League Play

Two separate leagues would be run with the same roster and starting line up. They are
a. Points League
b. Head-to-head (H2H) League




Starting Line-ups

Each team would set a starting lineup for every week of the NFL regular season. A player could be included in the starting line up from within 5 minutes of the start time of the game the player would be playing. If the game has already been started or if there is less than 5 minutes, the player may not be included in the starting line up.

For example: If Carolina begin their match at 1 PM EST, Jake Delhomme cannot be included as a starter after 12:55 PM EST.

Each team can fill up a position only once every week. If a player has started a position, he cannot be replaced till the next week.

For example: If a manager has both Byron Leftwich and Damon Huard in his/her team, and coincidentally, Jacksonville play on Sunday and Kansas City play on Monday, a manager cannot start Leftwich on Sunday, and then start Huard on Monday.

However, if a manager has Chris Chambers and Mark Clayton in his/her team, and Miami play on Sunday while Baltimore play on Monday, a manager can start Chris Chambers as WR1 on Sunday and start Mark Clayton as WR2 or Flex on Monday.

Points League

The Points League runs from Week 1 to Week 17 of the NFL Regular Season. Each week, every manager sets a starting line up and the players score points for their manager based on the scoring system. At the end of the 17th week, the team with the maximum points is declared the 'Points League Champion'.

Head-to-Head League

The H2H League runs from Week 1 to Week 16 of the NFL Regular Season. It comprises of H2H Regular Season (Week 1 to Week 13 of NFL Regular Season) and H2H Playoffs (Week 14 to Week 16 of NFL Regular Season).

Each manager would go against another manager in the league based on an agreed upon schedule.

Regular Season

The League is split to 2 conferences. The American Football Conference and The National Football Conference with 5 teams in each conference. During the H2H Regular Season, each team would play all teams in their conference twice and all teams in the other conference once. Each match could end in a win, loss or tie (half-win, half-loss). The team that gets the maximum number of points that week is the winner. After a total of 13 regular season games, the H2H enters the Playoffs.

Playoffs

During the H2H Playoffs, two parallel Bowl Series are run. The Championship Bowl and the Super Bowl.



Champions Bowl Series
6 teams participate in the Championship Bowl. At the end of the H2H regular season, 2 Conference Champions (Seeds 1 & 2), 2 Conference Runner-ups (Seeds 3 & 4) and 2 Wild Card Teams (Seeds 5 & 6 - based on Maximum Points Scored by a non-Conf-Champ/non-Conf-Runner) are chosen.

Week 14 - Seed 3 vs Seed 6 - Seed 4 vs Seed 5
Week 15 - Seed 1 vs Lowest Remaining Seed - Seed 2 vs Highest Remaining Seed
Week 16 - Champions Bowl - Winner 1 from Week 15 vs Winner 2 from Week 15

Super Bowl Series

The remaining four teams are seeded 7 to 10.
Week 14 - Seed 7 vs Seed 10, Seed 8 vs Seed 9
Week 15 - Super Bowl - Winner 1 from Week 14 vs Winner 2 from Week 14

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League Rules

I. Objective of the game
The objective of the game is to win the league depending on the criteria defined by the league. A league could be one of two formats.
a. Points League - where the manager of the team with the maximum points at the end of the Regular Season wins the league.
b. Head-to-Head League - where the manager of the team that wins the Super Bowl at the end of the Regular Season and the Playoffs wins the league.

The current league is to be played in both Points League and Head-to-Head League format. The same roster and starting line up would be used for both leagues.



II. The League

MAX_TEAMS - 8
MAX_MANAGERS - 1
MAX_CMNR - 1
MAX_SEASON 1
MAX_ROSTER 16
MAX_QB 3
MAX_RB 6
MAX_WR 6
MAX_TE 3
MAX_K 3
MAX_DEF 3

The League consists of MAX_TEAMS number of teams with MAX_MANAGERS Manager(s) managing the affairs of the team. The League itself is managed by MAX_COMNR Commissioner(s) who must be one of the Managers. A League is governed by all the rules that are specified here in. A change to an existing rule or addition of a new rule should be made after unanimous approval from the League members. In case there is no unanimous decision, the changes must be made only after an approval with majority votes favoring the decision.

