Portalytic CFB

UPDATE: A new Portalytic CFB simulator is in development now! A Beta launch is expected in mid-April. Please check back soon! 🙂

Introducing Portalytic CFB, a free-to-play, college football Transfer Portal and Analytics simulator!

In Portalytic CFB, you construct a complete coaching staff and roster through a fictional version of the Transfer Portal that is open for 120 days. Each day, you get to recruit more players/coaches to try to improve your team, and then you play a simulated game against the next FBS opponent on your schedule. To reach the #1 ranking in the land, you will need to defeat all 134 FBS teams in descending rank order, starting with the #134 Kent State Golden Flashes and ending with the #1 Ohio State Buckeyes (all based on the 2024 season). If you win your current game, you can continue on to the next opponent…but if you lose, you have to wait until tomorrow for a rematch.

The Beta version is now OPEN for user testing. You can download your Portalytic workbook (and the set of Transfer Key text files) and start playing today!

Portalytic-CFB-Beta-v1.15

BETA Testing: Version History

v1.1
- Corrected Day 1 to Day 2 transition error
v1.11
- Corrected duplicate Activation Key processing
v1.12
- Added “Last Game Diagnostics” to <Team-Record> tab
v1.15
- Corrected bias in reported assistant coach win probabilities (only affected reporting, not game simulation)
- Corrected “Last Game Diagnostics” in <Team-Record> tab

Portalytic CFB leverages much of the proprietary player and coach ratings and offensive/defensive system data produced at mcillecesports.com. Winning and losing is based on the real-world analytics that matter for college football teams, whether that’s the heightened importance of QB passing efficiency in an Air Raid offense or the necessity of a deep, skilled LB corps in a Classic 3-4.

The personnel decisions and the systems you choose to run are up to you.

The motivation for this game was to create something people can play during the long summer months while awaiting the next college football season to begin, like a modern-day Strat-o-Matic reflecting the current Transfer Portal and Analytics Eras of CFB. Hence the name, Portalytic CFB. Detailed game information is provided in cell info popups (identified by the light-gray cells outlined in blue).

As this is an experimental game in Beta mode, feel free to provide feedback of any kind (including positive/negative criticism & crash/bug reports) to analytics@mcillecesports.com. This is a solitaire experience based in Microsoft Excel and requires allowing macro-enabled workbooks to run properly. After a weeklong Beta testing phase, a final version of Portalytic will be posted here.

I hope you enjoy the game!

Excel Notes

Please close all other instances of Excel before opening your workbook, and save/close your workbook before opening other instances of Excel (the game will affect Excel’s settings for manual vs automatic calculation, which can adversely affect the performance of other workbooks)
You must Enable Content (VBA / macros) to play the game
If prompted to Inspect Document, click the X on the right-hand side of the banner
On saving, if prompted that the Document Inspector may not be able to remove all information, select okay
Typing in Transfer Keys and Activation Keys (rather than copy/pasting) is recommended; if copy/pasting, right-clicking and selecting “paste values” is recommended
Corrupted workbooks cannot be recovered

Portalytic Formatting

The workbook utilizes a few different formats to indicate different types of cells:

Light gray, blue outline: Click on these cells for info bubbles that help explain the game’s various details and systems.
Light orange, checkered: These are “Cursor Rests” where you can click to avoid any info bubbles obscuring your view.
Light blue, checkered: Free text entry cells specific to the <Key-Archive> tab where you can enter any text info you want to help you organize your storage.
Dark orange: Indicates a roster / lineup violation.
Light blue – light red color scales / data bars: Quality indicators of players and coaches, where blue is above average and red is below average.

