GWDL League Rules Options

[General Zod]

League Definition
1.1 The league will consist of 16 franchises.
1.2 The length of the regular season will be 14 weeks.
1.3 Weekly league games will be played head-to-head against opposing franchises.
1.4 The league will be run on MyFantasyLeague.com.
1.5 The league will consist of two conferences, with two 4-team divisions in each conference.
1.6 Each team will play each division rival twice, each team in the other same conference division once, and 4 non-conference games, for 14 total games.
1.7 The league office will consist of one league commissioner and one deputy commissioner who are in separate conferences.
1.8 The league commissioner is responsible for conducting league business, arbitrating league disputes, recording all draft information, collecting weekly line-ups, compiling the weekly Free Agent pick-up list, and providing weekly reports to franchise owners.
1.9 The deputy commissioner is responsible for communicating league concerns and business to the commissioner and intervening in transactions that involve the league commissioner. If the commissioner is out of contact for any length of time, the deputy commissioner will attend any matters requiring timely action.
1.10 Major rule changes can only be made through a league-wide vote.
1.11 The league commissioner will make minor rule changes.
1.12 League off-season votes require 51% to pass.
1.13 In-season votes, though discouraged, require 75% to pass.
1.14 Owners are encouraged to suggest a change to the rules by contacting the commissioner's office.
1.15 Votes will normally be conducted by e-mail or on the messageboard. Non-returned ballots are not factored into the returns. Off-season votes are due within 7 days. In-season votes are due within 48 hours of the time sent.
1.16 There are certain situations where some leniency is needed or a rule does not address an issue specifically. In these situations, the commissioner will have the final say on the rule or rules in question.

Franchise Ownership

2.1 The cost to own a franchise and participate in the draft is $50.00 in the inaugural 2007 season. 100% of fees (minus cost of MFL.com) will be paid out. See the payment/payout section. Failure to meet the payment deadline will result in a fine of 2 doubloons per day up to 5 days. If dues are not paid within 10 days, a new owner will be sought and the doubloon penalty will be lifted and re-instated for the new owner.
2.2 An owner may only own one franchise.
2.3 Owners can name their franchise whatever they choose. However, since we are trying to create a realistic NFL experience the name should start with a geographic location (city, state, or area), followed by the nickname (ex's- Cleveland Dawgs, Ohio Players, Sonomo Valley Sham-Crushers).
2.4 If an owner chooses to leave the league, is not heard from for two consecutive weeks during the season, one week during the RFA signing period, or 45 days during the off season a replacement owner may be sought.
2.5 Priority will be given to replacements that current owners know from the area.
2.6 If an 'orphaned team' is in the bottom half of the league or is otherwise uncompetitive due to age, injuries, mismanagement, etc. a surrogate owner may be allowed to play in the league without the franchise fee for 1 year. Or, by vote, the incoming owner(s) may be granted a stipend of doubloons upon entering the league.
2.7 Absent extreme circumstances, such as a medical emergency, no refunds of league fees will be given out. Paying league fees implies a commitment to run the team for the full season.

Doubloons

3.1 Doubloons are the official currency of the IFADL.
3.2 Db's are used to bid on Free Agents and may also be used in trade situations.
3.3 Db's not used during the season are carried over to the following season.
3.4 Each team will be awarded 100 dbs in the initial year of the franchise.
3.5 Each team will be awarded 70 dbs before the rookie draft each season thereafter.
3.6 Doubloons are the sole manner to pick up free-agents during the season or the off-season RFA.
3.7 Doubloons will be tracked via the messageboard.
3.8 Each team from the same division as the Super Bowl winner will be awarded two extra doubloons the following spring.
3.9 The weekly high point scoring team will receive a bonus of 2 doubloons.

