BIGFFBL Rules and Regulations  Click here for the scoring system

**Note changes from last year are in RED.

League Setup

• The league will consist of 12 franchises.
• The league will be run by a commissioner who will have control of the league and will make all final decisions.
• The league became a single keeper franchise league for the 2000 draft.

Team Ownership

• Team owners will be determined by the commissioner of the league.
• Teams cannot be owned by more than one person.

Franchise Rules

• Beginning with the 2001 Fantasy season, each team must keep 1 player from his previous roster for the season.
• This player cannot be a defensive team.
• Starting with the 2001 fantasy draft, a lottery system will be used.  The team finishing the previous season with the worst record according to the tiebreaking system will have the best chance to get the #1 overall selection in the following year's draft according to the next chart.
• Lottery picks will only be given to the fantasy teams that don't make the playoffs.

Forfeited Teams

·         ***The League will take over any forfeited team (here fore known as "The Packers") for the remaining portion of the year and will perform lineup adjustments accordingly.  

·         "The League" will be defined as a semi-monthly rotating committee of three (3) owners selected by the commissioner whose teams will not play "The Packers" during those two (2) weeks.  "The League" will not be allowed to make trades when in control of "The Packers", nor make FA moves, but will set the most competitive starting lineup possible for each week in the interest of fair competition for all.

Divisional Setup

·         The league will consist of 12 teams separated into 3 divisions of 4.

·         The divisions were determined by the order of the 2000 draft.

·         Each division will crown a winner according to the tiebreaking system.

Playoff Setup

·         The fantasy playoffs will consist of 4 teams.

·         The 4 teams will be the 3 division winners and 1 wildcard entrant.

·         The wildcard entrant will be the best team according to the tiebreaking system who didn't win their division.

·         All the playoff teams will be reseeded according to the tiebreaking system.

·         1st seed will play 4th seed and 2nd seed will play 3rd seed in the first playoff week.

·         The next week will have winners meeting in the championship and losers meeting for the 3rd place prize. 

Prizes

·         Prizes will be divided up as follows:

·         1st place - Memorial Trophy

·         12th place - a long off season and the much adorned "golden toilet"

End of season Tiebreaking System

Definitions of Tiebreakers....

·         Overall Win % - This one is easy, your regular old winning percentage

·         Divisional Win % - Also easy, your regular old divisional win %

·         Divisional Win % (running total) - Now it is a bit trickier, this is the winning percentage you would have had you played three games each week.  1 game versus each of your 3 divisional opponents.  So for the entire season you would have had 3 times 14 or 42 games.  Now, a couple of clarifications here are that first, the score that is compared to your divisional mates is your score before a tiebreaker is applied.  Also, if there is a tie in these games, it will NOT be broken.  (This is mostly due to the fact that believe it or not I do have some other things to do in my life during September-December other than FFB)

·         Overall Win % (running total) - Same idea as the Divisional running total, just that you will play everyone every week.  So that gives you a total of 11 * 14 or 154 games for the year.

·         JCS - Yes, I coined this one myself.  I came up with it in 2002 during the Wong/Jonny luck/no luck debacle.  This is the "luck factor" number and is found by taking the Overall Win % (running total) and comparing it to your Overall Win %.  This allows us to see how lucky or unlucky you may have been for the year and the team that was the least lucky will win this tiebreaker (Remember, I said ask questions if you are confused and I will be shocked if you are not confused by this point.)

·         Total points - self-explanatory (just a clarification here though, if you have a tie in a single week and that tie is broken, your official weekly score is the pre-tiebreaker score)

·         Coin Flip - either that, paper/rock/scissors or a pie eating contest works for me

Single game tiebreaking system

·         It is much harder than in the past to have a tie in a weekly game.

·         The first tiebreaker will be the total number of touchdowns scored by a team's starters (QB, RBs, WRs, TE, K, D).

·         The second tiebreaker will be the total number of yards (passing, rushing, receiving) by a team's starting QB, RBs, WRs, TE and K.

·         The third tiebreaker will be a coin flip.  It will be best of three and performed with no newer than a 2001 american minted coin with a face value of at least $0.25.  Unless, at the time of the tie, there is legal tender with Donald Trump's depiction, then the tiebreaker will be performed in a winner take all "best of 1" with the most current Trump coin currently available to the general public.

·         **Please ask any questions to clarify these rules so you won't get pissed at me if you must use the tiebreaker and don't understand it***       

Trades/ Free Agent Pickups

·         There will be limited trading throughout the season, until the Wednesday following week 8 NFL games. Each team will be allowed 6 trades, and 3 free agent pickups. Please see the rules below for explanations.

