Frustrated Lions Fans Football League
Official Rules
| Date | Section | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 5 June 2007 | 5.6 | Documented 2007's "early" games and added this Revision Log. |
| 13 August 2007 | 9 | Moved free agent supplemental draft from Tuesdays to Wednesdays. |
| 19 August 2007 | 10 | Updated to conform to MyFantasyLeague.com interface. |
| 19 August 2007 | 9.2.2 | Updated the criteria for determining the order of the weekly supplemental free agent draft. |
| 19 August 2007 | 9.1.3 | Removed the clause that made players released after week 10 unavailable for the remainder of the season. |
| 19 August 2007 | 6.1 & 7 & 11.6 | Implementing full-time fractional scoring for yardage. |
1. Overview: The Frustrated Lions Football League (FLFFL) is a fantasy football league founded in 1992. The league consists of 12 owners who each draft a fantasy team made up of 16 NFL players. The teams are divided into 3 divisions and a 13-week schedule of head-to-head competition takes place beginning NFL Week 1 and ending NFL Week 13. The top 6 teams advance to a 3-round, single-elimination championship playoff that starts NFL Week 14 and ends NFL Week 16. The FLFFL is a "redraft" style league, which means that no players are retained from season to season.
2. League Administration: The league's commissioner is responsible for all administrative duties related to the operation of the FLFFL, including the maintenance of the league's web site.
2.1. pre-season: During the month of June, the commissioner will contact each of the previous season's owners to find out who is returning for the new season and to update each owner's contact information. The commissioner will also coordinate the search for new owners if vacancies exist. Once 12 owners have committed to playing, the commissioner will facilitate the proposal, debate, and voting of changes to the league rules. The commissioner is also responsible for creating and publishing the new season's draft order and regular season schedule.
2.2. in-season: During the season, the commissioner is responsible for receiving starting lineups, processing free agent transactions, processing trades, and generating the weekly reports.
3. Draft: The FLFFL's Live Player Draft consists of 16 rounds, with each team selecting a player in each round in a serpentine fashion (#1 through #12 in odd numbered rounds, #12 through #1 in even numbered rounds). There are no rules governing the number of players to be drafted at each position. It is up to the skill and draft strategy of each team owner to decide the makeup of his/her team.
3.1. date & location: The live player draft will be scheduled for a date that falls between the Monday following the 3rd NFL pre-season games and the first NFL regular season game. The draft will be held at a mutually agreed upon location.
3.2. order: For the 2006 Draft only, the order for the live player draft will be determined by a random draw. After 2006, each owner will get to choose his/her position in the draft order during a separate "draft position" draft that will be held each year on August 1st. The selection order for the "draft position" draft is based on each team's finish in the prior year's playoffs as follows:
1st choice: Consolation bracket champion
2nd choice: Consolation bracket runner-up
3rd choice: Consolation bracket 3rd place
4th choice: Consolation bracket 4th place
5th choice: Consolation bracket 5th place (Toilet Bowl winner)
6th choice: Consolation bracket 6th place (Toilet Bowl loser)
7th - 12th choices:
The six teams that qualify for the Championship Playoffs will be randomly assigned the 7th through 12th
choices in the "draft position" draft.
Example: The consolation bracket champion gets to choose where he/she wishes to pick in the live player draft. That owner could decide to be the #1 pick, the #12 pick, or any pick in between. The consolation bracket runner-up then gets to choose from the remaining picks, and so on until the complete order of the live player draft has been set.
3.3. time limit per pick: Each owner will have 60 seconds to make a player selection. The draft secretary will have 90 seconds to make a player selection. If an owner does not make a selection in the allotted time, he is passed over until the next owner makes a player selection. The passed-over owner then has 15 seconds to make a player selection before he is again passed over.
3.4. trades: No trading of players and/or draft picks is allowed before or during the live player draft.
3.5. use of electronic equipment: Use of electronic equipment is permitted. However, the draft venue may not have internet access and/or enough electrical outlets for all owners.
3.6. attendance: All owners who live and/or work within a reasonable drive of the draft venue are encouraged to attend in person. A teleconference line (not toll free) will be set up for those owners who cannot attend the draft in person.
