The rules for this league are extremely lengthy, but are needed to make the league as fair as possible. Please take the time to read through them.

League Size

The league has had anywhere from 8 teams to 16 teams in its history. Most seasons we have 12 teams. But there is always a chance that someone can not be able to play, or that there is someone who we think will be such a great addition to the league that we want to give them a chance.

The Web Site

The site will be at http://www.franchise-sports.com. We've worked hard over the years to make the site as perfect as possible. But we are always open to suggestions. All previous seasons sites can be found from the current pages.

Team Pages

Everyone has the option to have a team web site. Try to keep your web page fairly clean. I do not wish to offend anyone. If I ask you to make changes to a web page because of someone being offended, please do so quickly. If you do not know how to make a web page, ask someone for help, or ask me for help.

Team Logos

Everyone has to have a team logo either on your team web page or sent to me.

Commishes and Committee

Erik Johnson and I are the Co-Commissioners of this league. I have 51% of the power, and he has 49% or the power. We pretty much run everything there is to run in this league and do all of the stats ourselves. There is also a championship committee of 6 people every year. It is based on seniority and history in the league. Assuming all 6 of us play, the committee will consist of Erik, Alan Turner, Craig Wolowiec, Kristy Littlebury, Mike Polley, and myself. By the chance that one or more of us does not play, they will be replaced on the committee and their replacement will be determined by the seniority of the other league players. However, if someone is still participating in the league but cannot attend the draft, they will not lose their spot on the committee.

Invitees

Each year, Erik and I discuss who should be invited to be in the league. The majority of invitees is usually the owners from the previous season. However, we can opt not to invite a player back due to any reason, though it would usually be due to lack of effort, lack of a web page, or causing a general disruption causing the league to be less enjoyable.

People Not Invited

We are pretty set on who we want to have in the league each year, but it is possible that if someone drops out that someone who wasn't initially invited could get a spot in the league. If there is an open slot any given year, the Co-Commissioners will discuss potential replacements and pick one based on how much we feel that person would contribute to the league with great effort and adding to the amount of fun people in the league will have.

Draft Info

The live draft occurs close to the start of the NFL season. A date, time, and host is determined by the Co-Commissioners. The arrival time will always be one hour before actual drafting of players is scheduled to start. The hour time period is used to draw for which divisions each team will be in and draw the order of draft picks. There must be an even number of teams in the league. So if an odd number of people show up to the draft, I will have a system ready to draft an extra team, a ghost team if you will, to be run by someone after the draft is over. At the draft, there will be a board set up to write all picks on. There are 3 minutes per pick, at the end of the 3 minutes, if you do not have a player ready to pick, I will use the same process that drafts a ghost team to choose your player for you. There are 15 rounds for players/team defenses and each team must have a full starting line-up by the end of the 15 rounds. The order for each round is determined by a random draw. Each round has a separate draw, however all drawing for rounds occur before the drafting begins. We draw first for the order of the 15th round. The first name being drawn receives the last pick of that round and so on until we get to the first pick. Then we draw for the 14th round, and so on until each round is drawn for. There is no compensation for a bad draw in a round. Each rounds draw is unaffected by the previous. Although, trading of draft picks, or trading of players already drafted for later picks is allowed.

Online Drafting

Online drafting may be allowed. However, it is up to the Co-Commissioners to determine whether an owner is allowed to draft online. Each situation will be considered in a case by case basis.

Votes

If there are suggested rule changes to the league that the Co-Commissioners choose to vote on, a vote will be held. All players with 5 or more years of experience may participate in the vote if present. Any ties in voting will mean that the status quo will be maintained. Most votes will occur before the draft each year via E-mail. So be sure to start watching for E-mails in July, so that you do not miss your chance to vote.

Discrepancies

Should there be a protest of a game or ruling throughout the season, I will have final say on the decision, although in most cases it will be discussed with the Co-Kommissioner Erik Johnson. If the two of us can not come up upon a decision, then the committee will vote. Keep in mind if there is a committee vote, then there must be a 4-2 decision in order to change the current status of things.

