Holy Schneikes
Footballguy
Howdy,
I've been doing FF for quite a while, and have been commish for several leagues. I currently commish the jaWs dynasty league, formed here at FBG, and now in it's 9th year.
I tried to form a new $100 dynasty league last year with these rules, and had some interest, but we never really got off the ground. Thought I would try again this year. I formulated this ruleset primarily to emphasize the auction vs the draft in FF, and also to minimize the "luck" factor where possible. This will NOT be a league for everyone.
I welcome any input anyone has, and may be willing to change some of the minor rules if a large contingent pushes in that direction. I'd like the league to be very involved and democratic, and a lot of the rules have been written to support that. However, I'd really like to keep the primary principles intact.
Primary departures from more traditional leagues;
* no drafts (all auction), with universal, carried over bidding "currency"
* larger number of teams (16)
* no "playoffs"
* scoring more heavily dependent on yardage vs TDs (yardage is worth roughly twice what is usually is relative to TDs)
* very flexible (and deep) starting lineups
* fairly extensive ownership requirements
* "public" trading system
Primary objectives of these departures;
* minimize "luck" factor
* create more interaction between owners (easy trading)
* more creative strategies encouraged
BYLAWS BELOW
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Evolutionary Auction League
1) Overview
This league will be a 16 team, straight dynasty format with no divisions and no playoffs. All player movement activities will be auction (rather than draft) based. A $100 per team league fee is required. The league will use myfantasyleague.com (MFL) as the league management/website service.
Primary departures from more traditional leagues;
* no drafts (all auction), with universal, carried over bidding "currency"
* larger number of teams
* no "playoffs"
* scoring more heavily dependent on yardage vs TDs
* very flexible (and deep) starting lineups
* fairly extensive ownership requirements
* "public" trading system
Primary objectives of these departures;
* minimize "luck" factor
* create more interaction between owners (easy trading)
* more creative strategies encouraged
2) Current League Officials
Commissioner: Scott McFadden
Treasurer: Scott McFadden (for now, eventually will be some other trusted party)
Deputy Commissioner: TBD
3) General League Rules and Voting
In general, any league rule can be changed via team vote poll in the off-season. Any team can sponsor a vote poll. Polls will be active for one week unless extenuating circumstances require a shorter polling period. Each team gets one vote (regardless of co-ownership status etc.). If a team does not vote before the poll closes, the team's vote will be considered an abstention. An abstention will be considered a yes vote for the purposes of changes requiring unanimous approval. Otherwise, an abstention simply reduces the number of available teams required for a majority vote (see below).
Scoring, starting lineup, league fees, and roster-oriented changes to the league rules can only be put into effect with a unanimous vote. Other changes can be enacted by a simple majority (9 or more approvals out of 16 teams if all teams vote). With or without abstentions, a true majority will be required (e.g. 7 out of 14 teams voting for approval will NOT enact a rule change).
4) Owner Requirements
EAL requires active ownership. All teams are required to log in to the league web site at least once per week during the regular NFL season and once per two weeks during the off-season. Teams are encouraged to check in at least once per week in the off-season. Owners must fully participate in all league auctions and respond to league polls within one week during the regular season and two weeks during the off-season. If there are legitimate personal reasons for an owner's leave of absence (for example a vacation lasting longer than one week during the regular season or two weeks during the off-season), the Commissioner should be notified of the situation in advance and the league will work with the owner to deal with the situation. If notification is not possible due to circumstances (health issues. etc), the situation will be dealt with on case by case basis. Owners deemed to be inactive may be penalized team BPs (see section 8, "Bid Points (BPs) and Auctions" for further info on BPs) by the Commissioner, not to exceed 10 BPs for the first offense.
A team owner may rename his/her team at any time. However, team names must not include language not suitable for view by children. Similarly, teams may use (and are encouraged to use) team logos and icons, but these images must also be suitable for viewing by children.
A team owner may not collude with another team owner for the purposes of helping one team at the expense the other. An owner may not trade or "sell" a player and/or BPs in exchange for anything other than other than another team's players and/or BPs.
An owner may not submit a lineup that he/she does not think will result in the most points for any given week (defined here as "tanking" regardless of whether the action was intentional or not). If an an owner submits a lineup that the Commissioner feels is OBVIOUSLY not in the team's best interests for that week (and that the owner in question SHOULD have known this, even if he didn't), he will sponsor a poll on the league website asking whether the other owners agree with the assessment. If a simple majority agree, the "tanking" team will be assessed a 10 BP penalty on each offense. Only the Commissioner can sponsor a tanking poll, but he will listen to input from other owners.
If an owner fails to submit a weekly starting lineup, the previous week's lineup will be used. Even if the team wishes to use the same lineup as the previous week, a team must resubmit that lineup using the MFL system prior to the first game. The lineup can be edited (as per lineup submission rules) after the start of the first NFL game, but the lineup MUST be initially submitted prior to that deadline. There will be a 10 BP penalty assessed to any team who does not submit a lineup during a regular season week.
It is the sole responsibility of the team owner to arrange payment of the yearly league fee and to make sure that payment is made in a timely manner. Please see section 18, "League Finances" for payment details.
Any pre-defined league penalty may be waived by the Commissioner if he deems there are extenuating circumstances.
