No replies to this topic

[Ice1]

Rules to review:

Commish's and leagues have a tendency to tweak rules every off season so I thought I would share our rules to provide other Commish's an opportunity to see how this league operates: Maybe it will help those looking to tweak rules or better manage conflict:


IDP Rules:

Team Fee: confidential

Schedule:
1. Rule change discussions: Week 17 to March 1
2. Beginning of New Season - March 1
3. Tag Deadline: March 15
4. Transition Tag Bid Period: March 15 - April 1
5. Bid Priority List Deadline: April 1
6. Matching offer deadline: April 7th
7. Rookie Draft: Begin weekend of NFL draft.
8. Player Drops: July 1 - July 31
9. Player Auction: August 1
10. Contracts & Extensions Deadline: Due 3 days prior to D-4 Season
11. In-Season FA Blind Bidding begins: After Week 1 of NFL season.
12. In-Season FA Blind Bidding Deadline: Thursday's @ midnight. (Wed. @ Midnight for Thur. games)
13. In-Season FA Blind Bidding ends: After D-4's Championship kickoff.
14.) We run this league on EST.

Rule Violations and Penalties:

Missing deadlines or otherwise ignoring league rules can adversely  effect team management. There are times, however, when it may actually  give an owner a competitive advantage. In these cases, such as missing  the Contract Extension deadline, and at the discretion of the league  commissioner, a penalty of up to one 2nd round pick in the upcoming  rookie draft may be levied against the owner.

The commissioner is tasked with maintaining the health and  competitiveness of the entire league, and penalties should be used with  this in mind. For example, an owner's failure to extend player contracts  could do lasting damage to his or her team. The demise of a franchise,  however, is detrimental to the league. Penalizing teams (based on  circumstances) creates an incentive to follow the rules, but just as  important, it gives the commissioner the ability to adjust for the needs  of the league. In effect, a fine in this example is a way to preserve  both the team and the league's competitive balance.

The league commissioner is also empowered to take action as necessary to  prevent an owner from intentionally harming their team. Needlessly  dropping valuable players, not setting lineups, making trades that are  obviously not directed at team betterment - all such actions can and  should be prevented, reversed or otherwise addressed.

Best Effort

Owners are not allowed to intentionally lose games for any reason. A  team's starting roster should be made up of those players an owner  expects to garner the greatest number of points, or in some way improve  the owner's ability to win. It is understood that such decisions can be  subjective given injury status, opponent lineups and player match ups.  This rule does not in any way hinder such decisions; its sole purpose is  to prevent player substitutions that are clearly intended to lessen an  owner's chance of winning.

In keeping with this intent, league owners are also expected to make a  legitimate attempt to set their lineup each and every week. Life often  interferes with FFB, but an owner must make an effort to communicate  this to the Commissioner, or somehow arrange for the team to be properly  managed. Failure to do so, outside of extreme circumstances, will be  considered a violation of this Best Effort clause.

Best Effort shall be enforced as follows:

1. Owner lodges complaint with commissioner. *
2. Commissioner confirms infraction and brings to league vote.
3. Simple majority (8 owners) decide issue.
4. If 'guilty' owner loses:
- following year 1st round rookie pick. (Or next owned 1st round pick available March 1st.)
- Final say in setting lineup for current year.


* If the Commissioner identifies the issue, then at least one other  owner should be sought out before bringing the matter to the league's  attention.

League Spreadsheet
Until such time that league management software can properly manage  contracts and salaries (i.e. multiple contract years with different  salaries) then the League Spreadsheet - as maintained by the  commissioner - shall be the final word on all such matters.

Rosters
During the season 32 players must be under contract at the beginning of  each week's game. Illegal rosters will result in a loss for the week. An  illegal roster is defined as a roster without 32 players, a team that  exceeds $45 Million in salary or 60 contract years, a roster without the  minimum positional requirements, or a starting lineup that lacks a  required position player. A roster may break league requirements during  the week due to trades, but must be adjusted during the FA Waiver Wire  period. Roster requirements and salary cap are not enforced during the  off season.

