League Rules

**FINALLY FOOTBALL**
Commish: Brent Short (barr512)
Vice commish: CardsSS

Rosters: Starting in 1989 with real team rosters. Players on multiple teams are assigned to team with whom they finished the season. Max roster size - 60. All OL and defensive players are individuals and not a permanent unit as you may see in other leagues.

Progression: All players will progress by classic progression in the offseason. Progression will be up to 28, stable until 31 and regress after 31. If gbacci ever creates variable progression by position, we will switch to that. OL and defense will progress and regress.

Sims: sim 1 game per day to allow time for folks to reset their training player and adjust offense and defense for the new opponent. I think if we do more than one per day it will be too difficult to use those options and render them useless. I may decide to sim every other day for playoffs. We can discuss.

Signing players: players must have a signed contract by season end or they will become free agents. Players can be signed for up to 10 years. The player contract cost will be determined by Pennant Chase, which is based on player quality. After completing their contract, they will become free agents.

Team Budgets: I’m going to play with this to make it work out for everyone, but I’m thinking around $500 per team.

Free agency: To start the league, I will import some older players from past seasons as roster fillers. Subsequently, free agents will come from the existing player pool and new players entering the league. Players will enter the league based on their real life play. Most of these players will come in as part of a rookie draft.

Free agent bidding: Bidding for free agents will take place before each season, except 1989. Bids on free agents will be done privately through a message to me listing the position, player(s) you wish to sign, the yearly salary, number of years, and total contract value. Free agents can only be signed for a maximum of 10 years. No increasing or decreasing annual bids are permitted. The minimum bid is $1 for 0 years and this is the only 0 year bid that counts. The format is QB Johnny Unitas $7/10=$70. Typically, the free agent bidding period will be one round for 2-3 days with a “winners” round to follow. I will update bids on the homepage a few times, so that you can rebid. I cannot guarantee the number of times that I update, so put your best bids out there. To prevent last minute sniping of a player, if you are the highest bid 12 hours before the bidding period closes then you will be automatically allowed to rebid in the top 3 rebid round - as described below.

The top 3 bidding teams will be able to place one more final rebid in the “winners” round. All new bids must be higher than the highest posted bid on the homepage or it does not count. The highest bid from that round will receive the player. Any ties for contract value will go to the highest yearly salary. Since this last phase of rebidding is blind, there is a chance of some ties. If there is a tie for the highest rebid then those teams are allowed one more rebid within 24 hours of the home page posting (which I will notify everyone when it happens). If it is still tied after that, the player is awarded to the team with the worse record in the previous season. If there is still a tie then the player goes to the team with the worse point differential from last year. If I am among the top 3 bidders in the rebid round, then I will send my final bids to my vice commish.

Open free agent signing: after the free agent bidding period and shortly before the season starts, unsigned players will be available for addition to your teams for free - as a first come first serve basis. The time will be set ahead for everyone to see.

Rookie draft: Before each season (except 1989), we will have a rookie draft. Both rounds will be automated through the supplemental draft option. Thus, you will rank players and then the computer will draft offline. Trading of picks must be completed before the start of week 12 of the season. Picks can only be traded for the next year. The order of drafting will be determined by worst to best records in the previous season - playoff teams will go last and then be added based on elimination from playoffs. Ties will be broken by point differential. Further ties will be based on division record. There will be 2 rounds. Undrafted players will become free agents.

Rookies: I will import rookies for each season starting in 1990 and then edit their stats to represent their relative career success. I will not edit stats of any other players.

Teams and divisions: We will follow the NFL by year for team name changes, division arrangements, expansion, and playoff formats.

Playoffs: In 1989, we will have 3 division winners and 2 wild card spots for each conference make the playoffs. Ties for lead within division will defer to team with better in-division record. If still tied, then we will defer to point differential. Ties for the wild card spot will be settled by point differential. Further ties will be decided by divisional record. Playoff format will change for 1990 just as it did in the NFL.

Trading: there is no limit on the number of allowable trades. All trades must be completed before Week 12 of the season. We will establish a trade committee to oversee any questionable trades. Questionable trades could be in the form of obvious collusion, tanking, and/or any trade that drastically hurts the value of one team over another. As a reminder, OL and defensive players can be traded individually - they are not stuck together. Draft picks can be traded for the current and subsequent season.

Trade committee members: NEEDS ADDRESSED

Anti-tanking rule (J_L rule): I have little patience for intentionally trying to lose. If I believe you are doing so, then I will consult my vice and if we are in agreement then you will be warned and docked a first round pick. If you do not have a first round pick, then all remaining picks will be removed. If it happens again, you will be removed from the league. Tanking can be in the form of playing players with inferior stats than others available (not counting injuries), setting strategies that force your team to perform unrealistic actions (such as always going for 2 pts), using running backs with few carries where they consistently would be tired (I think they get a 20% penalty for being tired). There is no penalty for playing players out of position (as allowed by the sim). For example, you can put a LB at DE. You cannot put a LB at QB.

League Settings

Year Range of Stats	1970 - 2025
Roster Size	60
Rules	Pro (NFL)
Two Point Conv	Yes
Defense	Draft Individual Players
O-Line	Draft Individual Players
Keepers	(60 keepers)
Change Stats Allowed
Free Agency
Drops
No-Drop List
Injuries	(1 games max)
Player Training	(1 schedule days)
User Sims