be split up into two divisions of five, the Eastern Division and Western Division. "The League's" two divisions will be realigned every five seasons, starting with the 2025 season. We will use a random process to realign divisions when the offseason begins in a year of realignment. Those divisions, which have been in use since 2009, were as follows through the 2018 season:



East
David Kiarsis
Jason Lavine
Alex Mason
Pat McDermott
Keith Rakus

 

West
Jamie Ansorge
Jamie Comolli
Kevin Kiarsis
Joe Melillo
Scott Sample

​

2019-2028

East
Jamie Ansorge

David Kiarsis
Kevin Kiarsis

Keane Ryan

Scott Sample

​

West
Jamie Comolli

Jason Lavine
Alex Mason
Pat McDermott

Joe Melillo

​

Section 2 - Schedule

 

 As long as there are 10 members of “The League,” the schedule will be created under the following primary rules: 

• Every team will play each of their four division opponents twice per season.

• Every team will play each of their five non-division opponents once per season.

• Every team will play one of their five non-division opponents a second time based on a rolling cadence that attempts to pit higher-seeded teams from the previous season's final standings against each other and lower-seeded teams from the previous season's final standings against each other. Each team will play each non-division team a second time once every five seasons. 

• The champion from the previous season's first nine weeks will be as follows:

  • Vs. second-place finisher from previous season​

  • Vs. third-place finisher from previous season

  • Vs. fourth-place finisher from previous season

  • Vs. fifth-place finisher from previous season

  • Vs. sixth-place finisher from previous season

  • Vs. seventh-place finisher from previous season

  • Vs. eighth-place finisher from previous season

  • Vs. ninth-place finisher from previous season

• The Sacko from the previous season's first nine weeks will be as follows:

  • Vs. ninth-place finisher from previous season​

  • Vs. eighth-place finisher from previous season

  • Vs. seventh-place finisher from previous season

  • Vs. sixth-place finisher from previous season

  • Vs. fifth-place finisher from previous season

  • Vs. fourth-place finisher from previous season

  • Vs. third-place finisher from previous season

  • Vs. second-place finisher from previous season

• The week-to-week schedule will be built around the final two rules above with higher-seeded teams from the previous season's final standings playing a more difficult early season schedule than teams that finished lower. 

 

​

Section 3 - Playoffs

 

As long as there are 10 members of “The League,” the playoffs will feature six teams. The two division winners will be guaranteed byes regardless of record and the next three best teams will be wild cards. The sixth and final seed will be awarded to the highest-scoring team outside the top-five in the standings. The third-place game will decide the involved teams’ position in the draft-pick selection process, with the winning team earning the third spot. The fifth-place game will decide the involved teams’ position in the draft-pick selection process, with the winning team earning the fifth spot. Division tiebreakers will be division record followed by points scored followed by head-to-head-record followed by a coin toss. Wild card tiebreakers will be points scored followed by head-to-head record followed by a coin toss. Playoff tiebreakers will be determined by seeding.

​

The semifinal round of the playoffs will be reseeded. 

 

The consolation bracket will be played to determine the position in the draft-pick selection process of the four teams in the bracket. The winner of the consolation bracket will be first in the order, the loser of the consolation bracket championship will be second in the order, the winner of the consolation bracket consolation game will be third in the order, and the final team will be fourth in the order.

 

The team that finishes last will also be deemed “The Sacko." This season's Sacko punishment with be icing yourself on the Draft Day video conference. The Sacko will be required to chug an additional Smirnoff Ice for each additional loss it suffered relative to the ninth-place finisher.

 

Section 4 – Locking eliminated teams

 

When a team is officially eliminated during postseason play — this only applies to the two quarterfinal losers — that team will be locked and will no longer be permitted to make any roster moves. 

​

Once the postseason begins (the Tuesday following Week 13) only teams that are still alive in the championship bracket will be allowed to make waiver claims. Once waivers process during finals week, teams playing in the third-place game will be able to add free agents as normal.

​

The four teams playing in the consolation bracket will be locked from making any roster adds or drops until the Sunday of the two consolation bracket weeks.



