SECTION 1 - Administrative
•1.1 - Fees- Each team will pay a total of $45. This will be made up of the following:
- League Fee: $159.99
- 1st place – 60% of the pot
- 2nd place - 30% of the pot
- The highest scoring team in the league, including playoff scoring, will get 10%. This is to
- reward the owner who had the best season, even if they get really unlucky in the
- playoffs. The 10% is in addition to any other prize that owner wins. For example, if they
- come in 2nd place, that owner will get 40% and if they come in 1st they will get 70% of
- the pot.
- Keepers Due – TBD: Will be prior to the draft every year.
- Draft Day – TBD: Will be as close to the start of the season as everyone’s schedule allows.
- Trade Deadline – Midnight on the night of the last game in Week 11. The actual date will be posted on the league info board.
- Add/Drop Deadline - Will be the Sunday morning in Week 12. The actual date will be posted on the league info board.
- Regarding defensive scoring: to do things the way I want to do them, I had to assign some base points to your defense. The only way to do that was to put in some pre-defined points for Passing Yards Allowed and Rushing Yards Allowed (12 pts and 14 pts). These stats themselves mean nothing.. I just need a place to load in 26 points, so the defense can then LOSE points from the baseline as they let up points and yards. So when you see those 2 stats on your scoreboard, realize they mean nothing. In addition, using it this way has messed up the SEASON TOTAL points for defenses. The reason is because the totals only give each defense 26 points for the season, so everybody is negative. In reality, when you play they will get 26 base points for each game played. The effect this has is that you are going to have to manually figure out your defense total points for last season for scouting purposes. The numbers that come up on the Sportsline sortable stats are all wrong (for defenses only).
Scoring for Offensive Categories
- FG - Field Goals 3 points
- Plus 1 point for a FG of 40 to 49 Yds
- Plus 2 points for a FG of 50+ Yds
- FL - Fumble Lost, Including ST plays -2 points
- IKRTD - Individual Kick Return TD 6 points
- IKRYd - Individual Kick Return Yards 0+ IKRYds = .05 points for every 1 IKRYd
- IPRTD - Individual Punt Return TD 6 points
- IPRYd - Individual Punt Return Yards 0+ IPRYds = .05 points for every 1 IPRYd
- Pa2P - Passing Two-point Conversion 2 points
- PaAtt - Passing Attempt -1 point
- PaCmp - Passing Completion 2 points
- PaInt - Passing Interception -2 points
- PaTD - Passing TD 6 points
- PaYd - Passing Yards 0+ PaYds = 0.05 points for every 1 PaYd
- Re2P - Receiving Two-point Conversion 2 points
- ReTD - Receiving TD 6 points
- ReYd - Receiving Yards 0+ ReYds = 0.1 points for every 1 ReYd
- Recpt - Reception 1 point
- Ru2P - Rushing Two-point Conversion 2 points
- RuTD - Rushing TD 6 points
- RuYd - Rushing Yards 0+ RuYds = 0.1 points for every 1 RuYd
- XP - Extra Points 1 point
Scoring for Defensive Categories
- BFB - Blocked Field Goals (ID/ST/DST) 2 points
- BFTD - Blocked Field Goal Touchdown (ID/ST/DST) 6 points
- BP - Blocked Punts (ID/ST/DST) 2 points
- BPTD - Blocked Punt Touchdown (ID/ST/DST) 6 points
- BXP - Blocked Extra Points (ID/ST/DST) 1 point
- DFR - Defensive/ST Fumble Recovered (ID/DT/DST) 1.5 points
- DFRTD - Defensive Fumble Recovery TD (ID/DT/DST) 6 points
- DSTPA - Points Against Defense/ST Baseline of 12 points, then:
- 0+ DSTPAs = -0.5 points for every 1 DSTPA
- FF - Forced Fumble .5 points
- Int - Interceptions 2 points
- IntTD - Interception TD 6 points
- PaYdA - Passing Yards Allowed **This just assigns the 12 point baseline used in the Points Against:
- 0+ PaYdAs = 0 points for every 1 PaYdA
- Plus a 12 point bonus @ 1+ PaYdA
- RuYdA - Rushing Yards Allowed **This just assigns the 14 point baseline used in the Yards Allowed:
- 0+ RuYdAs = 0 points for every 1 RuYdA
- Plus a 14 point bonus @ 1+ RuYdA
- SACK - Sack 1 point
- STY - Safety 2 points
- YDS - Yards Allowed 0 - 500 YDSs = -0.04 points for every 1 YDS
•1.5 - Rule Changes
- The process for proposing rule changes will be as follows: E-mail the commissioner suggesting the change first. If the commissioner finds that the rule change could have some merit, he will discuss it with the Council. Any rule change that is passed will not go into effect until the following season, unless the terms of the rule change included a change for the current season.