Trading
Owners can trade players, money and upcoming draft picks at will,  however draft picks can only be traded one year out, beginning at the  start of new season, March 1st.  Example:  2012 draft picks cannot be  traded until March 1, 2011. Unbalanced trading is allowed during the off  season but compliance rules are enforced immediately at auction's  conclusion.

In-Season Free Agency
FA will be conducted using a blind bidding system. Bids are based on  salary cap with the minimum bid being $500,000. Bids must be in  increments of 10,000. The deadline for all bids is Thursday @ midnight.  Bids will be run Friday @ 12:01 AM, and the player will be placed  immediately on the roster of the highest bidder. (The deadline shifts to  Wednesday for Thursday games.) All roster adjustments must be made at  this time (i.e, dropping a player if over the 32 limit.)

A successful FA bid requires the owner to drop another player. This  process is normally well defined in the league software. A player drop  will result in an immediate cap hit, and is calculated as follows:

Salary x Contract Years x 50% = Cap Hit. (Example: $750,000 Salary x 3 Years x .5 = $1,125,000 Cap Hit.)

This is added to the Management thread since it will be an on-going issue:

MFL BLIND BIDDING PROCESS

1. If you bid the same amount on multiple players any one of them may be  the player you acquire. There will be no recourse if you do so.  Whatever the system gives you will stand.

2. If you bid 710k on a player and 500k on another then you can expect  to be awarded the 710k player if it is the winning bid. In such a case  and in the event of an error I will intervene and give you the 710k  player.

3. Again, bid more for higher priority players. That is what determines the order of bid processing.


Player Auction
1. Each team owner nominates one player per auction round until acquiring 32 players.
2. A round will last 24 hours. At the end of the 24 hour period, the owner with the highest salary bid wins the player.
3. Bids must be in increments of 10,000.
4. When the player has been assigned to a roster, the owner who nominated the player will nominate another to take his place.
5. There will be as many rounds as needed to bring each team to 32 players, but not over 32.
6. Be very careful to fill roster requirements. There will be no Free  Agency until after the 1st week of the NFL season. If you do not have a  legal roster you will forfeit that 1st game.
7. If you cannot get to the league website to nominate a player, then  send a "cheat sheet" of players you want to nominate. You designate a  league member or non-member to serve this function. In this way we can  keep a full slate of players up for bid.
8. Bids can be one time bids or max bids.
9. Conflicts due to software failure will be resolved as follows:
- An owner who cannot place a bid on a player has until one (1) hour  before the player auction ends to submit an electronic communication to a  commissioner or owner no longer bidding.
- The communication must explicitly state the player in question, and the high bid the owner is willing to pay.
- If the owner's high bid is greater then the winning salary, the owner automatically contests the auction results.
- The keeper of the communication will post a bid challenge on the auction site message board.
- In the case of a tie the original winning owner's bid prevails.
- The original winning owner may defeat the challenge bid by adding 10,000 in salary.
- The original winning owner has 24 hours from the posting of the  challenge to defeat it. If an answer is not received in that time period  the challenger is deemed the winner at the posted higher bid.
- At no time may a challenging owner post a bid on the public message  board. Such posts will be deleted, and the challenge invalidated.
10. Any bid that exceeds an owner's salary cap (defined as having less  then $500,000 per remaining roster spot) will have bids rolled back till  they are within the guidelines. If another owner has bid higher then  this number, that number will stand until legally defeated.

Salary Cap
Each team will have a $45 Million salary cap. No team can exceed $45  Million in total salary at the beginning of the NFL games each week.  Through trades, bids and any other transaction, the owner may exceed the  cap but must make sufficient roster moves so that they are equal to or  below the cap by the start of the first game each week.

Contracts
All players on the roster must be signed to a contract or extended 3  days prior to the start of the D-4 season. No individual contract shall  exceed 3 years. The total must not exceed 60 contract years. All  calculations are rounded down to the nearest 10,000 dollar amount.


