FANTASY FOOTBALL RULES - 2008

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OVERVIEW

Fantasy Football is the game that allows you to be your team’s general manager and coach all in one. All of the tools are at your fingertips to build the best team possible. Multiple draft methods and scoring systems, player stats, and unlimited waivers and trades give you all that’s necessary to come out on top at the end of the season.

Every contestant will be placed in a 10-team league. You will draft a team of 13 players/defenses (athletes) and start 7 athletes each week.

TO ENTER
To enter, complete the registration form online. Entrants will be asked to create a user ID and password, which they will use for future login to their team page. Entrants 13 years and younger must provide parent/guardians email upon registration.

JOIN/CREATE A LEAGUE
When you create a new team, it is automatically an independent team, meaning it is not associated with any other teams in a league.

You have the option to group yourself in a league of friends or other fantasy owners by creating your own league or joining one that already exists.

All leagues consist of 10 teams. All leagues must be full (consist of 10 teams) before their draft can take place. All leagues (public or private) must be full (have 10 teams) 24 hours prior to that league’s scheduled draft date.

If the league is full 24 hours prior to the scheduled draft time, the draft will go on as scheduled and the draft order will be generated the day of your draft. If not, the league will be disbanded and each owner will receive an email informing them they will have to join or create another league. All owners are responsible for finding a league that fills prior to the start of the season.

Public Leagues
Any league designated as a “public league” can be joined by another owner at any time prior to the draft. Public leagues are for owners looking to play with other owners of similar interests, draft methods, draft times, etc.

Private Leagues
If you want to play with a specific group of people you know, create a "private league." The creator of a private league sets the league password and can share it with anyone they want. Anyone who knows the league name and password will be able to enter, until the league is filled. If a league has less than 10 teams, other teams will be added to fill out the league at the time of the league's draft.

All 10-team leagues will consist of 2-five team divisions. League assignments are random and will be determined after the league’s draft. Owners in private or public leagues may not request division assignments.

THE DRAFT
The draft is probably the most important day of the fantasy football season. Contestants that have a strong draft will most likely find themselves at the top of the standings during the regular season. Family Fantasy Football offers a single-list draft that all leagues will use to draft players.

Each team will draft a roster of 13 athletes during the draft. Athletes may only be drafted at the position listed on the online player list. All un-drafted athletes become free agents following the draft and can be acquired by any team on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Drafts are processed on different days throughout the pre-season and the first four weeks after the start of the regular season. Draft lists must be prepared by 11:59 PM CT on the day before each team's appointed draft day. Team owners do not need to be online for their drafts.

Single-List Automated Draft
Prior to the draft, you'll rank athletes in order of preference based on knowledge, research, and gut instinct. The single-list draft method allows team owners to draft the best athlete available at any given draft spot, regardless of position.

When the draft is processed, each team will be given a draft position at random. At each draft position, an owner receives the highest ranked athlete who is still available to be drafted. The order in which team owners draft reverses in each successive round, so that the owner who drafts first in the first round, will draft last in the second round, and so on.

If you do not rank athletes, you will be provided a set of default rankings based on last season’s point totals, regardless of position. These default rankings are only displayed as a reference and owners should customize the athletes' ranks as they see fit. To prevent an owner from drafting too many athletes at a single position, the single-list draft method includes a maximum number of athletes you can draft at each position:

Position You Draft
QB 2
RB 3
WR/TE 4
PK 2
DST 2

ROSTER
Your total roster may never exceed 13 athletes and only 7 athletes will be active for any given week. It will be your responsibility to produce a starting lineup from your roster. You can leave it the same each week, change a couple of positions, or change the whole thing; it's up to you.

Of the 13 athletes on your roster after the draft, 7 will be active. Your ACTIVE roster will consist of:

1 QB
2 RB
2 WR/TE
1 PK
1 DST

Starting lineups are due 10 minutes before kickoff of the first scheduled game of the week. After kickoff of the first scheduled game, lineups may not be changed again until the following Tuesday morning. If a valid starting lineup is not submitted, no points will be awarded to that owner that week. Remember there are weeks that begin with Thursday games.

SCORING
Each week, your 7 active athletes will accumulate points based on their performance in real NFL games. Your total points will then be compared to the total points earned by your opponent's 7 active athletes. The team with the most points wins that week's game.

If both teams have identical point totals for the week, the game will be considered a tie and will be shown as such in the league standings.

The scoring system is described below.