Tanking

4.1 Tanking is a serious threat to the integrity of a dynasty league. Tanking is the act of submitting a weaker lineup in hopes of improving draft position, or by means of neglecting your team so that you are no longer managing your team. Both negatively affect the league. Under these rules you may never submit an injured person listed as “out” the injury report or a player on a bye week. These players are assured to score zero points. If you have someone on your team that could start in their place you must use them instead. Starting lesser quality players over higher quality players is allowed. However if it is believed that the owner is submitting a lineup in order to lose a game they will also receive the same penalty. Owners have a great deal of freedom to submit lineups they are comfortable with; they can take chances and start players they are comfortable with. This rule is not to make sure that you start your best 16 players but that you keep the league competitive. Owners that break these rules are brought in front of the Commish or a League vote who can enforce a penalty of 1 draft position on the next 1st round pick that they own. If this violation happens more than once in the season the owner will be removed from the league. The Commish will set that teams lineup until a replacement owner is found.

The Rookie Draft

5.1 The GWDL rookie draft will generally start in June to take advantage of the MFL database update.
5.2 The draft will proceed in reverse order based on the previous season’s finish (total points as tie-breaker), with the following two exceptions: the Super Bowl Champion will draft last (regardless of record), and the Super Bowl runner-up will draft second to last (regardless of record). The 6 playoff teams will automatically receive the last 6 draft spots. Teams eliminated the same week will be seeded in reverse order of record (total points as the tie-breaker).
5.3 The draft will last 6 rounds.
5.4 Only rookies will be eligible to be drafted. As defined by the NFL CBA, a Rookie is defined as a person who has never signed a Player Contract with an NFL Club previous to this year. An undrafted Rookie means a Rookie who was eligible for, but not selected in a College Draft. If a player signs a contract, gets cut before playing any games, then resigns with another team, he is now a free agent and loses his rookie status. A player selected in the NFL Supplemental draft is not eligible for our draft(s).
5.5 Trading of draft selections is permitted prior to or during the draft. Teams may trade picks from the current draft and the next immediate future draft only. Once a trade is made between two franchises, both parties must notify the commissioner to validate the trade.
5.6 The draft will be conducted on MFL.com.
5.7 Each team will have 12 hours to make their draft selection. Pre-drafting is available on MFL.
5.8 If an owner fails to submit a draft pick within his/her allocated time, that owner loses the pick.
5.9 If an owner fails to submit a draft pick for a second time, that owner will be replaced.
5.10 If an owner withdraws from the league during the draft, the draft will stop till a new owner is found and begin when the new owner is selected without penalizing the new team.

Rosters

6.1 Each franchise will maintain an in-season active roster with a maximum of 39 players. (not including the DTS)
6.2 It is the owners’ decision on how many players to carry at each position.
6.3 If any team carries less than 39 players, one contract year must be left unallocated for each open roster slot when contracts are assigned. After week 8 this rule is waived.
6.4 During the off-season (day after the fantasy Super Bowl till the 8/5 cutdowns) there will be no roster size limitation.
6.5 All rookies will count against any max roster sizes until ‘DTS day’ –see rule 7.10.
6.6 Roster cutdowns will be performed in three stages: Aug 5th – 55 players (Midnight EST), August 20th – 52 players (Midnight EST), and the final cut down date will be one week prior to the first NFL game at 6:00 PM EST to consist of at max 39 active players, 10 DTS players, and any IR players. On final cut down day, each owner must post a message listing his a) active players, DTS players, and c) IR players, if any. If a team does not meet these deadlines, said team will be docked one (1) db each day until they have done so.


Developmental Taxi Squad

7.1 Each franchise will be allocated a Developmental Taxi Squad.
7.2 The DTS may contain up to ten 1st or 2nd year NFL players who have never been assigned an GWDL contract.
7.3 Contracts are not allocated to DTS players.
7.4 The deadline for announcing DTS players will be one week prior to the first NFL game at 6:00 PM EST.
7.5 Players on the DTS are not eligible to start a game until they are moved onto the active roster.
7.6 Players may be moved from the DTS to the active roster after week 1 providing there is an open roster slot and a contract available. The commissioner must be notified if a DTS player is to be put onto an active roster.
7.7 Players that are moved from the DTS to an active roster must immediately be given a contract and are now available to be in the weekly line-up.
7.8 Once a player is on an active roster (beginning 1 week prior to NFL season), he may not be placed on any DTS again.
7.9 DTS players do not participate in RFA.
7.10 DTS players must be declared by the in-season roster deadline, of one week prior to the first NFL game at 6:00 PM EST. Active roster players may not be moved to the DTS after this time.
7.11 Fas may be placed directly onto the DTS providing they meet all the requirements.
7.12 Traded players may be put onto the DTS only if they were on the other teams DTS before the trade.
7.13 DTS players that are accidentally submitted into a starting line-up will be removed and that team will get 0 points from that position.