Franchise and Transitions Tags
Each team will have the right to exercise one (1) tag in the off-season.  The tag may be a 'Franchise' (F-tag) or 'Transition' (T-tag) tag.  Franchise tag salaries will be set to the average of the top 3 salaries  for the position +10%, beginning in the next season. Transition tags  will translate into the player's salary being calculated as the 15th  highest for the position, beginning in the next season. Applying an  F-tag will lock the player onto the owner's roster. Applying a T-tag  will allow all other owners to bid on the player.

Tags may only be applied to players whose contracts have expired. Tags  may be announced at anytime - or changed - starting with the completion  of week 17 of the NFL through 12 Midnight on March 15th.

All owners must announce a bid priority list AND player bids by April  1st. All tags, bids and matching offers must be announced via electronic  communication. The following are acceptable forms of tag announcements;  message board (in the tag thread), e-mail or private message (c.c. all  owners). The T-tag will serve as the opening bid price and all  subsequent bids will be in increments of $10,000 starting at the T-tag  price as calculated above.

Matching offers must be announced by April 7th. If the owner applying  the T-Tag does not match the highest bid, that owner will receive the  winning bidder's 2nd and 4th round rookie draft picks. Bidders must have  at least one 2nd and one 4th round rookie pick to bid on T-tagged  players, and picks cannot be lower then the owner's original draft  position. Picks CAN be higher, however. If the bidder does not have his  original 2nd round pick or a higher 2nd round pick, the bidder's latest  1st round pick will be used instead. If the bidder does not have his  original 4th round pick or a higher 4th round pick, the bidder's latest  3rd round pick or better will be used instead. Winning bids or the match  will serve as the players salary.

A tagged player must be signed to a minimum 2 year contract.

An owner may apply a tag to a player and then trade that player (up to  the beginning of bidding period for T-tags). His one tag will be  considered exercised. The owner who receives the tagged player in trade  will pay the tag (or match) price but will not have his own tag  affected. The receiving owner can still apply his one tag to another  player on his roster. An owner can trade a player who is eligible for  tagging (meaning the players contract has expired) but has not had that  tag announced. The new owner would have to apply his only tag in this  case. If the new owner has already applied a tag, the new owner will  lose the newly acquired player. Tags are non-transferable. You can not  trade a tag to another owner.

Contract Extensions
Team owners may extend contracts for players entering the last year of  an agreement. Contract extensions may be announced at anytime after the  completion of the Vet Auction, but are not final until 3 days prior to  the start of the D-4 season. Contracts must be submitted in writing via  electronic mail, PMs or spreadsheets as applicable.

The players salary for the term of the extension (and only extension  years) will be calculated by taking the players total fantasy points  through Week 16 and multiplying by $8,500.00 for ALL positions, adding  20%, and rounding down to the nearest 10,000. If the player did not play  in at least 12 games, for any reason other than being benched, in the  previous 16 week fantasy football season, the "injury" calculation will  be in effect.

The injury calculation is the average total fantasy points of the  previous 3 seasons (or total seasons in the NFL, if less than 3)  multiplied by the position multiplier ($8,500.00) noted above, and then  adding 20%. The injured players salary calculation will be the greater  dollar value of either calculation but may not fall below the league  minimum of $500k + 20% ($600,000.)

Failure to meet these deadlines and requirements will result in the disqualification of your tag/bid or extension.

Draft Seeding
The rookie draft is a 4-round serpentine draft.  The draft order will be  set based on the results of the previous season. The first 8 picks will  go to the 8 non-playoff teams. These teams will be seeded based on the  following criteria as of the end of the regular season.

1. Worst Overall Record.
2. Fewest Points Scored.
3. Lose Head-to-Head Match up.

The 6 playoff teams will be seeded based on point of elimination. For  example, if A and D lose lose in the wild-card round, the above criteria  will be used to determine their draft order. No advancing team will  draft prior to a team that has been eliminated.


Player Positions
Given the dynamic nature of IDP, D-4 through the Commissioners may  change players designations when appropriate to maintain competitve  balance. In the event an in-season move is needed to be made then the  affected owner will have two weeks from notification to make the  appropriate change.

While we have no intention of waiting on a league site to determine  player positions for us, we just wanted to let each owner understand  that we do not just arbitrarily make a position change.