A replacement owner (or owners) may be sought at any time by the league if any of these requirements are not met. Removal from the league does NOT require a league vote in the case of a failure to pay the yearly league fees or a consistent verifiable lack of participation (logging in to league site). Removal for tanking or collusion requires a simple majority league vote sponsored by the commish. A league owner MAYBE REMOVED FOR ANY OTHER REASON AT ANY TIME, but this must be accomplished by a unanimous vote by all of the rest of teams not nominated for removal.
5) Roster Management
During the regular season, each team will have 21 regular roster spots and 2 Injured Reserve (IR) roster spots. Following the final game of the regular season, total available roster spots for each team will be increased to 25 and any players on IR are automatically moved to the regular roster. At no time can a team exceed 25 players on his roster. A team may drop below the current maximum available roster spots temporarily, but must fill his roster at the next available opportunity.
A player is eligible for an IR roster spot if he is on the NFL IR list. Generally, this designation will be handled by MFL, but if there are reliable reports that the player is on the NFL IR list but not on the MFL IR list, the Commissioner may at his discretion manually move that player onto a team's IR list at the team's request.
Final roster cuts before each regular season will be due at 6 PM Eastern Time on the Wednesday before the first game of the NFL regular season. The Commissioner will be responsible for enforcing this rule.
If an owner misses a roster cut down deadline, the Commissioner will determine the cuts by trying to determine who he would cut if it were his team. Decisions will be based on news available at the deadline. Once the deadline has passed, the Owner will have no control over who gets cut and will be penalized 10 BPs.
There will be no positional roster requirements or maximums during the off-season. During the regular season, each team MUST carry enough players to field a complete starting lineup at all times (though those players DO NOT have to actually play in the NFL games if on BYE or injured).
6) Positions
The position listings at MFL will be used as the primary determinant for player positions. An owner can petition to have a player's official position changed (based on a credible source indicating that the position currently listed by MFL is incorrect), but such a change will require Commissioner approval or a simple majority vote by the league if the player is on the Commissioner's team. There will be no player who will be listed at multiple positions. Each player will be assigned one primary position and will only be rostered and/or started at that position.
7) Weekly Starting Lineups
The weekly starting lineup for each team is as follows:
* 1 Quarterback (QB)
* 1 Running Back (RB)
* 2 Wide Receivers (WR)
* 1 Tight End (TE)
* 1 Receiver Flex (WR/TE)
* 1 Fantasy Flex (QB/RB/WR)
* 1 Kicker (K)
* 1 Team Defense (DEF)
8) Bid Points (BPs) and Auctions
EAL is an auction based league. Each team will have a continuously updated amount of "bid points" (BPs) available to spend at any given time on the Initial League Auction, Regular Season Weekly Free Agent Auctions, and Off-season Rookie/Free Agent Auction throughout the year. BPs DO carry over from year to year and never expire. They are a trade-able commodity. You can spend any amount at any auction but can never bid more points than you have (the only way to get negative BPs would be through league penalty). ALL auctions use the same BP pool and all auctions will be conducted on the league website. Each team will begin in the league with 400 BPs. Every year thereafter, each team team will receive 200 BPs on February 1st if the league fees for that year have been paid. In addition, a team will receive 10 BPs immediately following each loss during the regular season. Owners may not purchase (for cash) additional BPs from the league or from other owners.
Owners may pre-pay league fees up to an NFL year in advance, except in the initial year. If he chooses to pre-pay, the BPs scheduled to be available to be released for that NFL year will be released to the team along with current year BPs on February 1st (if pre-paid before February 1st), or whenever payment is received if funds received AFTER February 1st. For example, NFL season 2009 fees are due on February 1st 2009. If the team's 2009 fees were received in the middle of January (just an example) the team will be awarded 200 BPs on February 1st. If the team later decides to pre-pay the 2010 league fees and the league receives them in March (just an example), the team will receive an additional 200 BPs within a few days of receipt. If both the 2009 and 2010 fees were received in January (again, example only), 400 BPs (200 BPs for 2009 and 200 BPs for 2010) will be awarded on February 1st, 2009. Owners need to be aware that pre-paying for a future year and subsequently spending (or trading) all of those "future" BPs (which an owner IS allowed to do) is equivalent to trading away all of the team's "draft picks" for that year. In the examples above, the team would receive NO additional BPs on February 1st of 2010 (unless the team has pre-paid for 2011).
It is the responsibility of the owner to verify that his BP totals are accurate at any given time. If there has been an accounting error, an owner must inform the commish of the error and the commish will attempt to resolve the issue.
9) General Auction Rules/Guidelines
For all auctions, the minimum bid is 1 BP, and the bidding increments will be 1 BP. Bids in the Initial League Auction and the Off-season Rookie/Free Agent Auction are PROXY BIDS. This means that a bid you make will only cost you as much as it "needs to" up to your maximum bid amount. Therefore, you should bid as much as your are willing to spend on a player and not overly concern yourself with "sniping". If you feel Tom Brady is worth a maximum of 100 BP, bid 100 BP. If the next closest bid from your opponents is 40 BP, you will get him for 41 BP and saved yourself 59 BP. On the other hand, say it looks like you are going to get Brady at 84 BP and then at the last minute someone "snipes" you at 101. If you are angry about this, the ONLY thing you can legitimately complain about is that YOU underbid YOUR proxy because you REALLY think Brady is worth MORE than 100. Otherwise, the other guy just bid more than you think Brady is worth and you should be HAPPY about it. DO NOT COMPLAIN TO THE LEAGUE ABOUT SNIPING.
