Paragon Fantasy Football. For Players. By Players.
Go Deep 80 Man Roster Dynasty League
2013 MFL League Website
Previous League Websites
2012 MFL League Website
2011 MFL League Website
SUMMARY:
1) League Fees & Prize Money
a) The league fees will be $250 a year. 100% of year 1 fees and 50% of year 2 fees will be required when league forms.
b) Upon requesting a franchise, full payment into leaguesafe is required in full before the commissioner will grant ownership.
c) After the first season, fees will be due on March 1st each year as defined in the league calendar.
d) 100% of fees (minus cost of myfantasyleague.com) will be paid out.
e) Failure to meet the payment deadline will result in franchise will be declared orphaned and a new owner being sought. Any concerns about not being able to meet the payment deadline should be communicated to the league commissioner ASAP. Commissioners decision in all circumstances will be considered final.
f) 25% of Prize Pool. Year 1-4, will be held over to create a "Super Pool" in year 5, at which point, the prize pool will be more than double the previous year's 1-4 payouts. This creates a strong incentive for teams to build for now and for the future. It also creates another incentive for people to stay for full 5 years as they are forgoing paid money not to mention the chance at the Super Pool. This concept makes attracting new owners to the league much easier for abandoned teams. The 25% prize pool concept is ongoing meaning that in Years 6-9, 25% is held again for the Year 10 Super Pool and so on. The prize pool is estimated to be $8,000 in year 5!
g) If you make the playoffs, you are guaranteed to win something. The following percentages for the eligible prize pool each year, less MFL league site fees, are paid out after the aggregate super pool funds (above) are withheld:
1st - 50% of prize pool
2nd - 25% of prize pool
3rd - 10% of prize pool
4th - 7% of prize pool
5th - 5% of prize pool
6th - 3% of prize pool
2) Teams, Divisions, and Ownership of Teams
a) The League will consist of 16 teams divided into 4 divisions with 4 teams in each division.
b) Each owner can name their team as they see fit, and select their own graphics for their banner and logo.
c) The PFFL commissioners will grant ownership to the most qualified GM's expressing interest in owning a franchise. It would be nice to see all of our owners return year to year and the league is therefore specifically designed to provide financial incentives for teams to stay for the initial five years, at the very least.
d) If an owner should choose not to return, the commissioner will find a replacement GM using whatever means necessary to keep the league stable. See common rules for scenarios around how this works.
e) As per Section 9, all new team owners will utilize the Replacement Owners draft options as specified.
f) Division names, significance, and annual re-balancing will be as specified in the Paragon Common Rules.
3) Rosters, Starting Lineups
a) 100 players will make up a complete roster (80 regular roster, and 20 taxi squad). There are no restrictions regarding the number of players by position, or minimum number of players after initial draft/auctions. The only minimum requirement of a roster is the ability to fulfill the starting lineup requirements.
b) Starting Lineups will consist of the following positions
1 QB
5 RB
8 WR
2 TE
1 Punter
1 Coach
1 Kicker
3 DT
4 DE
8 LB
3 S
3 CB
c) There are two copies of each player available in this league.
d) At no point may both copies reside on the same team.
e) The league software SHOULD not allow such a transaction to occur. The commissioner reserves the right to assign greater or lesser penalties at their own discretion to protect the integrity of the league, depending on the circumstances of the rule breach. These penalties are defined in the Paragon Common Rule Book. We are confident that there will never be a violation of this rule but please take appropriate care in all aspects of acquiring players. Please ask questions to the PFFL commissioners if you are unsure and advise the PFFL commissioners immediately if a rule breach has occurred.
f) Why 2 copies? In our opinion there is no other viable way to have a super deep roster, 16 fantasy team league without it. By providing two copies, we can have more accurate sized rosters with appropriate amounts of talent on each roster to keep the league competitive. We understand it may seem unusual to some but since only one copy can reside on each team, we believe the benefits of the league structure and trading, far outweigh the fact that two copies exist. It also makes the drafts much more interesting.
4) Injured Reserve
a) Each team will have 10 injury reserve positions on their rosters.
b) Players declared to be on injured reserve by the official NFL injury report AND Myfantasyleague. com (MFL) injury designations can be placed on IR.
c) Players must remain on the injured reserve list for the remainder of the current fantasy season. The only exception to this is a scenario where a player is released from Injured Reserve and the MFL IR designation is lifted. In this case, the player cannot remain on IR. To align with what is happening in the NFL, the fantasy team owner must either activate the player or cut the player since he no longer has an IR designation. This is the only scenario where as commissioners we would allow an IR player to be activated since he is no longer eligible for IR.
d) Trading of players placed on the injured reserve list is allowed.
e) Owners can place players on injured reserve at any time during the current MFL league season. To move a player to injured reserve, the owner must use the leagues website to process the transaction.
f) Once a player is on the injured reserve list, the team may acquire a free agent to fill the empty spot on the main roster (in accordance with acquisition rules).
g) All players must be removed from IR by March 1st by either being placed on the active roster or waived by the team owner. All players not activated from IR by 1st March will be returned to the free agent pool by the commissioner. In actual practice, the league site will be rolled over ASAP, most likely mid-February to the new year’s version. At that point, all IR players will be activated, and all teams will be over the roster limit. They will then have until March 1 to cut their roster down to the league limit.
5) Regular Season
a) The league regular season will run from weeks 1-13, teams playing each other team in their division twice while filling in the rest of the schedule with randomly selected teams via league software. To ensure no clash with NFL bye weeks, weeks 10, 12 and 13 are when our double header games are to be played. The last week of the regular season, each team will play two division rivals. The double headers and the division rival games are intended to keep the playoff picture undecided as long as possible, to maintain maximum league interest in all games played.
b) If the NFL regular season is ever extended through a new collective bargaining agreement, additional regular weeks shall be added such that the league championship shall end 1 week before the end of the regular NFL season.
