I see this forum isn't that alive, but I do need to point out one other strange thing (besides the lack of any kind of clock management or tempo control when you're manually playing a game).

When I made the playoff, my team was set to AI-controlled and I couldn't manually play either the semi-final game or the championship.

Is that intentional?

When the season finished, everything was back to normal and I could play the next season's games normally.

I'd have to look into the playoff play game control. The play game modes only work when you're logged into the team or it should also work in career mode. I hadn't heard this reported or if it was I completely missed it.

I closed the game and reloaded it a few times, and the option to play the semifinal game never appeared.

It reappeared, without me doing anything, once I started the new season and got to the first regular season game. I just couldn't play the semifinal or championship game.

Edit: I can provide the save game if you want. I have it saved right when this bug appeared.

I had this problem too but I figured it out. After you sim the bowl game round, you have to click on the playoff option up at the top where you see bowl games and playoff. Once you click on that you have the option to play the game.

Thanks!

This was the problem.