- The commissioner will have a council other owners who will help him with all judgements. All rule changes, trades and grievances will be deliberated on by the council as a whole. In the event that one of the members of the council is directly related to the issue at hand (such as a trade including that owner) they will abstain from voting on that issue.
SECTION 2 - Rosters
•2.1 - Roster Positions- Each team will have in it's starting lineup:
- 1 - Quarterback
- 2 - Running Backs
- 3 - Wide Receivers
- 1 - Tight End
- 1 - "Flex" position - may be either a RB, WR or TE
- 1 - Kicker
- 1 - Team Defense (doesn't include Special Teams)
- You may also carry:
- 8 - Backups (any position)
- Due to the possible scarcity of players on the waiver wire, and the value of keeping certain players on the bench for use in later weeks, it is an acceptable strategy to possibly play a player that is on a bye. However, if you are going to use this strategy, you are required to email the commissioner with your intentions. The reason is because it is seen as a sign that you are an absentee owner if you leave bye week players in your lineup, so you should let the commissioner know to avoid any problems.
SECTION 3 - Keepers
•3.1 - Draft Round Value- Each player has been assigned a value called "DRAFT ROUND" which is the round in which they were drafted in the previous year's draft. If they were undrafted and picked up as a Free Agent during the season, then their "DRAFT ROUND" value is round 6.
- Before the season, each team may sign any of their un-signed players to "FULL CONTRACTS" in the following manner:
- Each kept player must be signed to a contract for a chosen amount of years, where the total value of contract years on a given team is no greater than 8.
- Each player's "DRAFT ROUND" value will carry with them through the life of their contract, with his team losing the draft pick from that round in each year's draft that the player is under contract.
- Example: If Player A was drafted in the 6th round of last year's draft, and was then signed to a 2 year contract, he will be protected for this year and next season, with his team losing it's 6th round draft pick as compensation in both those season's drafts.
- Because it is possible that a team may end up with more then one player at the same round then one of the player’s rounds will round down.
- Example: If you have two players you wish to keep at Rd 6 then one player will cost you your round 6 draft spot and the second will cost you round 7
- In the case of more than one player being kept at round 1 there will be special rules since obviously there is no round for him to round up to. Instead the first player will cause the team to just lose round 1 for the life of the contract. The second player kept at round 1 will lose the teams round 2 draft pick as well as every 1 contract year will count as two. Meaning if you sign the player for two years it will count as 4 contract years against the 8 you get to give out.
- After the draft, when each team has drafted enough players to fill out their full 10 starter and 8 backup roster, all players without "FULL CONTRACTS" will be given "DRAFT CONTRACTS".
- A "DRAFT CONTRACT" is a one-year contract for the coming season.
- The "DRAFT ROUND" value of these players will be the round that they were selected in that year's draft.
- At season's end, all players with "DRAFT CONTRACTS" will be considered "restricted free agents" and are eligible to receive "FULL CONTRACTS", if their team owner wishes.
- If a player is not given a "FULL CONTRACT" then they will become free agents and are returned to the draft pool.
- All contracts, both Full and Draft, can be traded.
- When trading players that have been signed to contracts before the draft, realize that you will lose the draft round that the player is currently signed at. If he is a first round player and you already have a first round player signed to a contract he will fall under the signing multiple first rounders rule stated above in Section 3.3(See above) If you do not have enough room to add the extra contracts the trade will be vetoed.