Weekly Lineups

8.1 Each franchise may start up to 16 players each week. Lineups must consist of 1 QB, 1 K, 3 DE/DL, 3 LB, 2 CB/S. Also, the 6 RB/WR/TE spots will be filled using one of these 4 options:
A: 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE
B: 2 RB, 2 WR, 2 TE
C: 1 RB, 4 WR, 1 TE
D: 1 RB, 3 WR, 2 TE
8.2 As stated in the section on tanking, owners may not start injured (out) or bye week players, unless they do not have any other options.
8.3 The deadline for naming starters is set by MFL rules, but generally a player is locked approximately 5 minutes before kick-off.
8.4 On Thursday night games, only those players in that night’s game must be submitted. The rest of the lineup will not be due until approximately 5 minutes prior to that weekend’s first game.
8.5 If no starters are named, the previous week’s starters will be used (regardless if the players are active that week or not).
8.6 If an owner does not submit a starting lineup in the playoffs, the commish will not play your lineup and you will forfeit your game.
8.7 Players can only be inserted into a starting line-up at a position for which they are listed on their NFL teams depth chart. The official source for player positions will be NFL.com.

Player Contracts

9.1 Each franchise has a contract cap of 95 years, which cannot be exceeded.
9.2 A player contract is the number of years that the player can remain on your roster without becoming a Restricted Free Agent.
9.3 The deadline for announcing the length of new player contracts will be the last Sunday prior to the first NFL game at 6:00 PM EST. If a team does not meet this deadline, said team will be docked one (1) contract year each day not meeting the deadline. Additionally, any team that makes a transaction during the season that places them over the cap will be docked 1 db per contract year over the cap. If any such player is inserted into a starting lineup, his points will be subtracted from the final score.
9.4 Contract years conclude on January 15.
9.5 All players who had only one year remaining on their contracts on January 15 become Restricted Free Agents (RFA).
9.6 All players who have multiple contract years remaining on January 15 will be reduced by one contract year.
9.7 On January 15, all teams recover any years encumbered by players waived during the year (see section on waivers).
9.7.1 During the offseason, there will be 1 opportunity to cut "bad contracts" and suffer no penalty. 7 days before the designated start of RFA, you may post a list of players to cut on the messageboard. There will be no penalty for cutting players at this time. Any cuts involving a player with a contract after this date will be assessed a 1 year per player penalty (these years are then recovered on January 15 of the following year).
9.8 Free agents acquired during the season must immediately be signed to a contract, unless they meet the DTS standards and are placed on the DTS.
9.9 If any team carries less than 39 players, one contract year must be left unallocated for each open roster slot when contracts are assigned. After week 8 this rule is waived.
9.10 On the Sunday prior to the first NFL game, each owner must post a message on the message board listing: the number of contract years attached to each player on the active roster, on his IR, and the team’s total contract years entering the season (in addition to rule 6.6 requirements). If a team does not meet this deadline, see applicable 9.3 penalties.

