FFL Rules

League Organization

1. Each team will play each other team in its division twice and some but not necessarily all teams in the other division(s) once during the regular season.
2. At the end of the regular season, the top two teams in each division will play a one game playoff for the right to advance to the Fantasy Bowl. In this division championship game, the regular season division winner will be given a 4 � point home-field advantage. In the Fantasy Bowl, the team with the better regular season record will be given a � point home-field advantage. If the two participants had the same regular season record, ties will be broken according to the criteria below:
   1. Win in head-to-head competition
   2. Higher overall fantasy points
   3. Better record against common opponents
   4. Fewer overall fantasy points against
3. Ties will be broken for divisional rankings based on the criteria below. If one criterion breaks a tie for any of the teams, all criteria are reapplied to the remainder of the teams until all ties are broken.
   1. Head-to-head record
   2. Division record
   3. Overall fantasy points
   4. Net points in head-to-head competition
   5. Coin flip/random number method
4. The winner of the Fantasy Bowl will have the team name and owner name engraved on the league trophy and will have the right to hold the trophy until a new champion is crowned.
5. Any changes to the structure underlying the league schedule must be approved by a majority vote of owners.
6. Only owners current on their league dues and assessments are eligible to receive the Walter Payton Fantasy Cup upon winning the league championship.
7. Any member who is not up to date with league dues and assessments prior to the first game of the FFL season must bring their dues up to date and pay a $30 late fee to take possession of the trophy.

League Drafts

1. Drafts will consist of 10 rounds. Each selection will have a time limit based on round as shown below:
   1st--4 minutes
   2nd--3 minutes
   3rd thru 10th--90 seconds
   If the time to make a selection exceeds the allotted time, the next team in the draft order may make a selection, even if they end up making a selection prior to a team preceding them in the draft order. Once the team has made its selection, the following team may make its selection, and so on, even though the first team still may not have made a selection.
2. The draft order for each round will be determined by the reverse order of the win-loss records from the preceding season. No matter what the order determined using this method, the prior season's champion will select last, the championship game loser will select next to last, and all new expansion teams will draft before all other teams. Ties will be broken within the division first using division tiebreaker criteria and then between divisions based on the following criteria:
   1. Loss in head-to-head competition
   2. Lower overall fantasy points
   3. Worse record against common opponents
   4. Greater overall fantasy points against
3. The draft will take place each year on the 1st Thursday of August at 9 PM EDT unless otherwise arranged.
4. Players may be acquired after the draft by submitting a waiver wire acquisition list by 11:59 PM EDT on the second day following the draft. After the deadline, the commissioner works through the lists submitted in the draft order specified in rule 2.2 and assigns each team the highest remaining player on its list up to a maximum of 30 players.
5. Between the draft and the first roster cut deadline, a maximum of 30 players may be retained on each team's roster.
6. Rosters must be trimmed to a maximum of 22 by the Wednesday following week 2 of the NFL preseason.
   
7. Rosters must be trimmed to a maximum of 20 by the time rosters must be set for the 1st NFL regular season game.

Scoring

1. Player scoring will be done using the point values and scoring mechanism on the fantasy football tool selected for the season.

Roster Adjustments

1. The fantasy football tool roster management system will be the primary one used by the league. Roster limits and change deadlines specified by the tool will be honored by the league except for season trade deadlines. The FFL trade deadline will be two weeks prior to the last game of the FFL regular season.
2. If a team owner cannot make a desired starting lineup change before the specified deadline due to technical problems or some other circumstances, changes may be made by contacting the commissioner via email prior to the deadline and copying the opponent.
3. Completed trades do not become official until they have been approved by the league commissioner, which is done in all trades that the commissioner deems non-collusive. If the trade involves the commissioner, the trade must be evaluated by all league members not involved in the trade for evidence of collusion. Any objections result in a majority vote of non-participants to determine whether or not the trade is accepted by the league.
4. Waiver wire priority is based on the same criteria as the draft order throughout the season. In the event that the fantasy football tool does not support these criteria, waiver wire transactions will be managed externally through the commissioner.
5. The free agent pool will be frozen at kickoff of the first NFL game of the week. After that time, each team may submit a prioritized waiver acquisition/cut list to the commissioner by Tuesday at noon Eastern time each week. The commissioner will review the lists by 8PM Eastern, assigning players to teams in waiver wire order, after which the remaining players will be released for acquisition as free agents. Free agents may be acquired starting at 8PM Eastern time Tuesday evening.
6. Teams will be permitted to protect any number of injured players through the remainder of the NFL season by placing the players on injured reserve. This option may be used at the time of the injury if the player is placed on the NFL's injured reserve list, the PUP, non-football injured list, or any other list that requires a player to be kept out of games for six or more weeks. Once this option has been used, the players may not be used for the duration of the FFL season, even if they are able to return to play in the NFL season.
7. Teams will not be permitted to remove players from the lineup (leaving an empty roster position) after the first game of the NFL week has been played. Removal of a player from the lineup in an effort to preserve victory will result in forfeiture of the game and all fantasy points for the week.
8. Teams wishing to acquire players to be placed on injured reserve must first waive a player to make the acquisition. After the acquisition, they may place the player on injured reserve and acquire another player (possibly the one originally waived) to replace him.
9. Teams may designate one and only one rookie as an inactive member of the team for the player's first season (known as the developmental player). This player must be identified to the commissioner at the time of the first roster cut, but he will not count towards the roster limitation. Only rookies selected in the 10-round FFL draft may be designated as the developmental player in this manner.
10. When an NFL player retires, he is placed on a retired league players list and assigned to the team owning him at the time of his retirement. At that point, the owner may drop the player from his roster without losing the player's rights. The owner may retain the player's rights or trade them to another team if the owner so desires. If the player unretires within five years, the team owning the player's rights may claim him and add him to their roster or cut him within two weeks of the player's stated intention to return to the playing field. If no action is taken within the two weeks, the player becomes a free agent. However, all normal roster size limitations still apply. If the player does not unretire within five years, he becomes a free agent, regardless of the original owner.