Section 5 - Waiver wire

 

“The League” will use the Free Agents Acquisition Budgets (FAAB) waivers system. In a FAAB waiver system, each manager receives $100 to place blind bids on waived players. The manager with the highest bid at the end of the waiver period claims that player and that bid amount is deducted from the team's acquisition budget. If multiple managers place an equal bid on a player, a continual rolling list tiebreaker is used.​ After using a continuous waivers system during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, "The League" returned to a first-come, first-serve free agency system following the weekly waivers. Weekly waivers will process on Thursdays.

 

Section 6 – Thursday games

 

Players who play in Thursday games will be put on waivers at the beginning of said game and teams will not be allowed to pick up these players until the following normal waiver period.



Section 7 - Lineups

 

As long as there are 10 members of “The League,” lineups will be as follows:

1 QB
3 WR
2 RB
1 TE
2 W/R/T
1 Q/W/R/T
7 Bench

2 Injured Reserve

​

The use of the IR roster spot will be restricted to players deemed IR-eligible by Yahoo. The site allows owners to place players with an "out" designation in that spot, but you will not be permitted to make that roster move.

​

The only exception to the above rule is if a player suffers a major injury and clearly will be placed on injured reserve by his real-life team, but said team takes too long to officially make the roster move. The implementation of this rule will be at the discretion of the commissioner. 



Section 8 - Scoring settings

 

Scoring settings will be as follows. These can be altered by a league vote each offseason.

Offense
Passing yards – 25 yards per point; 3-point bonus at 350 yards
Passing touchdowns – 6 points
Interceptions thrown – -2 points
Rushing yards – 10 yards per point; 4-point bonus at 100 yards; additional 2-point bonus at 150 yards; additional 2-point bonus at 200 yards
Rushing touchdowns – 6 points
Receiving yards – 10 yards per point; 3-point bonus at 100 yards; additional 1-point bonus at 150 yards; additional 1-point bonus at 200 yards
Receiving touchdowns – 6 points
Receptions – 1 point
Return yards – 15 yards per point
Return touchdowns – 6 points
2-point conversions – 2 points
Fumbles lost – -2 points
Offensive fumble return touchdown – 6 points

 

Section 9 – Trade deadline

 

“The League’s” trade deadline will be the Friday or Saturday of Week 11, meaning teams will be able to trade for 79 percent of the season and leaving a month for the final playoff push with your roster as is.



Article 2 - Offseason

 

Section 1 – Offseason timeline

 

The offseason will officially begin on June 1 of each year. The first order of business each offseason will be picking draft order, outlined in Article 3, Section 3 of “The League’s” Constitution. Once that is completed, teams will be allowed to trade players and draft picks up to and through Draft Day. The only offseason trade deadline will be a keeper trade deadline. Once keepers are selected, outlined in Article 3, Section 2 of “The League’s” Constitution, players who are not kept are no longer trade eligible. Draft picks and players who are kept can be traded up to and through Draft Day.

 

Section 2 - Keepers

 

Keepers will be selected on Draft Day. The rules and guidelines for selecting keepers and the keeper system are as follows:

​

"The League" has decided to reset keepers following the 2024 season and prior to the 2025 draft. The primary keeper rule for the 2025 season and beyond will be as follows: "The League" will reset keepers every five seasons, and each owner will be permitted to keep one player during the reset season instead of the normal three players. One additional rule passed following the 2023 season is following the reset, keepers will increase two rounds every year they are kept instead of one. 

 

Every team can keep a maximum of three players. You can obviously keep two, one or zero if that’s what you want to do. Whoever you keep will be assigned the draft pick he was chosen with this year in next year’s draft. If a player is kept for multiple years, his draft-pick value increases every year. If I keep a player who I drafted in the sixth round, he will be a sixth-round pick next year and I lose that pick in the draft. If I keep him again the following year, he’ll be a fifth-round pick and I will lose that pick in the draft. The only exception to who you can keep is that you cannot keep first- or second-round picks. Also, if you want to keep two players who were drafted in the same round (say you made a trade, or picked someone up that someone else dropped or a drafted player and a free-agent player’s draft rounds overlap) you can keep both if you want, but you will be penalized — one player moves up a round. For example, if you want to keep two eighth-round picks, one becomes a seventh-round pick. The only exception to this rule is you cannot keep two third-round picks because that would make one move up to a second rounder, which you cannot keep. Once a player’s keeper value is increased due to this rule, he continues to move up throughout the draft in subsequent seasons as per the standard keeper rules.