- All players that have a "FULL CONTRACT" can not be released from a team. The only way a player under a "FULL CONTRACT" can be removed from a team's roster is to be traded to another team.
- No team may have more than 8 Contract Years going into the draft on it's roster. Teams may have more than 8 during the year, however (due to trades). If a team does have more than 8 at the contract deadline, that owner must void contracts of players to get to 8 years. The penalty for this will be reflected by the fact that the player with the Highest draft round value will be the one that is voided.
- Example: If you have 9 contract years going into next season, and the highest round that you are keeping a guy is round 1, then that player is the one that will be released back to the draft pool.
- Retired Players: Players who offiicially retire BEFORE the keeper due date may be unconditionally released and not count against the cap. They can not be picked up by any team that season. They will be considered "out of the system". They will only be available to a team if they end up reinstated, like Ricky Williams. If the player retires AFTER the keeper due date, he may be dropped and you may have back the draft round that he would have cost you - however, you can not keep another player in his place since keepers have already been chosen.
- Injured Players: There is no IR spot in this league. Sportsline does not enforce who is put on it, and this leads to too many complications. If you have a hurt guy you can either drop him or use up a bench spot on him. You will have to weigh the pros and cons of that decision yourself. If you can't drop him due to contract, then you can trade him or keep him on your bench. That's part of the strategy of signing contracts in this game. The one break you can get is if he is in the last year of his contract and goes on the OFFICIAL NFL IR, then you can petition the commissioner to drop him.
- All contracts will be due by the time specified by the commissioner by the day of the official "Contracts Due" deadline. This will be relayed to you in an email as well as on the League Homepage.
SECTION 4 - Transactions
*Any trade that is accepted by both parties is absolutely final. The only way to undo a trade is if both parties agree to do a new trade giving the players back.•4.1 - Trading Deadline
- The trading deadline will be prior to Kickoff of the first Sunday game in Week 11.
- Trades will be judged in the following way:
- Any successfully completed trade will be reviewed by the commissioner and his advisory council. If the council finds the trade to be unfair, they will first give the involved owners a chance to explain their reasoning to him, if they choose. If they either choose not to divulge their reasoning, do not have a good reason or do not respond to the commissioner within 2 days of the trade, it will be put to a council vote. A unanimous vote by the council will be required for any veto.
- If any member of the council is involved in the trade, he will discuss the trade with the other council members. The uninvolved council members will determine the fate of the trade just as they did in the previous step.
- The council reserves the right to take up to 3 days to deliberate over a trade. Any trade made more than 3 days before the gametime of the player in question is guaranteed to be decided before the start of that player's games. However, if you make a trade less than 3 days before his game, it MAY not be put through until the following scoring period if it is determined to be questionable. Therefore, it is in an owners best interest to complete trades more than 3 days prior to the player's gametime.
- Trades will be allowed during the offseason, but see section 4.4 for restrictions on trading draft picks. Any player that is traded for in the offseason must be signed to a contract.
- Draft picks may be traded unconditionally ONLY during the period between "Keeper Due Date" and "Draft Day".
- Because of limitations on the Sportsline system, all trades involving draft picks must be emailed to the commissioner, rather than put through online.
- Any trade that puts a player over the maximum contract total will be allowed, subject to other trade rules. The Contract Cap will only be enforced at the start of a season. If trading for a player puts a team at 9 years, that is OK, but at the start of the next season, they have to be back to 8. In almost any case, this will not be an issue, because even if a team goes over 8 during the season, all player's contracts will be decremented by 1 at the end of the season so it would be very unlikely to still be over 8.
- This overrides all Contract rules during the season only.
- We will use a variation of the Free Agent Player Acquisition Budget system.
- Any player who is not selected by a team in the league in the draft, or kept from the prior season, will become a free agent.
- Players released by their fantasy teams will be placed on waivers for 3 days. If no claim is made on the player through the process outlined below, the player will be added to the free agent pool.
