Out with the old and in with the new: Sean Crowell, the runner-up in the controversial 2016 championship, departed the league in 2017 for international travels. Jason Peterson was unable to be contacted as well, opening two new spots in the league rosters. These were filled by Jared Kmiecik (a college classmate of the commissioner), and Dan Jackson Jr. (a friend the commissioner made while in Washington DC over the summer).
 
This was a landmark for the league – with Eli, Alex and Sean Alumbaugh (the only Sean remaining) now residing in Kansas, and with Dan Jackson residing in Massachusetts, the league was now heavily dependent in online communication.
 
Even more changed. Along with the removal of the 5-point seeding bonus of playoffs past, the schedule was slashed by two weeks – this made the regular season a straight round-robin with two divisions, with the same playoff format simply advanced by two weeks. This meant that NFL Weeks 16 and 17 were left unused by the new schedule. And on top of that, the league made two very important scoring changes: they voted to add a ½ point per reception, and they converted all yard-based scoring to decimal scoring, ensuring that there would be no more ties.
 
Finally, the league was for money – a $20 buy-in was required of every member. For 2018, the division was changed to 120/60/40/20, but in 2017, the split favored only the top three finishers. Kenneth Pancake won re-election to the role of commissioner – and for his work on the Bubble Tracker, Al Ohlinger was promoted to Lieutenant Commissioner.
 
For the first time, no QB was drafted in the first two rounds. With the first pick, Jared Kmiecik drafted elite RB David Johnson. Sadly, Johnson was injured and ruled out for the season in Week 1, thereby wrecking Jared’s chances at a successful opening campaign. He would finish dead last with a record of 3-10. Much to the teasing of the rest of the league, Pancake drafted 3 D/ST’s.
 
At the end of ten weeks, eight of the twelve teams were still fighting for a playoff spot – at least, according to the second edition of Al Ohlinger’s Bubble Tracker.
 
Kenneth Pancake had suffered four defeats in his first five games; however, he fought back with a six-week winning streak to finish the regular season with a 7-4 record. For Ethan Maas, it was another story – after winning six of his first eight, he would not win again until his last matchup in the postseason. Al Ohlinger would take his 3-4 team to four straight wins and his second playoff appearance in as many years. Kaelan Carlson played a steady course to the playoffs, and Alex Annan won the regular season in his second year.
 
Now, what would the Breakfast League be without any controversy? As it turned out, errors had been made in the calculation of the Bubble Tracker – as Kenneth Pancake jubilantly celebrated his victory on Monday night, the Tuesday updates rolled, and showed that Ethan Maas, not Pancake, had secured a spot in the playoffs. This was because of the division rule – win your division, and you make the playoffs. Four teams – including Pancake – had tied at 7-4 in their division. Ethan (his division’s winner) was 6-5, enough for a 2 seed, despite his record. This prompted the team to get rid of divisions overall for the following season.
 
For the first time in league history, the championship match wasn’t even close. To begin the playoffs, Alex Annan dispensed of Al Ohlinger’s squad with no trouble at all, while Kaelan Carlson squeaked by Donald Trumps Hair (Ethan) by 5.8 points. In the title round, Carlson defeated Annan handily to earn his second league title by more than 50 points.