League Rules

New rules / clarifications for 2002 are in Red

League | Rosters/Starters | Draft | Ties | Trades/Acquisitions/Injured Reserve | Schedule/Playoffs | Finances | Scoring

League:

League makeup:

The league will consist of 10 12 teams, split into two divisions: the Dude Division, and the Y'all Division. Although geographic location will play a part in the division you will compete in, the league reserves the right to place teams into either division in order to even out the number of teams.

Rosters / Starting Lineups:

Teams consist of 16 positions. This includes defense/special teams. Each week, each team chooses an 8 position starting lineup from their 16 player team. The starting lineup must contain 1 QB, 2 RBs, 1 Kicker, plus one defense/special team. In addition, 3 receivers must be started. They may consist of any combination of WR's and TE's. However, the TE is a required position on each team and a TE must be started at least 5 times during the FFL regular season. Starting two or more TE's in a single week still counts as one TE start. By year end, if the number of games remaining in the FFL regular season equal the number of TE starts you still must accomplish, the commissioners will not *automatically* start a TE for you.. If you are required to start a TE, and you submit a lineup without a one, we will drop the WR submitted in your starting lineup that was drafted in the latest draft round, or, the last FA WR picked up, and your lineup will consist of  7 players. This will count as a TE start, and the owner given one "DOH!" (See payouts for significance).

A player's position is determined by the official NFL designations as listed on NFL.COM.. Players listed with more than one position may play in any of those positions for a given week. At no point may a team be over the roster limit. A team may be under the limit.

Lineman may be played as TE. Defensive backs are WR. Linebackers may be played as RB. (if you really want to?)

Rosters are due 30 minutes before the start of the first Sunday's game's published time. Failure to submit a roster by the deadline will result in the use of the previous week's roster, and the owner given one "DOH!" (See payouts for significance). For the first week of the season, the default roster will be determined by order players were drafted. filling each required starter position in order. If a TE was drafted before the 3rd WR, the TE will start. Please submit your roster on time.

For Thursday / Saturday games, a preliminary roster must be submitted 30 minutes before the first Thursday / Saturday game. Failure to do so will result in the previous week's roster being used for those players in the Thursday / Saturday game(s) that were in your starting lineup the previous Sunday. Other players in your previous Sunday lineup that are not involved in the Thursday / Saturday game(s) may still be benched or started for the Sunday games. Teams are also responsible for "unstarting" a player that is involved in a Thursday / Saturday night game if you do not wish them to be on your starting roster that week. This obviously only applies if they were on your starting roster for the previous week, therefore eligible as a "rollover starter". A "DOH" will be given for any rollover that results in a previous weeks player playing on the Thursday / Saturday game. At this time, the start/bench status of all players whose teams are involved in the Thursday / Saturday games are fixed. Players from teams not playing on Thursday / Saturday can be benched or started until the deadline of Saturday or Sunday. Failure to submit a new roster by Sunday's deadline will result in the use of the full pre-Thursday roster. The goal of this provision is to remove some of the luck involved in predicting injury/starting status of Sunday's games on Wednesday.  

Proposed 2003 rule - As stated above, starting rosters must consist of 1 QB, 2 RBs, 1 Kicker, plus one defense/special team. There shall be no intentional benching of a starting position if the team has an eligible player or defense to fill the starting slot. Penalty for this infraction shall be a full rollover of the previous week's lineup. Obvious penalty exceptions are if you have too many players / Defenses on bye to properly fill your starter slots.

Competition:

The competition will be head to head.

Ties

Tie breaker for overall standings are determined by:

1. Record
2. Head to Head
3. Total Points
4. Head to Head Points
5. Division Record

Ties during the early part of the season that fall all the way through #5 are resolved by the subsequent weeks results.

Trades/Acquisitions/Injured Reserve:

1. Any NFL player not listed on the roster of a team is considered a free agent.
2. Unlimited roster moves allowed through first 10 weeks of season, after which your rosters are locked.
3. Once a player has been traded away or dropped from a team, that team cannot acquire that player again.
4. Trades between teams must be requested by all the owners of the involved teams. This is the only way the commissioner(s) can know that all teams involved want the transaction.. The League Commissioner(s) must approve the trade. The trade will be disapproved if it appears unfair or if there is an appearance of "collusion" between the two teams to make one team unfairly strong at the expense of the other. (The basic "Don’t ruin it for the rest of us if you suck" rule.) The commissioner's denial of a trade may be appealed by the remaining owners and can be overruled by a 75% vote. The commissioner's approval of a trade may be appealed by any other owner and can be overruled by a 75% vote of all owners. Trades involving a commissioner will be approved/disapproved by the other commissioner.
5. One player must be waived for each free agent signed, unless below the roster limit of 16..Waived players become eligible free agents the following week. 
6. Free agent requests, trades, and waived players are due to a commissioner by Wednesday, midnight, local time of owner's permanent residence, even if the owner is temporarily in a different time zone.
7. The League Commissioner(s) will communicate, via this web page and/or email, awarding of waived players and requests for free agents. 
8. If two more owners request the same waived player or free agent, the league uses a "Worst Record" criteria for deciding who gets the player. The process may seem complicated, but it is objective in that it removes any decision making from the process, and it is fair in that creates parity in the league. Please make the effort to understand how it works, and ask a commissioner if you have any questions.
   1. Teams are ranked from worst record to best. Ties for "worst record" are settled by the "negative" of the league tie criteria - i.e. worst head to head record, etc.
   2. The team with the "worst record" receives the player.
   3. If you desire more than one transaction in a week, your team may only use its "worst record" status on one trade per week. (unless you're involved in 8.4 below).  You then become "best record" (behind the real best record in league) in subsequent decisions for players that other teams want. This is the proverbial "Just cause you suck, you don't get all the first picks!" clause.
   4. If two (or more) teams involved in a decision have already used their "worst record" status, and are attempting a pickup of the same player, the "worst record" status is reinstated for deciding that transaction only.
   5. In the rare event that two teams have identical tie breaker status (this may happen in week 1 or 2) the "transaction only" tie breakers will be - 
      1. From last years final league standings, last place to first place.
      2. If one or both of the teams were not in the league the previous year, reverse first round draft order. (10th team prevails over 9th team, etc.)
   6. The "transaction only" tie breakers are for transaction decisions only and are not to be applied to season standings - see Ties section for early season tie info.
   7. When requesting trades / acquisitions, be sure to include additional contingency picks (if desired) in case you are not awarded a player. Be sure to request your players in order of desire (or somehow indicate the priority of your picks) in case of "worst record" decisions.

An example:

It is assumed that if you do not include contingency picks, that you want to drop your player only if you can get the player you are going for - and if not then no other action.
You might end up getting creative and send a novel of "if this happens then this" that's really confusing. As long as it is received by Wednesday Midnight, it can clarified with you on Thursday before they're processed

9. NFL players on the rosters of fantasy teams that do not make the playoffs, may not be waived, or in any way made available to playoff fantasy teams.
10. Injured Reserve - Should your man go down due to injury, you have the option to keep him on your roster, trade him to another team, or drop him and pick up a free agent.

    1. Week 10 through Week 13 - Any player listed during weeks 10-13 as "OUT" for the remainder of the NFL season or placed on NFL IR (Injured Reserve) during weeks 10-13 may be dropped and a free agent picked up in his place. This drop pickup must be position for position. ie. RB for RB. The intent of this rule is to allow you to replace a permanently injured player, rather than pickup that great new kicker that was brought in from Costa Rica. (unless, of course, your injured player is a kicker, then fill your boots.) The normal request deadline (Wednesday, midnight) applies. 

    2. Rosters may not be modified in anyway after week 13 (the playoffs), injuries or no.

Schedule / Playoffs:

Schedule is to be determined and published by draft day. The FFL Regular Season is Weeks 1 - 13 of the NFL Season. The FFL Playoffs are weeks 14-16 of the NFL Season.

The top 3  4 teams from each division will make the playoffs. The division champion will receive a first round bye. Seeding for the remaining two teams will be the second and third place in the division, based record.  The tie breaker formula will be used to determine seeding, in the event of identical season records.

1. Best record (Division Champion)
2. 2^nd best record
3. 3^rd best record
4. 4^th best record

Play off bracket:

Each round of the playoffs will pit the best against the worst in one game, and the two middle teams in another.

In the event of a tie in the playoffs, the seed with the lower number will advance. This is a home field advantage. To obtain home field advantage, you must have the better season ending record within your division than your opponents, during the "seeding" process at the end of the regular season. 

Example:
     DUDE Division:  Round 1 Playoffs:  Seed 2 has home field advantage
                               Round 2 Playoffs:  The LOWEST seed (by number) has home field advantage.
     WOLF BOWL:  The team with the LOWEST seed (by number) has the home field advantage.  In the event that both teams carry the same seed number from their divisions, the tie breaker format will be used to determine home field advantage.

During Week 14 (first playoff round) the bottom two teams (worst records, regardless of division) will play, winner to determine first draft pick in following years draft. The better record of the two will have home field advantage. Standard tie breaking rules will apply.