The criteria we use is based on actual NFL rosters along with Head coach  speak on a player based on a teams home web-site. At this point, the  only real fair way is to class the player based on how the NFL team  Classes the player.

Rookie Salary Schedule
Rookies will be assigned a salary based on the position they were selected in the draft.

Pick ---- Salary
1.01 - 1,900,000
1.02 - 1,850,000
1.03 - 1,800,000
1.04 - 1,750,000
1.05 - 1,700,000
1.06 - 1,650,000
1.07 - 1,600,000
1.08 - 1,550,000
1.09 - 1,500,000
1.10 - 1,450,000
1.11 - 1,400,000
1.12 - 1,350,000
1.13 - 1,300,000
1.14 - 1,250,000
2.01 - 1,200,000
2.02 - 1,150,000
2.03 - 1,100,000
2.04 - 1,050,000
2.05 - 1,000,000
2.06 --- 950,000
2.07 --- 900,000
2.08 --- 850,000
2.09 --- 800,000
2.10 --- 750,000
2.11 --- 700,000
2.12 --- 650,000
2.13 --- 600,000
2.14 --- 550,000

3.01 + $500,000

Stat Changes:
D-4 honors Scoring Rules; In the event an official stat change occurs  and is found out prior to the kickoff of the next fantasy games then the  scoring rules apply. In the event of disputes, D-4 utilizes the  official NFL Game Book and the D-4 Commissioners will make the final  ruling as it relates to a scoring change.

MFL now has a setting to auto adjust stat changes. We are going to choose this setting.


Decimal Scoring

Note - Players' TD's are scored at 6 points  excluding passing TD's. Example; A WR that scores a defensive or  special teams touchdown will be awarded 6 points.

Passing:
Pass TD: 5 Points
Pass Yards: 1 point /25 yards
Interceptions: -1 Point

Rushing:
Rush TD: 6 points
Rush Yds: 1 point /10 yards

Receiving:
Rec TD: 6 points
Rec Yds: 1 point /10 yards

Kicking:
EP: 1 Point
FG: 3 points plus .1 for every yard over 30.

Offense (General):
Receptions: 1 Point
Fumbles lost: -2 Points
2 Pt Conversion: 2 Points


Sacks:
DL: 5 Points
LB: 5 Points
DB: 7 Points

Interceptions:
DL: 8 Points
LB: 6 Points
DB: 6 Points

Tackles:
DL: 3 Points
LB: 2 Points
DB: 2 Points

Assisted Tackles:
DL: 1.5 Points
LB: 1 Point
DB: 1 Point

Defense (General):
Defensive TD: 6 Points
Pass Defended: 2 Points (LB,DE)
Pass Defended: 1 Point (DB)
Safety: 2 Points
Forced Fumble: 3 Points
Fumble Recovered: 4 Points
Blocked FG: 4 Points
Blocked Punt: 4 Points

Starting Lineups
1- QB
1- RB
2- WRs
1- Flex (WR/RB/TE)
1- TE
1- K
2- DLs
2- LBs
2- DBs
1- D-Flex

Game Tiebreakers:
Regular Season:
1. Bench points
2. Tie Game

Playoffs:
1. Bench Points
2. Season Record
3. Season Points
4. H2H

Playoffs
Regular season ends on week 13 of D-4 Season. Seeding will be determined by:
1. Best Overall Record.
2. Most Points Scored.
3. Win Head-to-Head Match-up.

Quarter Finals (Week 14 of D-4 season):
1 and 2 (Bye)
3 vs. 6
4 vs. 5

Semi Finals (Week 15 of D-4 season):
1 vs. Lowest Seed
2 vs. Remaining team

Pork Bowl (Week 16 of D-4 season):
League Championship & 3rd place game

Payouts:
  
confidential


FUTURE OWNER CLAUSE:
In the event any owner ever decides to leave the league then that owner  must come through the Commish's office with notification. We are  discriminatory as to who we let into the league due to complexity so we  will work with a panel of current owners on any future owner we decide  to invite to the league. (In other words; an exiting owner cannot name a  new owner or sell his team.)