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GREAT LAKES FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUES Ghost of Nine League Rules Section I - General 1. The Franchise Fee is $75.00. 2. Each of the four (4) divisions will consist of three (3) teams. 3. All teams must maintain minimum roster requirements (i.e. a Quarterback, 1-2 Running Backs, 3-4 Wide Receivers, a Tight End, a Place Kicker and a Team Defense) during the regular season. Owners are permitted to maintain roster flexibility at all times during the off-season. 4. Off-Season Rookie and Remaining Free Agent drafting periods begin each year on May 15th and continue four more times before the start of the regular season (June 15, July 15, August 1 and September 1). The team with the lowest winning percentage at the end of the regular season drafts first. The rest of the teams are placed in order from lowest winning percentage to the highest. In the event of a tie, the team with fewer total points scored selects first. The Fantasy Bowl winner drafts last, even if they do not have the highest winning percentage. The Fantasy Bowl loser drafts next to last. If a playoff and non-playoff team end the season with the same winning percentage, the non-playoff team selects before the playoff team. Each draft round will follow the same order as there is no use of the serpentine format. 5. Teams may request a replacement selection for a missed draft pick, provided the current draft round has not been officially completed. The definition of "officially completed" will be as follows: teams may request a replacement selection for a missed pick at any time during the ongoing round or at the completion of the round, provided 48 hours have not elapsed from the time of the final selection. The commissioner has the right to award a replacement pick outside of this window in the case of orphan teams being purchased by new owners. Missed draft picks may not be traded. 6. Any player or future draft pick for the subsequent year may be traded during the off-season. Before trades are approved involving players or picks in the off-season or future picks in the regular season, both owners must pay their full entry fee for the future year to ensure that they will return for the upcoming season. This is to prevent owners from dealing away multiple future picks and then walking away from the franchise, making it nearly impossible to sell off to a new owner. 7. Players dropped during the off-season rounds are eligible to be selected at any time as there is no period where the player is "locked." Section II - Scoring 1. The scoring method will be combined (basic + performance) with points awarded as follows:
2. Points for kickoff and punt returns for touchdowns will only be awarded to the NFL Team, not individual players. 3. Tie games are possible during the regular season. During the playoffs, the tiebreaker used to decide the contest will be the highest scoring starting player (not the defense), second highest scoring, etc. Section III - Trading and Transactions 1. All transaction requests must be submitted via the web site to the commissioner's office no later than 8 p.m. EST on WEDNESDAY night. Free agents will be awarded to teams on a worst-to-first basis (record, total points, power ranking). These requests will be processed and posted to your respective teams immediately after transactions are processed. You can select up to TWO Free Agents to be processed on WEDNESDAY night. If adding a player or players will take you over the roster size limits for this league, you will also need to designate a player to be dropped for each player you are requesting to add. Leaving the dropped player field blank will cause the following to happen - the system will SKIP OVER anyone who would be in violation of the roster size restrictions by adding a player. You could be the first owner on the waiver priority list but you WILL NOT get your player if you fail to designate a drop at the same time. 2. The next two rounds of weekly transactions will take place on SATURDAY at 8 p.m. EST. Free agents will again be awarded to teams on a worst-to-first basis (record, total points, power ranking). Please note-- Players dropped on WEDNESDAY night ARE NOT eligible to be added during the second transaction processing event on SATURDAY evening. 3. All trades must be approved and forwarded to the commissioner's office no later than Saturday evening at 9 p.m. EST in order to ensure that the players involved are available for Sunday's games. 4. If a trade is made with an uneven combination of players (2 for 1, 3 for 2, etc.), the team receiving the extra player must immediately notify the commissioner's office regarding who will be dropped to keep the roster size at 20. While teams are permitted to start play with a roster size below 20, they are not allowed to go above that number. Failure to report a drop to the commissioner in this circumstance will result in the trade being voided. 5. Both teams need to give approval and list terms of the trade for it to be confirmed. This must be done through the league's web site. Owners should take special care to make sure trades they are offering and/or accepting are deals they actually want. When accepting trades, MFL software is designed to require the owner to first click accept, then click the yes button to acknowledge that the trade is going to be accepted, and then click accept again. This is done to give an owner multiple chances to review a trade before deciding to make it official. Once an owner has accepted a deal in this manner, the trade is forwarded to the league commissioner and it becomes official. Owners are not allowed to go through this three step process and then attempt to back out, claiming the deal was accepted "accidentally." Trade results will be posted on the web site for each league. As a trade is approved, the team(s) rosters will automatically be updated and a transaction record will be listed. 6. A player cannot be traded back to a team until four (4) games have passed. 7. The league has the ability to call for a trade veto within 48 hours of the trade becoming official during the regular season and 72 hours of the trade becoming official during the off-season. New in 2009, an owner in the league must request that a veto vote be conducted. At that time, an email will be sent to all of the owners in the league who are not part of the pending deal. If 50% of those owners vote for the deal to be vetoed, it will then be forwarded to the GLFFL's Board of Directors. Making a case to call for a veto vote must consist of something more substantial than "I don't agree with the trade and I want to vote against it." The owner calling for the veto should post a rationale on the league message board and send out an email to the commissioner for consideration by the entire league. Once 50% of the owners in the league call for a trade veto, the trade will be voted on by a 19-member panel of the GLFFL's Board of Directors, consisting of the owners who have been selected by longest tenure, geographic location, and overall representation of the GLFFL. This way, deals can be decided by individuals who are unbiased since they are not a part of the league in question. In the event that members of the Board of Directors are involved in the trade in question, they must abstain from the voting procedure. Voting can take place on a trade veto request if two thirds of the total membership, or 12 members, are present. When a quorum exists, 50% plus one will equal the decision. 