The Draft:

The draft will go like this:

1. The draft shall consist of 18 16 rounds. With the exception of the draft minimum requirements, teams may be made up of any combination of positions, but keep in mind your weekly starting position requirements. Each franchise must draft the following minimums: 1 quarterback, 2 wide receivers, 1 tight end, 2 running backs, 1 kicker, and 1 team defenses/special teams. This keeps any one team from "loading up" on a particular position to use as trade bait later. Each player and team defenses/special teams may be taken only once. (two teams may not have the same player.)
2. Draft order for round 1 will be reverse order of 2000 finish for returning owners. New owners will follow the highest finishing returning owner. (exact order below) All subsequent rounds will be serpentine order of the first round's order.
3. The draft will be centered (the actual software being run) at the co-commissioners house in CA, TX, at a date to be determined. 
4. All teams will have 60 seconds to make a selection. Any team that exceeds the time limit will be skipped until the following team has made a selection. The team that was skipped will then have 30 seconds to make a selection. This will repeat until the team that was skipped makes a selection. A team that has two consecutive picks will receive the full allotment of time for each pick (60 seconds per pick - two total minutes.)
5. Any time spent by either of the Commissioners operating or assisting in operating the software (if needed) shall not count. (The Commissioner operating the draft software will have no time limit to evaluate / make his/her selection.)
6. There must be no kibitzing or advising the availability / non availability of players.
7. All teams must participate in the draft. If you personally cannot be at the draft at either commissioners homes, you must do one of the following:
   1. Designate an individual to draft for you. This person should not be another owner, unless that owner explicitly agrees. There is plenty to do on draft day and each owners time is valuable. Under no circumstances shall a commissioner be responsible to draft for another owner.
   2. Use "Instant Messenger" (link on home page), and participate online.
8. If you Blow off the draft.  This will place your team in the "assignment draft".  The assignment draft will be done after the regular draft is completed. The remaining team(s) in the "assignment draft" will be assigned the highest rated players remaining based on last year's performance under our 2001-2002 scoring format.   (This means rookies cannot be assigned, as they had no scores to rank them from last year) Each team will be assigned - 2 QB's, 4 RB's 4 WR's, 2 TE's, 2 K's, & 2 D's. The two remaining slots will be filled with the highest rated players / defense, regardless of position. All the positional slots will be filled before assigning the two additional fill slots. Once assignment draft positions are filled (i.e. 2 QB's), a  team may not be assigned any other players in that position until all other assignment draft positions are filled.  If two or more teams do not participate, their assignment order will be determined by random order. Random order will be determined by dice, straws, or card cut performed by other teams owners.  This will take place at the END of the regular draft, at CaComm's residence on draft party day. Teams will be assigned players in order, i.e. team 1, team 2, team 3, etc. before being assigned their next player. You should note that if you fall to this type of draft your team will undoubtedly be the definitive definition of "suck". You can pretty much count on feeding the kitty the $2.00 a week. You'd be disgruntled by week 3, and pretty much not really want to try anymore. You'd be considered a "bye" by your opponents each week, a pain in the collective commissioners' asses, and pretty much distained by all. Don't be this owner!!!

   It is truly in your teams best interest to participate in the draft.  Please mark you calendar now!

   2002 Draft Order:	2001 Draft order (for reference)
   Kenito's Krunch The Squids Schmensters The Hawks Singing Bananas Ronnie Cooks Short Line Marv's Martians DriftWoodies One Man Short of a Full Roster Up in Smoke Hefeweizens	The Hawks The Squids Schmensters Marv's Martians Singing Bananas Short Line One Man Short of a Full Roster DriftWoodies 7 of 9 Kenito's Krunch

    

Finances:

League fees:
Purchase of a team is $25.00 This is used to purchase the FFL Software we use to run the league and for the weekly and year end payouts. (Our cost this year is still $40.00, as we are repeat customers.) Team purchase fees must be paid prior to the draft, or you will not be allowed to take part in the draft. forfeit your first round pick. If you do not participate in the draft due to non payment, you may, upon payment, choose your team from available remaining players. After the initial fee, a "kitty" will be kept to keep track of each teams account. The Kitty must be reconciled after week 10 of the season, per the following schedule:

After week 10 the kitty pay threshold is $5.00.
For the purposes of definition, a football week starts on Tuesday, and ends the following Monday.

1. If you owe the Kitty $6.00 or more, you are required to pay the kitty during weeks 11-13.

   1. You will only be required to pay this once in the final 3 weeks. 

   2. There is a grace period during weeks 11 and 12. If you feel there is the possibility of receiving the High Point Award during these weeks, which would take you to the $5.00 or less threshold, you may elect to hold off paying in.  If you still owe $6.00+ at end of week 12, you must pay in at that time. You may not wait through week 13 (final regular FFL week). This is to make sure any playoff qualifying owner is not disqualified for not getting payment in in time.

