2008 Rule Changes/additions in RED

1. Contracts & Trades

1A. General Information

Players acquired either through the draft of free agency must be signed to a contract. This contract will be the number of years that the player can remain on a roster.

1B. Total Contract Years Available

Each franchise has a contract cap of thirty five (35) years. The total contract years on a roster may not exceed thirty five (35). Contract years are non-transferable, thus, they cannot be traded.

1C. Player Trades

Every player traded carries his contract with him, including the current year. This contract will be counted against the total years available to his new team. Any exchange of players between teams cannot leave either team with more than thirty five (35) total years for all players. If this happens, the commissioner will void the trade.

1D. Trade Restrictions & Deadlines

The trade deadline will generally fall along the same time as the trade deadline in the NFL.

1E. Waived Players

Players that are waived during the season still count one year against a team's contract ceiling, unless the player is claimed from waivers (see 3D below).

1F. Expired Contracts

Contract years conclude February 1st. All players who had only one year remaining on their contracts become restricted free agents. Players with expired contracts can be re-signed by their original team under the terms outlined in the Restricted Free Agent rule (see Item 3C below). All other players have their contracts reduced by one year. At the same time, all teams recover any years encumbered by players clearing waivers during the year.

1G. Announcing Contracts

Contracts must be announced one week prior to the start of the season.

2. Cyber Bucks

The cyber buck (cb) is the official currency of the THFFL. Cyber bucks are used to bid on free agents and may also be used in trade negotiations. Any amount not used during the season is carried over to the next season. On February 1, each team is awarded additional cyber bucks based on the previous season's finish. Below is the allotment of cyber bucks:

3. Free Agency & Waivers

3A. Free Agents

Any player not acquired during the draft becomes a free agent (FA). A player also becomes a free agent when he is waived by a THFFL franchise. A player becomes a restricted free agent (RFA) when his contract expires.

3B. Free Agent Acquisitions

Via free agency, THFFL franchises can acquire any player not currently on another team's roster. Free agents may be claimed year round. Cyber bucks are used to bid on free agents. Teams may only bid up to the amount of cyber bucks available to that team. The minimum a free agent will cost will be 1 cb. No free agents can be bid for during the Restricted Free Agent signing period.

·         In Season and Off season--During the off season a request for a free agent must be posted in the forum. The bid will be open for 72 hours from the time of the orignal posting.. Within the 72 hours other coaches may bid higher for the free agent. Once a new bid is placed it will be open for 24 hours. Each new bid placed will keep the bid open for 24 hours from the latest bid. After no higher bids have been made after 24 hours from the last bid the player will become a player on that team and a contract must be assigned to the player.

·  Free agent bids must contain the following information:

1) Name of Free Agent
2) Amount Bid for Free Agent
3) Player position and NFL team
4) Free Agent bids can not be retracted after 48 hours

If any information is missing, the bid will be discarded.

3C. Restricted Free Agents

3C.1 General

Any players currently on a THFFL team roster will have their existing contracts reduced by one year on February 1st; if a player's contract expires (drops to zero years), the player is considered a Restricted Free Agent (RFA). All existing waiver penalties against any team will also be nullified on February 1st. No regular Free Agent acquisitions will be allowed during the month of May.

3C.2 RFA Signing Period

RFA bidding begins May 1 and closes May 31. No new bids will be accepted after May 31; bidding in process may continue beyond May 31 until a final offer is reached for a player.

3C.3 Bid Format

All bids are made to the entire league in the message forum and each bid must include the following:.

1)      Your Team Name

2)      Current THFFL Team

3)      Player Name and position

4)      The Amount bid

5) Once a bid is placed it is binding

3C.4 Bidding Process

Once a bid is posted for a player, a higher bid must be made within two (2) full business days by the player's current team or any other team. Any owner may join the bidding process within two (2) full business days of the latest bid. Once a bid is posted and no counter-offer is made within the two (2) full business day period, the player is then considered signed by the team posting the latest (and highest) bid. The signing becomes official (2) full business days from the latest bid.  Weekends will be considered an extension of Friday. Once the deadline passes for new RFA bids, the response time is reduced from two (2) business days to one (1) (This means any bids still in process after May 31st the bid must be beat within (1) business day.

(IF any coaches will be out of town please let the commish know so we can make arrangements to change the dates if needed)

3C.5 Signing RFA's

All players receiving any bid must be signed by either the original team or a new team; the amount of the winning bid will be deducted from the signing team's Cyberbuck total. Contracts must be announced one week prior to the start of the season. At the end of the RFA signing period, any remaining RFA's on a team's roster (players who did not receive a bid) can be re-signed at no cost. All teams must announce their intentions regarding such players within one week of the close of the RFA period.

3C.6 Restrictions

The bidding owner must have enough Cyberbucks available to cover all outstanding bids. If any owner outbids his budget at any time, the bid will be discarded.