Getting Started

Select a schedule ladder and initialize your workbook. In the <Transfer-Portal> tab, go to Cell D2, and select either the Power Ranking ladder (default difficulty) or the Record Ranking ladder (challenging difficulty), then press the “Activate” button.
- The difference is in how the teams are ordered. Power Ranking is in descending 2024 mcillecesports.com power ranking and provides an incrementally increasing challenge as you go. Record Ranking is in descending 2024 mcillecesports.com merit ranking, which adds more weight to wins and losses. In the latter case, some teams with reasonably good power ratings may appear early in the schedule, and you must defeat them before moving on!
Build your Day 1 coaching staff and roster. The only coaching requirements are an HC, OC, and DC, so focus on those three coaching positions first, then move on to your player roster. There will be plenty of time on subsequent days to add position coaches.
- Open your HC text file. Choose a Day 1 Transfer Key. Enter it into Cell A2 of the <Transfer-Portal> tab, and press the “Activate” button. A HC will appear in your personnel list. Note his “Activation Key”. This is the serial number that allows you to use this coach on your team. It is recommended to type that Activation Key into two slots to avoid losing it: the <Key-Archive> tab (Cell B3, and you can add labels and notes to this worksheet in the checkered blue cells), and the <Coaching> tab (Cell B5). Even if you’re not thrilled with your first HC, avoid the urge to look for a replacement right away, as that would prevent you from fielding a complete Day 1 lineup.
- Continue the same process (and note the appropriate cells for Key entries) for OC and DC. Once you have a head coach and both coordinators, you’ll see offensive and defensive system radar charts appear, indicating your team’s style of play. These can be changed on later days by recruiting HCs and coordinators from the Transfer Portal.
- Continue the same process for QB, RB, etc., until you have a valid lineup for your Day 1 game versus Kent State. Review the <Key-Archive> for Activation Key storage recommendations, and copy Activation Keys into appropriate slots in the <Offense>, <Defense>, and <SpTeams> tabs. Note that in these three tabs, you must activate players by using the dropdown menus (e.g., Cell H5 in the <Offense> tab to activate your first QB). See Transfer Portal Tips for Day 1 below for recommended order of recruiting from the Transfer Portal.
Preview roster matchups at the <Gameday-Lineup> and <Opponent-Lineup> tabs. Here you can view your relative strengths and weaknesses against your upcoming opponent, and you will see indicators if your lineup is invalid on Offense, Defense, or SpTeams.
Head to the <Gameday!> hub to simulate your game. On this page, you will see a wealth of matchup information, including systems run by both teams, how much weight/reliance you and your opponent put on different aspects of the game (from QB Run all the way down to Punt Returns).
- When you are ready to kick off, press the “Simulate” button in Cell E8 to simulate your first game vs Kent State. The simulation accounts for all personnel, systems, and random gameday effects, and reports your victory or defeat next to the button, along with a “Game Control” percentage that indicates how well your team played. To win, Game Control must exceed 50%.
- A set of “Performance Diagnostics” will also be reported in the panel beneath the Simulate button. Here, you can see specifically how each unit fared in the game in terms of either increasing or decreasing your win probability, relative to a 50% baseline. Game Control = 50% + the sum of Offense %, Defense %, and SpTeams %. (See the info bubbles in that section for more information about the Diagnostics.)
Review your overall team performance at the <Team-Record> tab. Here, you will see your records versus every team (starting with either 1-0 or 0-1 vs Kent State), your average Game Control % in all games versus that team, and a season-average Diagnostics panel. This season Diagnostics panel is a copy of the layout on the <Gameday!> tab, but it computes your average over all games played. These Diagnostics can tell you a lot about your team’s overall abilities and areas of need for Transfer Portal recruiting.
Play until you lose a game, then save your workbook and close for the day. In Portalytic CFB, you can keep challenging opponents until you lose. At that point, you will have to wait until tomorrow to proceed. When ready to play tomorrow, open up your workbook, head to the <Transfer-Portal> tab and start recruiting to address personnel needs, and continue on.

Transfer Portal Tips for Day 1

Portalytic CFB is constructed so that you can meet all roster minimums on Day 1 and hit the “field” versus Kent State. You can review the Coaching, Offense, Defense, and SpTeams tabs for roster requirements, but here is the recommendation (in the order listed) that yields a complete lineup and takes full advantages of the 25 Day 1 “Tax Deductions” in the Transfer Portal:

Coaching: 1 HC, 1 OC, 1 DC
Offense (Round 1): 1 QB, 1 RB, 3 WR
SpTeams*: 1 PK, 1 PT
Defense: 5 DB, 3 LB, 3 DL
Offense (Round 2): 5 OL, 1 TE

Early on, you may be a bit lucky or unlucky in your Transfer Portal recruiting. However, as the game continues, the randomness evens out, and the game relies more on skillful management and organization, addressing roster deficiencies, utilizing personnel based on matchups, and so on.

*KR and PR are not required and can only be acquired by recruiting RBs, WRs, and/or DBs that also have KR or PR as one of their usable slots.