3.7. surrogates: Each team must be represented by a separate individual at the draft. Each owner will have until 24 hours before the draft to name a surrogate if that owner will be unable to attend the draft.
3.7.1. exception: If an owner cannot attend the draft and cannot find a surrogate, that owner may submit a spreadsheet of his/her player rankings and detailed round-by-round instructions that the draft secretary can use to draft the absent owner's team.
3.8. no shows: In the event that an owner fails to attend the draft, that owner will be suspended from the league for the season. In the event that one or more owners are absent from the draft, the following adjustments to the league's structure will be made based on the number of teams that participated in the draft:
3.8.1. eleven (11) teams: The 12th team will be a "blind" team.
3.8.2. ten (10) teams: The teams will be realigned into 2 divisions of 5 teams each. The regular season schedule will be recreated so that a team plays each team in its division two times and the other teams one time (13 games). The two division champions plus 4 wild card teams will advance to the playoffs.
3.8.3. nine (9) teams: Identical to the 10-team scenario, except that the 10th team will be a "blind" team.
3.8.4. eight (8) teams: The teams will not be split into divisions. Each team will play every other team two times (14 games). The regular season will be 14 weeks. The top 4 teams advance to a 2 week, single-elimination playoff.
3.8.5. the "blind" team:
3.8.5.1. Each week, the blind team scores a number of points equal to the average of the all the other teams'
scores for that week (dropping fractions).
3.8.5.2. The blind team gets credit for wins, losses, and ties.
3.8.5.3. The blind team will appear in the league standings.
3.8.5.4. If the blind team wins its division, the 2nd place team in that division will not be awarded the division title
and must attempt to qualify for the playoffs as a wild card team.
3.8.5.5. The blind team will always occupy the LAST seed in the consolation
playoff bracket and is treated as a BYE for the opposing team.
4. Roster Requirements: Each team's roster must consist of exactly 16 players at all times. There are no restrictions on the number of players a team may have at any given position.
5. Starting Lineups: Each week, each owner must select 8 players from his team's roster to "start" in that week's games. The players not selected to start the game (reserves) have no impact on the results of that week's game.
5.1. valid lineup:
1 x QB
1 x RB
2 x WR
1 x TE
1 x PK
1 x Team Defense
1 x Flex player (from ANY position)
5.2. lineup submission: Starting lineups should be submitted using the forms provided on the league's web site. If you are unable to get to the internet to submit your lineup, you may submit your lineup by phone. When you submit your lineup using the web form, your lineup will be sent by email to you, your opponent, and the commissioner. If you do not receive a copy of your lineup submission, there may be a problem with the service we use and you should re-submit your lineup with a regular email or a phone call to the commissioner.
5.3. deadlines:
5.3.1. early games: If you have players on your roster that will be playing on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, you must submit a lineup before the kickoff of the FIRST game on that day. This is a preliminary lineup that is used to declare the starting status of your "early" players. You may still make changes involving your "Sunday/Monday" players up until Sunday's deadline.
5.3.2. sundays: Final starting lineups are due before the kickoff of the first game on Sunday. No lineup changes are allowed before the Monday night game.
5.4. phone submission: Owners may phone in their starting lineups by leaving a message on the commissioner's voice mail. The deadline for "phone-in" lineups is 15 minutes before the first game of that day. The phone number will be provided at the draft and will be updated as necessary.
5.5. default lineups: If no Week 1 lineup is submitted, the commissioner will determine your starting lineup. The commissioner will fill in your lineup by starting with your LAST draft pick and working backward until a legal starting lineup is created. After Week 1, if no starting lineup is submitted your starting lineup will default to the previous week's lineup. If one or more of the players on your roster are involved in early games (Thursday, Friday, or Saturday), and you do not submit an early lineup, then those players default to the starter/reserve status they had the previous week.
