Cost

The cost to enter the draft is $100. This should be paid in cash or by check at the draft. There are NO other fees (All player transactions including trades, free agent pickups, and line-up changes are free).

The Draft

The draft order will be determined by a random drawing. Names will be picked out of a hat in reverse of the first round draft order. The order in subsequent rounds will be "snaked" to ensure fairness. If you have the first pick in round 1, you'll have the last pick in round 2,etc.

The draft date is Wednesday, September 7 at 7:00 pm.

The Draft will be held at Rick's house on 8 Mastogen Dr. in Somerville. The draft link at the fanball site will be used for those that can not make it to the draft in person. Please remember, if you want to drink it is BYOB.

Although the final NFL rosters will be available at the draft, owners will have to find their own sources of information.

Before the draft begins, the floor will be opened to clarify any questions or concerns anyone might have about the rules.

Each owner will have a maximum of 2 minutes to make each draft pick. We will not actually be keeping time, since this is generally not a problem. However, we should try to keep this time to a minimum, to cut down on the length of the draft. Typically, the entire draft will take around 3 hours.

Rosters/Lineups

Each team will consist of 16 players on a roster. The 16 can be made up of any positions. The starting line-ups consist of the following 8 positions:

• 1 Quarterback
• 2 Running Backs
• 3 Receivers (WR or TE)
• 1 Kicker
• 1 Defense/Special Team (A NFL team, such as the 49ers, Bills, etc.)

Transactions

The weekly transaction period runs from Tuesday at 8 am until five minutes before the first game of the week (whether that game is on a Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday).

Unlimited trades and free agent claims are permitted per week. Free agent pickups will be done in two phases. The first phase will be a free agent claim draft run at noon on Wednesday. You can submit prioritized lists of players for free agent claims at the fanball site. Each list must be accompanied by a player on your roster to be conditionally released.

Free agent claims will be dealt with in reverse order of the standings. The team with the worst record will have priority. Teams with the same record will pick in reverse order of total yearly points. If teams have the same record and point totals, the free agent order will be determined randomly by the fanball site.

The team with the worst record gets the first and 13th selection, the second worst record the second and 14th selections, etc.

After the free agent claim period a first come, first serve add/drop period will run from Wednesday at 6 pm until five minutes before the first game of the week.

Any player that is not drafted or is released from a FF team is considered a free agent. Any player who is released from a FF team will not be eligible to be picked up until the next week's free agent claim draft.

Because the draft is so late there will not be free agent claims or post-draft trading for week 1.

Trades

Trades can be performed by any team and can involve any number of players. However, each team's roster can't exceed 16 positions. If team A trades 1 player to player B for two players then player A would have 17 players on his roster so he would have to release one of his players to reduce his roster down to 16 positions. Trades will also be processed through the fanball site, but will require commissioner approval. Trades will only be rejected if their is some evidence of collusion. Trades must be made by the weekly free agent deadline (5 minutes before the first game of the week) to be approved for the current week.

Note: The trading deadline is Sunday, November 20 at 12:55 pm. This date follows the 10th week of the season. No trades will be allowed after this time.

Starting Lineups

Lineup changes are allowed for any player in an early game until five minutes before kickoff of the early game, and at 12:55 pm on Sunday for everyone else.

Regular Season Play

Teams will be organized into 3 divisions of 4 teams. One division will consist of teams with draft positions 1, 4, 7, 10. The second division will consist of teams with draft positions 2, 5, 8, 11. The third division will consist of teams with draft positions 3, 6, 9, 12. A team will play 2 games against each divisional rival and one game against teams in the other divisions. This will result in a 14 week schedule.

FF Playoffs

Four teams make the FF playoffs. The regular season ends with week 14. Playoffs will be held in weeks 15 and 16 of the NFL regular season. Only playoff teams will submit a lineup in weeks 15 and 16. Week 17 statistics will not be used. Please note that the yearly points championship will be decided after 14 weeks.

The three division winners and one wild card make the playoffs. The wild card can come from any division and is the team with the best record. The first round of the playoffs will consist of the division winner with the best record playing the wild card team and the other two division winners playing each other. Game winners will meet in the Super Bowl.

To determine who makes the playoffs, tiebreakers for teams with the same record are:

• 1) Totals points
• 2) Head-to-Head record (2 teams only)
• 3) Head-to-Head points (2 teams only)
• 4) Virtual Coin Flip (all fanball decisions are final)

To break ties in playoff games, a sudden death method of tie-breaking will be used. The points scored by the highest scoring player in the starting lineup for each team will be compared. If one player scores more points his team will win the game. If these players tie, the next highest scoring player in the starting lineup for each team will be compared until the tie is broken. In the unlikely event that this still doesn't break the tie, then the team scoring the most points during the regular season will be declared the winner.

Scoring

TD Scoring

TD (rushing)     6 pts 
TD (receiving)   6 pts  
TD (passing)     3 pts 
FG               3 pts  (up to 39 yards)
                 4 pts  (40 to 44 yards)
                 5 pts  (45 to 49 yards)
                 6 pts  (50+ yards)
Xtra Pt (kick)   1 pt   (Point goes to kicker)
2pt conversion   2 pts  (to player who scores)
                 1 pt   (to passer if thrown)
Safety           2 pts  (Scored by the defense)
Def/ST TD        6 pts  (Players get no credit)

Note: Any TD scored by the team snapping the ball is considered an offensive TD. That means a fake FG or punt that results in a TD counts for the individual players involved in the score. Special teams get credited for all punt and kick return TDs with no points being awarded to the individual player.

Performance Scoring

Rushing      1 pt for 10 yards rushing
Receiving    1 pt for 10 yards receiving
Receiving    1 pt for every 2 receptions
Passing      1 pt for 20 yards passing
Int Thrown  -1 pts for interception
Def/ST       2 pts for turnover forced
Def/ST       1 pt for sack
Def/ST       5 pts if 1 to 10 pts given up
            10 pts if a shutout

The pot consists of the totals of the $100 entry fee from each owner at the beginning of the year minus $50 for the fanball site. There are two ways in which the pot is paid out. The first is a fixed amount paid to a weekly winner and the second is a percentage of the remaining pot paid to teams based on performance.

• $10 will be awarded each week to the team that scores the most overall points that week. This will account for $140 ($10 x14 regular season weeks) of the total pot.
• The FF team at the end of the regular season that has the most overall points will get $100.
• The FF team at the end of the regular season that has the second most overall points will get $50.
• The playoff teams that lose to the Super Bowl participants each get $100.
• The Super Bowl loser gets $200.
• The Super Bowl champion gets $460.

Hopefully the fanball site and/or the NFL will not make errors in calculating stats throughout the season. Still, I encourage each FF owner to always double-check their point totals as well as their opponents each week and inform me of any mistakes. Any errors found throughout the season can be corrected manually.