Conversely, despite the common misconception, there is NO ADVANTAGE to bidding "late" in an auction. In fact, there is a small advantage (the 1 BP your opponent has to "beat" your proxy bid by) to bidding early. If you need to re-evaluate a player and bid late, that's totally fine, but keep in mind that doing this consistently will slow down the auction and generally irritate your league mates (and your Commissioner).
10) Initial League Auction
The initial league auction will begin May of 2009 on MFL (final date dependent on coordination with league members). It will include all NFL players and free agents, including rookies. College or high school players are NOT eligible. To be rostered, a player must be eligible to play in the current or upcoming NFL season (suspended NFL players or IR players are considered "eligible").
The league will use the MFL system for our initial player auction. Teams may nominate and bid on players using this system. The minimum bid for nominating a player is $1 with a minimum of $1 required to increase the bid on a player. The auction for a player will end after 24 hours has elapsed without a new bid on the player.
Teams owners may use ALL 400 of their initial bid points during the initial auction if they wish, but must do so with the knowledge that they will have very limited resources to help their teams with waivers during the course of the regular season.
11) Regular Season Weekly Free Agent Auction
Weekly Free Agent Auctions will occur during every NFL regular season week. These auctions will be blind-bid auctions. A Free Agent (FA) is defined as: Any player that is either on an NFL official roster, or is listed as currently retired or not officially on an NFL roster (by NFL.com), but is not currently on a EAL team roster. This will also include CFL and NFL Europe players.
The bidding process will be a blind bidding process, with the highest bid as of Friday 10 PM Eastern time of each week winning that player. The bids must be submitted on the league website through the MFL FA screen. The bidding will begin at Midnight after the MNF game the previous week (or in week one, at Midnight on the Monday before the first MNF game). These times will apply to all weeks, regardless of whether there are Thursday or Saturday games. Each owner will only be allowed to pick up four free agents via the bidding system per week. If two teams are tied in the amount that is bid for a player, the team who submitted the bid first (according the latest MFL time stamp) will pick up that player. You may increase, decrease, and retract any bids that you make on the website before the Friday deadline.
12) Off-season Rookie/Free Agent Auction
This auction will occur the 1st Monday in May, or shortly after the NFL draft and the rules and procedures will be very similar to those of the Initial League Auction.
13) Open FA Period
Teams can make can make free drops/adds each week during the regular season after the Regular Season Weekly Free Agent Auction has been completed. The Open FA Period will be done on a first come first serve basis. These moves will be handled by the league website on MFL. The Open FA period will begin on the Saturday before week 1 of the NFL’s regular season. There will be no open free agent period during the preseason.
The open free agent period will be unlimited as to the number of players allowed to be claimed.
14) Weekly Lineup Submissions
Weekly lineup submissions will be handled by MFL. Basically, each player's weekly lineup deadline will be just before that player's game time. So if a player has a game time of Sunday at 1:00 Eastern the lineup decision for that player will have to be made before that time. If he is listed as "starting" at that time, he will be counted toward your score for the week. If he is not listed as a starter at that time, he will not be counted and you must use a different player (whose game has not started yet) in that slot.
15) Trades
15.1) Overview
Trades between teams are unlimited and will not cost any additional money. Teams are allowed to trade players and/or auction bidding points.
All potential trades will automatically be converted into a public poll for a period of two days. If all 14 uninvolved owners actively reject the trade, it will be nullified. However, rejection should ONLY be made based on the opinion that the trade constitutes collusion (cheating), and NOT on the opinion that the trade is "unfair" or even "unbalancing". Basically, all legal trades will be processed. However, the mandatory two day polling period will allow any team to offer a "better offer" to either side of the potential trade, at which point EITHER of the two original trading partners may "back out" to accept another offer. Even if there are no other trade offers, either party may back out of the potential trade before the end of the two day polling period. There will be no penalty for backing out of a potential trade, but doing so without extenuating circumstances (or another offer) is discouraged and will likely be viewed negatively by potential future trading partners. These trading procedures obviously require teams to begin the trade process at least two days before the required lineup submissions if the players are to be used for the upcoming week's games.
15.2) Short-term Trades
There will be no pre-arranged or short-term trades between teams. Once a player leaves a team roster via trade, the specific player(s) cannot be re-acquired for a period of 4 regular season NFL weeks. This rule will not apply to players who are dropped via FA moves by the original team.
15.3) Conditional Trades
Conditional trades are allowed, but only based on a combination of the following potential objective criteria:
* Points accrued in our scoring system.
* Ranking of player in our scoring system.
* Whether the player scores more or less points or ranks higher or lower than a different player in our scoring system.
* Total games played as listed by NFL.com (to account for injuries).
* A EAL team's final ranking in the standings at the end of the regular season.
For example, a player P may be traded by team A to team B subject to the following conditions:
If player P ranks in the top 10 at his position at the end of the current season, team A receives 20 bidding points from team B at the end of the season, otherwise, team A receives 10 bidding points from team B.
15.4) Trading Future BPs
A team may trade only BPs the team currently has access to.
16) Team and Player Scoring
16.1) Overview
A decimal scoring system (1 decimal place) and negative point scoring will be in effect for all positions. The official league scorekeeper will be MFL. All official scoring changes recommended/offered by MFL before the start of the first NFL game of the following week will be accepted, even if they change the outcomes of games.