• Rules Governing Trades and Free Agents
  1. Once a player is traded or picked up, he must remain eligible on that roster for 3 fantasy games
  2. Each team may draft up to 3 free agents at any time during the season for any reason.  Free agents will be awarded according to the free agent rules below.
  3. Trades will not be complete until BOTH parties have e-mailed the details outlining the trade to Jeremy_Carlson@hotmail.com
  4. All pickups can be used immediately with the approval of the commissioner, provided they are turned in before any external deadlines.
  5. Each team must always carry 2 QB, 4 RB, 4 WR, 2 TE, 2 K, 2 D and 1 flex player.  Note that the flex player will have a defined position when picked up (for example, Jim Kleinsasser would be either a TE or a RB, not both).
  6. Draft pick positions can be traded.
  7. Draft picks can be traded however you would like.  (1 for 1, 1 for 2, 2 for 3, etc.) If you trade unevenly, you will then either have more or less draft picks than anyone else.
  8. If you have more picks, you will lose your worst picks until you have the proper amount.  (Ex: if you trade your 1st rounder for someone's 3rd and 4th rounders, you'll have 1 pick more than everyone else.  You would then lose your very last pick to make up for the difference.
  9. If you have less picks, you will gain a draft pick at the very end of the draft.  If there are more than one added picks, they will be added in chronological order of when the trades occurred.
  10. Draft pick trades will count against the team's yearly trade allotment.
  11. Exception for the 2001 off season, each team will have 3 available trades for trading draft picks
  12. The trading season begins at the completion of the fantasy season, ends at the fantasy draft, opens again after the draft is completed, and ends again at the mid-season deadline.  So your 6 trades will reset at the completion of the fantasy season.
  13. Players may be traded along with draft picks and can be traded in any quantity, just like draft picks.  (1 for 1, 1 for 3, etc.)
  14. If you trade unevenly, you must immediately use your allotted free agent moves to make sure your roster has the exact number of players.
  15. Your keeper player may be traded during the off season if desired.
  16. Draft picks may be traded an unlimited number of times.  (Ex;  I could trade my 1st pick to Juice, then he could trade it to Jon, ect.)
  17. There is no 3 week waiting period on trading draft picks.
  18. Draft pick trades may only include the following season's picks.
  19. If you trade a player in the off season, that player is your keeper.  You can't trade half your team away and then declare a keeper.  If you trade a player in the off season, it will be stating to the league that you're declaring that player as your keeper (and that the player you're trading for is your new keeper).  So even if you haven't officially declared a keeper, you trading him during the off season is the equivalent of doing so.
  20. Beginning with the 2014 BIGFFBL Draft, the draft order will be run as a standard 1-12, 1-12, 1-12, etc. The 2013 Draft will be the final draft as a serpentine 1-12, 12-1, 1-12, etc.
  21. Trading of future 1st through 5th round draft picks will no longer be allowed.  The purpose of this is to discourage poorly performing teams from dumping their better players in exchange for very high picks for the following year and similarly, to discourage teams from mortgaging their upcoming season to try and 'buy' a better team using their future draft picks as collateral.  6th round and lower picks are still tradable (with the idea that these picks would be used to help 'even up' a player trade) (3/7/14).

Free Agent Pickups

·         Non-drafted players can be picked up at any time by any owner per Yahoo's fantasy football rules.  It is important to note that for fairness to those who may not have a computer in front of them all day on Sunday, these FA pickups are first come-first serve and can be made over the phone/text as well as via email or the website.

·         Dropped players can be picked up 1 fantasy week after they have been dropped - so just to clarify, a guy is not eligible to be picked up off of waivers (more on that in a minute) until the week after he was released.

·         Dropped players can not be picked up after the trade deadline.  Undrafted players may still be picked up throughout the completion of the playoffs.  The reasoning behind this is so teams with poor chances at making the playoffs will not drop their good players to help other teams out.  I know this PROBABLY wouldn't happen but I'm putting this rule in just to ensure it doesn't happen.

·         A waiver system will be in effect for picking up dropped players NOT FOR UNDRAFTED PLAYERS.  The reasons to put in this system is to keep away some of the monkey business that could occur if owners choose to act unethically.  The waiver deadline is per Yahoo's setup for any particular week.  The waiver priority will be determined by the reverse of the wildcard tiebreaking procedure.

·         To request a dropped player, just email/text me with the guy you want to pick up and the guy that you want to drop.  Then when the waiver deadline for the week is up the free agent will be awarded to the proper team.

sports.yahoo.com

• sports.yahoo.com is the official site for stats for our league.  All stats must be done from this site.
• If a backup site is needed, the commissioner will declare it at that time.

11:59 pm Central Standard Time

• This will be the deadline time and time zone for everything.

Starters/Points

• Starters are adjustable per Yahoo's site rules/cutoffs (at this writing that means up to the kickoff of each game for players in those games), unless the commissioner declares otherwise. The Monday Night game will always be considered the last game of the week. Points, if having to be done manually, will be due on Tuesday at 11:59 pm. If your points are not in by then, you lose $5 security money (if applicable). If your points are not in by Wednesday at 11:59 pm, you automatically lose that game plus the $5 security money for not getting points in on time.  If your starters are late, you start the previous week's starters. Failure to get starters or points in on time results in a loss of $5 security money.

Precedence Situations - (aka: scoring wierd situations) - please suggest others

1. The "Double Fumble Touchdown" - This is the situation where Team A (either a conventional offensive team or a kick/punt return team) originates with possession by either snapping the ball or receiving a kick.  Then, Team A either fumbles or throws an interception where Team B (a conventional defensive or kickoff/punt team) obtains possession after which Team B then fumbles or throws an illegal forward pass interception (its possible I guess) where Team A gets possession again and scores a TD.  This type of situation will be scored as follows:  1) Team A's QB (or whomever passed the ball) will be charged with an interception if that is how the initial turnover occurred and Team B will earn either a Defensive/ST interception or fumble recovery.  2) When Team B then turns it over, Team A will earn a Defensive/ST interception or fumble recovery and also a defensive touchdown if they score.  NOTE that the player who scores the TD (likely to be a QB/RB/WR/TE) DOES NOT get those 6 points for the TD.  This is similar to if Randy Moss were to be put in at the end of the half to defend a hail-mary play and picks it off, he would not get the points, but the MN defense would instead.  The Double Fumble Touchdown seems very far fetched, but I believe it affected the outcome of 3 BIGFFBL games in the 2003 season so we needed to get the precedence down.