The Manchise Fantasy Football League Bylaws

THE MANCHISE FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUE
OFFICIAL LEAGUE BYLAWS

I. LEAGUE STRUCTURE

A. The Manchise Fantasy Football League (MFFL) will be comprised of 14 teams in a two division structure.

B. The league will use a head-to-head scoring format with a 13-week regular season and a 3-week playoff (ending in week 16 of the NFL season). It is the individual owners’ responsibility to review and understand the scoring rules and format found on the league website.

C. Winners will be determined by a playoff including the six teams which finish the 13-game regular season with the best record.

II. GOVERNING BODY

A. The MFFL has a governing body of three Commissioners, all of which have equal authority.

B. The league will be governed as a democracy. While the commissioners will have the ability to facilitate changes on the league website, owners will have the opportunity to bring forward issues and concerns, as well as bring items to a vote.

C. To call a vote on any item, a league owner may request one via the league message board. To initiate a vote, the request must be seconded by another owner. At that time, all owners will be required to post a reply to the request to indicate they are active. All matters will be determined by a majority vote. As the league contains 14 teams, a majority of 8 votes will be required to make any changes to rules/bylaws.
c1. If it is determined that any league owner is inactive, they will not be considered as a part of the vote.
c2. Owners will be considered inactive if they are unable to respond to the initial message regarding a vote within 5 business days.

D. The league bylaws, as well as any league rules contained within the website, may only be changed during the offseason. As such, no rule changes should impact the strategy or results of a given season already underway.

III. ANNUAL MFFL DRAFT

A. Team rosters will be filled by an auction draft to be held on a date determined by the league owners via a vote. For details on calling a vote, please refer to section II, subsection C.

B. Each team will be given an auction budget of $200 to spend on players to fill their roster. Each player must be purchased for a minimum of $1 with all bids being dollar denominated (players cannot be purchased for $1.50). Each team will be required to fill each spot on their roster during the draft. Unused draft budget will not be carried over or used for anything else throughout the season.

C. Following the inaugural draft, teams will be given the option to keep a selected number of players for the following season. All players kept will reduce the draft auction budget for the respective team in the following season. For details regarding keepers, please refer to section V.

IV. ROSTER SIZE AND STARTING LINEUP

A. Each team roster will consist of the following positions in a Starting Lineup:
1 Quarterback (QB)
2 Running Backs (RB)
1 Flex (RB/WR)
2 Wide Receivers (WR)
1 Tight End (TE)
1 Defense/Special Teams (D/ST)
1 Kicker (K)
TOTAL: 9 starters

B. In addition to the starting lineup, each team roster will include 7 bench spots (BE) which can be comprised of players from any position. This brings the total roster size to 16 players.

C. Each team will be allowed one roster spot for players on the Injured Reserve List (IR). To be eligible for the IR, a player must be on the IR (any time frame) in the NFL. Players listed as Day-to-Day (DTD) will not be eligible to add to the IR.

D. The league will use the position eligibility as designated by ESPN. As per ESPN’s rules webpage, position eligibility is determined as follows:

Before each season begins the system receives an updated report that details every NFL player with their listed position heading into the new season. This includes rookies as well as veterans. The listed positions are fixed and will not change for the duration of the season. Note: Even in customizable leagues, the league manager cannot change the listed position of any player in the game.

E. Starting lineups must be submitted every week. Players will lock at their individual game start times. As such, it is the owners’ responsibility to ensure they have a player in the lineup prior to their individual game time. Starting lineups may be set for every future week of the season at any given time. If a lineup is not submitted, the previous week’s lineup is automatically used.

V. KEEPING PLAYERS

A. Each season, all teams will be allowed to select 4 players to remain on their respective rosters as “keepers.” However, teams are not required to keep any players.

B. Players selected as keepers will reduce the draft auction budget of their respective teams the following year based on their keeper price.

C. Keeper price is determined by using the player’s original draft price. Beginning in the 2012 season, keepers will be assessed an inflation premium for each year after their second keeper season. This will be calculated by taking the original draft price plus a 25% inflation increase for each year. As such, players kept for a second year will incur a 25% increase in keeper price over their keeper price in year 1 (i.e. you can draft a player, keep that player in year one for the draft price, and then keep them a second year for the the draft price plus 25%). Players kept for a third year will incur a 25% increase in keeper price over their keeper price in year 2.
c1. Players which are drafted and later dropped during the season can be kept, but at the original draft price. As such, no player drafted in the annual draft will be kept for less than $1.
c2. Keeper prices will be rounded to the nearest dollar amount (i.e. a keeper price of $1.49 will be rounded to $1, while a keeper price of $1.51 will be rounded to $2).

