The goal is to create a keeper league of active mangers that will last over time. This is an Internet based league, with people joining from various locations, representing various ages, background etc.

This league is being formed in the fall of 2002. The rules reflect the first year of this league.

2 Cost/Prizes:

For the first year, this will be totally free and use Yahoo as a service. There will be no prizes. As a free service, Yahoo has some limitations including:

This league has two divisions, however Yahoo will only show standings as a single division. We will keep track of division standings separately.
Yahoo doesn’t let you set the season schedules of team match-ups. So, the yearly schedule will be whatever is set by Yahoo.
There will be playoffs in this league, but you cannot override playoff settings in Yahoo. So, Yahoo settings will show no playoffs. Which means during the playoffs:

Will be managed off line from Yahoo.
The point totals from Yahoo will be used, but the match-ups listed in Yahoo will not be relevant.
Yahoo may show that Team A is playing Team B, when actually Team A is playing Team C.

If the league is successful and everyone returns for next year, the league may move a fee based site to run our league. In that case, the choice will probably be myfantasyleague.com for $80. The cost per person would be $10, with the extra $40 at the end going to the winner in the form of some cheesy gift. (a plaque, a jersey) Just something to show that the person was the winner.

This year, the draft will be managed by myfootballleague.com, and the draft results will be moved to Yahoo. (myfootballleague.com is free until the season starts.)

3 Overview:

This section provides a quick overview of the league, details are presented in later sections.

12-team keeper league (see Keeper rules below)
2 divisions of 6 teams (Divisions will be randomized for the first year, then stay intact for future years.)
13 week season + 3 Playoff Weeks
The season:

The fantasy season starts when the draft is completed.
Off-season starts when the last NFL game of week 16 is played.

Schedule:

For the first year, schedule will be however Yahoo sets it up for us.
In future years:

Play each team in division twice
Play 3 of 6 teams in other division once. (Alternating years will alternate who you play.)

18 players on each teams roster:

Start: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 D
Bench: 9 players
No IR or other spots on roster

During the off-season, Rosters can be more than 18 players. (This is because trades are allowed during the off-season, but dropping players is not. So, a 2-1 trade will result in one team’s roster being 17, and another’s being 19. That is ok, as long as they are corrected after the draft when the season starts.)

4 Player Moves:

4.1 General

Player moves include waiver, free agents and trades.
There are no restrictions on the numbers of moves allowed per team.
Trades can occur at any time during the year (including off-season) except during the player movement freeze.
Free Agents and Waiver claims cannot occur during the off-season or during the player movement freeze.
The player movement freeze starts at the Midnight of the Monday Night Football game for Week 10 of the NFL season. Trading then resumes when the off season starts, after the last NFL game of week 16 is played.

4.2 Waivers:

All players dropped from a team's roster are immediately placed on waivers.
During the 2 day waiver period anyone in the league can claim the player.
Conflicts are resolved by the Yahoo Waiver Priority:

Initially set based on the reverse of the draft order.
Each time a team adds a waived player they are pushed to the back of the list.
This "rolling" list stays in effect for the entire season.

If nobody claims a player during the waiver period, he becomes a free agent.

4.3 Free Agents:

Can be added at any time during the season except during the player movement freeze.
Can play the week they are added, if the transaction is complete in time for the on-line service for submitting players for the week.
Unlimited amount of moves.

4.4 Trades:

Can trade Future draft picks for the next two drafts
No Rentals:

Owners may not trade players with the intent on "trading back" after a certain period of time.
Once a player is traded away from a team, he may not play for his original team again until a vote of the disinterested owners determines whether the intent to "trade back" existed at the time of the trade.

A team’s roster is frozen after the season ends. Any of these players can be traded during the off season, regardless of the coach’s plans to keep that player for the next year. (So, a coach may have player A on his roster, and decide not to keep them. They can still trade player A to another team.)

4.5 Nullifying trades:

All trades are subject to a league ruling that the trade is in the best interests for both teams.
There are two ways to initiate that ruling:

At the commissioner's discretion, he may, at any time, ask for a vote from disinterested owners to rule weather a trade is in the best interests of all teams involved.
Owners not involved in the trade may write the commissioner and tell him why this trade should not allowed and ask for a vote from disinterested owners. (Need detailed reasons and not just this player is ranked higher than that player.)

A simple majority of disinterested owners will nullify a trade.
Disinterested owners are any team owner that is not involved in the actual trade.
To allow for those protests, trades are effective two days after they are proposed.
The commissioner may ask for a vote of disinterested owners to allow a trade to be put through immediately, again, only a simple majority is required.

5 Scoring:

Standard Yahoo Scoring is being used.