Money

Woodhaven FFL costs $10 to enter to help cover costs.

Team Names

Each person will have to choose a location and a mascot for their team. (ex. Phoenix Cobras) Any players who finished the last season will have the option to keep their location or mascot or both if they choose to. No teams can have duplicate locations or mascots. No team can use the mascot of a current NFL team. No team can use the location and mascot of another major sports team. (ex. You cannot be the Detroit Tigers, however you could be the Chicago Tigers.) After we determine who of the returning players is keeping their team locations or mascots, everyone else gets to choose theirs. The first selections of locations and mascots will be based on seniority in the league. A team location or mascot or both can be denied if it is extremely inappropriate, or if it is not a major enough city to deserve a team. Whether or not the city is major enough will be determined by me. If anyone challenges a location or mascot, the committee will vote on it.

Seniority

Seniority is based first upon whether or not you played last season. The tie breaker for that is how many games you have played in the leagues history. The next tie breaker is when the most recent game played by that team is. If there is still a tie, it goes to whoever finished highest ranked in that season. If there are rookies, they will draw for anything that involves order of seniority, but once the season starts, their standings will determine between them.

Scheduling

Erik or I will be making some schedules for the season before the draft using numbers for teams. Then the teams will draw a card that will determine which team they are on the schedule. Keep in mind, the better idea I have of who is participating or not, the more prepared I will be with schedules so that you can all know who you are playing when, right away. The schedule is determined by random equations. Although some bias can be used (before knowing which teams will have which schedule) in order to spead out divisional games, even out how many Monday Night and Sunday Night games that a team has, or to keep a team from having too many home or away games in a row.

Standings

The league standings are determined first by the best to worst overall record. The tie breaker for that is division or conference record. The tie breaker after that is +/- which is determined by the number of points you have scored all season - the number of points scored by your opponents. If a tie-breaker is still required after this, which there never has been, we will use head to head, then points for, then strength of schedule of teams defeated, then strength of schedule overall, then total number of touchdowns scored during the season, then if there is still somehow a tie, then a coin toss will determine the higher ranked team.

Play-offs

To figure out the number of teams that will make the play-offs we use the formula (# of teams in the league / 2) + 2. If this makes it a 5-8 team play-off then the play-offs will occur weeks 15-17. If it is a 9-16 team play-off, then the play-offs will occur weeks 14-17. If there are divisions or conferences, then the top team in each division or conference will make the play-offs and get the highest seeds, and then anyone will be eligible for the remaining spots. Should a large enough league exist, I may choose to set the schedule so that conferences would be completely separated in the play-offs until the bowl games.

Position Requirements

Each team will have 15 position players or team defenses. Each week, every team will have a starting line-up consisting of 1 quarterback, 2 running backs, 2 wide receivers, 1 tight end, 1 place kicker, and 1 defense. Therefore, at all times you must have at least that amount of players on your team at those positions. The only possible exception would be if a trade is made that involves a team dropping below or going above the required amount to make the trade, but that team must immediately pick up someone or drop someone to get back to meeting roster requirements. If this is not done, all transactions that made the roster invalid will be cancelled. If it is unclear what position a specific player officially plays, we use NFL.com/players to determine the official position for that player.

Starting Line-up Deadline

All line-up changes must be sent in before before the start of the full hour in which the game of the player being added into the lineup, the player being added as a Questionable Rule backup, and the player being removed kicks off. (ex. If a game kicks off on Thursday at 8:04, your decision on those players must be received before 8:00.) If no word is received before given deadlines, the relevant starters from the previous week will automatically be used. Official time is determined by the time stamp from the E-mail I receive. If a questionable rule back up has already been named (not defaulted) or entered into the lineup due to the injured player's team already having played, that replacement cannot be removed if his specific deadline has already occurred. The E-mails must be sent to the Co-Commishes as well as your opponent for that week. If an e-mail is accidentally not sent to all required parties, an exception can be made if the previously sent e-mail that did not go to everyone is later forwarded to everyone.