5.6. early games in 2007:
| Week 1 | Thursday | New Orleans at Indianapolis | ||
| Week 12 | Thursday | Green Bay at Detroit New York Jets at Dallas Indianapolis at Atlanta | ||
| Week 13 | Thursday | Green Bay at Dallas | ||
| Week 14 | Thursday | Chicago at Washington | ||
| Week 15 | Thursday Saturday | Denver at Houston Cincinnati at San Francisco | ||
| Week 16 | Thursday Saturday | Pittsburgh at St. Louis Dallas at Carolina |
6. Scoring:
6.1. individual offensive players:
6 points per rushing touchdown
6 points per receiving touchdown
6 points per punt return touchdown
6 points per kickoff return touchdown
6 points per offensive fumble recovery touchdown
4 points per touchdown pass thrown
3 points per FG
2 points per 2-point conversion
0.04 points for every yard passing
0.1 points for every yard rushing
0.1 points for every yard receiving
1 point per per reception
1 point per extra point
6.2. team defenses:
1 point per sack
2 points per takeaway * (interception or defensive fumble recovery)
2 points per safety
6 points per touchdown **
5 points for allowing zero points ***
3 points for allowing between 1 and 5 points ***
2 points for allowing between 6 and 9 points ***
1 points for allowing between 10 and 14 points ***
* A double turnover counts as a takeaway for the recovering team's defense
** Interception returned for a TD
** Defensive fumble recovery returned for a TD
** Blocked or missed FG returned for a TD
** Blocked punt returned for a TD
*** Based on the final score of the game
6.3. scoring corrections: FLFFL game results are not considered final until 11:59 pm ET the following Friday. If the NFL makes changes to the statistics for the just-completed week before this deadline, those corrections will be applied and game results may change. Any statistics changes made after this deadline will be ignored.
The commissioner will make every effort to find out about mid-week corrections made by the NFL, but all owners are encouraged to inform the commissioner of any corrections that they discover.
7. Point Calculations: Each team's weekly game score is calculated to 2 digits to the right of the decimal to accomodate the fractional scoring formulas for offensive yardage.
8. Free Agent: Any player who is not on a fantasy team roster is considered to be a free agent.
9. Free Agent Market: The league's free agent market opens for the season on the Wednesday following the NFL's Week 1 games. The free agent market remains open for the entire season, including the playoffs.
9.1. limitations:
9.1.1. txn limit: Each owner is allowed a maximum of two free agent transactions per week.
9.1.2. roster size: Rosters must always consist of 16 players at the completion of a transaction.
9.1.3. status of dropped players: Players that are dropped as part of a free agent transaction cannot be picked up until the following week.
9.1.4. blackout period: No free agent transactions are allowed from the kickoff of the first NFL game of the week until 9:00 am ET on the following Wednesday.
9.2. weekly supplemental draft: A free agent supplemental draft is held each Wednesday during the season. No other free agent transactions are allowed on Wednesdays.
9.2.1. number of rounds: The weekly supplemental draft is a 2 round draft. Owners are not required to participate in either round of a supplemental draft.
9.2.2. draft order:
The selection order for each week's supplemental draft will be based on:
1) Lowest total points scored to date
2) Highest total points allowed to date
3) Overall W-L-T (worst to best)
4) MyFantasyLeague.com's "power rating" (worst to best)
9.2.3. conditional picks: For each round of a given week's supplemental draft, an owner may submit a prioritized list of drop/add transactions between 9:00 am ET and 9:00 pm ET. Think of this list as a "wish list". If you have the first pick in the supplemental draft, you are guaranteed to get your first choice. The deeper you are in the selection order, the more drop/add pairs you should add to your ordered list.
9.2.4. processing: After 9:00 pm ET, the MyFantasyLeague.com system will automatically process the submitted lists.
9.3. first come, first served: The free agent market switches to "first come, first served" mode beginning at 9:00 am ET on Thursday. This period ends at the kickoff of the first NFL game of the week.
10. Trades: From the completion of the draft through the kickoff of the first game Week 10, owners may trade players between their teams.
10.1. processing: Owners propose and accept trades using the "Trades" page on the league's MyFantasyLeague.com web site. Trades that are accepted are processed immediately. Trades do NOT require approval from the commissioner or the rest of the league.
10.2. weekly deadline: No trades may be made from the kickoff of the first game of the current week until the following Tuesday at 12:00 am ET.
10.3. restrictions: Trades cannot involve future draft picks. Trades cannot involve any non-league assets (beer, cash, etc.). There is no limit to the number of trades that can be made between two teams.