16.2) Scoring Discrepancy
Team owners are responsible for notifying one of the league officials in the case of a scoring discrepancy that does not involve a statistical modification sponsored by MFL. Any scoring discrepancies that are not brought to the attention of a league official by game time of the first game of the following week will be considered null and void, and any scores will be considered official.
16.3) Player Scoring
The current scoring rules are available at MFL under "reports/rules/league scoring" on the main menu. It is the responsibility of every owner to review the scoring rules prior to the start of each season and relay any issues to the Commissioner at that time. Scoring rules are currently located here: http://www16.myfantasyleague.com/2009/home/62694
16.4) Bye Week Scoring
Since the league will be exceptionally "deep" in terms of number of teams and starting requirements, the league will use "bye week carryover points". This means that a player can be started on his bye, and he will be awarded that same number of points for the bye week that he earned in the week prior to the bye week. If he did not play the week prior to the bye week, he will receive a zero for the bye week (obviously not recommended).
17) Regular Season Schedule and Standings
The League schedule will be 17 weeks, corresponding with the NFL regular season schedule (if the NFL schedule is extended, we alter the fantasy schedule based on league vote). Each team will play one head-to-head matchup with every other team through week 15 of the NFL regular season. For each of the final two games of the season, a team will be granted a win if it's total score for the week is among the top 8 total scores for that week, and a loss if the score was in the bottom 8 for that week. This schedule will be randomized each year, roughly a day or two after the completion of the Off-season Rookie/Free Agent Auction. The league standings will be determined by the following in order:
* Overall Winning Percentage
* Total Points Scored (higher is better)
* Total Points Against (higher is better)
In the unlikely event that all three of the primary standings criteria result in a tie, a coin flip will be used as a tie-breaker. Please note that head-to-head record is NOT part of the standings criteria.
18) League Finances
League fee collections will be handled by the league Treasurer. The current yearly league fee is $100. The yearly league fee for the NEXT (not current) year can be changed with a unanimous league vote.
Full yearly league fees for the upcoming NFL/fantasy year must be RECEIVED by the league Treasurer on February 1st of each year except the inaugural year. If fees are not received from a team by February 8th, a 10 BP per week after February 1st penalty will be assessed to the team (10 points on Feb 8, 10 more points on Feb 15th, and 10 more points on Feb 22nd). Finally, if the league fees have not been paid by February 28th, the league will officially begin to search for a new owner. In addition to BP penalties, a team in arrears for league fees will be "frozen", meaning that no transactions involving the team can/will be processed until the fees have been paid.
This due date is earlier than many leagues, but will allow the league plenty of time to search for a replacement team should any team choose not to pay the league fee at that time.
As noted in the trade section, in order to trade away future bidding points from a given year, a team must have paid for the year those points come from in full PRIOR to the trade being consummated.
The league and/or Commish is obliged to make NO refunds for any fees paid by any team for any year or any fees paid in advance for the purposes of trading away future bid points. An owner retiring in good standing may petition for a full or partial refund of PRE-paid league fees to be paid out of the league winner's winnings for the following year or (preferably) by the new owner of the team, but the results of that petition will be subject to a league majority vote, sponsored by the Commish. All fees paid by that owner will EITHER be returned to the owner OR used as a replacement team incentive, or paid out to winner at the end of the next regular season.
Payments can be sent via check or via some online payment service (e.g. PayPal), but if an online payment generates fees, the payment amount must cover both the full payment of the league fees PLUS any fees charged by online payment service. Other payment arrangements may be possible, but must be coordinated with the league treasurer.
19) Payout Structure
Total available funds should be 16 teams times $100/league = $1,600 minus any expenses (primarily MFL), but possible other small fees as necessary that would be fully justified to the league by the commish and/or treasurer.
* 1st = 50% - league expenses = $800 minus league expenses
* 2nd = 15% = $240
* 3rd = 10% = $160
* 4th = 5% = $80
* 5th = 3% = $48
* 6th = 2% = $32
In addition, the weekly high scorer (team) for each week will receive $10 paid by the weekly low scorer (team).
If your net payout is less than or equal to the balance remaining on your league fees for the following year, the payout will automatically be applied to your league fee for that year and will not be sent via check.
20) Retiring/Replacement Owners
If an owner chooses to leave or is removed from the league (for whatever reason), a replacement owner will be found. Any person may be nominated by a current owner to be the replacement owner. A current owner/team may only nominate one person (or group for "co-ownership") to be the replacement owner. Teams will have at least one week after the announcement that a replacement owner is being sought to make nominations. That nomination period may be extended by the Commish if necessary, and the Commish may nominate multiple candidates to be the replacement owner if the candidate pool is less than four people. After the close of the nomination period, each candidate will be asked to provide a statement of interest/and qualifications on the league message board. Based on these statements, each team will vote for a single person or group to be the replacement owner in the league. If a majority vote is not achieved, the league will select the two candidates with the most votes (or more than two in case of a tie in total votes received), and a new vote will begin with the selected candidates. If after the new vote there is a still a tie, the commish will break the tie and will select the new owner from among the tied candidates.
New owners will be immediate responsible for any fees not paid by the previous owner. If there are any such currently due fees, the potential replacement owner will not be an official league member until those fees are paid. The Commish may at his discretion, reduce the fees for the new owner depending on the quality of the team, but this will be done only if a suitable replacement owner willing to pay the full fees due can not be found.