6) Playoffs
a) The league playoffs will take place during weeks 14-16.
b) The six teams with the best win-loss record will be seeded 1-6 and make the playoffs.
c) Tie Breakers - In case of a tie between two or more teams for playoff seeding, the same tie breaking methods defined in the Paragon Common Rule Book will apply.
d) Home Field Advantage - During the playoffs, just like the real NFL, there is a home field advantage to higher seeded teams. 5 points are automatically added by the system to home field teams during the playoffs to simulate this advantage. Please note that this includes all playoff games EXCEPT the league championship. In each matchup, the higher seeded team is the home team and gains the 5 points. NOTE: Not many games are determined by five points or less in this size of a league, but we believe that this adds a great degree of realism to how important it is to be as highly seeded as possible entering the playoffs.
7) Veteran Auctions and Draft
a) During the inaugural season, the initial vereran auction will commence 1 week after the rookie draft is completed. This auction will be for selecting veterans only. Rookies will always be available for selection in their own draft, including in the first season. All rookies are shown in the MFL website in the following format: Stafford, Matthew DET QB (R)
b) The auctions are conducted using $1000 in fictional money to spend. It will be conducted using the MFL site, and handled similarly to eBay using Proxy Bids. Each owner will be asked to nominate 3 names, and when one of those names is won by any team, to nominate a new player immediately. Each team MUST spend up to $1000 on exactly 20 players in each auction. The first auction shall be for offensive players only (coaches and punters can be won here or in the defensive auction). The second auction shall be for defensive players only.
After completing the auctions, there shall be no other significance or value on how much they were bid or won for. The $1000 is solely to allow for a fair auction where each team has an equal chance for each and every player. The purpose of 2 auctions is to ensure that each team starts off with an equally strong defensive and offensive roster, to minimize future regret or potential abandonment.
c) After the auctions, teams will have half of their starting roster. At that point, a draft will fill the remaining 40 roster spots. As per all Paragon draft leagues, 3rd Round Reversal (3RR) will be utilized. See common rules for more details.
d) All draft picks, when entered into system, will then be available for trading among all teams.
e) Despite there being two copies of every player, each player will likely show up only once in the draft list (as per the functions and capabilities of the MFL site at the time of the draft, TBD and shared prior to draft).
f) Once drafted by his first team, the player still appears (second copy of that player) in the draft list available for selection.
g) Once drafted by his second team, the player name will disappear from the available players list.
h) Please refer to section 3 regarding penalties for holding both copies of the same player for any reason.
i) Drafts will be 4 hour slow drafts handled via the MFL league website software. Please see common rules for additional information on this regarding times/rules etc.
We have 1700 players to draft so we strongly encourage teams to utilize pre-draft lists to let the system speed up our drafting process. You'll see the commissioners setting an example by using them and once the draft moves to the middle rounds, it's a simple and fast way to draft. The beauty of this system is that every owner gets the time they require to make their decisions, when needed. All of us will have critical rounds with hard choices that we need to step back and consider our options on. It's one of the key advantages of a slow draft.
j) Post Inaugural Draft Fill: Starting at 6pm on the day AFTER the conclusion of the inaugural veteran draft, the DTS will close, and at that time there will be an initial blind bid waiver run. Immediately after that, there will be 48 hours of FCFS (first come, first served) waivers. This is a one-time occurrence allowing all teams to fill their initial rosters, at their leisure, with their best available team, prior to commencing the rest of the preseason. Please note that any players acquired are NOT eligible for the DTS, so please plan accordingly. Dates will be finalised in the league calendar.
8) Rookie Draft
a) The rookie draft will occur 72 hours after the last team spot is taken, or 7 days after the completion of the regular NFL draft, whichever is later.
b) During the inaugural season, the rookie draft pick order will be the reverse order of the initial veteran draft.
c) The subsequent yearly rookie draft will occur approximately 2 weeks after the NFL draft.
d) The draft will run for 20 rounds during the inaugural season (to fill the entire taxi squad), but will be 8 rounds in subsequent years.
e) During the draft, roster sizes will be temporarily increased by 8 positions to allow each team to draft their rookie class and subsequently demote them. Immediately after the draft, the active roster limits will be restored.
f) Draft picks may be traded if the dues for that year are fully paid for.
g) To ensure teams can trade future pick years, teams are strongly encouraged to at least pay their next years dues into Leaguesafe.
h) Teams may only trade the current year and the upcoming year's picks.
i) After each season is completed, an additional years worth of picks will become available when the league site is rolled over to the following season.
j) The draft will be a 16 team draft with double player availability but will be rookie only.
k) The draft order determined potential points (per common rules), however the two teams that played in the league Superbowl will always gets the last (16th) and 2nd to last (15th) draft position.
9) Replacement Owners Draft
See Paragon Common Rulebook Section 12. 81 round draft.
10) Supplemental Draft
a) 1 week after the completion of the rookie draft, the league will conduct a 15 round Supplemental Draft. The supplemental draft is intended to fill any rookie or main roster spots that may be available due to retirement, injury, long-term suspension, or just the usual cuts of ineffective players.
b) The supplemental draft is not compulsory.
c) The supplemental draft will not happen during the inaugural season for this league
d) The draft order is the same as the Rookie Draft order.
e) Any player eligible to play in the NFL and still available as a fantasy FA (not rostered or on a DTS) may be selected (so both NFL veterans and rookies).
f) Supplemental draft picks cannot be traded at any time or for any reason.
g) Team owners are responsible for ensuring they have enough roster space to make supplemental draft selections. In practice, this will mean dropping players to create roster space prior to the supplemental draft which will allow those waived players to be picked up by other franchises in the supplemental draft. Therefore, player drops WILL NOT be allowed once the supplemental draft commences.
h) We will follow an accelerated 1 hour time clock for draft selections and strongly encourage teams to enter in any players they would like to select via the system.
i) Picks not made within the time limits imposed will be forfeited.
j) During the Supplemental Draft, the roster size will be temporarily increased by one to allow for players to be drafted and demoted to DTS if required/space permits.
k) Once a pick has been skipped/forfeited, that team owner is ineligible to make further selections in the supplemental draft.
