sportsjabber.net

League Overview

1.1 The league will consist of 12 franchises.

1.2 The length of the regular season will be 13 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 one conference with three divisions.

1.6 Each team will play each team in it’s division twice in the regular season..

1.7 The league office will consist of one league commissioner and one treasurer.

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. – TJ Ford (Redcliff Maple Leafs)

1.9 A deputy commissioner will be appointed by league commissioner should the commisioner be unavailable for a certain period of time and will be responsible for communicating league concerns and business to the commissioner and intervening in transactions that involve the league commissioner. – Undetermined

1.10 Major rule changes can only be made through a league-wide vote.

1.11 The league commissioners will make minor rule changes in the off-season only.

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. There will then be discussion in a forum, chat, and poll if needed.

1.15 Votes will normally be conducted by the Polls at the SJD League site. 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 commissioners will have the final say on the rule or rules in question. A rule will then be put into action to address the concerned situation to prevent this from happening again in the future.

Franchise Ownership

2.1 The cost is undetermined at the moment but at a minimum will encompass MFL.com fees (approximately $70)

2.2 An owner may only own one franchise. Co-Owners are allowed.

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-El Paso Maraders).

2.4 If an owner chooses to leave the league, is not heard from for two consecutive weeks during the season, two weeks during the RFA signing period, or 60 days during the off season a replacement owner will be sought. (If you will be out of town simply let the commish know) The Commish will make an attempt to locate the owner but it is the owners responsability to check his team.

2.5 Priority will be given to replacements that current owners know. If a suitable owner cannot be found, a posting will be placed on the appropriate board asking for applicants at http://sportsjabber.net If warranted, a the new owner may be granted FBD to the average of the top 3 teams.

2.6 If an ‘orphaned team’ is in the bottom half of the league or is otherwise uncompetitive due to age, injuries, etc. a surrogate owner may be allowed to play in the league without the franchise fee for 1 year. Or league will attempt to obtain half franchise fee if commissioners believe this franchise is an up and coming team due to draft picks, strong DTS, or young promising roster. Full payment will be requested on all new owners taking over franchises. This only applies if an owner can not be sought before the beginning of RFA. Time table on RFA will not begin until replacement owner has been found for orphaned franchise/s

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.

2.8 After the first season, League fees are due one week before RFA.

FBD

3.1 FBD are the official currency of the SJD

3.2 FBD are used to bid on Free Agents and may also be used in trade situations.

3.3 FBD not used during the season are carried over to the following season.

3.4 Each team will be awarded 100 FBD in the initial year of the franchise.

3.5 Each team will be awarded 75 FBD a week after the Championship game.

3.6 FBD are the sole manner to pick up free-agents during the season or the off-season RFA.

3.7 .FBD will be tracked in the place holder under IR on each roster. It will appear as a dollar amount

Tanking

4.1 Tanking is a serious threat to the integrity of SJD. Tanking is the act of submitting a weaker lineup in hopes of improving draft position, or by means of neglecting you team so that you are no longer managing your team. Both negatively effect 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 submiting a lineup in order to lose a game they will also recieve 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 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 Draft

5.1 The SJD rookie draft will start at a determined date after the Annual NFL Draft.

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 SJD Champion will draft last, (regardless of record) and the SJD runner-up will draft second to last (regardless of record). Starting 2006, the 4 playoff teams will automatically receive the last 4 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 5 rounds and will be a straight draft like the NFL, worst to first.

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. Rookies on the Taxi Squad can be traded to another Taxi Squad without getting a contract.

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.
Following the 2006 rookie draft, owners will be allowed to trade picks from the next 2 yrs drafts, in doing so said owners must do so in accordance with rules 10.12 – 10.15.

5.6 The draft will be conducted on MFL.com.

5.7 Type of draft a live draft with 24 hour time limit.

5.8 If an owner fails to submit a draft pick within his/her allocated time, that owner loses the pick to the end of that round. If an owner again fails to pick within the allocated time, owner loses the pick all together for that round.

5.9 If an owner fails to submit a draft pick for a second time after losing a pick all together, 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

5.11 The Initial Draft Order will be determined using the “Draftrandomizer” at http://www.profantasysports.com. Owners will recieve an email of the randomizers results.

5.12 The Initial Draft order will be used for the VET draft. The rookie draft order will be the reverse of the vet draft order.

5.13 The Initial Draft will be set for 30 rounds.

5.14 The first 30 rounds will be for Vets. These will appear as 2009 draft picks.

5.15 The 2009 rookie draft will appear as 2009 draft picks round 31-35

Rosters

6.1 Each franchise will maintain an in-season active roster with a maximum of 25 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 25 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 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 The final cut down date for rosters will be one day after final NFL Roster Cuts at 6:00 PM EST to consist of at max 25 active players, 8 DTS, 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) T-Note each day until they have done so.