I've been doing FF for quite a while, and have been commish for several leagues. I currently commish the jaWs dynasty league, formed here at FBG, and now in it's 9th year.
I tried to form a new $100 dynasty league last year with these rules, and had some interest, but we never really got off the ground. Thought I would try again this year. I formulated this ruleset primarily to emphasize the auction vs the draft in FF, and also to minimize the "luck" factor where possible. This will NOT be a league for everyone.
I welcome any input anyone has, and may be willing to change some of the minor rules if a large contingent pushes in that direction. I'd like the league to be very involved and democratic, and a lot of the rules have been written to support that. However, I'd really like to keep the primary principles intact.
Primary departures from more traditional leagues;
* no drafts (all auction), with universal, carried over bidding "currency"
* larger number of teams (16)
* no "playoffs"
* scoring more heavily dependent on yardage vs TDs (yardage is worth roughly twice what is usually is relative to TDs)
* very flexible (and deep) starting lineups
* fairly extensive ownership requirements
* "public" trading system
Primary objectives of these departures;
* minimize "luck" factor
* create more interaction between owners (easy trading)
* more creative strategies encouraged
BYLAWS BELOW
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evolutionary Auction League
1) Overview
This league will be a 16 team, straight dynasty format with no divisions and no playoffs. All player movement activities will be auction (rather than draft) based. A $100 per team league fee is required. The league will use myfantasyleague.com (MFL) as the league management/website service.
Primary departures from more traditional leagues;
* no drafts (all auction), with universal, carried over bidding "currency"
* larger number of teams
* no "playoffs"
* scoring more heavily dependent on yardage vs TDs
* very flexible (and deep) starting lineups
* fairly extensive ownership requirements
* "public" trading system
Primary objectives of these departures;
* minimize "luck" factor
* create more interaction between owners (easy trading)
* more creative strategies encouraged
2) Current League Officials
Commissioner: Scott McFadden
Treasurer: Scott McFadden (for now, eventually will be some other trusted party)
Deputy Commissioner: TBD
3) General League Rules and Voting
In general, any league rule can be changed via team vote poll in the off-season. Any team can sponsor a vote poll. Polls will be active for one week unless extenuating circumstances require a shorter polling period. Each team gets one vote (regardless of co-ownership status etc.). If a team does not vote before the poll closes, the team's vote will be considered an abstention. An abstention will be considered a yes vote for the purposes of changes requiring unanimous approval. Otherwise, an abstention simply reduces the number of available teams required for a majority vote (see below).
Scoring, starting lineup, league fees, and roster-oriented changes to the league rules can only be put into effect with a unanimous vote. Other changes can be enacted by a simple majority (9 or more approvals out of 16 teams if all teams vote). With or without abstentions, a true majority will be required (e.g. 7 out of 14 teams voting for approval will NOT enact a rule change).
4) Owner Requirements
EAL requires active ownership. All teams are required to log in to the league web site at least once per week during the regular NFL season and once per two weeks during the off-season. Teams are encouraged to check in at least once per week in the off-season. Owners must fully participate in all league auctions and respond to league polls within one week during the regular season and two weeks during the off-season. If there are legitimate personal reasons for an owner's leave of absence (for example a vacation lasting longer than one week during the regular season or two weeks during the off-season), the Commissioner should be notified of the situation in advance and the league will work with the owner to deal with the situation. If notification is not possible due to circumstances (health issues. etc), the situation will be dealt with on case by case basis. Owners deemed to be inactive may be penalized team BPs (see section 8, "Bid Points (BPs) and Auctions" for further info on BPs) by the Commissioner, not to exceed 10 BPs for the first offense.
A team owner may rename his/her team at any time. However, team names must not include language not suitable for view by children. Similarly, teams may use (and are encouraged to use) team logos and icons, but these images must also be suitable for viewing by children.
A team owner may not collude with another team owner for the purposes of helping one team at the expense the other. An owner may not trade or "sell" a player and/or BPs in exchange for anything other than other than another team's players and/or BPs.
An owner may not submit a lineup that he/she does not think will result in the most points for any given week (defined here as "tanking" regardless of whether the action was intentional or not). If an an owner submits a lineup that the Commissioner feels is OBVIOUSLY not in the team's best interests for that week (and that the owner in question SHOULD have known this, even if he didn't), he will sponsor a poll on the league website asking whether the other owners agree with the assessment. If a simple majority agree, the "tanking" team will be assessed a 10 BP penalty on each offense. Only the Commissioner can sponsor a tanking poll, but he will listen to input from other owners.
If an owner fails to submit a weekly starting lineup, the previous week's lineup will be used. Even if the team wishes to use the same lineup as the previous week, a team must resubmit that lineup using the MFL system prior to the first game. The lineup can be edited (as per lineup submission rules) after the start of the first NFL game, but the lineup MUST be initially submitted prior to that deadline. There will be a 10 BP penalty assessed to any team who does not submit a lineup during a regular season week.
It is the sole responsibility of the team owner to arrange payment of the yearly league fee and to make sure that payment is made in a timely manner. Please see section 18, "League Finances" for payment details.
Any pre-defined league penalty may be waived by the Commissioner if he deems there are extenuating circumstances.