Trading

10.1 Trades between teams are unlimited. However, if any trades appear to be one-sided or otherwise unfair, the league owners may be asked to vote whether or not to approve the transaction.
10.2 The commissioner is the only one who may call for such a vote. However, any owner is free to bring any question regarding a trade to the attention of the commissioner. If the commissioner receives 4 requests by e-mail within 48 hours of the trade to put a trade up for vote, he will submit the trade to the 13 (commish does not vote) non-involved owners for a league-wide vote, absent unusual circumstances.
10.3 The commissioner may veto any trade without calling for a vote.
10.4 When a trade is made, BOTH owners must notify the commissioner to make the trade official.
10.5 The trading deadline is ½ hour before the start of the week 10 NFL games.
10.6 Trades will be put on hold for 48 hours from the time of posting on the messageboard, to allow for owner/commissioner inspection. During the RFA period and rookie draft, the 48 hour waiting period does not apply, and trades will be processed immediately.
10.7 Every player traded carries his contract with him, including the current year.
10.8 Traded players contracts will be counted against the total years available to his NEW team and removed from his prior team.
10.9 Any exchange of players between teams cannot leave either team with more than 95 total contract years for all players or exceed the maximum 39 man roster.
10.10 If any trade violates rule 10.9, the commissioner will delay the trade until such time as the affected teams can make room under the contract/roster cap.
10.11 When a conditional trade is made involving dbs, teams must reimburse the party concerned before the start of RFA. If a team fails to have the available dbs to cover said conditions they will be required to:
1.) Sell off players until the debt is eliminated.
2.) Offer a player(s) as compensation.
10.12 Trades that involve more than one draft pick from a future year must be accompanied by team league fees for that same year. Any owner can trade up to one future draft pick. If he/she trades a second future pick (in the same trade, or 2 separate trades) he/she must pay the fees for the future year involved.
10.13 GWDL trading period resumes on February 15.

Free Agency (FA)

11.1 Any player not on a GWDL roster or a DTS is considered a Free Agent.
11.2 There will be 3 free-agent signing periods during the offseason. 1 in late February, 1 in late March, and 1 after the end of the Rookie Draft.
11.3 FA ends when the fantasy playoffs start.
11.4 Doubloons are used to bid on free agents.
11.5 The minimum FA bid is 1db.
11.6 Teams may only bid up to the amount of doubloons they have available.
11.7 Bids must be in whole number increments.
11.8 During the regular season, FA is a weekly process that occurs on Friday evenings at 7pm CST. No pick-ups are allowed after this time until the following Friday. All Commissioner/Co-commish bids are due by Thursday night at midnight CST. The Commissioner/Co-Commish can resubmit his bid by the 7pm CST Friday deadline if a player he bid on in the early bid had his injury status or starting status change after the Thursday night deadline, or if otherwise substantial news breaks late justifying a later bid. All deadlines are Wednesday at 7pm CST on weeks with Thursday night games.
11.9 Bids for FA’s must be submitted via e-mail to the official dummy league account. Bids received by any other means will be rejected.
11.10 The FA weekly process will be conducted in a blind auction manner. (no team will know how much another team is bidding) All bids will remain sealed until Thursday at 7pm CST (Wednesday when Thursday night games are played)
11.11 During the season, bids must contain all of the following: the name of the franchise, the name of the free agent(s) you want to acquire, the amount bid for that player, contract years to assign, a conditional release notice indicating the player you will waive to make room for the new player. Owners can submit conditional picks (ex- “Troy Aikman, if Aikman no longer available, Dan Marino”).
11.12 If more than one team requests the same player, the team submitting the highest bid will acquire that player.
11.13 During the season: In the event that two or more teams submit the same high bid for a player, the commissioner will award the free agent to the team with the worst record followed by the team that has scored the fewest points.
11.14 During the off-season: In the event that two or more teams submit the same high bid for a player, the free agent will be awarded to the team with the worst record the previous year, followed by total points. In the inaugural pre-season, any tie will be broken by a coin toss.
11.15 FA pick-ups must immediately be signed to a contract during the season. An owner cannot formally add the free agent through waivers until he/she assigns a contract to the player that complies with the contract cap.
11.16 Multiple FA request forms will result in only the last one being processed. Submit all requests in one e-mail using the ‘waiver template’, even if attempting to make two transactions. Also, waiver requests without a team name WILL BE IGNORED and are invalid!

Waivers

12.1 When a player is put on waivers, only his current contract year is counted against a franchise’s contract ceiling.
12.2 A team can only get relief for a contract after he is assigned a new contract by any team.
12.3 All future contract years for players that are waived are credited to the team.
12.4 If a franchise waives a player and wishes to reclaim that player, the player in question must clear waivers (be dropped at least 48 hours before that week’s waiver deadline and not picked up by any of the other 15 owners).
12.5 If the owner is successful in reclaiming their player, then the owner has the right to issue a new contract as long as it does not violate the teams contract cap.
12.6 Players who are waived and not signed by any other team during the year will each count as one (1) year against the waiving team’s contract ceiling until January 15. This ‘cap hit’ includes players waived during the off-season – even if the player retires or is physically unable to perform.