Each team have a maximum of MAX_QB Quarter Backs, MAX_RB Running Backs, MAX_WR Wide Receivers, MAX_TE Tight Ends, MAX_K Kickers and MAX_DEF Team Defense units.

III. The Teams

The League is made up of MAX_TEAMS number of teams. Each team can draft up to MAX_ROSTER number of players to fill in their Roster. There is no restriction on player positions, but every team is expected to start players at every position required. Hence, there exists a minimum number of players to be drafted in each position.

III. The Commissioner

The Commissioner is the over all manager of the league. The Commissioner would be the arbiter of any disputes between teams in the league. Any change to be made to the league itself would have to be initiated by the Commissioner and cannot be decided by him/her arbitrarily.

The Commissioner must be a manager in the league and the tenure for the post would be MAX_SEASON season(s). The post would then rotate between the various managers in the league.

IV. Managers

Each Team has a Manager who is responsible and authorized to do the following
a. Draft members and fill up the rosters.
b. Set starting line ups every week
c. Release or Sign players every week in tune with Waiver regulations
d. Trade for players every week in tune with Trade regulations

V. Regular Season

The regular season for the league begins on the same day as the regular season begins for the NFL. The season for the league ends on the same day the regular season ends for the NFL. The NFL playoffs do not form part of the league.

VI. Drafts

A draft is the process by which managers fill in their roster spots. The draft is usually serpentine with the draft order reversing every round. For the first year, the draft order would be determined on the birth date (not month or year) of the managers with the manager with smallest number getting to pick first. From the next year onwards, the draft order would be determined on the previous year's standings with the last pick team picking first in the first round.

A draft could be done in four ways
a. live draft in person
b. live draft online
c. live draft using mails
d. automated draft using player rankings
The draft method would be chosen based on the number of days left for the season to begin and the comfort of the members. A draft would typically last MAX_ROSTER rounds.

All undrafted players enter the Waiver Wire immediately.

VII. Starting Lineup & Roster Size
A starting lineup would contain the following
a. Quarter Back - 1
b. Running Back - 2
c. Wide Receiver - 2
d. Flex Player - RB/WR - 1
e. Tight End - 1
f. Kicker - 1
6. Team Defense - 1

A roster is expected to contain up to MAX_ROSTER players with everyone other than the starting members staying on the bench.

VIII. Points System
The points system is available from the League home page.

IX. General Rules

The general rules applicable for this league can be accessed from the Yahoo! Fantasy Football Rules page.

X. Trades

Any manager can propose a trade to any other manager by using a said mechanism. The other
manager can accept, decline or make a counter offer. If no action is taken within 10 days of the trade offer, the trade automatically gets declined.

Once a trade has been accepted, the trade becomes a "pending trade", the league is informed about it and managers have up to two days to request for a review of the "pending trade". If 1/3rd of the managers (4 managers in our league with 10 teams) vote against the trade, the trade is voided. After two days, the trade is considered accepted and roster changes would be made automatically. Thus, a trade moves from "pending trade" to "accepted trade".

A player cannot be in more than one pending trade. ie, if two managers have already agreed on a trade and it is currently in front of the league for examination, such player cannot be involved in another trade. A manager can be in a maximum of 5 pending trades.

There is no deadline to trade players. They can be traded throughout the entire season.

XI. Waivers
A player is waived by a team due to lack of performance, injury or to free up a roster spot. Upon being waived, a player enters the Waiver Wire and stays there for 2 days. During this time, the managers (including the one who waived the player, if s/he had a change of heart) can lay claim on this player. Once the player leaves the waiver wire, the claims will be processed. If more than one manager has bid for the same player, the manager with the "best waiver priority" will get the player. Players who have been waived, but not claimed from the wire will enter the Free Agents pool after the waiver deadline.

A 'Can't Cut' list needs to be maintained to avoid star players being released in the market after the respective manager's season is all but over.