- Players who are in the free agent pool will be eligible for acquisition by teams in the league through a closed-bid process called the Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB): Each team at the start of the season will be given $35 for the acquisition of players from the league's free agent pool.
- If a team wishes to acquire a player who is a free agent, they must submit a closed bid for that player through the appropriate link on the league's website. That bid may be anywhere from $0 up to their remaining FAAB. They also must have room on the roster for this new player, or make another roster move to make room. You may not submit bids on players that will make your lineup illegal. If you are adding a player and DO NOT have an empty roster spot you must drop a player at the same time you are adding a new one.
- FAAB bids will be processed overnight on Tuesday and Saturday nights.
- The team that has placed the highest bid on a player by the FAAB processing deadline will receive the player, with the winning bid being decremented from their remaining FAAB.
- In case of a tie bid, the team who has least recently made a pick-up will receive the player.
- If a team spends it's entire FAAB budget, it may only make $0 bids for the rest of the season.
- The process described in this section will also apply to players who are on waivers:
- While a player is on waivers, a team may place a FAAB bid on the player. At the end of the 3 day waiver period, the FAAB process will "run" for that player and he will go to the highest bidder.
- If there are no bids on the player when he comes off waivers, the player will be placed in the free agent pool.
- All players that are won in the free agent pool will have a Draft Round Value for the following year of 6.
- Add/Drops will be shut off after their final run on the Sunday morning of the last week of our regular season(Week 12). The official date will be listed on the league homepage at the start of every season.
- All trades will be immediately put through at the discretion of the council. The council will have sole judgement on all trades, and reserve the right to take up to 3 days to deliberate on a trade. See section 4.2 for more information.
SECTION 5 - Drafts
•5.1 - Draft Order for Each Season- To encourage teams to stay both interested and astute in their trading, we will offer a meaningful consolation prize by making next year's draft order based on your finish in one of two tournaments. The first tournament will consist of the top 3 teams in each division and be for the championships and the second tournament will be for the first overall pick in the next season’s draft. See the Playoffs Section 6.2 and 6.3 for seeding for both brackets and Draft Position.
- The draft will be a straight draft, which means that the team with the #1 draft pick will choose first in each round.
- As mentioned in Section 3: Each player's "DRAFT ROUND" value will carry with them through the life of their contract, with his team losing the draft pick from that round in each year's draft that the player is under contract.
- Example: If Player A was drafted in the 6th round of last year's draft, and was then signed to a 2 year contract, he will be protected for this year and next season, with his team losing it's 6th round draft pick in the first season under contract and the 6th round draft pick in his second season, as compensation in both those season's drafts.
- Any players kept at the same round will roll down to the next round. If an owner has two guys at round 5, then the owner must lose draft rounds 5 and 6.
- If there is no where for the player's pick to roll up to (ie,two 1st rounders are kept), then the player will roll down however he will be charged 1 additional contract year for each round he is lower than his original draft round.
SECTION 6 - Schedule
•6.1 - Regular Season Schedule(2009)- The following is subject to change with expansion.
- There will be 2 divisions in the league.
- Each team will play every team in their division twice.
- Each team will play 2 teams in the other division only once.
- Since there has been 2 Expansion Teams added this year this will be the new format for regular season moving forward.
- There will be 3 Divisions in the league.
- Two divisions will have 5 teams each and the third will have 4. These were drawn out of a hat randomly.
- The division with 4 teams will play more out of division games then the 5 team divisions to create an even schedule.
- The 5 team divisions will play more in division games then out of division games. Two teams in these divisions will play 5 out of division games due to the odd number of team. Again this is determined randomly.
- Every 2 years we will re-organize the divisions with a random drawing. In doing this I will ensure that the teams in the 4 team division do not return to that division. This is to create a competitive balance throught the league.
- The 3 division winners plus the 3 non-playoff teams with the best record overall will make the playoffs. There will be no Week 16 or 17 games because many NFL teams sit their best players to rest for the playoffs in that week.
- The 2 Division winners with the best overall records will each get a bye for the first round of the playoffs.