10.4. unbalance trades: Teams are allowed to execute unbalanced trades (2-for-1, 3-for-2, etc.). However, each owner is responsible for dropping or adding an extra player so that the number of teams on their roster is exactly 16 players. Owners that don't have exactly 16 players on thier roster won't be allowed to submit a weekly lineup until the roster has been corrected. These types of drops and adds can only be made during the "first come - first served" free agent period.
11. League Structure & Competition:
11.1. divisions: The league's 12 teams will be divided into 3 divisions consisting of 4 teams each. The divisions do not remain static from season to season. Teams are placed into divisions each year based on the following process:
11.1.1. gather stats: Determine each team's total points scored, "all play" winning percentage, and head-to-head winning percentage for the past 2 seasons (regular season only - not playoffs).
11.1.2. rank teams: Rank the teams from best to worst by total points scored. Break ties by first looking at the "all play" winning percentage (best to worst), then the head-to-head winning percentage (best to worst), if necessary.
11.1.3. create divisions: Teams 1, 6, 7, and 12 are placed in Division "A". Teams 2, 5, 8, and 11 are placed in Division "B". The remaining teams make up Division "C".
11.2. regular season schedule: The FLFFL regular season is 13 weeks long, corresponding to NFL Weeks 1 through 13. Each team in the league will play each team in its own division two times (6 games) and 7 of the remaining 8 teams once (7 games). The regular season schedule is arranged so that Weeks 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, and 13 consist of divisional games, with weeks 4 through 10 consisting of non-divisional games.
11.3. playoff seeding: At the end of the regular season the teams are seeded from 1 to 12, with the top 6 teams participating in the Championship Playoffs and the bottom 6 teams participating in the Consolation Playoffs. Teams are seeded as follows:
# 1 - Division champ with the best record.
# 2 - Division champ with the 2nd best record.
# 3 - Division champ with the 3rd best record.
# 4 - Wildcard with the best record.
# 5 - Wildcard with the 2nd best record.
# 6 - Wildcard with the 3rd best record.
# 7 - Wildcard with the 4th best record.
# 8 - Wildcard with the 5th best record.
# 9 - Wildcard with the 6th best record.
#10 - Wildcard with the 7th best record.
#11 - Wildcard with the 8th best record.
#12 - Wildcard with the worst record.
11.4. tie breaking procedures: The following procedures will be used to break ties in the standings for the purpose of determining playoff seeding.
To Break a Tie Within a Division
If, at the end of the regular season, two or more clubs in the same division finish with
identical won-lost-tied percentages, the following procedure will be used to break the tie.
Two Clubs
1. Head-to-head (best won-lost-tied percentage in games between the clubs).
2. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division (division record).
3. Best total points scored in all games.
4. Best net points in all games.
5. Coin toss.
Three or More Clubs
(Note: If two clubs remain tied after the third or other clubs are eliminated
during any step, the tie breaker reverts to step 1 of the two-club format.)
1. Head-to-head.
2. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division.
3. Best total points scored in all games.
4. Best net points in all games.
5. Coin toss.
To Break a Tie for Determining Wild-Card Berths or Playoff Seeding
A) If the tied clubs are from the same division, apply the division tie breaker.
B) If the tied clubs are from different divisions, apply the following steps.
Two Clubs
1. Head-to-head, if applicable.
2. Best total points scored in all games.
3. Best net points in all games.
4. Coin toss.
Three or More Clubs
(Note: If two clubs remain tied after the third or other clubs are eliminated,
the tie breaker reverts to step 1 of the applicable two-club format.)
1. Apply the division tie breaker to eliminate all but the highest ranked club in each
division prior to proceeding to step 2. This seeding will remain the same for all subsequent
applications of this procedure.
2. Head-to-head sweep. (Applicable only if one club defeated or was defeated by each
of the other clubs).
3. Best total points scored in all games.
4. Best net points in all games.
5. Coin toss.
Note:
Only the top ranked club of a group of tied clubs is determined in any tie-breaking step.
The remaining tied clubs revert to the first step of the applicable division or wild-card
tie breakers. In other words, when one club wins the tie breaker, ALL the other clubs revert to step
one of the applicable two-club or three-club format.