 

Free-agent acquisitions are assigned in the 8-12 round range based on how many points they scored in that season. Twelfth rounders will be players that scored less than 150 points. The round assignments then increase by 50-point increments. Players who scored in the 150-200 point range will be 11th rounders, 200-250 will be 10th rounders, 250-300 will be ninth rounders and anyone over 300 points will be eighth rounders.

 

Players who are added or dropped during the playoffs cannot be kept.

​

If a player is drafted, dropped and added by another team, that player will not retain his draft-day keeper value, will be judged as a free agent and assigned a draft round between 8-12. The only team that would retain that player’s draft round is the one that drafted him. A drafted player's keeper value will only be adjusted if said player was drafted in rounds 13-16 below the free-agent range of 8-12. If a player was drafted in the free-agent range of 8-12, dropped and added by another team, that player's draft-day keeper value will be compared to his free-agent-assignment round and he will be placed in whichever round is earlier. 

​

If a player is drafted, dropped, added by another team, and then traded back to the team that originally drafted him, the player will be judged as a free agent if applicable and inherit the keeper designation he inherited when he was added by the new team. If free-agent rules don’t apply to the player in question, his keeper value will remain his Draft Day value.

 

The only players that maintain their keeper value regardless of what happens to them throughout the course of a season are players that are established keepers. Players that enter the season as keepers will always maintain their keeper value until they are no longer kept. 



Section 3 - Selecting draft order

 

League members will be allowed to choose where they pick in the draft. The draft order selection process will be decided by how teams finish in the postseason. The consolation bracket will be played to determine the position in the draft-pick selection process of the four teams in the bracket. The winner of the consolation bracket will be first in the order, the loser of the consolation bracket championship will be second in the order, the winner of the consolation bracket consolation game will be third in the order, and the final team will be fourth in the order. The six teams that make the playoffs will then be slotted into the draft pick selection order based on their final finish.

​

For the reset season and the 2025 draft, "The League" will use the commissioner's NFL playoffs fantasy pool to determine draft order selection order. How the 10 members of "The League" perform in that pool will determine where they slot in to the 2025 draft order selection order.



Section 4 - Trading draft picks

 

The offseason will be the only time teams are allowed to trade draft picks. You can only trade draft picks for the upcoming draft and any trade involving draft picks must have an even amount of picks exchanged.

 

Section 5 - Rule changes

 

Rule changes will be discussed and voted on during each offseason. Amendment: This will be true until the keeper reset of 2025. "The League" will vote on potential changes following the 2024 season and prior to the start of the 2025 season. This will be our last vote until the next keeper reset five years later. We will only vote on topics prior to each reset season, or every five years. The only person that can call an emergency off-cycle vote on a key topic will be I, the Commissioner. 

 

As Commissioner, I will abstain from all votes. The below rules will regulate the offseason voting process:

​

- It will require six of nine votes from "The League" for any proposed rule changes or adjustments to existing rules to go into effect. 

- It will require an unanimous vote from "The League" for any entirely new rules to go into effect.

- If we vote on a new topic two seasons in a row without any changes, the topic cannot be voted on again for two years.

 

Article 3 - Trading

 

All league members will be expected to act in the best interest of their franchise. All trades will be allowed with the exception of situations in which a trade may be questionable to the entire league. In such situations, I, the commissioner, will speak to each league member to get their opinion on the trade. This won’t be a vote, but just a way to get different perspectives so that I may come to a final decision that is agreeable with the rest of "The League" on whether or not to allow a trade. I will continue to enforce the rule that no trade is final until I press submit. I will avoid vetoing trades at all costs because it’s not something I want to do, but team managers should not assume I will put through a trade automatically unless it’s clearly a good deal and both managers have a viable reason for doing a trade. If a manger makes a trade that involves an injured player, that is not an excuse for me to veto an approved trade. It is up to each individual to do the proper research on all players involved in a trade before making a deal. 