8. During the off-season, you can make as many trades per month as you wish. They also have to be submitted via the web site by both parties to the league commissioner. Upon approval, they will be listed on the web site. 9. Owners are permitted to submit the names of starting players up until the respective player's game time. Once a game has begun, all players participating in that game are either locked in as a starter or as a bench player. Lineups should be submitted through the league's web site. 10. Owners are not permitted to trade transaction slots. 11. You will be responsible for fielding a complete team during bye weeks. No carryover points will be awarded for position players or NFL teams. 12. No trades will be permitted following the kickoff of Week Eleven's games. The Thursday after the 13th regular season game is the last week to make drop/add transactions, meaning rosters will be locked for the duration of the playoffs. Section IV - Playoffs and Payouts 1. In order to determine division championships and playoff seedings, the following tiebreaker system will be used:
2. Division statistics (2a,4a) are used to resolve division ties only. Playoff seedings WILL NOT consider these values. With playoff seedings, once the division winners have been seeded, all other teams will be seeded based on overall record, head-to-head and then total points scored. In the event of a tie involving three or more teams, head-to-head can only be used as the tiebreaker if one team has a definitive advantage over the others (i.e. Team A defeated both Team B and Team C, therefore they earn the higher seed based on head-to-head.) If no definitive advantage can be derived for any one team (teams split season series, some teams involved in the tie did not play), the tiebreaker will automatically be decided using total points scored. 3. Four (4) division champions and two (2) wild-card teams will qualify for the playoffs. The two division winners with the best records will receive a first round bye and the first and second seeds. The other two division winners will be the third and fourth seeds and the wild-card teams will be seeded fifth and sixth using the tiebreaking formula above. Wild-card weekend will be held during week #14 of the NFL season with #3 (division winner) playing #6, and #4 (division winner) playing #5. 4. The winners advance to the conference semi-finals. The lowest seed to advance plays the highest seeded division winner, with each successive seed taking on the lowest advancing seed. This action will take place on week #15 of the NFL season. 5. The winners will square off for the Ghost of Nine League Championship. This action will take place on week #16 of the NFL season. The champion will receive a check for $400 while the runner-up receives $150. The two other teams finishing in the final four will receive $50 each. The two other playoff teams will receive $25 each. GLFFL is not responsible for the taxes on the prizes of the winner. Section V - Miscellaneous Items 1. All lineups must consist of a
Quarterback, 1-2 Running Backs, 3-4 Wide Receivers, a Tight End, a Place
Kicker and a Team Defense. As a new lineup option beginning in 2007,
owners will have the ability to start a 2nd TE to replace either a RB or
a WR. Lineup options would consist of the following: 2. Rosters will consist of 20 players. The eleven (11) reserves on your roster may consist of any number of quarterbacks, running backs, receivers, kickers, or NFL teams. It is your responsibility to maintain your roster at all times. If a team goes over the 20 spots (by free agent pickup or trade) the transaction or transactions will not be processed for that week. Teams in the Ghost of Nine League keep their entire ENTIRE roster from season to season. New players are added during the off-season drafting periods, and your team will need to drop a player (if at 20 players on roster) if you're acquiring one. 3. The act of "throwing games" (losing on purpose by turning in a lineup filled of players that normally would not play) is not tolerated in the Great Lakes Fantasy Football Leagues. We will revert your starting lineup back to a typical lineup for games that are tried to be thrown and further action will also take place (i.e. possible removal from the league without refund). In every instance
where a team has found to intentionally lose a game by submitting a
bogus lineup, that owner will immediately be REMOVED from the league in
question. When other instances arise, teams will be REMOVED the moment
the indiscretions are discovered, whether they happened this year or in
a previous year. 4. ACTIVE OWNER CLAUSE - If the commissioner has not heard from you (by phone, e-mail or web evidence) or your authorized representative for 3 consecutive weeks (no transactions or lineup changes) you may be declared an inactive owner, banished from the league, and your team repurchased by the league on a pro-rata basis and resold or dissolved. It is unfair to the active owners to have a disinterested owner. This becomes especially critical as the season winds down and you find yourself "out" of the running. You may appoint a designated representative in writing to the commissioner anytime prior to a known absence. 5. Conduct that is deemed detrimental to the league or to the GLFFL will not be tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, posts and or emails that are harassing in nature and serve no legitimate purpose other than to cause discord within the league or the GLFFL organization. There is a difference between expressing viewpoints or likes/dislikes of a league or format and personal attacks toward fellow owners, the commissioner or the Board of Directors. Failure to comply may result in IMMEDIATE EXPULSION WITHOUT REFUND. In addition, attempts to negatively impact the integrity of the league (i.e. threatening or outright refusal to submit lineups, partaking in bogus trades, etc.) will result in an immediate expulsion, without refund, from the GLFFL. © Copyright 2009 Great Lakes Fantasy Football Leagues. All rights reserved. Do not duplicate or redistribute in any form.
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