League Rules – 2009/2010

Boom Goes the Dynamite FFL
2009-2010 League Rules

Below are the rules regarding the BGTD FFL league for the 2010-2011 season.

Keepers

You will have the option of keeping anyone drafted in round 4 or below from this year’s draft; you will then lose that corresponding round’s pick in the 2010/2011 draft. If you opt to keep an undrafted waiver pick, you lose your 16th round pick. If you opt to keep a drafted waiver pick, you lose the round that player was drafted in. The length of time of a keeper contract is 3 years, including the first year drafted. You continue to lose the same spot in the draft year to year if you keep your keeper for more than one year. If you opt, via trades, to keep 2 guys who were drafted in the same round, you will lose the pick the round below the round the 2 were drafted in.

Guys that are dropped to waivers for various reasons (but who were kept the previous draft) still hold their keeper contracts; for instance, if Steve Slaton is kept but then dropped to waivers because IR was misused (see below), whoever picks him up and decides to keep him will still lose the round he was drafted in prior, not a 16th round pick (as with undrafted waiver picks).

You must declare keepers by Wednesday, July 2nd, 2010.

2009/2010 Draft #1 Pick

I’ve seen other leagues automatically award the #1 pick in the following year’s draft to the last place team, but that encourages tanking. However, I’d like to do something fun with this, so the 6 non-playoff teams will have their own tournament, (the Toilet Bowl), with the winner getting the #1 pick the following year. The Toilet Bowl is double-elimination, with advantage going to higher seeds, because that’s just the way ESPN sets it up.

Injured Reserve

We have two IR spots to the roster, in case a guy you’d like to have as a keeper gets injured. The cost to put a guy on IR is $10.00.

Injured reserve is to be used only for players that are of status O (out) or I (injured). However, ESPN will allow you to put anyone on IR. As such: it is the team owner’s responsibility to ensure that the player on IR is of O or I status by midnight of the day prior to the player’s game. So, if you have a player on the Thursday, you need to go by the Wednesday injury report. Friday for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday games.

Also, in terms of the O status, injured reserve is for injured players only; you cannot keep a suspended player on IR even if his status is O, or who is Out for any reason other than injury. IR is for injury only.

On the morning of game day, I’ll check IR’s. If someone is on IR that is not O or I, I’ll inform the team owner that as punishment they will have to drop that player to waivers.

I have heard of far worse punishments than these (IE, forfeiting a game due to invalid lineup). In the 2 years we’ve had IR there have been several instances where people put someone on IR who was only doubtful. Please let’s use IR for its purpose.

Fee

There is a $100 fee to enter the league unless otherwise informed by the league manager (for instance, if you have opted to apply previous league winnings to your entry fee). Have this with you at the draft, or make arrangements to get it to the commissioner at the draft or before the draft. Please do not make me beg throughout the season for this.

Draft

The draft is a traditional ‘snake’ draft, in which the 1st pick in the 1st round gets the last pick in the 2nd round, and so on. If you cannot be at the draft, you must get someone to either draft for you, or you must dial in. You must have a valid reason to not be at the draft; “It’s too long of a drive” or its associated ilk is not a good reason.

As always, draft order was determined by a random pick from a hat of names by a third party.

Draft picks will have a universal time limit of 90 seconds, after which time you will be asked one time to make your pick; if you cannot answer immediately you will lose the pick and we move to the next person. This is a friendly league, so if someone needs to go to the bathroom, etc, we can make allowances for that.

Schedule

There are 2 divisions: Hooters and Kahoots.

The regular season is made up of 13 weeks. Teams will play each division member twice during the season, for a total of 10 games. The 3 remaining regular season games will be inter-divisional and opponents were chosen by a random draw. Divisional games take place between weeks 1 through 5, and then weeks 9 through 13, with weeks 6 through 8 being the interdivisional matchups.

Playoffs

Playoffs run from week 14 through 16; there are 3 rounds.

There will be 6 teams that make the playoffs:

Division Winners
Next best 4 teams, regardless of division

Playoff Tiebreakers are as follows, in order:
1. Overall Record (based on Winning Percentage)
2. Head to Head record
3. Overall Points
4. Division Record
5. Overall Points against
6. Coin Flip

The division winners receive the #1 and #2 seeds (based on tie breakers above), and a bye in the first round. Seeds are then descending based on the tie breaker method above amongst the other 4 teams.

Tie games are allowed during the regular season; however, in the playoffs, bench score will advance.

League Payouts

The fee is 100 dollars to enter. That leaves us with $1200 to divide up:

• $160 given out to high weekly score over the course of the season (16 weeks X $10 each week). This leaves $1040 in the final purse.
• League Champion will take 65% of the final purse ($676 without any IR additions)
• League Runner-Up will take 20% of the final purse.
• Division Champs take roughly 7.5% of the purse each.
• Playoff members take 7.5% divided amongst the 6 teams.