​

During the offseason, teams will be allowed to make trades with an injury clause. The injury clause states, if both owners agree to the stipulation, that if a player involved in the trade gets hurt before Draft Day the trade is nullified. The team receiving the player will have the ability to decide if the trade should be nullified based on the nature of the injury. If a trade with an injury clause is made, all assets acquired in the deal cannot be traded for the remainder of the offseason.

​

Starting with the 2023 season, league members will be permitted to include FAAB dollars in trades.

 

Article 4 – Integrity of “The League”

 

Section 1 – Setting a legal lineup

 

All league members will be required to set a legal lineup at all times. League members will not be able to bench players at the end of a week to ensure victory, nor will league members be able to bench players at the end of a week in order to improve their waiver priority. Situations in which league members are not paying attention and leaving players in their lineup who are on bye will not be ruled an illegal lineup.

 

Section 2 – Penalties

 

Penalties will be assessed in the event that one or more league members are found to be colluding and/or breaking league rules. It will be in the discretion of I, the commissioner, to evaluate every trade, roster move and lineup decision as to whether or not it violates the integrity of “The League.” If a league rule is broken, or teams are found to be colluding, the involved teams could lose draft pick(s) in the following season’s draft, lose keeper slots, and/or be banned from "The League." The final penalty will be decided upon and administered by the commissioner.

 

Section 3 – Roster churning

 

Roster churning will not be permitted. If a team attempts to make numerous adds and drops in a given day or week in order to prevent other league members from acquiring certain players or a certain position, the moves will be undone and the team at fault will lose its waiver priority in the upcoming waiver period.

 

Section 4 – Remaining active

 

Owners will be banned and lose their teams if they fail to sufficiently check their teams. This will hold true for the entire season, regardless of your place in the standings. Hopefully the consolation bracket changes will keep owners interested because every team will have something to play for at the end of the season. I will put together a plan for what “sufficiently” checking your team means because I understand people are busy and mistakes are made. But blatant negligence will not be tolerated. It affects the playoff chase and the integrity of “The League.”

 

Section 5 – Commissioner assistance

 

I, the commissioner of "The League," will be permitted to assist owners with their lineups and roster moves in the following situations: 1) If an owner is unable to make game day changes to their lineup, they may give me access to their team to make lineup changes in the event a player is ruled inactive. They must tell me exactly what changes they would like made in the event a player is ruled out, and those are the only changes I will make; 2) If an owner mistakenly drops a player, they may ask me to undo a move for them. The request must come within one hour of the move they made.

 

Article 5 – Expansion

 

Section 1 – Replacing owners

 

If a league member ever decides to leave "The League," we will conduct a conversation about how best to replace that owner. Whoever takes over that team will inherit that team's roster, and will choose keepers and its spot in the draft order based on the final roster and finish from the previous season.

 

Section 2 – Teams/Divisions

 

If expansion ever occurs, “The League” would move from 10 teams, two divisions to 12 teams, four divisions. The division break down would be four divisions of three teams, which would be randomly selected.

 

Section 3 – Schedule

 

The schedule would remain the same in the sense that every team would play two games against each of its division opponents and one game against every other team. This would still be a 13-game regular season with the playoffs playing out over weeks 14, 15 and 16. The way in which the schedule would be constructed will be determined if expansion ever occurs.

 

Section 4 – Playoffs

 

Six teams would still make the playoffs with the four divisions winners guaranteed playoff spots, the top two guaranteed byes.

 

Section 5 – Lineups

 

The only changes in our lineups would be the subtraction of a WR/RB/TE flex spot and the subtraction of the QB/WR/RB/TE flex spot. As follows:

 

1 QB

3 WR

2 RB

1 TE

1 W/R/T

6 Bench

 

Section 6 – Selecting draft order

 

The selection process for picking the draft order would remain the same. Our two expansion teams, as is done in real life, would get first and second pick for their draft pick position.

