i totally understand what you are saying. the lion conference here has been much different from any other GLB experience i or a lot of other GM's here have had. people who had been here during the run like ericmn, smallbugger and mango fandango all could attest to it.
in the last few seasons, there weren't any teams with incomplete rosters or CPU teams like other leagues i have been in have had. no one went undefeated and there was always a shocking loss.
most of the teams were psycho game planners. a lot of the teams here would have made AAA a few seasons ago if they had been in different conferences but here only two teams made it. so great teams were stuck here for multiple seasons and
we have had some great rivalries here as a result.
the crazy thing would a team that would make the playoffs one year, sometimes even host a playoff game and miss the next season. it happened to us, the ratels, the serpent eagles and durban, who eventually re-shuffled their whole roster after 6 seasons here.
the last three seasons, any team that was promoted from Lion went into the AAA playoffs the first season fighting for home field playoff game. the last couple AA Lion champs went to Afrtica Pro their first season of AAA.
i am not a good ole days guy either. i just want to make AAA to get with those old rivals again. in fact, i wish they promote the top 6 or 7 teams here to get my dream conference and dream season.