End of Season Roster Manipulation

1. Rosters will be frozen as of the starting time for the first NFL game in the final week of the FFL regular season until after the Fantasy Bowl has been played.
2. By the end of January, teams must cut their rosters to 15 players. At that point, teams may conduct trades, but no waiver-wire or free agent transactions will be permitted.
3. A list of up to ten players designated as protected players may be submitted by the player protection deadline two weeks prior to the league draft. More than one list may be submitted prior to that time; the last list received by the commissioner prior to the deadline serves as the official submission. Submission of a protected list is not required, but it is the only way to keep players from being available for selection in the general league draft. If the league has expanded during the same offseason, the protected lists used for the expansion draft will be regarded as an initial submission for existing teams.
4. Whenever a list of protected players is submitted, each team will have a default list formed using the top players on the roster. The top players are determined by first keeping any players acquired via trade since the preceding roster cut, followed by players in order of the number of fantasy points their prior season's totals (over the full NFL season) would have produced.

Expansion/Inheritance

1. Expansion franchises will be awarded to individuals from a pool of owners who submit an application describing why they would like to participate in the league. When the commissioner decides that there are enough potential owners on the list to merit an expansion vote, he will send the applications to the current owners and ask for a vote on expansion. If expansion passes, another vote will be conducted and the franchises will be awarded to the top vote-getters.
2. Any expansion of the league will require approval by 75% of team owners casting a vote on the issue.
3. The league will only expand its number of teams by multiples of two. If the number of teams per division reaches seven, the divisions will be reorganized.
4. If the league expands, a 10-round expansion draft will take place on the 1st Saturday of April at 12 PM EDT.
5. A coin flip will determine who will select first in the expansion draft and who will select first in the general draft. The winner of the coin flip may choose the draft in which he will select first.
6. The team selecting second in the expansion draft gets the first selection in the general draft and the other expansion team selects second.
7. One week prior to the expansion draft, each existing team may protect 10 players. No additional players may be protected.
8. If a team owner wishes to withdraw from the league, league members will be responsible for finding a new owner for the team. If a new owner cannot be found, the team's players are added to the pool of players available in the annual draft and the league will be restructured to allow all teams to participate. The number of games in the season will be the maximum that can be played in 14 weeks such that all teams play an equal number of games.
9. In order for an owner to be removed, an owner must notify the commissioner that he wishes to call for a dismissal vote. The commissioner will announce the motion, which must be seconded to pass to a vote. When the motion passes to a vote, two-thirds of the votes cast by league owners must support dismissal for the owner to be dismissed. The owner up for dismissal may not cast a vote.

Method for Changing Rules

1. Any proposed changes or amendments to the fantasy league rules and any proposed changes to the guidelines governing weekly lineups or scoring must submitted to the commissioner by March 21 to be voted on during the offseason.
2. Based on these suggestions, the commissioner will compose a list of issues to be voted upon by all team owners current on their league dues and assessments. This list will be sent out by March 31 of each year and all qualified owners who wish to vote must do so by April 30.
3. A simple majority of votes cast will be required for a change or amendment to become an official part of the league rules. In the event that none of the options on a given issue receives a majority of votes cast, a runoff vote between the two most popular options will be held during the month of May. In the event that there is a tie for the second most popular option, all tied options will be included in the runoff. If the selection of options for the runoff would result in inclusion of all options from the original vote, the vote will be declared an impasse and the status quo will be maintained.
4. The commissioner may submit proposals for changes to the rules as often as occasion requires. In such instances, league owners will be given at least 10 days to cast their vote on the issue.
5. Any change to the lineup requirements or scoring guidelines will not take effect until a 1-year waiting period has elapsed.
6. The results of all voting on any league issue will be fully disclosed by the league commissioner, including information on how each individual voted.
7. Any issue which arises and is not addressed in the rules should be resolved by adhering as closely as possible to NFL practice.
8. When a commissioner resigns, elections will be held to determine a new commissioner. When a commissioner announces his resignation, candidates to replace him must make it known to the outgoing commissioner by April 1. Voting will then be held through May 1.
9. If an owner is dissatisfied with the commissioner, he may move to hold a vote of no confidence. If this motion is seconded within one week, a vote is held to determine whether or not the current commissioner may remain in office. This vote is to take place within two weeks of the time that the vote of no confidence was seconded. If the commissioner is removed, the procedure specified in rule 7.8 is used to replace him and the removed commissioner may not become a candidate in that election.

Finances

1. Any costs incurred due to a change in the name of the league trophy will be funded by a special collection from those owners voting in favor of the name change. The name will not be officially changed, nor any relevant orders placed, until all funds have been gathered.

Last updated September 10, 2008