11) Dynasty Taxi Squad Players (DTS)
a) Owners may initially designate 20 rookie players from their team to the Dynasty Taxi Squad (DTS) for development purposes, replacing any openings on the DTS with rookies they draft in future years.
b) Players on the DTS will be in addition to the 80 active roster players.
c) Players may only be placed on the DTS if they were either initially drafted in the rookie draft, or were selected in the 15 round supplemental draft and maintain DTS eligibility, or inaugural veteran draft during first year.
d) The team owner is responsible for demoting their selections to the DTS via league software within a week of the conclusion of the supplemental draft.
e) The closure of the DTS will always be detailed on the MFL League Calendar. Once this date has passed, no more demotions to the DTS will be allowed until the following year's drafts begin.
f) Once a player is placed on the DTS, he can remain there for 2 seasons.
g) At the end of their 2nd NFL season, any players who based on this rule who are no longer eligible for the DTS must be placed on the team's active roster or waived. Team owners have until 1st March to do this.
h) Only a rookie in his rookie year can be placed on your DTS, not a 2nd year player who was never on any other roster previously.
i) Once a player is activated from the DTS to the active roster, he is ineligible to return to the DTS. This includes if the player is traded to another franchise or waived and subsequently picked up by another team owner.
j) Players on the DTS are not eligible to start a game until they are moved onto the active roster.
k) Traded players may be placed on the DTS if they were on the other teams DTS when the trade took place.
l) Team owners have the ability to acquire DTS players from other franchises in the league on to their own active roster.
m) The team owner activating/signing DTS players from opposing franchises will pay the price of 2 draft picks to the franchise losing the DTS Player; 1 draft pick from the same round the player was drafted, 1 draft pick from the round higher than the player was drafted.
Example: The price for a DTS player drafted in the second round will be a 1st & 2nd round draft pick.
n) A team that is claiming the DTS player may give up earlier round draft picks than what is technically required if they do not have the exact round of draft picks available.
Example: A 4th and 5th round is required but the team doesn't have a 4th round, so it gives a 3rd and 5th round instead.
o) As per the logic described in the above mentioned rule, it's not possible to acquire a player drafted in the 1st round via a DTS Activation Trade.
p) The price for DTS players selected in the Veteran/Supplementary Draft will as if the player had been drafted in the last round of the rookie draft (so 7th and 8th pick).
q) Only the next draft's set of picks may be used for activating/signing DTS players from opposing franchises (not two drafts out, for example).
r) Activating DTS players from opposing franchises may only occur after the Dynasty Taxi Squad is closed each year and before the start of the next year's Rookie Draft. DTS activation is also closed during the trade blackout between week 12 and the end of week 16.
s) To activate DTS players from opposing franchises, the team owner must create a new message board post to the league declaring the transaction, listing the teams/player/draft picks involved, so all owners are notified. Please note that if a team owns multiple picks in the same round, they need to specify which one they are surrendering (their choice) in the message board thread. If a team that is "purchasing" the new player owns multiple picks in the appropriate rounds, that team should specify which of these picks they wish to trade away.
t) The Commissioner will execute the transaction as a trade if the picks are valid, if all league fees for the pick years are fully paid and if all roster requirements are met.
u) The DTS activation trade will be declared null and void if all of the conditions in Section 11 m - t) are not met.
v) Before the commissioner decides if the DTS activation claim is valid or invalid, the DTS player being claimed cannot be promoted to the active roster, nor can another team make a claim on the same copy of that player.
w) Any player acquired by a DTS activation trade will go straight to the active roster of the new team.
x) Any rookie player acquired by a team must be demoted within 72 hours of that acquisition, or that player is no longer eligible for demotion. The exception to this is the rookie draft, during which demotions are not required until 24 hours after the conclusion of the entire draft. Furthermore, if any player is utilized in an actual lineup for a game (scoring 0+ points), that player is no longer eligible for demotion to the DTS.
12) Free Agent Waivers
a) Any player not on a roster, DTS, or IR are considered a Free Agent.
b) All free agents not selected in the league draft processes are handled by the blind bidding waiver process, utilizing blind bid waiver dollars.
c) All teams will have a Blind Bid Waiver Dollar budget of $1000.
d) The Blind Bid Waiver Dollar budget of $1000 cannot be traded.
e) The Blind Bid Waiver Dollar budget of $1000 is for all FA transactions during the league year.
f) At the end of the league year, the balance of the Blind Bid Waiver Dollar budget of $1000 will carry over to next season.
g) Between the end of the supplemental draft and the start of the first week 1 game, free agent acquisitions can be made every 2 weeks via the Blind Bid waiver periods as defined in the league calendar.
h) Commencing Week 1 of the NFL regular season and ending at the commencement of Week 1 games, there will be 4 waiver periods each week as defined in the league calendar.
The 1st Blind Bid Waivers period starts from the kickoff of 1pm Sunday games and will end on Wednesday.
The 2nd period will be on a First Come First Served (FCFS) basis. This will run from Wednesday until Thursday evening prior to kick off of Thursday night football.
The 3rd is a Blind Bid Waivers period starting on Thursday and will end on Saturday.