5.1 Offensive statistics and point modifiers:

·               Every 50 passing yards = 1 point

·               Each passing TD = 6 points

·               Each interception thrown = -2 points

·               Every 20 rushing yards = 1 point

·               Each rushing TD = 6 points

·               Every 20 receiving yards = 1 point

·               Each receiving TD = 6 points

·               Each return TD = 6 points

·               Each 2-point conversion = 2 points

·               Each fumble lost = -2 points

5.2 Kicking statistics and point modifiers:

·               Field goal 0-39 yards = 3 points

·               Field goal 40-49 yards = 4 points

·               Field goal 50+ yards = 5 points

·               Each extra point = 1 point

5.3 Defensive statistics and point modifiers:

·               Each sack = 1 point

·               Each interception = 2 points

·               Each fumble recovery = 2 points

·               Each TD = 6 points

·               Each safety = 2 points

·               Each blocked kick = 2 points

·               Shutout = 10 points

·               1-6 points allowed = 7 points

·               7-13 points allowed = 4 points

·               14-20 points allowed = 1 point

·               21-27 points allowed = 0 points

·               28-34 points allowed = -1 points

·               35+ points allowed = -4 points

6 Playoffs:

6.1 Fantasy Bowl Playoffs Determine Winner of the League.

Six teams will make the playoffs.
Division Winners have a 1st Round Bye.
# 3 at #2 in each division (week 14)
#2/3 winner at #1 in second round (week 15)
Winners of the 2nd round play at the home of the division winners in the Fantasy Bowl Game (week 16)
There will be no consolidation games.

6.2 Toilet Bowl Playoffs (used to determine draft picks):

6 teams will make play in for the Toilet Bowl, winner gets the first draft pick next year.
Division Losers have a 1st Round Bye.
# 4 at #5 in each division (week 14)
#5/4 winner at #6 in second round (week 15)
Winners of the 2nd round play in the Toilet Bowl Game (week 16).
No consolation games

6.3 Tie Breakers used to determine Playoff positions:

The following steps will be used to determine a teams final position in its division when the regular season is over. If multiple ties, run through tiebreakers to determine first place, then remove that team and run though these tiebreaker rules again to determine second place, and so on.

Here are the rules:

Overall winning percentage.
If two way tie, head to head competition. (If more than two way, ignore this step.)
Record within the division
Total fantasy points scored.
Fantasy points scored within the division.
Coin flip

6.4 Sudden Death Overtime if a playoff game ends in a tie:

During the regular season, ties are allowed. However, during the playoffs, each game must have a true winner/loser.

The team with the highest scoring player wins.
If the two teams both have the same high score for an individual player, you go down to the second highest scorer on the team and so on until a winner is decided.
If there is still a tie after all starters points are tallied, then the process continues with bench players:

Order all bench players in the order based on the number of points they would have scored if they started.
Compare the best player on the two teams.
Then compare the second based player against the second best on the other team.
And so on.

If there is still a tie, a coin flip will determine the winner.

7 Draft Information:

7.1 General Draft info:

Commissioner will set and publish the date for the beginning of a live, on-line draft.
Myfootballleague.com will be used for drafting
The draft may go on for a number of days, as each team logs in and selects their next player.
Because the draft continues for a number of days, players may get injured after selected by a team. There will be no compensation for this occurrence. A team will need to recover from this in the same way it would if the player was injured after the draft.

7.2 Special 2002 Draft order:

Since 2002 is the start of the league and no one has keepers, its draft will be different then following years.
The order for selections will be randomly drawn and will utilize a "serpentine" draft order: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 in odd numbered rounds, 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 in even numbered rounds. (The last pick in each round is the first pick in the next.)

7.3 2002 Draft dates

Will use myfantasyleague.com for the draft.
Draft starts on Tuesday, August 27th, ends on Friday August 30th
If we haven't finished the draft by Friday, August 30th, there will be limited activity during Labor Day weekend. (A few folks are on vacation) and the draft will continue on Tuesday, Sept 3rd.
You will need to logon a minimum of 2 times a day, and an average of 4-5 times a day on each of those days, or use the pre-select option provided by myfantasyleague.com where you can choose your next pick.
If you don't logon within 15 hours of when your pick is due, one will be generated for you automatically, based on the rankings of myfantasyleague.com

7.4 Draft order:

First years draft will be randomized by a dice roll at irony.com.
Following years draft order will be determined as follows:

First Pick: winner of the Toilet Bowl
Second Pick: loser of the Toilet Bowl
Third/Fourth Pick, the teams that lost the first round in the toilet bowl, using the tiebreaker rules in section 6.3, but the better team drafts fourth, the worse team drafts third.
Fifth/Sixth Pick, the teams that lost the second round in the toilet bowl game using the tiebreaker rules in section 6.3, but the better team drafts six and the worse team drafts fifth.
Seventh/Eighth Pick, the teams that lost the wild card game using the tiebreaker rules in section 6.3, but the better team drafts eighth and the worse team drafts seventh.
Ninth/Tenth Pick, the teams that lost the championship game using the tiebreaker rules in section 6.3, but the better team drafts tenth, and the worse team drafts ninth.
Eleventh Pick loser of the Fantasy Bowl
Twelfth pick, winner of the Fantasy Bowl