11.5. playoff brackets:
11.5.1. twelve (12) teams:
11.5.2. ten (10) teams: Use the standard 12-team bracket and replace the #11 and #12 seeds with byes. No consolation bracket games during Week 14. In Week 15, #7 vs #10 and #8 vs #9. The winners advance to the consolation finals while the losers play for 3rd place in the Toilet Bowl.
11.5.3. eight (8) teams: Playoffs start Week 15 with #1 vs #4 and #2 vs #3 in the championship bracket, while the consolation bracket has #5 vs #8 and #6 vs #7. The losers of the championship semi-finals play for 3rd place while the winners meet in the Super Bowl. The losers of the consolation semi-finals play for 3rd place in the Toilet Bowl while the winners meet in the consolation finals.
11.6. tie games during the playoffs: In the event that a playoff game ends in a tie, the game will be awarded to the higher seeded team.
12. League Management Software: The FLFFL uses "Fantasy Football League Manager" by Sideline Software.
13. Fees: Each owner is charged $5 per season to participate in the league. This money is used to cover the cost of the league management software and the cost of engraving the league trophy.
14. Awards: The winner of the FLFFL Super Bowl will have his name engraved on the league's traveling championship trophy. The champion keeps the trophy and displays it proudly until a new champion is crowned the following season.
15. Rule Changes: In order to change the league rules, changes must be proposed, debated, and voted upon as outlined below.
Commissioner's Pledge: The 01-June-2006 version of the league rules represents a major, unilateral overhaul of the rules. In the interest of league stability, I hereby pledge that I will not propose any rule changes for the next 2 seasons (2006 and 2007). In addition, I pledge that I will not make any unilateral changes to the league rules for the next 5 seasons (2006-2010).
15.1. when allowed: Under normal circumstances, rule changes may only be proposed and voted upon from June 1st through July 31st. From August 1st through the end of the season, rule changes may be considered only if a rules-related issue is encountered that needs to be immediately resolved before play can continue. No league business is conducted from the end of the season until June 1st.
15.2. forum: Rule changes are to be proposed, debated, and voted upon using the league's message board only.
15.3. proposals: Any owner who wishes to propose a change to the league rules must present it to the commissioner as a MOTION. The commissioner will then communicate the motion to the rest of the league and ask if anyone will SECOND THE MOTION. The commissioner is allowed to make motions, but the commissioner is not allowed to second any motions.
15.4. debate: After a motion has been seconded, the commissioner will post the proposal to the "Rule Debate" section of the league's message board. All owners are invited to debate the merits of the proposed change. Debate is not arguing. Please adhere to the following debate guidelines:
15.4.1. two post limit: No owner is allowed more than 2 posts while debating a particular rule change. This is to limit the endless back-and-forth that we have had in the past.
15.4.2. be relevant: Debate must be limited to the merits of the immediately pending proposal.
15.4.3. no dialog: All posts should be made as if speaking to the audience in general, not to a particular person.
15.4.4. no attacks: It is not allowable to question or arraign the motives of another owner, but the nature and consequences of a proposal may be condemned in strong terms. Please remember it is NOT the man, but the proposal, that is the subject of the debate.
15.5. voting: After it appears that debate on a proposal has ended, the commissioner will create a poll in the "Rule Votes" section of the league's message board. Voting is anonymous. The commissioner can see who has cast a vote, but now how the votes were cast.
15.6. passage: Rule changes require the approval of a simple majority of the entire league ownership (at least 7 out of 12 yes votes).
16. Mid-Season Loss of an Owner: In the event that the league loses an owner during the regular season, that owner's roster will be frozen for the remainder of the season. Also, that owner's team will be treated the same as a "blind" team for the remainder of the season. Section 3.8.5. contains the rules regarding the "blind" team. All weekly results up to the point where the owner dropped out will stand (no recalculation of results).
17. Filling Vacancies: If there are one or more owner vacancies between seasons, all returning owners will be allowed to nominate one or more friends and/or family members to fill the vacancies. All nominations will be collected by the commissioner. If there are more nominations than vacancies, the vacancies will be filled by a random draw from the pool of nominees.
For the purpose of the "draft position" draft, new owners are grouped with the owners that made the Championship Playoffs the previous season. Their "draft position" selection will be assigned by random draw.