 

Section 7 – Keepers

 

Expansion teams will be given the opportunity to select keepers from all other rosters following current teams’ keeper selections. Current league members will be able to protect two players on their rosters who will not be eligible to be kept by incoming expansion teams. Expansion teams will then be allowed to select their keepers from the remaining pool of players. The order of keeper selection for the expansion teams will be randomly decided and will involve a snake draft style until both teams have selected three keepers.

​

Article  6 – Covid-19

​

Section 1 – 2020 rule changes and contingency plans

​

“The League’s” plan for how to handle a potential cancelation of the 2020 season is simple: If there is no 2020 season, June 1, 2020 will serve as the beginning of the offseason for the 2021 season. Any transactions made in anticipation of the 2020 season will rollover to the 2021 season, and all players will maintain their 2020 keeper value.

​

The following decisions have been made about how to handle potential in-season cancellations of the 2020 NFL season:

• If the season is cancelled before Week 9 is played, all keeper rosters reset to pre-2020 rosters and 2020 draft order will roll over to 2021. All regular-season money won (weekly winnings, scoring champion, division champions, regular-season champion, if applicable) will remain with the winner, and the remaining balance will be evenly distributed between all owners.

• If the season is cancelled after Week 9 is played but before all six playoffs spots are clinched, rosters will roll over as keeper rosters for the 2021 season and draft order will be determined by the standings at the time of cancellation. All regular-season money won (weekly winnings, scoring champion, division champions, regular-season champion, if applicable) will remain with the winner, and the remaining balance will be evenly distributed between all owners. 

• If the season is cancelled after Week 9 is played and all six playoff spots are clinched, rosters will roll over as keeper rosters for the 2021 season and draft order will be determined by the standings at the time of cancellation. All regular-season money won (weekly winnings, scoring champion, division champions, regular-season champion, if applicable) will remain with the winner, and the remaining balance will be evenly distributed between the six playoff teams.

• If the season is cancelled during the playoffs, rosters will roll over as keeper rosters for the 2021 season and draft order will be determined by the standings at the time of cancellation. All regular-season money won will remain with the winner, and the remaining balance will be evenly distributed between the remaining playoff teams. 

​

The following rules will be put in place for the 2020 season to help navigate the potential negative impacts of playing an NFL season during the coronavirus pandemic:

• "The League's" rosters will have 10 injured reserve spots (previously increased from 1 to 3 earlier this offseason), which can be used by owners in any way needed. These IR spots can only be used for players put on injured reserve in real life or that have the "COVID-19" injury designation. Once activated in real life, the system will remove the IR or Covid-19 designation from the player. A team is not required to activate said player when this happens, but they will not be permitted to make any roster adds until the player is activated 

• "The League's" waiver system will be changed to continuous, which is defined by Yahoo as "All unowned players are on waivers at all times. Waiver claims are processed on fixed days of the week as defined by the commissioner." Waivers will process every day Wednesday-Sunday. This rule change removes free agents and makes every player addable through waiver bids only. 

• "The League" will use a game day add/drop group chat to allow owners to make roster additions on game days. Game day add/drops can only be made on game days to add a player playing that day. They must be submitted in one of the following two formats:

  • Add Player X/Drop Player Y​

  • Add Player X/Drop Player Y/Add Player X to starting lineup for Player Z (If submitted via this format, this must be done at least five minutes prior to the added player's game time.​)

• A player cannot be added via the game day add/drop group chat if they were dropped that week and would not have cleared waivers by game day. This is two full days, in addition to the day the transaction took place, following the original drop transaction. 

• Players on bye cannot be added via the game day add/drop group chat. 

• Game day add/drops cannot be submitted to the group chat until the below criteria are met for a given day with a game being played:

  • Mondays - 3 AM EST​

  • Tuesdays - 3 AM EST

  • Thursdays - 10 AM EST or you see a claim for that day in the transaction log

  • Saturdays - 10 AM EST or you see a claim for that day in the transaction log

  • Sundays - 10 AM EST or you see a claim for that day in the transaction log

• For the 2020 season, "The League" will use continuous waivers which means all unowned players are on waivers at all times. Waiver claims are processed on fixed days of the week as defined by the commissioner. Waiver claims will be processed each day Wednesday-Sunday.