- In addition to the championship tournament, there will be a special provision to determine draft order for next season. This bracket will consist of the 8 teams not in the championship bracket and determine the order of draft positions 1-8 for the following season.
- The teams that finish last in each division will a bye for the first round of this bracket.
- This gives the bottom two teams a chance to improve themselves by receiving a draft spot the following year no less then pick #3 or #4
- The losing teams in the first round of the #1 draft pick will be entered into a bracket for picks #5 thru #8.
- If a playoff game ends in a tie, the scores of all players involved will be recalculated to find actual decimal point values. For example, in a normal game 109 yards is worth 10 points because Sportsline rounds down. In the event of a tiebreaker, the 109 yards would be recalculated to be worth 10.9 points. If there is still a tiebreaker after this, the winner will be the team that had a higher seed (to approximate home field advantage). During the season, tie games will not be recalculated.
•6.5 - Playoff Schedule by Week
Week 13- Championship Bracket: 1 & 2 bye, 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5
- #1 Pick Bracket: 11 & 12 Bye,7 vs 10, 8 vs 9
- Championship Bracket: 1 vs lowest seeded winner, 2 vs winner, 2 losers for draft spots #9 & #10
- #1 Pick Bracket: 14 vs highest seeded winner, 13 vs next highest seeded winner and the remaining winners face off with the higher seed playing the lowest winning seed, 2 losers enter the bracket for the #5-#8 draft spots.
- Championship Bracket: 2 winners for the Championship, 2 losers for draft spots #9 & #10
- #1 Pick Bracket: 2 winners for #1 and #2 draft spots, 2 losers for draft spots #3 & #4,
- #5 & #8 Bracket: 2 winners for #5 & #6, 2 losers for draft spots #7 & #8
- Tie breakers for division titles (after overall record) will be as follows:
- Head-to-head record
- Total points scored
- Tie breakers for wild card will be as follows:
- Head-to-head record
- Total points scored
- Tie breakers for bracket-seeding (after overall record) will be as follows:
- Head-to-head record
- Total points scored
- The process for tiebreakers of 3 or more teams will be as follows:
- Total points scored.
SECTION 7- League Expansion
•7.1 - Rules for Owner Replacement- For the following discussion, we will use an example of 3 new owners replacing 3 former owners.
- The 3 new owners will take turns selecting players from the 3 old teams. They will select 3 players each that will be considered their keepers and may be signed for up to a maximum of 8 total years.
- The 3 new owners will also be given the last 3 draft spots, but before the money winners(i.e. the first and second place teams)
- These expansion teams should be very prepared to have a somewhat difficult first season. It would not be fair to current teams if we make it too easy for the expansion teams to get good players. Getting into the league as an expansion team should be considered a privilege and an investment in the future, rather than a good opportunity to compete this season. A smart owner, though, will have every chance to compete, it just might be an uphill battle.
- The expansion draft will be a straight draft in a certain order, and the expansion teams will get their full draft picks in the reverse order.
- The first expansion team to pay will be given the privilege of choosing where they will pick. The second team then gets to choose, and finally the third team gets the last spot. So if Team A chooses to go first in the expansion draft, and Team C ends up going last, then Team C gets the first expansion spot in the full draft, but Team A would get the 3rd pick.
- The expansion draft will take place at a time that is convenient to all new owners, starting the day after keepers are due. The 3 owners and the commissioner will do the draft in whichever way is most convenient (e-mail, telephone, Instant Messenger, live) to the parties involved, in real-time.
- The undrafted players will be returned to the draft pool for inclusion in the full draft.
- The players drafted by the expansion teams in the expansion draft will be subject to the same draft value rules that all keepers are subject to (ie, you will lose the pick in the draft round that the player was chosen in last season). Expansion teams should take this into account when choosing keepers.
- There will be expansion teams added if there arises a situation where a new person would like to join our league and no vacant teams available. (There must be at least two teams added per year to keep the Divisions Equal)
- If a current owner knows someone who is interested in joining they must contact the commissioner with the new owner request and the commissioner will follow up with the new owner.
- The expansion team will select 3 players from the "expansion pool".