The 4th period will be on a First Come First Served (FCFS) basis. This will run from Saturday until the 1pm kickoff of Sunday games. Please refer to the league calendar for details.
i) There is a $1 minimum on all waiver transactions, whether through blind bidding or FCFS. Therefore, if you spend all of your budget before the end the season, you WILL NOT be able to acquire free agents. You may not be able make future roster moves even when an accidental drop has occurred. Please keep this in mind.
j) From the commencement of Week 16 games, free agent pick-ups will be suspended until the supplemental draft.
k) The commissioner will only accept free agent acquisition requests on the forms provided on the league website.
l) The commissioner will only accept email from the owner if the league website is down.
m) Each team will be able to acquire an unlimited amount of free agents per week/year dependent on roster space limits & Blind Bid Waiver $.
n) Once the owner makes a waiver request, the owner cannot rescind or replace it with another request after the bidding deadline.
o) Free agent waiver requests are to be submitted as per the time frames specified in the league calendar.
13) Trading
a) Trading will be allowed at all times except from 2 weeks prior to the playoffs, until the completion of the league championship game.
b) Trading will be allowed between teams that are paid in full for the current season.
c) You may trade a player you have placed on injured reserve, but he will remain on IR for the new team.
d) Trades can involve players & draft picks with owners responsible for ensuring trades do not put their teams over the roster limits.
e) To trade all your picks for one season you must have paid in full for the next two future seasons as per Section 10 of Paragon Common Rule Book. Example: In 2011, to trade all of your 2012 draft picks you must have paid for the 2012 and 2013 seasons.
f) You may not trade in the off-season until you have paid for the upcoming year meaning that both teams must be paid up in full to complete a trade.
g) Owners are responsible for responding to trade offers from other owners taking into account the Code of Conduct & Team Ownership Responsibilities specified in the Paragon Common Rule Book.
h) Some recommendations are as follows:
You should check your trade offers every time you log onto the league website. If the offer is not acceptable, reject it immediately. Communication is the life blood of all fantasy leagues so it's a common courtesy to explain why. Some owners may send you repeated trade offers, but if you explain that you are not interested at all in a player, then they likely will not keep offering the same trades.
14) College Pre Draft Acquisition (CPDA) Option
a) Team owners can choose to acquire any eligible college player they want (that has not declared for the NFL draft), at which point, they are guaranteed to get that player on their roster immediately upon them entering the NFL (bypassing the rookie draft). In other words, you are reserving the right to this player while they still have at least 1 more college season ahead of them. The player must have played at least one college game to be considered eligible for CPDA
b) However, to select that player, a team must give a 1st, 2nd AND 3rd round pick for the following season. So if on March 1, 2012, a team wants to lock up player X, they will give up 1st-3rd round picks in the 2013 draft.
c) To do so, they must post on the message board their intent to sign. At that point, any other team has 24 hours to BEAT that offer by offering a 1st, 2nd, 3rd AND 4th round pick. Then a new 24 hour clock will start and any team would have to offer that, plus a 5th round pick. Once a 1st through 5th round pick has been offered, that will be the final price accepted, and that team will automatically win.
d) Upon the expiration of 24 hours and therefore the trade being valid, that team must pay all outstanding league fees as per Section 10 of Paragon Common Rule Book. If they traded 100% of their picks, they must pay for that season, plus the following season, per the usual rules. Teams should keep this in mind.
e) The claim must be made between the start of the NFL combine, and the start of the NFL week 1 games. This is to prevent claims being made of players shortly before they declare for the NFL. The intent is not to bypass the league rookie draft, but rather to make a claim well in advance of when their true NFL draft and fantasy draft potential is known.
f) If a team has not paid these fees within 72 hours after winning, the claim will be invalid. The penalty shall be that the team having made the claim, but failed to pay, shall be that they forfeit the 2nd round pick they had offered in the claim. So DO NOT make a claim unless you have the money in hand to pay Leaguesafe.
g) CPDA players must be placed on your active roster.
h) Because of the high price paid, this is considered a significant gamble in the future of a player before they ever reach the NFL. There is a chance that a player selected will never play a down in the NFL, through injury, skill, bad decisions, etc. The price, risk and potential reward are all great. There may be many seasons when not a single claim is made by any team. But for those that follow college games closely, this may add an additional bit of excitement.
15) Timeline of Important Dates
March 1st:
April 25th - 27th:
May 3rd:
June 1st:
June 10th:
May 10th:
One week after Rookie Draft ends
Commencement of NFL Week 12 games:
Commencement of NFL Week 14 games:
NFL Week 16:
After NFL Week 16:
Fantasy League Off-Season:
Fantasy League Pre-Season:
Current Fantasy Season:
Where possible, all above dates will be specified in the league calendar, which is considered final.
SUMMARY:
- 16 teams, individually named by each owner, organized into four divisions of four teams.
- 80 man rosters, 20 man taxi squad, IR, etc.
- 40 starters, balanced between offensive positions and defense for realism. Exciting new positions like Coach and Punter add additional depth and strategic complexity.
- The proven, balanced Paragon PPR scoring system.
- Initial creation of teams combines best elements of auction and draft:
- Auction 1 - $1000 budget for ebay-like acquisition of 20 offensive players.
- Auction 2 - $1000 budget for ebay-like acquisition of 20 defensive players.
- Draft - 40 round 3rd round reversal serpentine draft to acquire the remaining “filler” players for the roster.
- Annual rookie-only draft occurring soon after the NFL draft (initial draft 20 rounds, subsequent 8 rounds).
- Annual off season supplemental draft and blind bidding waivers.
- Sign players off opposing franchises’ practice squads for a price.
- No Salary Caps or contracts. Option to acquire college players for a price. Once you acquire any player you have the option to keep him for his entire NFL career.
- In order to allow for 16 teams yet 80 players and a slightly enhanced level of starters, there are two copies of each NFL player in the league although you can only own one copy of the player at any time. This adds many extra trading opportunities, strategy around drafts and an increased chance of rostering your favorite players.