A replacement owner (or owners) may be sought at any time by the league if any of these requirements are not met. Removal from the league does NOT require a league vote in the case of a failure to pay the yearly league fees or a consistent verifiable lack of participation (logging in to league site). Removal for tanking or collusion requires a simple majority league vote sponsored by the commish. A league owner MAYBE REMOVED FOR ANY OTHER REASON AT ANY TIME, but this must be accomplished by a unanimous vote by all of the rest of teams not nominated for removal.
5) Roster Management
During the regular season, each team will have 21 regular roster spots and 2 Injured Reserve (IR) roster spots. Following the final game of the regular season, total available roster spots for each team will be increased to 25 and any players on IR are automatically moved to the regular roster. At no time can a team exceed 25 players on his roster. A team may drop below the current maximum available roster spots temporarily, but must fill his roster at the next available opportunity.
A player is eligible for an IR roster spot if he is on the NFL IR list. Generally, this designation will be handled by MFL, but if there are reliable reports that the player is on the NFL IR list but not on the MFL IR list, the Commissioner may at his discretion manually move that player onto a team's IR list at the team's request.
Final roster cuts before each regular season will be due at 6 PM Eastern Time on the Wednesday before the first game of the NFL regular season. The Commissioner will be responsible for enforcing this rule.
If an owner misses a roster cut down deadline, the Commissioner will determine the cuts by trying to determine who he would cut if it were his team. Decisions will be based on news available at the deadline. Once the deadline has passed, the Owner will have no control over who gets cut and will be penalized 10 BPs.
There will be no positional roster requirements or maximums during the off-season. During the regular season, each team MUST carry enough players to field a complete starting lineup at all times (though those players DO NOT have to actually play in the NFL games if on BYE or injured).
6) Positions
The position listings at MFL will be used as the primary determinant for player positions. An owner can petition to have a player's official position changed (based on a credible source indicating that the position currently listed by MFL is incorrect), but such a change will require Commissioner approval or a simple majority vote by the league if the player is on the Commissioner's team. There will be no player who will be listed at multiple positions. Each player will be assigned one primary position and will only be rostered and/or started at that position.
7) Weekly Starting Lineups
The weekly starting lineup for each team is as follows:
* 1 Quarterback (QB)
* 1 Running Back (RB)
* 2 Wide Receivers (WR)
* 1 Tight End (TE)
* 1 Receiver Flex (WR/TE)
* 1 Fantasy Flex (QB/RB/WR)
* 1 Kicker (K)
* 1 Team Defense (DEF)
8) Bid Points (BPs) and Auctions
EAL is an auction based league. Each team will have a continuously updated amount of "bid points" (BPs) available to spend at any given time on the Initial League Auction, Regular Season Weekly Free Agent Auctions, and Off-season Rookie/Free Agent Auction throughout the year. BPs DO carry over from year to year and never expire. They are a trade-able commodity. You can spend any amount at any auction but can never bid more points than you have (the only way to get negative BPs would be through league penalty). ALL auctions use the same BP pool and all auctions will be conducted on the league website. Each team will begin in the league with 400 BPs. Every year thereafter, each team team will receive 200 BPs on February 1st if the league fees for that year have been paid. In addition, a team will receive 10 BPs immediately following each loss during the regular season. Owners may not purchase (for cash) additional BPs from the league or from other owners.
Owners may pre-pay league fees up to an NFL year in advance, except in the initial year. If he chooses to pre-pay, the BPs scheduled to be available to be released for that NFL year will be released to the team along with current year BPs on February 1st (if pre-paid before February 1st), or whenever payment is received if funds received AFTER February 1st. For example, NFL season 2009 fees are due on February 1st 2009. If the team's 2009 fees were received in the middle of January (just an example) the team will be awarded 200 BPs on February 1st. If the team later decides to pre-pay the 2010 league fees and the league receives them in March (just an example), the team will receive an additional 200 BPs within a few days of receipt. If both the 2009 and 2010 fees were received in January (again, example only), 400 BPs (200 BPs for 2009 and 200 BPs for 2010) will be awarded on February 1st, 2009. Owners need to be aware that pre-paying for a future year and subsequently spending (or trading) all of those "future" BPs (which an owner IS allowed to do) is equivalent to trading away all of the team's "draft picks" for that year. In the examples above, the team would receive NO additional BPs on February 1st of 2010 (unless the team has pre-paid for 2011).
It is the responsibility of the owner to verify that his BP totals are accurate at any given time. If there has been an accounting error, an owner must inform the commish of the error and the commish will attempt to resolve the issue.
9) General Auction Rules/Guidelines
For all auctions, the minimum bid is 1 BP, and the bidding increments will be 1 BP. Bids in the Initial League Auction and the Off-season Rookie/Free Agent Auction are PROXY BIDS. This means that a bid you make will only cost you as much as it "needs to" up to your maximum bid amount. Therefore, you should bid as much as your are willing to spend on a player and not overly concern yourself with "sniping". If you feel Tom Brady is worth a maximum of 100 BP, bid 100 BP. If the next closest bid from your opponents is 40 BP, you will get him for 41 BP and saved yourself 59 BP. On the other hand, say it looks like you are going to get Brady at 84 BP and then at the last minute someone "snipes" you at 101. If you are angry about this, the ONLY thing you can legitimately complain about is that YOU underbid YOUR proxy because you REALLY think Brady is worth MORE than 100. Otherwise, the other guy just bid more than you think Brady is worth and you should be HAPPY about it. DO NOT COMPLAIN TO THE LEAGUE ABOUT SNIPING.