Restricted Free Agency (RFA)

13.1 Once a player’s contract expires, he becomes a Restricted Free Agent.
13.2 RFA bidding generally begins April 1 and closes on April 21. No new bids will be accepted after April 21; “bids in process” may continue beyond April 21 until a final offer is reached for a player.
13.3 All RFA bids are made on the message board and each bid must include the player’s name and the amount bid.
13.4 Owners may not raise their own high bids or bid on their own players (see 13.8).
13.5 Once a bid is posted on a player, other interested owners have 24 hours to increase the bid.
13.6 Any owner may join the bidding process within the 24-hour period of the last bid.
13.7 A players’ bids will be closed after 24 hours has passed with no new bids.
13.8 Once a player’s bids are closed, the current owner will then have 24 hours to match the high bid or allow the player to be signed by the highest bidding team.
13.9 Owners may drop out of the bidding process for any individual player at any time unless they have the high bid. They may re-enter the process as long as bidding remains active for the player in question.
13.10 Owners who place bids must have enough db’s available to cover all outstanding high bids.
13.11 If an owner overbids their budget at any time, that owner will be assessed a fine of 20% of his db balance and all players that said team has the high bid will be removed from the board. These same players will remain RFAs and may be placed back on the board with valid bids.
13.12 After the RFA signing period, any players that did not receive bids will remain on the current team’s roster at no cost.
13.13 Restricted Free-agents may not be traded during the RFA bidding period, unless the bidding process has been fully completed on that player. Restricted Free-agents that were not bid on are again eligible to be traded once the RFA period has completed.
13.14 Each year an owner may designate 1 player to be his franchise player whose contract expires, before April 1 RFA.
13.15 Cost to designate a franchise player is 10 DBs each yr (see 13.16)
13.16 Franchise player may be bid on by the league, but said owner only has to pay half the amount of the high bid or 10 DBs (see 13.15) whichever is greater. Owner does not pay both cost (13.15) and high bid, just the greater of the 2.
13.17 If current owner does not have the cash, or chooses not to match high bid of franchise player, said owner receives one half the amount of high bid, plus high bidders 1st round pick in the upcoming rookie draft. If high bid owner does not have a 1st round pick in upcoming rookie draft, said owner pays his highest pick in that draft plus 1st round pick in the next draft.
13.18 If you only have your original 1st round pick, then obviously you forfeit that pick. If you have multiple 1st round picks and one of them is your original, then you forfeit your original 1st regardless of what the other pick is. If you own multiple 1st round picks and none of them are your original then you forfeit the pick that is closest to your original pick in the order…. regardless of direction.
13.18.1 An owner may only acquire one franchised player during a given RFA period.
13.19 If you fail to designate a franchise player before the start of RFA, you lose the right to designate one. Once you name a franchise player, you cannot remove the tag and give it to another player. Once a franchise tag is named, you cannot trade that player during RFA. After RFA, all tags are removed, and players may be traded again.

Injured Reserve (IR)

14.1 Each team has a maximum of 3 Injured Reserve slots.
14.2 When placed on IR, only the player’s current contract year is credited to the team.
14.3 IR is available starting with the August 5th roster cutdown.
14.4 All future contract years for players on IR will continue to count against a franchise’s contract ceiling.
14.5 Once a player is placed on Injured Reserve he must remain there for the remainder of that season.
14.6 Once a player is placed on IR, the club can pick up another player but they must go through the Free Agent channel as with any other pick up. (This essentially allows the signing of another player with that one contract year and active slot)
14.7 At the conclusion of the Super Bowl, all players on IR will become part of the active roster and count towards any off-season roster limits, if any.
14.8 During the season, a player qualifies for the IR by being placed on a NFL PUP list or on the IR officially by an NFL team.
14.9 During the pre-season, a player qualifies for IR by being listed as “out for the year”, in addition to any rule 14.8 eligibility.

