Great Lakes Classic - Rules - Great Lakes Fantasy Football Leagues

GREAT LAKES FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUES

Great Lakes Classic - Rules

Section I - General

1. The Franchise Fee is $75.00.

2. Each of the two (2) divisions will consist of five (5) teams.

3. The initial draft will be held on-line. Teams will be formed in a draft that will be carried out in 1-10 then 10-1 order (known as 'serpentine' or 'switchback'). The draft will be done via live draft format (2-3 hours on a chat site). The order for all initial drafts is decided randomly. When they are done via the email format, teams have 12 hour time limits to make their selections. When a pick is missed, that owner has to get in contact with the commissioner ASAP in order to make a replacement pick. The longer he waits, the further down in the round his team will drop. The order for all initial drafts is decided randomly by the MyFantasyLeague commissioner software.

4. All teams must come out of the initial draft with the necessary components to field a starting lineup (i.e. a Quarterback, 1-2 Running Backs, 3-4 Wide Receivers, a Tight End, a Place Kicker and a Team Defense). Then, you must always maintain these minimum requirements throughout the regular and off-season (i.e. teams can't elect to go without a kicker, tight end, defense during the regular or off-season).

5. Off-Season Rookie and Remaining Free Agent drafting periods begin each year on May 15th and continue three more times before the start of the regular season (June 15, July 15 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. Starting in 2009, off-season draft rounds will be held as follows: Round 1 will take place on May 15th, Round 2 will be on June 15th and Rounds 3 and 4 will kick off on August 15th.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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 decimal scoring method will be combined (basic + performance) with points awarded as follows:

RUSHING - .1 point every 1 yard, 6 every touchdown, , -1 for fumbles, 2 for conv.
RECEIVING - .1 point every 1 yard, 6 every touchdown, -1 for fumbles, 2 for conv.
PASSING - .05 points every 1 yard, 4 every touchdown, -1 for each interception, 2 for conv.
KICKING - 3 points every field goal (0-49 yards), 4 points every field goal (50 yards plus), 1 point every PAT
NFL TEAM - 6 points for Special Teams and Defensive TDs (Fumble, interception, blocked punt, blocked FG return, missed FG return, punt return, kickoff return), 2 points for safeties, 1 point for interceptions, 1 point for fumble recoveries, 1 point for sacks, 3 points each "team" victory, 10 points for 0-3 points allowed, 9 points for 4-6 points allowed, 8 points for 7-9 points allowed, 7 points for 10-12 points allowed, 6 points for 13-15 points allowed, 5 points for 16-18 points allowed, 4 points for 19 points allowed, 0 points for 20 points allowed and above.

2. Points for kickoff and punt returns for touchdowns will only be awarded to the NFL Team, not individual players.

3. Overtime Games: Tie games will be broken by using reserve players. Tie games will be broken using the same performance point system used by the rest of the players in the starting lineup.

Section III - Trading and Transactions

1. All transaction requests must be submitted via the web site to the commissioner's office no later than 11 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 1 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 eligible to be added during the second transaction processing event on SATURDAY afternoon.

3. 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 18. While teams are permitted to start play with a roster size below 18, 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. 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. 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.

5. A player cannot be traded back to a team until four (4) games have passed.

6. 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. 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 this occurs, 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. Owners are not permitted to trade transaction slots.

10. You will be responsible for fielding a complete team during bye weeks. No carryover points will be awarded for position players or NFL teams.

11. No trades will be permitted following the kickoff of Week 10. The Wednesday 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:

1.) Best W/L Record,
2.) Head to Head Competition,
2a.) Best Division Record,
3.) Most Points Scored All Games,
4.) Best Net Points Head to Head,
4a.) Best Net Points Division Games,
5.) Least Points Allowed All Games,
6.) Coin Flip.

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. Two (2) division champions and four (4) 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 four (4) wild-card teams will be seeded third, fourth, fifth and sixth using the tiebreaking formula above. Wildcard seed #3 plays #6 while #4 plays #5. Wild-card weekend will be held during week #14 of the NFL season.

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 Great Lakes Classic Championship during NFL week #16. The champion wins $300 while the second place team collects $150. GLFFL is not responsible for the taxes on the prizes of the winner.

6. The four (4) non-playoff teams are entered in a single-elimination consolation tournament that will run through NFL weeks 14 and 15. The seeding will be determined using the formula listed above. The winner of the consolation tournament earns a compensatory draft pick in next May's Rookie and Free Agent Draft (the pick will be an extra pick at the end of the first round).

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.

2. Rosters will consist of 18 players. The nine (9) 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 18 spots (by free agent pickup or trade) during the regular season, the transaction or transactions will not be processed for that week. Teams in the Classic Leagues keep their entire ENTIRE roster from season to season.

The off-season officially begins after the conclusion of the league's Fantasy Bowl. When new players are added during the off-season via the draft or trades, owners WILL NOT be required to drop a player to stay at the 18-man roster limit. Rosters may be expanded to 22 players during the off-season with the requirement that rosters are to be cut down to 18 players no later than 48 hours after the final off-season draft round has been completed.

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.

The REMOVAL involves the leagues in question only. After one year has passed, the offending owner has the opportunity to apply for reinstatement to that league. Reinstatement can only take place if 60 percent (seven panelists) of the GLFFL's Board of Directors vote for REINSTATEMENT. Other leagues are not impacted, although a meticulous study will begin on those other franchises to see if tanking games occurred at any time in the history of that club.

In addition, the offending owner will be placed on a PERMANENT PROBATIONARY STATUS in all other leagues, meaning any other incident of intentionally throwing games will result in PERMANENT EXPULSION from ALL GLFFL LEAGUES for LIFE.

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.

6. Each season, divisions will be realigned based on performance from the previous season. One division will feature the five teams with the lowest winning percentage through the regular season weeks, with total points being used as the tiebreaker. The other division will feature the remaining five teams, including both the conference champion and runner-up.