7.5 Draft Rounds:

The first three rounds will be standard NFL style draft. Whoever picks first in round 1 picks first in rounds 2 and 3.
The fourth round and beyond will utilize a "serpentine" draft order: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 in odd numbered rounds, 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 in even numbered rounds. (The last pick in each round is the first pick in the next.)

7.6 Draft Value:

Draft Value (DV) will be used to determine keeper status in the following years.
Here is how DV is calculated:

In the first round, and second round, DV is automatically assigned to 1
In the third to eleventh round, every players DV is calculated by taking the round drafted and subtracting two
Anyone selected in a later round, or not selected in the draft at all is given a DV of 10.

DVs are reset at every year’s draft.
The commissioner will maintain a list of any player whose DV is not 10.

8 Keeper Information:

The goal of the keeper settings is to ensure that the top players will only be held a limited period of time and provide a balance between keeping players for continuity, and allowing an owner to re-build their team rather than dropping out.

8.1 Keepers based on Draft Value 1 through 9:

Every team can keep players from year to year based on their Draft Value.
Any player that is retained will cost a draft pick in the corresponding Draft Value round. So, if a team keeps someone with a DV of 3, that team loses their third round pick.
If the team has no picks in that round, they can use a pick from an earlier round to retain a player. (example, DV is 5, use a fourth round pick)
If the team has more than one pick in a round (from trades) then the later pick is used to retain the player with the DV. Those multiple picks could be used to retain multiple players.
All teams must have their list of retained players submitted by two weeks before the draft date.
At that time, the commissioner will publish a final draft order. Any players retained will be shown as pre-selected in the appropriate round.
The new draft value for these keepers are calculated the same way as anyone who is not kept:

If a pick in Rounds 1-3 is used to keep this player, then the new DV is 1.
If a pick in Rounds 4-9 is used to keep this player, then the new DV is the round of that pick minus 2.

8.2 Keepers based on Draft Value of 10:

Draft value of 10 is a special case
Any pick from round 10-18 can be used to retain a player with draft value of 10.
The draft value for those players is automatically set to 8 for the next year.
So, if a team keeps three players with DV of 10, they will use picks from round 16, 17, 18, but the following year, all of those players will have a DV of 8

8.3 Keepers based on Franchise Player:

Every team can keep one franchise player
The franchise player doesn’t cost you a draft pick, but must have a DV of at least 2. (meaning that the player was previously chosen in the fourth round or later.)
After a franchise player is designated, his new DV is calculated as follows:

If old DV was 2, new DV is 1
If old DV was greater than 2, the new DV is the old DV minus 2.

9 Coaches Leave the League

In a keeper league, the biggest issue is when a team owner drops out. This section covers rules to manage that possibility.

9.1 Timeframe that an owner leaves:

If a team owner drops out during the season, any remaining games that team has is forfeited. This includes playoff games. An owner will not be replaced during the season.
Owners will be replaced if vacancies occur during the off-season:
The goal will be to find a new coach to take existing team(s) as is. All roster, trades, draft picks will remain intake for that team.
If more than three teams drop out during the off-season, the league will be restarted with a new draft from scratch.
If three or less owners drop out, the goal is to leave the current teams intact. If the team is so weak that a new owner cannot be found, then the rules on assistance for weaker teams may be followed.

9.2 Assistance for weaker teams:

At times, existing weaker teams may need to be assisted to either entice new owners or to keep old owners from leaving.
During the off season, a simple majority of the disinterested owners may decide from these options:

Add a bonus draft pick at the end of the first round. (considered a second round pick for keeper purposes)
Allow the franchise player to have a DV of 1. (this allows the weaker team to keep two of their top 3 players instead of just 1.

Any combination of these two options can be used. (First team gets only a bonus draft pick, a second team gets one bonus pick and can have the franchise player have a DV of one.)
The assistance is in effect for only one year. If the team is still weak the following year, it will again take a vote of the disinterested owners to decide to assist the team again.

10 Changing these rules

These rules can be changed as follows:

During the current season, it will take a unanimous vote of owners to make a change.
To make a change for the start of the next season (defined as when the draft is completed) then a two thirds majority is needed.
To make a change to take effect in two seasons, it will take a simple majority.
In all cases, the majority is based on those owners who cast a vote. Owners who do not cast a vote will not be counted when calculating majorities.