Transactions

Transactions are any time someone picks up a free agent or makes a trade. All transactions will be listed on a section of the web site.

Waiver transactions begin on Sunday at 1:00 PM and close on Tuesday at 9PM ET (or Wednesday at 9PM if there is a Tuesday game.) We hope to post weekly waiver results within 4 hours of the waiver period closing. Each team may make bids on players from their $100 season long budget. All bids must go to WoodhavenFFL@hotmail.com. If you have the highest bid on a player (with the tie breaker for each player going to the team that is ranked last in the current standings) the amount you bid will be taken out of your season long budget and that player will be added to your roster. Appropriate stipulations may be added to bid E-mails. If multiple bids are made on a player by the same team, the last E-mail received will be the bid and stipulations that are used. If you would like to complete a trade on the same day as the waiver deadline that includes an uneven number of players, like trading 2 players to get 1 player, the person who is required to pick up a free agent to complete their roster must put in a bid for them, or the trade will have to be processed on Wednesday when you may select from the remaining pool of players. Once the waiver period closes, the text of all waiver e-mails will be disclosed on the waivers page.

All non waiver transactions must be sent to everyone in the league via E-mail. The only exception that will be made is if for some reason your E-mail is not functioning at all, but if that is the case, other teams will have 24 hours to pick up the player you are trying to pick up before you officially make the transaction, or until you get your E-mail working to send it to the league. If a transaction goes through via the 24 hour rule, then I will e-mail the league to let them know of the transaction. The reason for this is so that no one has more of an advantage over other teams in picking up players. When they are sent via E-mail, the time it lists in the E-mail is the official time for your transaction. Non waiver transactions are all done on a first come first serve basis. 6:00 AM ET on Wednesday (or Thursday if their is a Tuesday game) of each given week is the earliest time that a non waiver transaction can be done. If you are worried about time stamp discrepancies, send me an E-mail and make note of the time that you sent it, and I will E-mail you back to let you know the time stamp that it was on my computer. Although, make sure you tell me that you want me to do that when you send the E-mail to me. Transactions for each week will close at 12:00 AM of the day of the first Saturday or Sunday game of the week. If there is a Thursday or Friday game, then transactions are allowed on that day, but no transactions may include a player that is playing in those games until transactions reopen the following week. The only exception to this portion of the rule is if there is a Tuesday game and transactions didn't open until Thursday morning, then players in the Thursday game may be picked up until the start of the full hour when the game is scheduled to start. Team E-mail addresses will be listed on the web page. Keep in mind, the E-mail that I receive first for a player is what counts, not whether you have sent your E-mail before receiving someone else's. In other words, I have final say. Also, all transactions must be approved by me, so I know that teams are not just trying to fold and put their team up for grabs to give someone else an unfair advantage. You are responsible for your own transactions. I will try my best to let you know if a transaction is rejected due to any of our leagues rules. However, there may be a time where I do not notice until transactions have closed. If that is the case, the transaction will be undone and you will not have an opportunity to make a different transaction until transactions reopen.

Same Player Rule

A team may not drop a player and then pick that same player up within the same NFL week. Conversely, a team may not pick up a player and then drop that same player within the same NFL week. This only applied to players going from a team to free agency or from free agency to a team. Players may go from team to team after being picked up or dropped.

Free Agents

After the draft, there will be many NFL players not taken by any fantasy teams and they will stand as free agents. You can pick up these players and drop players on your team as long as your roster still meets all requirements. You can only obtain free agents during times when transactions are open.