- The “expansion pool” will be broken down into tiers based on the players draft round and the rules will be stated on how many players you can pick out of each tier.(This will ensure that an expansion team will not end up with three former first round players)
- The tiers are as follows:
- Rounds 1-5 are the first tier and a max of 1 player may be selected from this group.
- Rounds 6-12 are the second tier and a max of 2 players may be selected from this group.
- Round 13-18 are the third tier and a max of 3 players may be selected from this group.
- You can pick any combo of players from these tiers
- under these guidelines(i.e 1 from each tier, all from tier 3)
- The "expansion pool" will consist of all players that have a DRAFT contract AND were not signed to a new keeper contract by another team at the end of the season. This means that players that were previously under contract for the previous season, but whose contracts are expiring, will not be eligible for the expansion draft. Please see the page on "Pending Free Agents" for a list of these ineligible players, as well as a spreadsheet of all the eligible players.
- These 3 selected players will be signed to FULL CONTRACTS just like every other team's keepers, and they will carry over their current "DRAFT ROUND VALUE". The new owner will decide how many years to sign each player for, but the total number of years may not exceed 8.
- The new owner will lose the corresponding draft pick for each player he signs and keeps. For example, if he selects player John Smith with DRAFT ROUND VALUE of 3, then the owner will lose his 3rd round draft pick. If the DRAFT ROUND VALUE is FA then this is equivalent to 6. See Section 3 for in depth keeper/contract rules.
- The expansion team will have the last spot, before the top 2, in the season's full draft (pick # 10).
- Once again, the players drafted by the expansion team in the expansion draft will be subject to the same draft value rules that all keepers are subject to (ie, you will lose the pick in the draft round that the player was chosen in last season). The Expansion team should take this into account when choosing keepers.
- The way we will conduct the Expansion Draft will be via email.
- First: I will email the “Expansion Pool” to both of the new owners.
- Second: They will email me back a list of players they want in the order they want them.(more then three players each in case the other owner picks one of their picks, if you run out of players before you get to three then you wont get anymore)
- Third: I will randomly select which expansion team will go first and then alternate picks from the top of each list. This will be a snake draft until both teams have three players.
- Finally: I will ask for your contract distribution on these players(if any)
SECTION 8- General Rules of Behavior for Owners
•8.1 - Expectations- This section is being added for ALL owners to understand what is expected of them. Consistently ignoring these guidelines will be considered grounds for removal from the league:
- Always put the most competitive team you can on the field each and every week. In football, this includes NEVER playing a player that is on a bye week, as well as playing a player that was announced as "OUT" early in the week. It is understood that last second "inactives" can cause you to play an injured player, but at least make an attempt in general to have a friend look out for your team if you can't be around.
- Always respond to trade offers within 2 days. If you must reject a trade, please do so within two days (and preferably right away). The other owner may be looking to trade with somebody else if you decline them, so please don't leave them hanging. If you would like time to consider the offer, simply tell the other owner that you want to think it over, but then you are required to get back to them again quickly.
- Abide by all the rules set by the commissioner, either in this constitution or in email.
- You are expected to respond to all emails from the commissioner immediately (ie, that same day or the next day if you need time to think about it), especially votes. Even if you have nothing to add, please just let him know that you received his email. You don't have to write a novel; just one sentence is fine.
- Be respectful to the other owners, especially in trading. Do not offer stupid and insulting trades, and do not respond rudely if you don't like a trade that was offered to you. If you have an issue, please bring it to the commissioner.
- You are required to be available for all drafts. Draft dates will generally be planned out months in advance. If something suddenly comes up, you will be allowed to provide a comprehensive list of all players ranked in your order of preference. There will be no "remote" drafting - ie, via phone or internet. Either you can make it live, or you will provide a list to the commissioner.
- If you find any trade to be unfair, bring it to the commissioner before
- attacking the owners involved in the trade.
- Any player that consistently breaks these guidelines WILL be removedl from the league, at the commissioner's discretion. If you are removed from a season that you have paid for, you will be refunded your money and your team will be replaced. Therefore, in almost all cases, you will not be able to participate in future seasons.