4)  In an attempt to balance the competition, divisions may be re-arranged at the start of a new season.  A maximum of one team per division may be moved to another division.

2)  Two of the roster positions are reserved for rookies, and two are reserved for coaches.  A Franchise Coach is required, the other positions are optional, but may not be used for other players.  First year NFL coaches are not eligible for rookie roster slots.

3)  There is one Injured Reserve roster position for players listed as IR, Out, or Suspended. This will free up a roster slot for an active replacement, although the salary of a player on IR must still be paid.

4)  Players in the IR roster position are not eligible for the starting roster and cannot be re-activated until he has been on IR for at least 5 days. When he is activated from IR, an active roster position must be available.

5)  You must re-activate (or terminate) a player on IR if his status has changed to violate this.  A one week grace period will be granted, after which a $500,000 league fine will be imposed.

b)  Starting Roster

1)  Weekly starting rosters will consist of the following 13 players:

1 Coach

1 Quarterback

2 Runningbacks

3 Wide Receivers

1 Tight End

1 Kicker

1 Defensive Lineman (either a DT or a DE)

1 Linebacker

1 Defensive Back (either a CB or a S)

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3. Drafts

a)  Auction Draft

1) The Auction draft will be held on-line in August during the NFL pre-season.  This draft usually requires several weeks to complete, you should check your free agent bids daily.

2) The Auction Draft includes all the available Free Agents, (those not retained by contract on a team roster), that are not rookies. It is an open bidding format where any team can bid on any Free Agent, and the current bid is visible to everyone. If there is not a new bid within 2 days, the Free Agent will sign with the team offering him the highest signing bonus.

Note! Free Agents may not occupy Rookie roster slots. You have two Rookie roster positions that may only be filled with rookie players.

3) The base salary for a Free Agent is $400,000. The minimum bid must include the base salary plus any signing bonus offered to the player. Signing bonus bid increments are $50,000 minimum.  

Note! It is common courtesy to increase a players bid that is over $1M by at least $100,000.

4) A deadline date set near the end of NFL pre-season will signify an end to the Auction Draft.  Any Free Agent that still has an outstanding bid, will sign with the team offering him the most at the deadline.

5) If you sign more Free Agents to your team than you have roster space available, you must cut players to make roster space.

Warning! The salary of a cut player will still be the responsibility of your Franchise, although any cut players will become available as a Free Agent at the blind bid draft the following week.

b)  Rookie Draft

1) A two round Rookie draft will be held the last week of the NFL preseason.

2)  Each Franchise will have 12 hours maximum to make a pick, or the Commissioner will pick a player for your Franchise.

3) The draft order for both rounds will be based on the standings from the previous season. The team with the worst record will draft first.  The seeding of the bottom 6 teams is determined after week 14.  The seeding of the top 6 teams will be based on the standing after the playoffs, with the Superbowl Champion drafting last.

4) The draft order for first year leagues will be a random order determined by the commissioner after all of the Franchises have been sold.  The order will be reversed for the second round.

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4. Franchise Management

a)  Franchise Funds & Budget

1)  Each Franchise owner will be provided funds of $50,000,000 at the beginning of the season. An additional $500,000 will be provided to each Franchise for each loss that they suffered during the previous regular season. 

Note! $500,000 per loss represents less than a 10% potential advantage. This is significant enough to re-build a weak Franchise, but not so dominating as to make it unfair for a winning Franchise.

2)  Funds are required for player salaries, for player contracts, for Free Agent signing bonuses, and for your Coaching staff. The budget is up to you, but the following recommendation is a good place to start.

Warning! It is easy is run out of money before the end of the season. Be sure to save some funds for Free Agents that may be required to replace one of your injured players.

Note: This is only a recommended starting budget. If you feel that you will average more than 18 weekly transactions, you will need to adjust your budget to accommodate your style.

3)  Player Salary requirements are shown below. 

4)  Unspent funds will NOT carry over to the next season.  You can use any remaining funds to extend player contracts at the end of the current season.  The deadline to use unspent funds is January 31st.

b)  Franchise Contracts

4) To prevent first year leagues from over spending during the Auction Draft, $8M of the $50M Franchise funds will be held back to cover the mandatory salary requirements of the Franchise players and Franchise coach.

c)  Player Contracts

1)  Up to 5 additional players may be kept under various other contracts.  These are all optional contracts.

2)  Two players may be kept for a second year and two players may be kept for up to three years.  These are standard 2 year and 3 year contracts.  The 2 year contract cost is $1M per year, and the 3 year contract cost is $2M per year.