6.7 There will be only one lineup package allowed.
Pro Set 1QB,2RB,3WR,1TE,1K,1DT

Developmental Taxi Squad (DTS)

7.1 Each franchise will be allocated a Developmental Taxi Squad.

7.2 The DTS may contain up to 8. NFL Players may be on your DTS for up to 3 full seasons who have never been assigned a SJD contract.

7.3 Contracts are not allocated to DTS players.

7.4 The deadline for announcing DTS players will be one day after fibal NFL Roster Cuts 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 via the messageboard or email, must be notified if an 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.

7.14 Once a players 3rd season expires on your DTS, or the end of his 3rd season, you have until April 1, to assign him a contract or allow him to become a FA. he will never be a RFA, as he never had a contract on your team.

7.15 Only a rookie in his rookie yr can be placed on your DTS, not a 2nd or 3rd yr player who was never on any other roster previously.

Player Contracts

9.1 Each franchise has a contract cap of 60 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 Friday 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 FBD 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 the Day after the Championship game.

9.5 All players who had only one year remaining on their contracts on this date become Restricted Free Agents (RFA).

9.6 All players who have multiple contract years remaining on this date will be reduced by one contract year.

9.7 January 15, all teams recover any years encumbered by players waived during the year (see section on waivers).

9.8 Free agents acquired during the season must immediately be signed to a contract.

9.9 If any team carries less than 25 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 Friday 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 Either of the 2 commissioners are 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 commissioners. If the commissioner receives 3 requests by e-mail within 48 hours of the trade to put a trade up for vote, we will submit the trade to the 10 non-involved owners for a league-wide vote, absent unusual circumstances. Vote must be 1 plus 50% who vote. Thus if everyone votes, leaving 10 non involved owners, 8 votes are required to Veto if a vote is called. Obviously if only 10 people vote, then only 6 votes are needed to veto. So to be heard, every vote counts and is encouraged to be cast regardless of your opinion of the trade, if a veto is called on by the league….

10.3 The commissioners may veto any trade without calling for a vote if its not in the best interest of both teams or is detrimental to the league as a whole. Both Commissioners must agree the trade is not appropriate for rule 10.3 to be enforced

10.4 When a trade is made, BOTH owners must notify the commissioner to make the trade official. The trade will be approved or denied at the SJD site. Owners should have the trade in the system at SJD prior to posting a thread.

10.5 The trading deadline is 1/2 hour before the start of the week 12 NFL games..

10.6 Trades will be put on hold for 24 hours from the time of posting on the messageboard, to allow for owner/commissioner inspection. This rule is waived during the draft. The commish will post the trade if the owners have not. The trade may be reversed in the next 24 hours if found to be in violation of any rules missed by Commish initially.

10.7 Every player traded carries his contract value 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 60 total contract years for all players or exceed the maximum 25 man active roster or 8 man DTS.

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 FBDs teams must reimburse the party concerned before the start of RFA. If a team fails to have the available FBDs 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 if this puts said owner under 5 picks for future draft. An owner must carry 5 draft picks into the next rookie draft, and 1 must be a top 3 round pick, or next yrs dues are required.

10.13 The SJD trading period resumes on February 15.

10.14 You must keep up to 5future picks in the first upcoming rookie draft including 1 of the top 3 rounds, or you must pay dues for the next yr before any trade will be approved. Drafts picks kept do not have to be your own to fit this criteria, as long as you have a pick in rounds 1-3, and 5 total.

10.15 Picks the 2nd upcoming draft may be traded, but dues must be paid for 2 yrs in advance for any pick that is moved before the start of the 1st upcoming rookie draft that violates rules 10.14. Once the first upcoming rookie draft begins, the 2nd upcoming rookie draft becomes the first upcoming rookie draft, and so on.

10.16 Picks 3 drafts in advance may not be traded. Trades may only involve upcoming draft and 2nd upcoming draft picks. Once upcoming draft begins, 2nd upcoming draft becomes first upcoming draft and so on…

10.17 Picks use in trading for players or draft picks are limited to 2 draft picks per trade, per team, per trade

Free Agency (FA)

11.1 Any player not on a DW roster or a DTS is considered a Free Agent.

11.2 FA begins tenatively the first Thursday after the rookie draft, unless sufficient time is not available. In addition, requests will be processed in the off-season on 2/1 and 3/15.