3D. Waivers

Players released by a THFFL team are said to be waived. If a team waives a player during the season, the franchise gets credit for the player's remaining contract years, minus the current year. A waived player goes into the free agent pool once he is waived. This contract year will remain with the waiving team until either the player is acquired by another team or Feb 1.

Basically this means 1 year will count against your contract cap when you waive a player unless he is picked up by another team then there will be no years counted against your contract cap.

4 Franchise Players

On February 1st when contracts expire each team may designate one player whose contract as expired as a Franchise Player. The team can resign this player at no cost but his contract must be at least the average of the top 3 players at his position. Franchise players must be designated before the Restricted Free Agent signing period.

·         Example. Rattlers QB John Smith's contract has expired. The Rattlers designate him their franchise player. The top 3 QB's in the league have contracts of 5 years, 4 years and 5 years. The Average is 4.3 years. Rounded that is 4 years. The Rattlers can resign John Smith at no charge as long as his contract is at least 4 years.

4A.  Transition Players.

Prior to the start of the RFA period, each team may designate ONE player as a transition player.  The original team will only have to MATCH the highest bid on that RFA instead of beating the highest bid. 

5 Injured Reserve

If the NFL places a player on Injured Reserve the team can pick up a free agent at that position only. The Free Agent acquired will cost minimum of 1 Cyberbuck.  He will not count against the contract cap and will become a Restricted Free Agent February 1st.  To acquire this player the team must place a Free Agent bid as posted in section (3B).  The in-season bidding rules will apply.

6. Roster Size

During the off-season the team roster size is unlimited.

One week prior to season roster must be at the regular season requirement of 16 players.  During the season the team MUST have a16 player roster.  The team my have more if a player is on Injured Reserve.  However the roster size MUST not be below 16 during the season.

2 weeks prior to start of season.  Roster maximum 17 players

3 weeks prior to start of season. Roster maximum 18 players

4 weeks prior to start of season. Roster maximum 19 players

5 weeks prior to start of season and beyond roster size is unlimited.

If your roster size is over the limit that team will be fined 1 CB for each player over the limit.

7. Starters

Each week coaches must submit their starting line up by 11:59 p.m.  Eastern Time on the game before game day.  For example, if the first game of the week was on Sunday the lineups must be posted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Saturday. If the first game of the week is on Thursday then any player starting in the Thursday game onl y must by posted by 11:59 p.m Eastern Wednesday. The rest of the lineup must be posted by 11:59 P.M. Saturday.

Lineups can be adjusted up to 1 hour before the first Sunday kickoff. Players that played in a Thursday or Saturday game must be changed at least 1 hour prior to those games.

The starting line up will consist of 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, and 1 Defensive Team.  This is the ONLY lineup formation allowed in the THFFL.  

Missed lineup penalties:

1 Miss.... lose 2 CB's, drop draft spot, automatic loss

2 Misses.... lose 4 CB's, 2 draft pick spots, automatic loss
3 Misses.... lose 4 CB's, Drop to last draft pick in draft, automatic loss and another named coach in line to take over team for good in case of 4th miss of lineup.
4 Misses.... Unless good reasoning or 5 year tenure.... dropped from league. Otherwise another 4 CB's and automatic loss.
5 Misses.... Dropped from league.... no matter what.

8. Scoring

*Passing and receiving bonus yards are NOT combined yardage totals.

9. Playoffs

The winner of each of the three divisions along with the next 3 teams with the best record will advance to the playoffs.  Ties will be broken in the following order.

1.        Division Record

2.        Head to Head Record

3.        Points For

4.        Points Against

5.        Power Rating

6.        Coin Toss

The top two teams will receive a bye during the first round of the playoffs.  During week 15 of the NFL season the number 3 seed will play the number 6 seed and the number 4 seed will play the number 5 seed.

During week 16 the lowest remaining seed will play the number 1 seed and the number 2 seed will play the remaining team.

During week 17 of the NFL the two teams will face off for the Two Homie Championship.

10. Draft Rules

1. Draft order will be determined by regular season finish.  Teams not qualified for the playoffs will be assigned draft picks from worse record to best non-playoff qualifying team record. (Normal tie breaker rules will apply for teams that finish with same W-L record. See rule 9 for tie breaking procedures)
   

2. Teams that qualify for the playoffs will be assigned their draft pick by where they finish in the playoffs with the Champion having the final draft pick and the runner up having the next to last draft pick.  Teams that have been eliminated will pick AFTER the non qualifying playoff teams regardless of regular season record. Example Two teams finish with 8-8 records, Team A qualifies for the playoffs but team B doesn't.  Team B will have a higher draft pick than Team A since Team B did not qualify for the playoffs.
   

3.  The draft will  start at 12:01 A.M the day after the first round of the NFL draft. (Exception. If  coach will be unavailable this date CAN be changed) 
   

4. After a pick is made the next team will have 24 hours from the time of the pick to post their pick in the public message area.  If a pick is not made within 24 hours of the previous teams pick then that team will trade spots with the next team in the draft order.
   

5. The THFFL draft is one round only.  Any one not drafted will be considered a Unrestricted Free Agent.