Tip! You can "save" $3,600,000 in salary the first year by not signing any players to 2 or 3 year contracts until the beginning of the second season. Instead of paying $1M and $2M for two 2 and 3 year contracts, you can keep these players in a 1 year contract for $400,000 each.  This could give you $22M to offer as signing bonus in the first year auction draft.

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5. Transactions

a)  Weekly Free Agent Draft

2)  A tie during Free Agent offers will be broken in a worst to first order. The player will sign with the team having the worst record first. The tie breaker for record will be the team with the fewest points scored.

3)  After the weekly Blind Bid draft, players will sign with the first franchise that makes them an offer.  It will be first come, first served from Wednesday to Sunday. The player will sign for the minimum salary of $400,000.

4)  When the NFL starts Thursday games, the first come, first served free agent pickups will be limited to Wednesday and Thursday.

5)  Any player dropped from a roster will be locked until the next Blind Bid draft, where everyone will have an opportunity to make an offer for him.

6)  When a new player is added, a roster position must be available.  If all roster positions are taken, a player must be dropped from the current roster.

b)  Trades

1)  Players that are traded between two teams will retain their current salary and contract, so the new team must be able to afford the salary of the traded player.  Each team must also have a contract position available if the player is currently under a 2-year, 3-year, Franchise, or Rookie contract.

2)  If a trade or other transaction causes less than the required minimum of 2 rookies or 2 coaches, you will be given a one week grace period to add an additional player for this position, or a league fine of $500,000 will be imposed.

3)  All trades between Franchises will be monitored by the Commissioner and may be over ruled if the trade is considered un-balanced or if there is not contract space available.

4)  Any trade between two teams cannot be completely reversed until at least 4 weeks have elapsed and must be conducted before the trade deadline has passed.

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6. Schedule

a)  Regular Season

1)  Regular season Head to Head matches will take place from weeks 1 to 13 of the regular NFL season.

2)  Each team within a division will play the other teams in their division twice throughout the year.

b)  Playoffs

1)  Playoffs are a 3 round elimination tournament between the top 6 teams in each league.  It will be player during NFL weeks 14 to 16.  A Toiletbowl bracket involving the remaining 6 teams will play for a consolation prize.

2)  The two division champs with the best overall record will have a bye the first week of the playoffs.  The top seed will play the lowest remaining seed in week 15.

3)  The remaining division leader with the best record will play the wild card team with the worst record.  All ties for overall record are broken by most total points scored.  Ties for worst record are broken by fewest points scored.

4)  After the start of week 14, your roster is frozen during the remainder of the playoffs. You must ensure that there is enough roster depth in your Franchise to accommodate a potential injury.

c)  Intra-League Site Championship

 1)  Intra-League standings include all leagues at the site and are based on overall record.  Ties are broken based on total points scored.

2)  Division champions with a week 14 bye will play another team from the Franchise Football site this week to help establish Intra-League rankings.

3)  Week 17 is the final Intra-League match.  The team with the best overall record will win the Site Championship.  Each league will contribute a small amount towards the prize money, and Franchise Football management will also add an additional $20.

4)  Seeding for all Intra-League games will be #1 vs #2, #3 vs #4, etc. The top teams will play against eachother.  A loss does not signify an elimination, but it will reflect in your overall record.

5)  Private leagues may also participate in the Site Championship, but since total points scored is the tie breaker for overall rankings, all scoring rules must remain unchanged.

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7. Scoring

1)  Each owner must select the weekly starting roster before the beginning of the players game.  If no roster is submitted by the deadline, the previous week’s roster will be used for scoring.

2)  Conflicts in scoring may be protested, but must be submitted before the next week begins.

3)  A tie during the regular season will be recorded as such in the standings. A tie during the playoffs will be awarded to the team with the most total points scored for the entire year.

4)  League rankings will be determined first by win/loss percentage and then by total points scored. Total points scored is considered the best indicator of the strength of a Franchise.

Click the link at bottom of the page for Scoring Details

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8. League Prizes

a)  All league prizes will be paid during January.

b)  The best team doesn't always win the Superbowl, that is why this site will pay some of the league funds to each of the Division Champions at the end of the regular season, pay the weekly high scorer each week during the regular season, and pay the Intra-League Champion at the end of the season.  A true championship caliper Franchise should win some weekly high scores, win their division, win the Superbowl in his league, and win the Site Championship.  This Franchise could easily earn well over $275.00 in a $50 league.

Click the link at bottom of the page for details of League Prize Money

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Scoring Details        League Prize Money

Last modified: August 15, 2010