- Large prize pools with 100% payouts less MFL league fees of $70/yr approx.
- Holdover of 25% of prize money years 1-4 in order to have double prizes (Super Pool Concept) every 5 years.
- Start this league with confidence that it will be around for many years to come.
- This league combines some of the most popular and “best” elements of the proven Paragon leagues, into a league that is extra deep and rewards the player that believes they can identify quality talent “before” it becomes well known to the rest of the fantasy world.
1) League Fees & Prize Money
a) The league fees will be $250 a year. 100% of year 1 fees and 50% of year 2 fees will be required when league forms.
b) Upon requesting a franchise, full payment into leaguesafe is required in full before the commissioner will grant ownership.
c) After the first season, fees will be due on March 1st each year as defined in the league calendar.
d) 100% of fees (minus cost of myfantasyleague.com) will be paid out.
e) Failure to meet the payment deadline will result in franchise will be declared orphaned and a new owner being sought. Any concerns about not being able to meet the payment deadline should be communicated to the league commissioner ASAP. Commissioners decision in all circumstances will be considered final.
f) 25% of Prize Pool. Year 1-4, will be held over to create a "Super Pool" in year 5, at which point, the prize pool will be more than double the previous year's 1-4 payouts. This creates a strong incentive for teams to build for now and for the future. It also creates another incentive for people to stay for full 5 years as they are forgoing paid money not to mention the chance at the Super Pool. This concept makes attracting new owners to the league much easier for abandoned teams. The 25% prize pool concept is ongoing meaning that in Years 6-9, 25% is held again for the Year 10 Super Pool and so on. The prize pool is estimated to be $8,000 in year 5!
g) If you make the playoffs, you are guaranteed to win something. The following percentages for the eligible prize pool each year, less MFL league site fees, are paid out after the aggregate super pool funds (above) are withheld:
1st - 50% of prize pool
2nd - 25% of prize pool
3rd - 10% of prize pool
4th - 7% of prize pool
5th - 5% of prize pool
6th - 3% of prize pool
2) Teams, Divisions, and Ownership of Teams
a) The League will consist of 16 teams divided into 4 divisions with 4 teams in each division.
b) Each owner can name their team as they see fit, and select their own graphics for their banner and logo.
c) The PFFL commissioners will grant ownership to the most qualified GM's expressing interest in owning a franchise. It would be nice to see all of our owners return year to year and the league is therefore specifically designed to provide financial incentives for teams to stay for the initial five years, at the very least.
d) If an owner should choose not to return, the commissioner will find a replacement GM using whatever means necessary to keep the league stable. See common rules for scenarios around how this works.
e) As per Section 9, all new team owners will utilize the Replacement Owners draft options as specified.
f) Division names, significance, and annual re-balancing will be as specified in the Paragon Common Rules.
3) Rosters, Starting Lineups
a) 100 players will make up a complete roster (80 regular roster, and 20 taxi squad). There are no restrictions regarding the number of players by position, or minimum number of players after initial draft/auctions. The only minimum requirement of a roster is the ability to fulfill the starting lineup requirements.
b) Starting Lineups will consist of the following positions
1 QB
5 RB
8 WR
2 TE
1 Punter
1 Coach
1 Kicker
3 DT
4 DE
8 LB
3 S
3 CB
c) There are two copies of each player available in this league.
d) At no point may both copies reside on the same team.
e) The league software SHOULD not allow such a transaction to occur. The commissioner reserves the right to assign greater or lesser penalties at their own discretion to protect the integrity of the league, depending on the circumstances of the rule breach. These penalties are defined in the Paragon Common Rule Book. We are confident that there will never be a violation of this rule but please take appropriate care in all aspects of acquiring players. Please ask questions to the PFFL commissioners if you are unsure and advise the PFFL commissioners immediately if a rule breach has occurred.
f) Why 2 copies? In our opinion there is no other viable way to have a super deep roster, 16 fantasy team league without it. By providing two copies, we can have more accurate sized rosters with appropriate amounts of talent on each roster to keep the league competitive. We understand it may seem unusual to some but since only one copy can reside on each team, we believe the benefits of the league structure and trading, far outweigh the fact that two copies exist. It also makes the drafts much more interesting.
4) Injured Reserve
a) Each team will have 10 injury reserve positions on their rosters.
b) Players declared to be on injured reserve by the official NFL injury report AND Myfantasyleague. com (MFL) injury designations can be placed on IR.
c) Players must remain on the injured reserve list for the remainder of the current fantasy season. The only exception to this is a scenario where a player is released from Injured Reserve and the MFL IR designation is lifted. In this case, the player cannot remain on IR. To align with what is happening in the NFL, the fantasy team owner must either activate the player or cut the player since he no longer has an IR designation. This is the only scenario where as commissioners we would allow an IR player to be activated since he is no longer eligible for IR.
d) Trading of players placed on the injured reserve list is allowed.
e) Owners can place players on injured reserve at any time during the current MFL league season. To move a player to injured reserve, the owner must use the leagues website to process the transaction.
f) Once a player is on the injured reserve list, the team may acquire a free agent to fill the empty spot on the main roster (in accordance with acquisition rules).
g) All players must be removed from IR by March 1st by either being placed on the active roster or waived by the team owner. All players not activated from IR by 1st March will be returned to the free agent pool by the commissioner. In actual practice, the league site will be rolled over ASAP, most likely mid-February to the new year’s version. At that point, all IR players will be activated, and all teams will be over the roster limit. They will then have until March 1 to cut their roster down to the league limit.