D. Players which are undrafted may also be kept. If a player does not have an original draft value, a keeper price of $1 will be used in year 1. The above guidelines for determining keeper price (subsection C) will apply in all subsequent seasons.

E. Keepers must be selected according to the league deadline as per the website.

F. Players may only be kept for a maximum of 3 consecutive years. If a player is not kept for any year, their keeper status will start over. Keeper status is only affected by annual drafts (i.e. if a player is kept for one season, but dropped during the year and picked up by another team, they will only have two years of keeper eligibility left as they were kept consecutive years).

VI. TRADING PLAYERS

A. During the course of the season, owners may trade any mix of players, FAAB budget dollars (current and future), and/or future draft auction budget dollars.
a1. Future draft auction budget dollars may only be traded for seasons in which both parties have already paid in advance.
a2. Prior to the keeper selection deadline, all players, FAAB budget dollars and future draft auction budget dollars may be traded. However, after the keeper selection deadline, only players selected as keepers, future FAAB budget dollars and future draft auction budget dollars may be traded.

B. The trade agreement must be a mutual agreement between the owners involved. Trades must be submitted via the website to be considered official. (NOTE: Trades involving FAAB budget or future auction budget must indicate as such in the notes section of the trade. In addition, a message must be submitted via the league website indicating such as soon as the trade agreement is accepted. Any trade which does not follow these guidelines will be reversed by the league commissioners.)

C. All trades are subject to a 1-day league review period. A trade will be vetoed if so voted by 6 league owners.

D. Trading begins immediately after the conclusion of the annual draft and continues up to the trade deadline. During the season, trades can be made on any day of the week; however, if any player involved in the trade has locked, the trade will not go into effect until the following day.
d1. The trade deadline is December 21 at 11 am Central Time. The deadline may be changed by league vote prior to the beginning of each season.
d2. Following the trade deadline, no trades of any kind will be allowed until 12 am Central Time on January 1 of the year following the conclusion of the playoffs.

VII. FREE AGENCY AND WAIVERS

A. All players which are undrafted will be placed on waivers. A player may be claimed from waivers by submitting a FAAB bid.

B. The minimum bid for waivers is $1. Players are awarded to the team with the highest bid.

C. Waivers process each day at NOON CENTRAL TIME (1:00 PM EASTERN TIME).

D. In the event two teams place identical bids, the player will be awarded to the team that is currently lower in the standings at that time.

E. When making multiple waiver claims, a team must prioritize the claims. The claim with the highest priority will be processed first. As such, if a team submits a bid on two players while another team submits a bid on the lower priority player, the other team will be awarded the lower priority player (waiver claims are processed one at a time – after your highest priority claim is processed, all other high priority claims are processed, followed by lower priority claims).

F. Following the end of the season, all un-owned players will become free agents. At that time, FAAB budgets will not be used to make claims. Players can be added to rosters immediately at no cost.

VIII. WINNING THE LEAGUE

A. The league winners will be determined by a playoff. Following week 13 of the NFL season, the top two teams from each division and the next four best teams as determined by regular season record (six in total) will begin a 3-week playoff.

B. The top two teams in each division will receive a first round bye while the remaining four teams will be seeded by record. Matchups will last one week with the winner advancing and the loser moving to the consolation bracket.

C. The MFFL Championship will be held during week 16 of the NFL season (so as to avoid teams winning or losing due to players being benched in the NFL). The winner will be crowned champion and receive 1st place. The loser will receive 2nd place and the winner of the consolation bracket will receive 3rd place.


IX. FRANCHISE FEE & WINNINGS

A. Each owner will be expected to pay an entry fee of twenty dollars ($20) per year. The entry fee for the first three years is required upon joining the league, meaning each owner must pay sixty dollars ($60) up front to join. NOTE: League fees were increased from $10 to $20 beginning with the 2012 season as per league vote on August 30, 2011.

B. At the end of each season, owners will be given the option to extend their “contract” at the price of $20.
b1. If an owner does not wish to extend their contract at that time, they can do so later, but with an additional $5 required for each year they delay (i.e. if an owner decides after the second year that he would like to extend the contract to play past the third year, he/she can do so at the cost of $25 per additional year)
b2. All additional fees (the extra $5) will be applied to league purchases (a draft board or food/drinks for the draft the following year).

C. At the completion of each season, all league fees will be distributed to the winners of the league. The winnings are awarded as follows:

$20 x 14 Owners = $280
Champion
$200
2nd Place
$60
3rd Place
$20
Total: $280