XII. Free Agents

A Free Agent is a player who has been undrafted or waived by a team and not picked during the next round of Waiver Wire. Any team is free to draft any player once he has entered the Free Agents pool. The priority would be on a First-Come-First-Serve basis, unlike the Waiver Wire. If the team has MAX_ROSTER players in the roster already, a player from the roster list has to be waived to accommodate the free agent.

XII. Glossary

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Tie Breakers & Playoffs

Tie Breakers

At the end of the regular season of fantasy football (week 14), 6 teams would be picked for the Championship League. That would be done in the following order

2 Conference Champions, 2 Conference Runner-ups, 2 Wild Cards



Conference Champions & Runner-ups



If two teams have the best win-loss record in the same conference, the following would be used as tie breaker. Any time when a tie is broken, the team that wins is considered to have won the tie and the analysis stops.

1. Best head to head record in matches between the two tied teams (To ensure the best of the two)
2. Best win-loss-tie record against other teams in the same conference (To ensure the best in the conference)
3. Total points won (Using the Points League standings)
4. Ratio of total points won against total points against up to 4 decimal points (this is placed behind 'total points won' because, in fantasy league, a manager does not have a control over how many points his/her opponent can score unlike the NFL where a defense has the chance to limit the other team's scoring)

If three or more teams have the best win-loss record in the same conference, the following rules are used to identify the top team. When the tie is broken, one team is selected and if only two teams remain, it reverts to the two-teams-tie-resolution steps referred above.

1. Best head-to-head record in matches between the tied clubs
2. Best win-loss-tie record against other teams in the same conference
3. Total points won
4. Ratio of total points won against total points allowed

Wild Card Teams

After performing the above two steps, the Conference Champion and Conference Runner-ups from the two conferences would have been identified.

To select one wild card team from each conference, the Manager with the highest points who is neither a Conference Champion nor a Conference Runner up is selected as the wild card candidate from that conference.

If two or more teams have the same number of points, the following rules will be considered for tie breakers. Once the tie is broken, the winner is identified and the process stops.

1. The ratio of total points won against total points allowed upto four decimal points
2. Best head to head record between the tied teams
3. Best conference record between the tied teams

Seeding for the playoffs


Seeds 1 and 2 - The two Conference Champions would be seeded 1 and 2. The Conference Champion with the best win-loss-tied record between the two champions would be seeded 1. If they have the same win-loss-tie record, the following rules would be considered to seed them

1. Head-to-head matches between the clubs
2. Total points won

Seeds 3 and 4 - The two Conference Runner-ups would be seeded 3 and 4. The Conference Runner-up with the best win-loss-tied record between the two would be seeded 3. If they have the same win-loss-tie record, the same rules, as above, would be considered

Seeds 5 and 6 - The two Wild Card entries would be seeded 5 and 6. The team with the highest points between the two would be seeded 5. If they are of the same points, the same rules used in "wild card teams" above will be used.

Super League Seedings

The four remaining teams from both conferences would be seeded according to the best win-loss-tie percentage. If two or more teams are of the same percentage, the following rules shall be applied

1. Best win loss tie record from head-to-head meetings of the clubs involved
2. Total points scored
3. Ratio of total points scored against total points allowed

During the playoffs and seedings, if a tie exists after all the said clauses have been exhausted, the following shall be considered.

1. Team with maximum TDs (offensive and defensive)
2. Team with maximum Rushing TDs (offensive)
3. Team with maximum Passing TDs (offensive)
4. Team with maximum total offensive yards
5. Team with maximum total offensive rushing yards
6. Team with maximum total offensive passing yards
7. Coin toss (somehow :-D)


Ties During Regular Season Matches

If two teams have the exact same number of points after a league match, the following rules shall be applied

1. Team with maximum TDs (offensive and defensive)
2. Team with maximum Rushing TDs (offensive)
3. Team with maximum Passing TDs (offensive)
4. Team with maximum total offensive yards
5. Team with maximum total offensive rushing yards
6. Team with maximum total offensive passing yards

In case there is a tie after all the six clauses, the match shall be declared a tie.

Win-Loss-Tie Percentage

A WLT percentage is calculated as follows

WLT % = Total number of wins / Total number of games played.
A tie is considered half-a-win.

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