Conversely, despite the common misconception, there is NO ADVANTAGE to bidding "late" in an auction. In fact, there is a small advantage (the 1 BP your opponent has to "beat" your proxy bid by) to bidding early. If you need to re-evaluate a player and bid late, that's totally fine, but keep in mind that doing this consistently will slow down the auction and generally irritate your league mates (and your Commissioner).
10) Initial League Auction
The initial league auction will begin May of 2009 on MFL (final date dependent on coordination with league members). It will include all NFL players and free agents, including rookies. College or high school players are NOT eligible. To be rostered, a player must be eligible to play in the current or upcoming NFL season (suspended NFL players or IR players are considered "eligible").
The league will use the MFL system for our initial player auction. Teams may nominate and bid on players using this system. The minimum bid for nominating a player is $1 with a minimum of $1 required to increase the bid on a player. The auction for a player will end after 24 hours has elapsed without a new bid on the player.
Teams owners may use ALL 400 of their initial bid points during the initial auction if they wish, but must do so with the knowledge that they will have very limited resources to help their teams with waivers during the course of the regular season.
11) Regular Season Weekly Free Agent Auction
Weekly Free Agent Auctions will occur during every NFL regular season week. These auctions will be blind-bid auctions. A Free Agent (FA) is defined as: Any player that is either on an NFL official roster, or is listed as currently retired or not officially on an NFL roster (by NFL.com), but is not currently on a EAL team roster. This will also include CFL and NFL Europe players.
The bidding process will be a blind bidding process, with the highest bid as of Friday 10 PM Eastern time of each week winning that player. The bids must be submitted on the league website through the MFL FA screen. The bidding will begin at Midnight after the MNF game the previous week (or in week one, at Midnight on the Monday before the first MNF game). These times will apply to all weeks, regardless of whether there are Thursday or Saturday games. Each owner will only be allowed to pick up four free agents via the bidding system per week. If two teams are tied in the amount that is bid for a player, the team who submitted the bid first (according the latest MFL time stamp) will pick up that player. You may increase, decrease, and retract any bids that you make on the website before the Friday deadline.
12) Off-season Rookie/Free Agent Auction
This auction will occur the 1st Monday in May, or shortly after the NFL draft and the rules and procedures will be very similar to those of the Initial League Auction.
13) Open FA Period
Teams can make can make free drops/adds each week during the regular season after the Regular Season Weekly Free Agent Auction has been completed. The Open FA Period will be done on a first come first serve basis. These moves will be handled by the league website on MFL. The Open FA period will begin on the Saturday before week 1 of the NFL’s regular season. There will be no open free agent period during the preseason.
The open free agent period will be unlimited as to the number of players allowed to be claimed.
14) Weekly Lineup Submissions
Weekly lineup submissions will be handled by MFL. Basically, each player's weekly lineup deadline will be just before that player's game time. So if a player has a game time of Sunday at 1:00 Eastern the lineup decision for that player will have to be made before that time. If he is listed as "starting" at that time, he will be counted toward your score for the week. If he is not listed as a starter at that time, he will not be counted and you must use a different player (whose game has not started yet) in that slot.
15) Trades
15.1) Overview
Trades between teams are unlimited and will not cost any additional money. Teams are allowed to trade players and/or auction bidding points.
All potential trades will automatically be converted into a public poll for a period of two days. If all 14 uninvolved owners actively reject the trade, it will be nullified. However, rejection should ONLY be made based on the opinion that the trade constitutes collusion (cheating), and NOT on the opinion that the trade is "unfair" or even "unbalancing". Basically, all legal trades will be processed. However, the mandatory two day polling period will allow any team to offer a "better offer" to either side of the potential trade, at which point EITHER of the two original trading partners may "back out" to accept another offer. Even if there are no other trade offers, either party may back out of the potential trade before the end of the two day polling period. There will be no penalty for backing out of a potential trade, but doing so without extenuating circumstances (or another offer) is discouraged and will likely be viewed negatively by potential future trading partners. These trading procedures obviously require teams to begin the trade process at least two days before the required lineup submissions if the players are to be used for the upcoming week's games.
15.2) Short-term Trades
There will be no pre-arranged or short-term trades between teams. Once a player leaves a team roster via trade, the specific player(s) cannot be re-acquired for a period of 4 regular season NFL weeks. This rule will not apply to players who are dropped via FA moves by the original team.
15.3) Conditional Trades
Conditional trades are allowed, but only based on a combination of the following potential objective criteria:
* Points accrued in our scoring system.
* Ranking of player in our scoring system.
* Whether the player scores more or less points or ranks higher or lower than a different player in our scoring system.
* Total games played as listed by NFL.com (to account for injuries).
* A EAL team's final ranking in the standings at the end of the regular season.
For example, a player P may be traded by team A to team B subject to the following conditions:
If player P ranks in the top 10 at his position at the end of the current season, team A receives 20 bidding points from team B at the end of the season, otherwise, team A receives 10 bidding points from team B.
15.4) Trading Future BPs
A team may trade only BPs the team currently has access to.
16) Team and Player Scoring
16.1) Overview
A decimal scoring system (1 decimal place) and negative point scoring will be in effect for all positions. The official league scorekeeper will be MFL. All official scoring changes recommended/offered by MFL before the start of the first NFL game of the following week will be accepted, even if they change the outcomes of games.