5) Regular Season
a) The league regular season will run from weeks 1-13, teams playing each other team in their division twice while filling in the rest of the schedule with randomly selected teams via league software. To ensure no clash with NFL bye weeks, weeks 10, 12 and 13 are when our double header games are to be played. The last week of the regular season, each team will play two division rivals. The double headers and the division rival games are intended to keep the playoff picture undecided as long as possible, to maintain maximum league interest in all games played.
b) If the NFL regular season is ever extended through a new collective bargaining agreement, additional regular weeks shall be added such that the league championship shall end 1 week before the end of the regular NFL season.
6) Playoffs
a) The league playoffs will take place during weeks 14-16.
b) The six teams with the best win-loss record will be seeded 1-6 and make the playoffs.
c) Tie Breakers - In case of a tie between two or more teams for playoff seeding, the same tie breaking methods defined in the Paragon Common Rule Book will apply.
d) Home Field Advantage - During the playoffs, just like the real NFL, there is a home field advantage to higher seeded teams. 5 points are automatically added by the system to home field teams during the playoffs to simulate this advantage. Please note that this includes all playoff games EXCEPT the league championship. In each matchup, the higher seeded team is the home team and gains the 5 points. NOTE: Not many games are determined by five points or less in this size of a league, but we believe that this adds a great degree of realism to how important it is to be as highly seeded as possible entering the playoffs.
7) Veteran Auctions and Draft
a) During the inaugural season, the initial vereran auction will commence 1 week after the rookie draft is completed. This auction will be for selecting veterans only. Rookies will always be available for selection in their own draft, including in the first season. All rookies are shown in the MFL website in the following format: Stafford, Matthew DET QB (R)
b) The auctions are conducted using $1000 in fictional money to spend. It will be conducted using the MFL site, and handled similarly to eBay using Proxy Bids. Each owner will be asked to nominate 3 names, and when one of those names is won by any team, to nominate a new player immediately. Each team MUST spend up to $1000 on exactly 20 players in each auction. The first auction shall be for offensive players only (coaches and punters can be won here or in the defensive auction). The second auction shall be for defensive players only.
After completing the auctions, there shall be no other significance or value on how much they were bid or won for. The $1000 is solely to allow for a fair auction where each team has an equal chance for each and every player. The purpose of 2 auctions is to ensure that each team starts off with an equally strong defensive and offensive roster, to minimize future regret or potential abandonment.
c) After the auctions, teams will have half of their starting roster. At that point, a draft will fill the remaining 40 roster spots. As per all Paragon draft leagues, 3rd Round Reversal (3RR) will be utilized. See common rules for more details.
d) All draft picks, when entered into system, will then be available for trading among all teams.
e) Despite there being two copies of every player, each player will likely show up only once in the draft list (as per the functions and capabilities of the MFL site at the time of the draft, TBD and shared prior to draft).
f) Once drafted by his first team, the player still appears (second copy of that player) in the draft list available for selection.
g) Once drafted by his second team, the player name will disappear from the available players list.
h) Please refer to section 3 regarding penalties for holding both copies of the same player for any reason.
i) Drafts will be 4 hour slow drafts handled via the MFL league website software. Please see common rules for additional information on this regarding times/rules etc.
We have 1700 players to draft so we strongly encourage teams to utilize pre-draft lists to let the system speed up our drafting process. You'll see the commissioners setting an example by using them and once the draft moves to the middle rounds, it's a simple and fast way to draft. The beauty of this system is that every owner gets the time they require to make their decisions, when needed. All of us will have critical rounds with hard choices that we need to step back and consider our options on. It's one of the key advantages of a slow draft.
j) Post Inaugural Draft Fill: Starting at 6pm on the day AFTER the conclusion of the inaugural veteran draft, the DTS will close, and at that time there will be an initial blind bid waiver run. Immediately after that, there will be 48 hours of FCFS (first come, first served) waivers. This is a one-time occurrence allowing all teams to fill their initial rosters, at their leisure, with their best available team, prior to commencing the rest of the preseason. Please note that any players acquired are NOT eligible for the DTS, so please plan accordingly. Dates will be finalised in the league calendar.
8) Rookie Draft
a) The rookie draft will occur 72 hours after the last team spot is taken, or 7 days after the completion of the regular NFL draft, whichever is later.
b) During the inaugural season, the rookie draft pick order will be the reverse order of the initial veteran draft.
c) The subsequent yearly rookie draft will occur approximately 2 weeks after the NFL draft.
d) The draft will run for 20 rounds during the inaugural season (to fill the entire taxi squad), but will be 8 rounds in subsequent years.
e) During the draft, roster sizes will be temporarily increased by 8 positions to allow each team to draft their rookie class and subsequently demote them. Immediately after the draft, the active roster limits will be restored.
f) Draft picks may be traded if the dues for that year are fully paid for.
g) To ensure teams can trade future pick years, teams are strongly encouraged to at least pay their next years dues into Leaguesafe.
h) Teams may only trade the current year and the upcoming year's picks.
i) After each season is completed, an additional years worth of picks will become available when the league site is rolled over to the following season.
j) The draft will be a 16 team draft with double player availability but will be rookie only.
k) The draft order determined potential points (per common rules), however the two teams that played in the league Superbowl will always gets the last (16th) and 2nd to last (15th) draft position.
9) Replacement Owners Draft
See Paragon Common Rulebook Section 12. 81 round draft.