Playoffs

15.1 The GWDL playoffs begin on week fourteen (15) of the NFL season.
15.2 The playoffs conclude on week sixteen (17) with the Super Bowl.
15.3 Six teams advance to the post-season: The 4 division winners, and 1 wildcard team in each conference.
15.4 Week 15 will consist of the Wildcard Games: The #1 seeds in each conference will receive byes. The #2 seed will play the wildcard team in each conference.
15.5 Week 16 is the Semi-Finals: The #1 seeds will play the winners of the week 15 games.
15.6 Week 17 is the Super Bowl: week 16 winners.
15.7 The FFCDL tie-breaking system for play-off qualification and seeding is as follows. Teams will first be sorted within their conference and division by the criteria below. The 2 conference winners will always be the top 2 seeds, the 2nd division winner will be the #2 seed, and the wild card wil be the #3 seed.
1. Head-to-head record- including group head to head winning percentage if more than 2 teams.
2. Total Overall Points
3. Conference Record
4. Coin Flip
15.8 Once the 2 division winners in each conference are established using the above criteria, teams vying for the wild-card spot will then be re-seeded from scratch using the above criteria (criteria 3 only used if all tied teams from the same conference). Hence it is a 2-step process, each step being independent of the other.
15.9 All playoff teams with the home field advantage will receive a .5 credit in the event of a tie.
15.10 Sample tie-breaker for a wild-card spot or a conference title:4 teams (A, B, C, D) are tied at 8-5. A & B are 5-3 in group head-to-head, C & D are 3-5. C & D are eliminated. The A & B tie is then broken restarting from step 1 of the tie-breakers. In this hypothetical, A & B split their 2 games at 1-1. B had more overall points. Hence B gets the #1 seed, while A is #2.

Payouts/Payments

16.1 The inaugural 2007 year will cost $50. The payment deadline will be March 1st of each year.
16.2 All fees will be collected in person or through the mail.
16.3 Non-payment within seven days may result in the owner being replaced.
16.4 Payout will be 100% of franchise fees minus the cost of running the MFL.com software- currently around $70.
16.5 All payouts will occur within 2 weeks of the week 17 Super Bowl.
16.6 Payouts will be as follows. League Champ - $380, Runner-Up - $150, Division Winners - $50 each. These figures are assuming a $70 league fee, and may be adjusted as league fees increase.

League Links

17.1 Links to league reports will be posted here as developed- such as list of RFA's, doubloon status, etc..

Inaugural Veteran Draft

18.1 The sole veteran draft will be conducted in 2007. The draft is set to begin on March 25th, at 8am CST. The rookie draft will occur sometime in June, date TBD. Myfantasyleague.com will host the draft.
18.2 The draft will be 33 rounds in a serpentine format.
18.3 Each owner will have 16 hours per selection. Owners may e-mail the Commish if not available to make a selection. If time elapses, the owner skips his pick until the commish or co-commish is notified. At that time, the draft will be stopped, owner will make a pick, and the draft will resume. If two consecutive selections are skipped a replacement owner will be sought.
18.4 Draft order will be set by a random drawing with a minimum of 4 owners (besides the Commish) present.
18.5 Owners may set pre-drafts for upcoming picks on the MFL website.

Scoring

20 yards passing 1
10 yards rushing or receiving 1
TD Pass 4
Interception -2
Rushing or receiving TD 6
Reception 0.5
Fumble lost -2
2 point Reception/Run/Pass 2
QB throws an Int. returned for a TD -1
Field Goal (18-39), (40-49), (50+) 3, 4, or 5
Extra Point 1
Tackle 2
Assisted Tackle 1
Sack 3
Fumble Recovery 3
Forced Fumble 3
Interception 3
Safety 2
Pass Defensed 1.5
Defensive TD 6
Block a Kick 2
Return TD (Punt, Kick, Blocked Kick) 6

19.1 Scoring will be decimal based. (Example, 1 passing yard is worth 0.05 points, 1 rushing yard is worth 0.1 points).
19.2 Offensive players will only receive credit for offensive statistics; defensive players for defensive statistics. Special team return touchdowns will be awarded to the player who scored the TD.
19.3 All stats will be final as of Tuesday at midnight. The NFL occasionally changes stats after the games take place. We will only be including these changes if they occur before Tuesday at midnight.

This post has been edited by General Zod: 4/8/08 9:43pm