stats pages. The result lands in a review queue for you to approve, and a low-confidence read gets flagged to your staff channel so nothing gets rubber-stamped.

5. Plans: Free, Standard, Prize League

Important thing to know about Free: on the Free plan, a Standard feature can be stored as "on" but will still read as off until you upgrade. So if you flip on College Football or recruiting while on Free, it will look like nothing happened. That is expected. This is the number one thing commissioners ask about. If a feature will not appear, check your plan first (see the FAQ).

If you bring your own model key for the chat and writing features, those unlock at any plan (you pay that provider directly). Screenshot reading stays a Standard feature.

6. Features (what each one gives your league)

Pick these at step 4 or anytime from the Commissioner Hub. "On by default" means it is already on when you start.

There are also three opt-in server-protection tools (honeypot trap, anti-spam, DM protection) with no plan requirement, all off by default. Turn them on from Server Protection in the Commissioner Hub.

7. Channels and roles

You map these at setup (steps 2 and 3) and can change them anytime with the Commissioner Hub or the setup wizard.

Channels worth setting: Announcements, Player Hub (required), Staff Ops (required), Schedule, Standings, Stats Center, Game Zone, Rules, Welcome, Info Desk, Help Desk, Ticket Lobby, Audit Log, AP Bank, Streaming. College leagues also use CFB Results and CFB Standings. Tournament leagues use Tournament Hub and Matchups.

Roles worth setting: Commissioner and Staff (required, these gate admin actions), plus Member, Visitor, Muted, and (for tournaments) Referee. College leagues get a CFB Player role.

A channel that is not set will simply not receive its posts. If something is not showing up in the channel you expect, check that the channel is mapped in setup.

8. The Commissioner Hub (your control panel)

The Commissioner Hub is where you run everything. In Discord it shows your most-used sections up front (Daily Tasks, Player and Currency, Game Operations, Game Channels, Announcements) with a More Tools dropdown holding the rest. Every action is audit-logged.

Here is what lives in each section. Sections you have not enabled do not appear.

Daily Tasks. A morning and evening checklist. Most of it runs itself; you are spot-checking.

Player and Currency Management. Approve pending upgrades and trait purchases, approve achievement clips, grant or take currency, view a player, issue a penalty, post an award, run reputation actions (warn, commend, strike, ban, unban), grant a welcome coupon, and set shop caps and earning rates.

Game Operations (Madden). Settlement Board (this week's game status at a glance), Advance Now, Resync, the Madden Sync Hub, scheduled auto-advance, and per-game Force Win, Fair Sim, and Resync. Also the Skip Sim Recaps toggle (skips press recaps for computer-vs-computer games to save cost; off by default; it never skips a game a member is in, and box scores still post).

Team Assignments (Madden). Map members to NFL teams, view ownership, free a team, bulk-create team-colored roles, and reset all at season turnover.

EA League Admins (Madden). Add or remove co-commissioners and transfer the master role, straight to the EA league.

CFB League. Group Board, Assign to Conference, Assign a School, Edit Structure, Rank Lock, Team Catalog, Generate and View Season Plan, Verify Slate, Auto-Win Week, Enter Result, Generate and Clear Preseason, Force Win, Reset Record, Import Schedule, Add Matchup, run the Draft, NIL Grant, and (when screenshot reading is on) Post Top 25 and Post Standings. Scheduling Control flips who owns scheduling during a migration.

Game Channels. Configure the category and scoreboard channel, open a week's game channels in one tap (auto-closes the prior week), open playoff rounds, ping active channels, and close channels (their chat is archived to the audit log, not deleted).

Channel Messages. Repost the Player Hub, Commissioner Hub, Rules, FAQ, currency requests, or server-setup panel to the current channel.

Announcements and Recruitment. One-tap free-agency and draft announcements, the recruitment-ad builder, an open-teams list, a Broadcast DM button (see section 11), and (with the concierge on) a press-conference panel.

News and Recaps. Post commissioner-written daily news, a game recap, a game-of-the-week preview, or an announcement, all in your league's branded format.

Trade Desk, Betting Admin, Monetize. Review and manage trades, refund pending bets, and run paid drops (each appears only if that feature is on).

Server Protection. Toggle the honeypot, anti-spam, and DM protection, set the trap channel, and use Test Mode to dry-run without actioning anyone.

Branding. League name and tagline, currency name and emoji, bot nickname, colors and palette, and channel-naming style.

Content Library. Edit any of your league's text: rules, FAQ, welcome, hub copy, league voice, and more.

Utilities. System status, the audit log viewer, a hub guide, and an emergency-help card.

9. What your players can do

Every member opens their own private hub from the pinned Open My Player Hub button. They only see buttons for features you have turned on.

Everyone gets: their profile and profile editing; league data (standings, schedule, stat leaders, rankings); a support ticket button; and reference (server tour, rules, "what can I do?").

With the currency economy on: request an attribute upgrade, buy a trait, change throwing style, and submit a recap for a reward.

With streaming on: connect a stream account, update links, and view streaming stats.

With trades on: drop their trade block. With Team Builder on: build their team. With Coach Builder on: build a coaching archetype.

Madden members do not submit results by hand. Results come in through EA sync, so there is no submit button for them; you and your staff drive results from the Madden Sync Hub.