16.2) Scoring Discrepancy
Team owners are responsible for notifying one of the league officials in the case of a scoring discrepancy that does not involve a statistical modification sponsored by MFL. Any scoring discrepancies that are not brought to the attention of a league official by game time of the first game of the following week will be considered null and void, and any scores will be considered official.
16.3) Player Scoring
The current scoring rules are available at MFL under "reports/rules/league scoring" on the main menu. It is the responsibility of every owner to review the scoring rules prior to the start of each season and relay any issues to the Commissioner at that time. Scoring rules are currently located here: http://www16.myfantasyleague.com/2009/home/62694
16.4) Bye Week Scoring
Since the league will be exceptionally "deep" in terms of number of teams and starting requirements, the league will use "bye week carryover points". This means that a player can be started on his bye, and he will be awarded that same number of points for the bye week that he earned in the week prior to the bye week. If he did not play the week prior to the bye week, he will receive a zero for the bye week (obviously not recommended).
17) Regular Season Schedule and Standings
The League schedule will be 17 weeks, corresponding with the NFL regular season schedule (if the NFL schedule is extended, we alter the fantasy schedule based on league vote). Each team will play one head-to-head matchup with every other team through week 15 of the NFL regular season. For each of the final two games of the season, a team will be granted a win if it's total score for the week is among the top 8 total scores for that week, and a loss if the score was in the bottom 8 for that week. This schedule will be randomized each year, roughly a day or two after the completion of the Off-season Rookie/Free Agent Auction. The league standings will be determined by the following in order:
* Overall Winning Percentage
* Total Points Scored (higher is better)
* Total Points Against (higher is better)
In the unlikely event that all three of the primary standings criteria result in a tie, a coin flip will be used as a tie-breaker. Please note that head-to-head record is NOT part of the standings criteria.
18) League Finances
League fee collections will be handled by the league Treasurer. The current yearly league fee is $100. The yearly league fee for the NEXT (not current) year can be changed with a unanimous league vote.
Full yearly league fees for the upcoming NFL/fantasy year must be RECEIVED by the league Treasurer on February 1st of each year except the inaugural year. If fees are not received from a team by February 8th, a 10 BP per week after February 1st penalty will be assessed to the team (10 points on Feb 8, 10 more points on Feb 15th, and 10 more points on Feb 22nd). Finally, if the league fees have not been paid by February 28th, the league will officially begin to search for a new owner. In addition to BP penalties, a team in arrears for league fees will be "frozen", meaning that no transactions involving the team can/will be processed until the fees have been paid.
This due date is earlier than many leagues, but will allow the league plenty of time to search for a replacement team should any team choose not to pay the league fee at that time.
As noted in the trade section, in order to trade away future bidding points from a given year, a team must have paid for the year those points come from in full PRIOR to the trade being consummated.
The league and/or Commish is obliged to make NO refunds for any fees paid by any team for any year or any fees paid in advance for the purposes of trading away future bid points. An owner retiring in good standing may petition for a full or partial refund of PRE-paid league fees to be paid out of the league winner's winnings for the following year or (preferably) by the new owner of the team, but the results of that petition will be subject to a league majority vote, sponsored by the Commish. All fees paid by that owner will EITHER be returned to the owner OR used as a replacement team incentive, or paid out to winner at the end of the next regular season.
Payments can be sent via check or via some online payment service (e.g. PayPal), but if an online payment generates fees, the payment amount must cover both the full payment of the league fees PLUS any fees charged by online payment service. Other payment arrangements may be possible, but must be coordinated with the league treasurer.
19) Payout Structure
Total available funds should be 16 teams times $100/league = $1,600 minus any expenses (primarily MFL), but possible other small fees as necessary that would be fully justified to the league by the commish and/or treasurer.
* 1st = 50% - league expenses = $800 minus league expenses
* 2nd = 15% = $240
* 3rd = 10% = $160
* 4th = 5% = $80
* 5th = 3% = $48
* 6th = 2% = $32
In addition, the weekly high scorer (team) for each week will receive $10 paid by the weekly low scorer (team).
If your net payout is less than or equal to the balance remaining on your league fees for the following year, the payout will automatically be applied to your league fee for that year and will not be sent via check.
20) Retiring/Replacement Owners
If an owner chooses to leave or is removed from the league (for whatever reason), a replacement owner will be found. Any person may be nominated by a current owner to be the replacement owner. A current owner/team may only nominate one person (or group for "co-ownership") to be the replacement owner. Teams will have at least one week after the announcement that a replacement owner is being sought to make nominations. That nomination period may be extended by the Commish if necessary, and the Commish may nominate multiple candidates to be the replacement owner if the candidate pool is less than four people. After the close of the nomination period, each candidate will be asked to provide a statement of interest/and qualifications on the league message board. Based on these statements, each team will vote for a single person or group to be the replacement owner in the league. If a majority vote is not achieved, the league will select the two candidates with the most votes (or more than two in case of a tie in total votes received), and a new vote will begin with the selected candidates. If after the new vote there is a still a tie, the commish will break the tie and will select the new owner from among the tied candidates.
New owners will be immediate responsible for any fees not paid by the previous owner. If there are any such currently due fees, the potential replacement owner will not be an official league member until those fees are paid. The Commish may at his discretion, reduce the fees for the new owner depending on the quality of the team, but this will be done only if a suitable replacement owner willing to pay the full fees due can not be found.
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