   3. All teams must be paid up by Thursday of week 13. Teams not reconciled with the league by the this day will not be allowed to participate in the playoffs. The Thursday day allows time to notify the new qualifying owner, and allow him to prepare his starters.

   4. The ittybitty pay in exception: If you are already mathematically eliminated from the playoffs after week 12, you may elect to wait through the end of week 13 to pay in. This exception is allowed in case you incur the low point fee in the final week.

   5. Once reconciled with the Kitty, you will not have to pay in again, regardless if you incur more debt to the league during weeks 11-13 that would take you over the $6.00.  You will only have to settle up once - either at the end of the season as champion, or -

   6. At FFL regular season end if you are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, or when you are eliminated from the playoffs.

2. If you owe $5.00 or less at week 10, you will not have to pay in, regardless if you incur more debt to the league during weeks 11-13 that would take you over the $6.00.  You will only have to settle up once - either at the end of the season as champion, or -

   1. At FFL regular season end if you are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, or when you are eliminated from the playoffs.

3. Teams that are owed money by the league after week 10 may elect (if desired) to keep what is coming to them in the kitty. 

All of the league monies will be dispersed at year end.

Transaction Fees

Acquisitions of players, after the draft, will be $1.00 per player acquired, regardless of method of acquisition (free agent or trade). Dropping players from your roster is free.

Example:
Team A has Smith and Jones. Team B has Brown and Green. The Teams have agreed to the following trade:
Team A to send Smith and Jones to Team B.        Team B - $2.00
Team B to send Green to Team A.                        Team A - $1.00
Team A to pickup one Free Agent.                        Team A - $1.00
Team B to drop Brown.                                         Team B - Free

Weekly / Year End Payouts / Fees

Weekly:

• $5.00 Paid to team with highest score for that week. In the event of a tie, the team with the worst record will be awarded. First week tie payouts determined on 2nd or subsequent week that tie is broken using "negative" tie breaker criteria.
• $2.00 Charged to team with lowest score for that week. In the event of a tie, the team with the best record will be charged. First week tie payouts determined on 2nd or subsequent week that tie is broken using tie breaker criteria.

Year end:

1. Wolf Bowl Winner - $50.00 $65.00 + 40% of remaining Kitty
2. Wolf Bowl Runner up - $35.00 $45.00 + 30% of remaining Kitty
3. Consolation Bowl winner - $15.00 $25.00 + 15% of remaining Kitty.
4. Consolation Bowl Runner up - $10.00 $15.00 + 15% of remaining Kitty.
5. Division Winner / First Round Loser Award (DWFRL)* - $25.00
6. High Point Award (Highest weekly score of the regular season (through week 13) ) - $10.00 $15.00
7. Slaughter Award (Highest point differential of regular season (through week 13) ) - $10.00 $15.00
8. I Blow Chunk's Award ** (Worst regular season (through week 13) record, with weekly lineups) - $10.00
9. I Didn't Win Dick Award **  *** (Team with worst payout regular season (through week 13) record) - $10.00

In the interest of distributing the wealth, each team may receive only one award. Awards will be distributed, in order, to the team eligible for the award. Examples:
 - Your 86-12 blowout in week 5 may be good enough to win the High Point and the Slaughter award - you receive the High Point.
 - You rule the season, taking the Wolf Bowl and qualifying for virtually every other award, - you receive the $65.00 for winning the Bowl.
 - You had a pathetic season, starting the 5 minutes before the draft. You easily qualify for both the Chunks and Dick awards - you get Chunks. The next eligible owner will get Dick.

** To be eligible for the proposed 2003 - non playoff game awards - High Point, Slaughter, Blow Chunks and Didn't Win Dick Awards, you must be an active owner.  This means you must not miss any more than 3 starting lineup submissions, and must demonstrate an attentiveness to the lineups (submitting "same as last week" when one of your players is on bye week will not cut it!). Failures in this regard will be considered "DOH's". Three "DOH's" disqualifies you for Chunks and Dick Awards. DOH'S will be counted through the playoffs. Ties for these two awards will go to the team with the fewest "DOH's", then to worst record, using negative tie breaker criteria. "DOH's" will be tracked and posted each week along with the TE starts.

*** The Didn't Win Dick Award is for lowest total payouts only. The weekly low point fee is not factored in to determine the winner of this award. For example: You win the Slaughter Award  ($15.00) and two weekly high point wins ($10.00), but was lowest weekly points for 4 different weeks (-$8.00)  your payouts for the year are $25.00, not $17.00 ($25.00 - $8.00). $10.00 not $2.00 ($10.00- $8.00).

Scoring:

Official source for stats used to determine scores is the FFL Software. No exceptions.

So – you pick a guy, he does something above, you get the points. Add up your points against the other guy your playing. You have more points – you win.