College members submit results by uploading the Post Game screen, join the league (register gamertag and enter the draft pool), check their NIL balance and the NIL price list, view their schedule, teams, and results, and claim awards.

10. Running the league day to day

Most days you are just spot-checking. A typical rhythm:

• Madden: advance the week in Madden, and the data flows in. Recaps, standings, and previews post on their own. Approve any pending currency upgrades and glance at the Settlement Board.
• College Football: approve the game results your players submit as they play. Post the rankings and standings when you want them (see the next section). Run the draft and generate the season plan at the start of a season.
• Both: members open tickets when they need help; you clear the queue. Trades propose and vote on their own; you review anything flagged.

11. Making the league feel alive

This is optional, and it is what turns a data bot into a league.

• Media-team content (Standard). Recaps, daily news, previews, and press-conference panels post automatically or on a tap from News and Recaps.
• College rankings and standings. Because college has no data feed, you bring the game's own poll and standings in by screenshot. In the CFB section, tap Post Top 25, drop your Top 25 screenshot (Media or Coaches poll), and the bot posts the board. Tap Post Standings, drop a Conference Standings screenshot, and it posts that board. Do this once a week and your college league has a real poll and real standings straight from the game. The bot tells you if a read looks shaky so you can re-post a cleaner shot.
• Announcements. One-tap free-agency and draft posts, plus recruitment ads that pull your live open-teams data.

Broadcast a DM to your members

When you have time-sensitive news that a channel post might get missed (for example, "our dynasty starts Monday at 8pm"), you can DM your members directly from the Commissioner Hub. It is Administrator-only, and it always shows you how many people it will reach and asks you to confirm before anything sends.

To send one:

1. In the Commissioner Hub, open Announcements and Recruitment and tap Broadcast DM.
2. Choose who to reach: pick a role from the dropdown (for a small group, like just your GMs), or tap Everyone to DM every member.
3. Type your message and submit.
4. You get a "this will DM N members" confirmation. Read it, then tap Send (or Cancel).
5. The bot sends the messages, paced out so Discord does not throttle it, then reports back how many were delivered and lists anyone it could not reach.

A member shows up as "could not be reached" if they have DMs turned off or have left the server. The report lists them so you can tag them in a channel instead. The DM arrives as a clean message titled with your league name, so it reads as official league news.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Use it for real, time-sensitive news, not routine chatter. For everyday announcements, a channel post that pings your Member role reaches everyone with less noise.
• It is capped at 300 recipients per send, which is far above any normal league size.
• Only an Administrator can send one.

12. Troubleshooting and FAQ

A feature will not turn on. The setup pick and the toggle both look like they did nothing. Check your plan first. On the Free plan, a Standard feature (College Football, recruiting, the concierge, and others) can be stored on but read off until you upgrade, so it looks like a no-op. Upgrade to Standard and it appears. This is the most common question by far.

I just got upgraded, but it still is not working. Plan and settings are cached in the live bot for a few minutes. A change made outside Discord can take up to about ten minutes to take effect. Give it a few minutes and it applies on its own.

The Madden dashboard said "Export failed," but I think the data is there. A first or full "All Weeks" export runs for a few minutes and the browser can time out and show "failed" while the export keeps running in the background. The data still lands. Ignore the badge on a long export, let it finish, and confirm the weeks filled in. A "last export: never" note is not reliable either and does not mean you have no data.

Which screenshot do my college players send? The Post Game screen (final score, both teams, records, quarter box). One screenshot per game. College Football has no single all-in-one stats screen, so the Post Game screen is the one clean shot that has everything the bot needs. Rule of thumb: if a screen shows the final score and both teams, the bot can read it.

I am moving into an existing server. How do I not make a mess? Archive first, then build. Use the Archive Old Channels button (you can name the folder, for example "Madden 26"), then run Build it for me. If you build first, the archive would also sweep your new channels. Your rules and system channels are always protected, and archiving preserves chat history.

Recaps stopped posting for some games. That is the Skip Sim Recaps toggle (Game Operations). When on, it skips press recaps for computer-vs-computer games to save cost. It never skips a game a member is in, and the box-score card still posts for every game. It is off by default; toggle it back if you want recaps for every game.

I approved a college game and nothing recorded (no win/loss, NIL, or badges). Check Scheduling Control in the CFB section. If your league is in preview mode (used only while migrating from another bot), result writes are held back on purpose so records do not get split. Set scheduling so this bot is in control, and results record normally.

A screenshot would not read, or there is no screenshot. Use Enter Result in the CFB section to type the teams and score. It goes into the same review queue and records on Approve, just like a scanned game. Staff can Approve, Edit, or Reject items in the queue; a corrected scan still records on Approve. The team names have to match a school that is bound to a GM for the win to attach to that player.

A member says their profile or the standings look empty after simming. Usually the data is fine and they just have not claimed a team. The record and career block on a profile only fills in once the member is on a team. Have them tap Claim a Team from the Player Hub and it fills in.

Nothing is posting to a channel I expected. Make sure that channel is mapped in setup. A channel that is not set will not receive its posts. Map it in the setup wizard or from the Commissioner Hub.

13. Getting help

Reply to your receipt with the question. Setup hiccups, billing, feature ideas, and bug reports all go there.

Your league's data is yours. You own it, and you can take it with you if CFM OS is ever not the right fit.

Welcome in.