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GREAT LAKES FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUES GLPFFL - Rules Section I - General 1. The Franchise Fee is $100.00. 2. Starting in 2009, the GLPFFL will consist of one (1) keeper league conference. Each of the three (3) divisions will consist of four (4) teams. 3. The conference, consisting of divisions Keeper East, Keeper West and Keeper Central, will be set up as a dynasty format, meaning all owners will keep their entire roster from season to season. 4. Each regular season roster must consist of 18 positions, with both offensive and defensive players. All teams must maintain minimum roster requirements (i.e. 1 Quarterback, a total of 5 Running Backs/Wide Receivers/Tight End, 1 Place Kicker, 1 Defensive Lineman, 1 Linebacker and 1 Defensive Back) during the regular and off-season. 5. Starting lineups may consist of the following "formations":
6. Rosters can be expanded to 20 players during the off-season. However, all teams have 72 hours after the final off-season rookie/free agent draft round is completed to trim rosters back to the required 18-man regular season requirement. 7. 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. 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 Conference Champion drafts last, even if they do not have the highest winning percentage. The Conference runner-up 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. 8. 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. 9. 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. 10. 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: Offensive players:
Defensive players:
2. The official scorekeeper is My Fantasy League, our web and statistical download supplier. On occasion a unique play ruling may be reversed or modified a few days after the initial ruling. Also, in the case of a miscellaneous play that does not fall into one of our previously defined scoring categories, we will defer to our scorekeeper (MFL) for making a decision on how to handle the play. If this happens our records will be changed to reflect the final ruling. This could affect the outcome of a game and the subsequent standings. In no case will any changes be made after kickoff of the following week's first game. 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 1 p.m. EST on SATURDAY afternoon. Owners may begin requesting players at 1 p.m. on Sunday each week and may continue with requests up until the time transactions are processed on Saturday. 2. 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 FOUR Free Agents to be processed on SATURDAY afternoon. 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. 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. 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. 7. 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. 8. Owners are not permitted to trade transaction slots. 9. You will be responsible for fielding a complete team during bye weeks. No carryover points will be awarded for position players or NFL teams. Owners repeatedly failing to comply with this requirement will be subject to the ACTIVE OWNER CLAUSE (Section V, Number 4) and face possible banishment from the league. 10. No trades will be permitted following the kickoff of games in Week 10. Starting with the conclusion of Week 12, rosters may be expanded back to 20 players in preparation for the playoffs and consolation tournament. The transaction night opportunities between Weeks 12 and 13 will enable owners to add up to TWO players without requiring a drop. Transactions can no longer be made after the kickoff of Week 13 (the start of the league's playoffs), meaning the Wednesday night transaction opportunity will be the last chance for waivers if there is a Thursday night game during Week 13. Saturday waivers will not be allowed in this particular instance. Rosters will be locked for the duration of the playoffs. Roster expansion takes place in the GLPFFL to allow owners the chance to stock up on insurance players at key positions and not be stuck in a high-stakes playoff game without a key position covered. 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. We will complete our activity on NFL Week 16 to prevent the dreaded benched star syndrome that typically occurs during Week 17. League play will continue through Week 13. This will provide four playoff weeks, which will be administered as follows: 4. Three (3) division champions and five (5) wild-card teams will qualify for the playoffs. The division winners will receive the top three seeds based on overall record, head-to-head and total points. The wildcard teams will be seeded #4 through #8, using the tiebreaking formula above. Seed #1 plays #8, seed #2 plays #7, seed #3 plays #6 and seed #4 plays $5 during week #14 of the NFL season. 5. 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. 6. The winners will square off for the GLPFFL Championship. This action will take place on week #16 of the NFL season. The champion will receive a check for $500 while the runner-up receives $200. The 3rd and 4th place finishers (losers in Week 15) each receive a check for $50. GLFFL is not responsible for the taxes on the prizes of the winner. 7. The four teams that miss the Fantasy Bowl Tournament will compete for the Porcelain Throne honors. They will start during NFL Week #14 and complete play on NFL Week #15. As with the Fantasy Bowl, the #1 seed will play #4 seed, while #2 plays #3. The Consolation Tournament champion will earn an extra draft pick at the end of the first round (1.13 pick) in the subsequent year's draft. Section V - Miscellaneous Items 1. All lineups must consist of 1 Quarterback, a total of 5 Running Backs/Wide Receivers/Tight End, 1 Place Kicker, 1 Defensive Lineman, 1 Linebacker and 1 Defensive Back, 1 Place Kicker, 1 Defensive Lineman, 1 Linebacker and 1 Defensive Back) 2. Rosters will consist of 18 players during the regular season weeks 1 through 12. Beginning with the transactions before the kickoff of Week 13 and ending with the start of that week's games, owners may expand their rosters to 20 players. The eight (8) reserves (and later 10 reserves) on your roster may consist of any number of quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, kickers, defensive linemen, linebackers or defensive backs. 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) the transaction or transactions will not be processed for that week. 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. 6. Each season, divisions will be realigned based on performance from the previous season. The Black Division will feature the four teams with the lowest winning percentage through the regular season weeks, with total points being used as the tiebreaker. The Blue Division will feature the 5th through 8th lowest winning percentage through the regular season weeks, with total points being used as the tiebreaker. The White Division will feature the remaining four teams, including both the conference champion and runner-up. © Copyright 2009 Great Lakes Fantasy Football Leagues. All rights reserved. Do not duplicate or redistribute in any form.
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