Trades

During any period where transactions are allowed, teams can trade players with other teams. However, a player who has already played his game in the current week or will be playing on that day cannot be included in the trade. Both teams have to agree, and both teams must let me know they agree. Should an uneven trade be made (ex. trading 1 player for 2 players) then immediately after the trade, the team that received less players must pick up enough to fill their roster, and the team that received more players must drop enough to get back down to a valid roster. Trades can be canceled by the Co-Commish if it is felt that the trade is uneven and one team is trying to give another team an unfair advantage. This is completely at the discretion of the Co-Commish. Once a trade is officially agreed on, it must be announced via E-mail to everyone in the league. The teams who made the trade are not required to do so, as long as they have e-mailed the Co-Commish. If they do not, then it will be the responsibility of the Co-Commish to E-mail the league to announce the trade. Teams may trade draft picks or players for draft picks on draft day, but only on draft day. You cannot make a trade for draft picks in future seasons. If a bye week would impact one of the players within a discussed trade, a trade can take place over a two week period. However, both teams must have a valid complete roster in each week of the trade. Therefore, if a trade is scheduled to take place over a two week period, the second week of the trade must include the same number of players being traded from each team. In other words, you can not have the second week of the trade be contingent on a team picking up a free agent or dropping a player.

Trade Deadline

The trade deadline will occur 8 days before the first play-off game begins. For example, if the first game of the first play-off week is on Thursday, then the Wednesday of the week before that game will be the last day trades will be allowed. No trades are allowed beyond this date, but other forms of transactions are allowed.

Scoring

The scoring system may change from year to year based on votes. However, the scoring system will always be linked to the front page of the web site.

Game Stats

The stats used for this league will most likely be taken from my choice of the most reliable and fastest web site for statistics. I will link the scoreboard from whatever site I choose to the web site. This may change throughout the season, but I will always go with what I feel is most reliable and fastest. Should the accuracy of a stat on my chosen web site be questioned, Erik and I will consult other reliable sources to determine if a change should be made to the stats.

Scoring Changes

Should a score be in doubt or be determined to be incorrect, the Commissioners may go back and correct the score or stat from any year or any week. However, no changes may be made to previous seasons that change the outcome of the game or the seeding of the post season. Also, no changes may be made that change the result of a game in the current season once the post season has started, unless the change is made prior to the start of the next game.

Bye Week Rule

When each NFL team's bye week occurs, if you started that player the previous week, you have to start them during their bye week as well, and they will score the same amount of points for your team as they did the previous week. If you did not start a player the week before their bye, you cannot start them the week of their bye. Also, if a player is on a bye week and you started them the week before, you cannot trade or drop that player until after their bye week is over.

Questionable Rule

There is no compensation for injured players. There will be injury reports listed on the web site. If a player is listed as probable, you may start the player, but if he does not play, you simply get zero points for that player. If a player is listed as questionable or worse, you have the option of starting him, and naming a back-up player as well. If he plays one play of the game, then you get the points for that player for that game. If he does not play, the back-up player is placed into your line-up and his points will count towards your team instead. If no back-up player is named and a player that was set to start was listed as questionable or worse and does not play, I place the highest rated back-up player into that line-up as a replacement. The ratings are determined by player stats. If no eligible players have stats yet, then the top drafted player will be placed into the line-up. If no eligible players have stats or have been drafted than the player first picked up in free agency will be placed into the line-up. If a questionable player's team participates in a game before the final starting lineup deadline, but that player does not play, free agents may be added while transactions are open and named as a questionable rule replacement. Changing who your questionable rule replacement is follows the same rules as submitting lineups as it relates to timing that it can be done.

Overtime

There are no tie games in FFL. If a game is tied at the end of a week, we add up the decimals that would normally be truncated from the yardage related scores for each starting player. Whichever team has a higher decimal score from that will receive one point and the win. For player stats purposes, the additional point will be credited to whichever player had the highest score for the winning team. If two players earned the same total for their team, the tie breaker for who is awarded the point goes to the player listed the highest on the roster for the game. (Ex. QB, RB1, RB2, etc.)
If a game is still tied at the end of a decimal scoring tie breaker, we look at the back-ups on each team to determine a winner. Each back-up player/defense is listed as a roster for overtime. Then all injured players (determined by the questionable rule) will be removed from rosters. Next, any player who does not have a player on the opposing team at the same position to match up with is removed. Bye week scores do count. Each player match up will then be worth one point. Then if it is still tied, then the total points from those same reserves are added up and the winner of that gets one point. If it is still tied, then a best 2 out of 3 coin toss will be held by the Co-Commish with at least 1 other player to witness, worth one point. The home team will be heads, and the away team will be tails.