• Due to the change in waiver system, "The League's" FAAB budget will be increased to $150 for each team.

• In the event a game is postponed due to coronavirus, "The League" will use a bench-ranking system to substitute for impacted players. All owners are required to rank their bench players in "The League's" Draft Day google doc to determine which players will be substituted in for any player whose game is postponed that week. The lock time for ranking each individual player is each individual player's game start time. An owner can change their rankings for any player at any time as long as their game hasn't started. The commissioner will move players around within a team's lineup in order to sub in the highest-ranked player regardless of position. If a team does not have an eligible player for a position occupied by a player whose game is postponed they will receive zero points. 

​

Section 2 – 2021 rule changes and contingency plans

​

“The League’s” plan for how to handle a potential cancelation of the 2021 season is simple: If there is no 2021 season, June 1, 2021 will serve as the beginning of the offseason for the 2022 season. Any transactions made in anticipation of the 2021 season will rollover to the 2022 season, and all players will maintain their 2021 keeper value.

​

The following decisions have been made about how to handle potential in-season cancellations of the 2021 NFL season:

• If the season is cancelled before Week 9 is played, all keeper rosters reset to pre-2021 rosters and 2021 draft order will roll over to 2022. All regular-season money won (weekly winnings, scoring champion, division champions, regular-season champion, if applicable) will remain with the winner, and the remaining balance will be evenly distributed between all owners.

• If the season is cancelled after Week 9 is played but before all six playoffs spots are clinched, rosters will roll over as keeper rosters for the 2022 season and draft order will be determined by the standings at the time of cancellation. All regular-season money won (weekly winnings, scoring champion, division champions, regular-season champion, if applicable) will remain with the winner, and the remaining balance will be evenly distributed between all owners. 

• If the season is cancelled after Week 9 is played and all six playoff spots are clinched, rosters will roll over as keeper rosters for the 2022 season and draft order will be determined by the standings at the time of cancellation. All regular-season money won (weekly winnings, scoring champion, division champions, regular-season champion, if applicable) will remain with the winner, and the remaining balance will be evenly distributed between the six playoff teams.

• If the season is cancelled during the playoffs, rosters will roll over as keeper rosters for the 2022 season and draft order will be determined by the standings at the time of cancellation. All regular-season money won will remain with the winner, and the remaining balance will be evenly distributed between the remaining playoff teams. 

​

The following rules will be put in place for the 2021 season to help navigate the potential negative impacts of playing an NFL season during the coronavirus pandemic:

• "The League's" rosters will have 10 injured reserve spots, only two of which can be used for non-COVID IR designated players. These IR spots can only be used for players put on injured reserve in real life or that have the "COVID-19" injury designation. Once activated in real life, the system will remove the IR or Covid-19 designation from the player. A team is not required to activate said player when this happens, but they will not be permitted to make any roster adds until the player is activated 

• "The League's" waiver system will be changed to continuous, which is defined by Yahoo as "All unowned players are on waivers at all times. Waiver claims are processed on fixed days of the week as defined by the commissioner." Waivers will process every day Wednesday-Monday. The only players addable on a Monday are the ones playing in the game(s) that night. This rule change removes free agents and makes every player addable through waiver bids only. 

• Due to the change in waiver system, "The League's" FAAB budget will be increased to $150 for each team.

• In the event a game is postponed due to coronavirus, "The League" will use a bench-ranking system to substitute for impacted players. All owners are required to rank their bench players in "The League's" Draft Day google doc to determine which players will be substituted in for any player whose game is postponed that week. The lock time for ranking each individual player is each individual player's game start time. An owner can change their rankings for any player at any time as long as their game hasn't started. The commissioner will move players around within a team's lineup in order to sub in the highest-ranked player regardless of position. If a team does not have an eligible player for a position occupied by a player whose game is postponed they will receive zero points.