10) Supplemental Draft
a) 1 week after the completion of the rookie draft, the league will conduct a 15 round Supplemental Draft. The supplemental draft is intended to fill any rookie or main roster spots that may be available due to retirement, injury, long-term suspension, or just the usual cuts of ineffective players.
b) The supplemental draft is not compulsory.
c) The supplemental draft will not happen during the inaugural season for this league
d) The draft order is the same as the Rookie Draft order.
e) Any player eligible to play in the NFL and still available as a fantasy FA (not rostered or on a DTS) may be selected (so both NFL veterans and rookies).
f) Supplemental draft picks cannot be traded at any time or for any reason.
g) Team owners are responsible for ensuring they have enough roster space to make supplemental draft selections. In practice, this will mean dropping players to create roster space prior to the supplemental draft which will allow those waived players to be picked up by other franchises in the supplemental draft. Therefore, player drops WILL NOT be allowed once the supplemental draft commences.
h) We will follow an accelerated 1 hour time clock for draft selections and strongly encourage teams to enter in any players they would like to select via the system.
i) Picks not made within the time limits imposed will be forfeited.
j) During the Supplemental Draft, the roster size will be temporarily increased by one to allow for players to be drafted and demoted to DTS if required/space permits.
k) Once a pick has been skipped/forfeited, that team owner is ineligible to make further selections in the supplemental draft.
11) Dynasty Taxi Squad Players (DTS)
a) Owners may initially designate 20 rookie players from their team to the Dynasty Taxi Squad (DTS) for development purposes, replacing any openings on the DTS with rookies they draft in future years.
b) Players on the DTS will be in addition to the 80 active roster players.
c) Players may only be placed on the DTS if they were either initially drafted in the rookie draft, or were selected in the 15 round supplemental draft and maintain DTS eligibility, or inaugural veteran draft during first year.
d) The team owner is responsible for demoting their selections to the DTS via league software within a week of the conclusion of the supplemental draft.
e) The closure of the DTS will always be detailed on the MFL League Calendar. Once this date has passed, no more demotions to the DTS will be allowed until the following year's drafts begin.
f) Once a player is placed on the DTS, he can remain there for 2 seasons.
g) At the end of their 2nd NFL season, any players who based on this rule who are no longer eligible for the DTS must be placed on the team's active roster or waived. Team owners have until 1st March to do this.
h) Only a rookie in his rookie year can be placed on your DTS, not a 2nd year player who was never on any other roster previously.
i) Once a player is activated from the DTS to the active roster, he is ineligible to return to the DTS. This includes if the player is traded to another franchise or waived and subsequently picked up by another team owner.
j) Players on the DTS are not eligible to start a game until they are moved onto the active roster.
k) Traded players may be placed on the DTS if they were on the other teams DTS when the trade took place.
l) Team owners have the ability to acquire DTS players from other franchises in the league on to their own active roster.
m) The team owner activating/signing DTS players from opposing franchises will pay the price of 2 draft picks to the franchise losing the DTS Player; 1 draft pick from the same round the player was drafted, 1 draft pick from the round higher than the player was drafted.
Example: The price for a DTS player drafted in the second round will be a 1st & 2nd round draft pick.
n) A team that is claiming the DTS player may give up earlier round draft picks than what is technically required if they do not have the exact round of draft picks available.
Example: A 4th and 5th round is required but the team doesn't have a 4th round, so it gives a 3rd and 5th round instead.
o) As per the logic described in the above mentioned rule, it's not possible to acquire a player drafted in the 1st round via a DTS Activation Trade.
p) The price for DTS players selected in the Veteran/Supplementary Draft will as if the player had been drafted in the last round of the rookie draft (so 7th and 8th pick).
q) Only the next draft's set of picks may be used for activating/signing DTS players from opposing franchises (not two drafts out, for example).
r) Activating DTS players from opposing franchises may only occur after the Dynasty Taxi Squad is closed each year and before the start of the next year's Rookie Draft. DTS activation is also closed during the trade blackout between week 12 and the end of week 16.
s) To activate DTS players from opposing franchises, the team owner must create a new message board post to the league declaring the transaction, listing the teams/player/draft picks involved, so all owners are notified. Please note that if a team owns multiple picks in the same round, they need to specify which one they are surrendering (their choice) in the message board thread. If a team that is "purchasing" the new player owns multiple picks in the appropriate rounds, that team should specify which of these picks they wish to trade away.
t) The Commissioner will execute the transaction as a trade if the picks are valid, if all league fees for the pick years are fully paid and if all roster requirements are met.
u) The DTS activation trade will be declared null and void if all of the conditions in Section 11 m - t) are not met.
v) Before the commissioner decides if the DTS activation claim is valid or invalid, the DTS player being claimed cannot be promoted to the active roster, nor can another team make a claim on the same copy of that player.
w) Any player acquired by a DTS activation trade will go straight to the active roster of the new team.
x) Any rookie player acquired by a team must be demoted within 72 hours of that acquisition, or that player is no longer eligible for demotion. The exception to this is the rookie draft, during which demotions are not required until 24 hours after the conclusion of the entire draft. Furthermore, if any player is utilized in an actual lineup for a game (scoring 0+ points), that player is no longer eligible for demotion to the DTS.
12) Free Agent Waivers
a) Any player not on a roster, DTS, or IR are considered a Free Agent.
b) All free agents not selected in the league draft processes are handled by the blind bidding waiver process, utilizing blind bid waiver dollars.
c) All teams will have a Blind Bid Waiver Dollar budget of $1000.
d) The Blind Bid Waiver Dollar budget of $1000 cannot be traded.
e) The Blind Bid Waiver Dollar budget of $1000 is for all FA transactions during the league year.
f) At the end of the league year, the balance of the Blind Bid Waiver Dollar budget of $1000 will carry over to next season.
g) Between the end of the supplemental draft and the start of the first week 1 game, free agent acquisitions can be made every 2 weeks via the Blind Bid waiver periods as defined in the league calendar.
h) Commencing Week 1 of the NFL regular season and ending at the commencement of Week 1 games, there will be 4 waiver periods each week as defined in the league calendar.
The 1st Blind Bid Waivers period starts from the kickoff of 1pm Sunday games and will end on Wednesday.
The 2nd period will be on a First Come First Served (FCFS) basis. This will run from Wednesday until Thursday evening prior to kick off of Thursday night football.