NFL Game Cancellation

If a game is ever cancelled for unforseen circumstances on the day of the game in the NFL and not intended to be rescheduled before the start of the FFL post season, and it is too late to change lineups for that week, the stats from each individuals teams game the following week will be used to determine the players from that team's scores.

Player Stats

Individual player stats will be listed on the page. They will include statistics such as how many points they have scored throughout the season, when the players were drafted, their win-loss-tie records for the season, and how many points have been scored against them throughout the season. The win-loss record for quarterbacks, tight ends, place kickers, and defenses are determined by how many times they beat or lose to the player at the same position on the FFL team they are going up against that week. Running backs and wide receivers are done the same way with one exception. Because two players start at those positions each game, the higher rated running back will go against the higher rated running back on their respective teams, and the lower rated ones will go against each other. The same thing will be the case for wide receivers. Ratings are determined by the player stats, with number of wins being the first stat taken into account, then least amount of losses, then most ties, then most points scored, then best +/-, then when they were drafted, then who was higher the previous week. The draft order will determine running back and wide receiver rankings for the first week. If a team decides to start two free agents for the first week at running back or wide receiver, then the first free agent pick-up will be the #1 starter.

PlAyEr oF ThE WeEk

Each week one player is determined as the Player Of The Week. This is determined by how many points they beat there opposing player by. The tie breaker is total points scored. The second tie breaker is higher player ranking in player stats. No player will be player of the week twice in the same season.

Awards

There are many awards given out, mostly to NFL players, in our league. The award winners will be announced at the end of the season. Players named to the Pro Bowl will participate in the game. Stats for the Pro Bowl will be based off of NFL play-off games.

Message Board

On the web site there will be a message board. People can use this to discuss possible trades or just see who is interested in trading. They can also use it for taunting purposes. Try not to take things too far, but have some fun with it and talk about whatever you like.

News/Features

There are a number of different features and FFL news related posts made on the FFL page. The front page is the first and most obvious. Some years there will be specific news pages. A number of the team pages will have news or special features. Posts on the message board can relate to FFL news. Erik and I often add different pages such as power rankings, scenarios, or odds. If anyone would like to have a news or feature page that they update from week to week, you are always welcome to submit your idea to us and we can add it.

League History

Here are some of the past winners and losers in FFL with their play-off seeds:

Fantasy Bowl I
Mark Polley (4) over Erik Johnson (6)
Fantasy Bowl II
Greg Franzen (1) over Mark Polley (7)
Fantasy Bowl III
Alan Turner (1) over Erik Johnson (2)
Fantasy Bowl IV
Kristy Littlebury (3) over Alan Turner (1)
Fantasy Bowl V
Erik Johnson (1) over Lee Hickerson (6)
Fantasy Bowl VI
Scott Chemello (1) over Becki Dziengelewski (3)
Fantasy Bowl VII
Craig Wolowiec (4) over Mark Polley (2)
Fantasy Bowl VIII
Mike Polley (3) over Craig Wolowiec (4)
Fantasy Bowl IX
Dustin Myers (4) over Mike Pearcy (3)
Fantasy Bowl X
George Kokos (2) over Craig Wolowiec (1)
Fantasy Bowl XI
Mike Pearcy (4) over Mark Polley (3)
Fantasy Bowl XII
Mike Pearcy (1) over Alan Turner (6)
Fantasy Bowl XIII
Mike Polley (1) over Kristy Littlebury (2)
Fantasy Bowl XIV
Erik Johnson (3) over Mike Pearcy (8)
Fantasy Bowl XV
Lee Hickerson (3) over Erik Johnson (1)
Fantasy Bowl XVI
Craig Wolowiec (8) over Erik Johnson (7)
Fantasy Bowl XVII
Mike Polley (1) over Mark Polley (6)
Fantasy Bowl XVIII
Greg Franzen (4) over Mike Pearcy (7)
Fantasy Bowl XIX
Craig Wolowiec (2) over Mike Polley (1)
Fantasy Bowl XX
Al Turner (4) over Mike Polley (6)
Fantasy Bowl XXI
Greg Franzen (1) over Jason Bowman (3)
Fantasy Bowl XXII
Mark Polley (4) over Craig Wolowiec (6)
Fantasy Bowl XXIII
Joe Schmidt (8) over Erik Johnson (2)
Fantasy Bowl XXIV
Joe Schmidt (1) over Mark Polley (2)
Fantasy Bowl XXV
Dustin Myers (8) over Erik Johnson (2)
Fantasy Bowl XXVI
Lee Hickerson (4) over Kristy Rahn (3)
Fantasy Bowl XXVII
Mark Polley (5) over Erik Johnson (3)