Lineup

Position Starters Maximum
Quarterback (QB) 1 3
Running Back (RB) 2 5
Running Back/Wide Receiver (RB/WR) 1 N/A
Wide Receiver (WR) 2 5
Tight End (TE) 1 3
Team Defense/Special Teams (D/ST) 1 2
Place Kicker (K) 1 2
Bench (BE) 7 N/A
Injured Reserve 1 N/A

Scoring

The league uses head to head scoring, which means you have to outscore the team you are ‘playing’ that week.

Scoring is as follows:

Passing TD Pass 6 Every 20 passing yards 1
300-399 yard passing game 5 400+ yard passing game 10
2pt Passing Conversion 2 Interceptions Thrown -2

Rushing TD Rush 6 2pt Rushing Conversion 2
Every 10 rushing yards 1 100-199 yard rushing game 5
200+ yard rushing game 10

Receiving TD Reception 6 2pt Receiving Conversion 2
Every 10 receiving yards 1 Each reception 1
100-199 yard receiving game 5 200+ yard receiving game 10

Miscellaneous Fumble Recovered for TD 6 Each Fumble Lost -2
Kickoff Return TD 6 Punt Return TD 6

Kicking FG Made (50+ yards) 5 FG Made (40-49 yards) 4
FG Missed (40-49 yards) -1 FG Made (0-39 yards) 3
FG Missed (0-39 yards) -2 Each PAT Made 1

Team Defense / Special Teams 0 points allowed 10 2-6 points allowed 7
7-13 points allowed 4 14-17 points allowed 1
Blocked Punt or FG return for TD 6 Each Interception 2
Each Fumble Recovered 2 Each Safety 2
Each Sack 1 Kickoff Return TD 6
Punt Return TD 6 Interception Return TD 6
Fumble Return TD 6

Lineup Changes

All slots lock individually at game time. Meaning, you can make changes to the players on your team up to each individual player’s game time. This includes trades; you can make trades involving Sunday/Monday teams even after the Thursday game is complete. A trade is nothing but a glorified lineup change.

Trades

There are no limits on trades; they are encouraged. There is a 24 hour review period, which gives other league members time to review and comment on the trade. Final approval for every trade rests with the league manager. Keep in mind, while not all trades are fair, not all unfair trades are overturnable. An overturnable trade is one where there is obvious collusion amongst owners; I really don’t feel this will be a problem with this group of owners. I will entertain arguments regarding trades, but final decision rests with me. Stop complaining to me about people being fleeced; we’re all big boys.

In terms of weekly trade deadlines:
• For trades involving any players on a Saturday/Thursday game, trades must be approved by the league manager 24 hours prior to game time.
• For trades involving any players on Sunday/Monday games, trades must be approved by noon on Saturday.
In the event a trade is made via phone and no one is near a computer, I’ll take voice confirmation as OK to make the trade. You can also send me an email stating this trade has been accepted by both parties prior to the deadline; even if I don’t respond, if the email is there and date-stamped that’s OK as confirmation.

Also, there are the following limitations on trades:

• There are no trade-backs; IE, if you trade a player to TEAM B, then TEAM B cannot trade you that player back at any point in the season. However, if TEAM B trades a player to TEAM C, that other team can then trade you that player provided the intent of TEAM B’s trade with TEAM C was not to get that player back on your team. Attempts to circumvent this in the above manner will be viewed as collusion.
• There are no ‘conditional’ trades, IE, “I’ll trade you player A for player B, on the condition you have to trade me back player A for his bye week”. Trades are one way, no conditions allowed.

The trade deadline is Wednesday, November 18st, after which no trades will be allowed; there will be no trades allowed until after the keeper deadline of July 2nd 2010. At that point, trades will be allowed to commence involving keepers and draft picks only. On draft day, you can make ‘draft day’ trades in which you are given another player’s keeper for an associated draft pick; essentially, you will make the pick ‘for’ the other team, and then trade the player drafted for the player’s keeper. The point is, leading into the draft you can only have your 2 keepers on your team; once the draft is in progress and from there on out you can make trades involving non-keepers.

Waivers

Each week, members will have the opportunity to pick from the waiver/free agent wire. Order is not reset – the only way you move to the bottom of the waiver list is to use a waiver pick. When you use a pick, you move to the bottom. However, if you hold the #1 waiver pick, you can hold it for as long as you want, or even trade it during a good free agent week. Waiver order will be randomized prior to the start of the season.

Players clear waivers in 2 days.

Disputes

All disputes should be brought to the commissioner. Again, don’t think we’ll see a lot of these. I will only intervene if the site itself is malfunctioning; I cannot and will not overturn or reverse waiver drops, trade offers, etc. that were made as a mistake. The site offers plenty of confirmation prompts before you do anything silly.

Participation

Any great league hinges on member participation. Let’s keep up the trash talk, the insults, and the vociferous celebration of a fellow owner’s downfall. In addition to this, the following apply:

• Please check email regularly.
• Please respond to emails (particularly trade offers) in a timely fashion – at the same time, if you are offering a trade, please understand no means no.
• Set your lineup every week. If not, I will set it the first time. The next times, I will leave it as-is. If you for some reason can’t set it, please let me know and I can do it for you if you are going on vacation, having gender reassignment surgery, etc.