The 3rd is a Blind Bid Waivers period starting on Thursday and will end on Saturday.
The 4th period will be on a First Come First Served (FCFS) basis. This will run from Saturday until the 1pm kickoff of Sunday games. Please refer to the league calendar for details.
i) There is a $1 minimum on all waiver transactions, whether through blind bidding or FCFS. Therefore, if you spend all of your budget before the end the season, you WILL NOT be able to acquire free agents. You may not be able make future roster moves even when an accidental drop has occurred. Please keep this in mind.
j) From the commencement of Week 16 games, free agent pick-ups will be suspended until the supplemental draft.
k) The commissioner will only accept free agent acquisition requests on the forms provided on the league website.
l) The commissioner will only accept email from the owner if the league website is down.
m) Each team will be able to acquire an unlimited amount of free agents per week/year dependent on roster space limits & Blind Bid Waiver $.
n) Once the owner makes a waiver request, the owner cannot rescind or replace it with another request after the bidding deadline.
o) Free agent waiver requests are to be submitted as per the time frames specified in the league calendar.
13) Trading
a) Trading will be allowed at all times except from 2 weeks prior to the playoffs, until the completion of the league championship game.
b) Trading will be allowed between teams that are paid in full for the current season.
c) You may trade a player you have placed on injured reserve, but he will remain on IR for the new team.
d) Trades can involve players & draft picks with owners responsible for ensuring trades do not put their teams over the roster limits.
e) To trade all your picks for one season you must have paid in full for the next two future seasons as per Section 10 of Paragon Common Rule Book. Example: In 2011, to trade all of your 2012 draft picks you must have paid for the 2012 and 2013 seasons.
f) You may not trade in the off-season until you have paid for the upcoming year meaning that both teams must be paid up in full to complete a trade.
g) Owners are responsible for responding to trade offers from other owners taking into account the Code of Conduct & Team Ownership Responsibilities specified in the Paragon Common Rule Book.
h) Some recommendations are as follows:
You should check your trade offers every time you log onto the league website. If the offer is not acceptable, reject it immediately. Communication is the life blood of all fantasy leagues so it's a common courtesy to explain why. Some owners may send you repeated trade offers, but if you explain that you are not interested at all in a player, then they likely will not keep offering the same trades.
14) College Pre Draft Acquisition (CPDA) Option
a) Team owners can choose to acquire any eligible college player they want (that has not declared for the NFL draft), at which point, they are guaranteed to get that player on their roster immediately upon them entering the NFL (bypassing the rookie draft). In other words, you are reserving the right to this player while they still have at least 1 more college season ahead of them. The player must have played at least one college game to be considered eligible for CPDA
b) However, to select that player, a team must give a 1st, 2nd AND 3rd round pick for the following season. So if on March 1, 2012, a team wants to lock up player X, they will give up 1st-3rd round picks in the 2013 draft.
c) To do so, they must post on the message board their intent to sign. At that point, any other team has 24 hours to BEAT that offer by offering a 1st, 2nd, 3rd AND 4th round pick. Then a new 24 hour clock will start and any team would have to offer that, plus a 5th round pick. Once a 1st through 5th round pick has been offered, that will be the final price accepted, and that team will automatically win.
d) Upon the expiration of 24 hours and therefore the trade being valid, that team must pay all outstanding league fees as per Section 10 of Paragon Common Rule Book. If they traded 100% of their picks, they must pay for that season, plus the following season, per the usual rules. Teams should keep this in mind.
e) The claim must be made between the start of the NFL combine, and the start of the NFL week 1 games. This is to prevent claims being made of players shortly before they declare for the NFL. The intent is not to bypass the league rookie draft, but rather to make a claim well in advance of when their true NFL draft and fantasy draft potential is known.
f) If a team has not paid these fees within 72 hours after winning, the claim will be invalid. The penalty shall be that the team having made the claim, but failed to pay, shall be that they forfeit the 2nd round pick they had offered in the claim. So DO NOT make a claim unless you have the money in hand to pay Leaguesafe.
g) CPDA players must be placed on your active roster.
h) Because of the high price paid, this is considered a significant gamble in the future of a player before they ever reach the NFL. There is a chance that a player selected will never play a down in the NFL, through injury, skill, bad decisions, etc. The price, risk and potential reward are all great. There may be many seasons when not a single claim is made by any team. But for those that follow college games closely, this may add an additional bit of excitement.
15) Timeline of Important Dates
March 1st:
- New fantasy season/year begins.
- Deadline for teams to pay the following year's dues. (Failure to pay by this date will result in having your franchise being placed on the orphan list.)
- Ineligible DTS Players are moved back to their team's active roster or waived
April 25th - 27th:
- NFL Draft
May 3rd:
- Rookie Draft
June 1st:
- Supplementary Draft
June 10th:
- Free Agent Blind Bidding Waivers commence.
- Dynasty Taxi Squad is closed
May 10th:
- (Inaugural Season Only) - Rookie Draft begins
One week after Rookie Draft ends
- (Inaugural Season Only) - Veteran (Initial) Auctions begin. Offensive Auction will occur first, with defensive Auction starting 24 hours after offensive auction has ended. 40 round draft shall begin 48 hours after conclusion of defensive auction.
Commencement of NFL Week 12 games:
- Trading/DTS Activation deadline
Commencement of NFL Week 14 games:
- Playoffs Begin.
NFL Week 16:
- League Super Bowl (championship)
- Free Agent Waivers end.
After NFL Week 16:
- Current fantasy season ends.
- Trading/DTS Activation recommences
Fantasy League Off-Season:
- After NFL Week 16 to March 1st.
Fantasy League Pre-Season:
- March 1st to NFL Week 1
Current Fantasy Season:
- NFL Week 1 - NFL Week 16.
Where possible, all above dates will be specified in the league calendar, which is considered final.