Toilet Bowl I
Mike Pearcy over Raj Patel
Toilet Bowl II
Mike Pearcy over Mark Castagna
Toilet Bowl III
Mark Polley over Greg Franzen
Toilet Bowl IV
Jackie Kulik over Tim Marklevitz
Toilet Bowl V
John Ray over Greg Franzen/Stephanie Rozewicz
Toilet Bowl VI
Mike Pearcy over Tim Marklevitz
Toilet Bowl VII
Becki Wolowiec over Erik Johnson
Toilet Bowl VIII
Becki Wolowiec over Greg Franzen/Stephanie Rozewicz
Toilet Bowl IX
Becki Wolowiec over Kristy Littlebury
Toilet Bowl X
Mike Polley over Alan Turner
Toilet Bowl XI
Craig Wolowiec over Kristy Littlebury
Toilet Bowl XII
Dustin Myers over George Kokos
Toilet Bowl XIII
Dustin Myers over Lee Hickerson
Toilet Bowl XIV
Dustin Myers over Becki Wolowiec
Toilet Bowl XV
Mark Polley over Dustin Myers
Toilet Bowl XVI
Greg Franzen over Becki Wolowiec
Toilet Bowl XVII
Lee Hickerson over Greg Franzen
Toilet Bowl XVIII
Joe Schmidt over Alan Turner
Toilet Bowl XIX
Lee Hickerson over Greg Franzen
Toilet Bowl XX
Dustin Myers over Craig Wolowiec
Toilet Bowl XXI
Erik Johnson over Mike Polley
Toilet Bowl XXII
Kristy Rahn over Mike Pearcy
Toilet Bowl XXIII
Craig Wolowiec over Lee Hickerson
Toilet Bowl XXIV
Mike Pearcy over Greg Franzen
Toilet Bowl XXV
Jason Bowman over Kristy Rahn
Toilet Bowl XXVI
Dustin Myers over Jason Bowman
Toilet Bowl XXVII
Tim Marklevitz over Alan Turner

Stat History

Erik runs a stat history page. It will list all time and yearly stats that may interest people. We try to update this throughout the season as well.

Predictions

At the beginning of the season, anyone is welcome to make predictions on how they feel each team will finish in that given year and have it posted on the web page. It can be as detailed as you like, but is just for fun and not be designed to offend any other owners. It may include tasteful taunting, though.

Weekly Predictions

There is a side competition each year for weekly predictions, where anyone who chooses to do so will have a chance to make predictions in each of the weekly games. And we will see who does the best in this. It's just for fun though and has no bearing on the league itself.

Inactivity Rule

The Commissioners may decide to remove a player from the league in between seasons if they determine that the player is not being active with their team. This is a league that is designed to be competitive and players hurting the overall competitiveness of the league should be removed.

FFL Hall Of Fame

Because this league has lasted so long, we have started a hall of fame. To be eligible a player or owner must be retired and have not had any stats the league would consider towards points for 5 years. An owner can also be eligible after playing a total of 8 years.

E-mail Addresses

If you would like FFL related information, including transactions, sent to a different e-mail address from the one listed on the page, E-mail me with the new address.