FA dates:
Feb 1
March 15
First Thursday after the rookie draft
First and 3rd Thursdays in June/July
Bi-weekly beginning on 1st Thursday in August
Weekly once season begins
FA ends last week of Reg season until Feb 1 the next yr

11.3 FA ends when the fantasy playoffs start.

11.4 FBDs are used to bid on free agents.

11.5 The minimum FA bid is 1 FBD.

11.6 Teams may only bid up to the amount of FBDs they have available.

11.7 Bids must be in whole number increments.

11.8 FA is a weekly process that occurs on Thursday evenings at 7pm EST. No pick-ups are allowed after this time until the following Thursday. All Commissioner/Co-commish bids are due by Wednesday night at midnight EST. The Commissioner/Co-Commish can resubmit his bid by the 7pm EST Thursday deadline if a player he bid on in the early bid had his injury status or starting status change after the Wednesday night deadline, or if otherwise substantial news breaks late justifying a later bid. All deadlines are accelerated 24 hours on weeks with Thursday night games.

11.9 Bids for FA?s must be submitted on the blind bid waiver site at the league site on MFL. 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 EST (Wednesday when Thursday night games are played)

11.11 During the season, please include the years you wish to sign your FA to in the comments section. If you do not enclose years with your bid and fail to notify the commish of your actions, the FA will be released and you will be charged the FBD amount.

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 system 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 auction, with first owner to submit email to account starting the bid by $1 more than his original bid, and so on until player is claimed.

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

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 11 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 the day after the Championship game. This ‘cap hit’ includes players waived during the off-season – even if the player retires or is physically unable to perform.

Restricted Free Agents (RFA)

13.1 Once a player’s contract expires, he becomes a Restricted Free Agent.

13.2 RFA bidding begins April 1 [see rule 2.6]and closes on April 30. No new bids will not be accepted after April 30; “bids in process” may continue beyond April 30 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 and may not bid on their own players (see 13.^.

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, trade said player, 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 T-Notes 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 FBD 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 be traded for cash, picks or other players at any time, until the RFA is no longer part of your team.

Franchise Tags [Restricted free agency cont']

13.14 – Each yr 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 FBD each year, which
is non-refundable. (see 13.16)

13.16 – Franchise player may be bid on by the league. The minimum bid
on another owner’s Franchised Player is 22 FBDs, but said owner only
has to pay half the amount of the high bid. The initial 10 FBD FP
payment is the equivalent of a 20 TFBD. If a minimum qualifying bid
is made on that player, the original owner only has to pay half the
difference between 20 FBD and the amount of the high bid. (eg: high
bid is 30 FBD, original owner must pay 5 more FBD to retain said
player.)

13.17 – If current owner does not have the cash, or chooses not to
match high bid of franchise player, said owner receives amount of high bid,
plus high bids draft pick(s) as follows:

13.17a. The next rookie draft 1st round pick between 1.1 and 1.6. If
high bidder does not have 1.1 through 1.6 in the next draft, 13.17b is
used for compensation.

13.17b. The next rookie draft 1st round pick between 1.7 and 1.12, plus
any second round pick (if there are more than one) of the high bidder’s
choosing.

13.17c. 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. [rule 10.14, 13.17a and 13.17b apply here]
If said owner does not have a 1st round pick in 2nd upcoming draft, he
pays his highest pick in that draft as well and his 1st round pick in
the 3rd upcoming draft. [rule 10.15, 13.17a and 13.17b apply here] High
bid owner could be out up to 4 draft picks if he chooses to trade his
1st round picks, and bid on opposing owners franchise players.

13.8 If a bid has been in over 24 hrs but we haven?t had time to close it, new bids will not count. And the current owner has 24 hrs from when we close the bid with a post, saying closed.

Injured Reserve (IR)

14.1 Each team will have 3 IR spots

14.2 For a player to eligable for IR they must be on the IR in the NFL

14.3 Once on IR the player is out for the season.

Play-Offs

15.1 SJD play-offs begin on week Fourteen (14) of the NFL season.

15.2 The play-offs conclude on week sixteen (16) with the Championship Game.

15.3 Six teams advance to the post season. Two division winners and four Wild Card teams as determined by:

First Criteria:Overall winning Percentage
Second Criteria:Most points for season
Third Criteria:Most points against season to date
Fourth Criteria:Head to head (2 teams only)
Fifth Criteria: Virtual Coin Toss

15.4 Week 15 will consist of games seed #1vs. #4 and #2 vs.#3.

15.5 Week 16 is the Championship game: week 15 winners.

15.6 The losers in week 15 will face to find a winner for the 3rd place.

15.7 During the playoffs teams will pick one bench player as a tie breaker.

Consolation

16.1 Teams that do not make the playoffs will play each other in a consolation bracket that will not affect the draft order.