Not getting a response for a few hours doesn't constitute a lack of love around here.
It's a holiday week bro.....be patient.
If you and your bud(s) want to play within the same franchise/season, you can set human control for one, any or all teams if you want prior to getting the fran/season going. If you're talking about playing together on the same team at the same time, you'll most likely have to set human control for all teams and then set up your controllers properly before each game. Not sure what else you can do.