Passing
TD = 6 points
Every 25 yards = 1 point
2 point conversion = 2 point

Rushing/Receiving
TD = 6 points
Every 10 yards = 1 point
2 point conversion = 2 points


Kicking
FG = 3 points
PAT = 1 point

Punt/Kick Return
TD = 9 points

Defense/Special Teams

TD = 6 points (includes return TD’s)

Fumble recovery = 2 points
Interception = 2 points
Safety = 2 points
Sack = 1 point

All statistics are final as of Tuesday morning each contest week. Any statistics used to calculate your team's points in any given week that are subsequently corrected or changed by the NFL, will not affect the outcome of your fantasy game that week.

REGULAR SEASON GAMES
Each week, your team plays another team in your league. The winner is the team whose active athletes accumulate the greater number of points after all NFL games for the week are over. The winning team receives credit for one win, and the losing team gets a loss. The team with the best won-lost record in each division at the end of the fantasy regular season (after week #14) wins its division

When comparing won-lost records, a tie will be treated as one-half of a win and one-half of a loss. That means, for example, that 10-5-2 is equivalent to 11-6-0.

PLAYOFFS
The Playoffs will last two weeks for all leagues (NFL Weeks 15-16). Week 17 of the NFL season will not be included in the contest. At the conclusion of Week 14 of the NFL season, 4 teams will make the playoffs – the 2 division winners and 2 wildcards.

The two division winners will be seeded 1 and 2, according to their record (and if necessary, the tiebreakers below). The two teams with the best records among the remaining non-division winners will be the wildcards. In the event of a tie for W-L record for the wildcard teams, the tiebreakers listed below will be used. In week #15 of the NFL season, the #1 ranked division winner will play the lowest seeded wildcard team and the #2 division winner will play the highest seeded wildcard team in the first round of the playoffs. In week #16 of the NFL regular season, the two winning teams in the first round will play each other in the championship round.

DETERMINING PLAYOFF SEEDINGS (Tiebreakers)
Unless otherwise stated above, standings and playoff seedings shall be determined in the following order:

1. Overall record
2. Head to Head record (if more than 2 teams are tied, this tiebreaker is skipped)
3. Total Points Scored for Season
4. Highest total points in any week of the season.
5. Highest total points in any week by an active Quarterback
6. Highest total points in any week by active Running Backs
7. Highest total points in any week by active WR/TE

POSITION ELIGIBILITY
The online player list will serve as the official position eligibility list. Players cannot play any position other than the one under which they appear online.

FREE AGENTS
Any athlete not on a team and who has cleared waivers (see below) is considered a free agent.

Free agent requests are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Free agents may be added at any time during the week and can be used for the upcoming weekend. Any time you add a free agent to your roster, an athlete must be released to keep your roster at the 13-athlete limit. You must also specify the status of the new athlete (bench or starter) at the time the athlete is added. You must, at all times, have 7 athletes in your starting lineup and 6 on the bench. If roster requirements are not met at the time you pick up a new athlete, your free agent pickup will be disallowed. The number of free agents you add to your roster during the season is unlimited.

WAIVERS
To allow all members of a league a fair opportunity to add an athlete to their team, athletes that are dropped from a roster of another team in your league are placed on waivers for a 48-hour period starting once the athlete is dropped. Any team may claim a player on waivers, but will not be awarded the player until the 48-hour waiver period has ended. At the end of the waiver period, if more than one team has claimed an athlete on waivers, the athlete will be awarded to the team lowest in the standings. If two or more teams having identical or equivalent won-lost records, submit a claim for the same athlete on waivers, the athlete is awarded based on total team points; the team with fewer points receiving the athlete before the other team. After the waiver period, if no team has made a claim on an athlete, the athlete becomes a free agent and is available to all teams on a first-come, first-served basis.

WAIVER ORDER FOR FREE AGENTS
1. Win/Loss Record
2. Overall Pts. For
3. Overall Pts. Against

In addition, all players not on a roster will be placed on waivers at kickoff of the first game every Sunday and remain on waivers until 10am CT on Wednesday. This is done to prevent teams from picking up players while games are being played. After 10am CT on Wednesday, waiver claims will be processed and any player not claimed will become a free agent.

TRADES

Trades must be proposed by one owner to another and may involve an uneven number of players (i.e. 2-for-1, etc.). It is each owner’s responsibility, however, to make sure his/her lineup is valid each weekend.

The other owner will have 24 hours to accept, reject or counter the trade. If the owner accepts the trade, it will be under “review” for 48 hrs. If the owner rejects the trade, it will be completely erased. If the owner counters the trade, time will be extended 24 hrs. If the owner does nothing, the proposed trade will become null and void.

Trades will not be allowed to occur if 50% or more of the remaining owners reject it. Remaining owners will have exactly 48 hours to vote on the proposed trade. If any owner chooses not to vote, this will be considered an “accept trade” vote. The league commissioner makes the final decision on trades and reserves the right to veto any proposed trade he or she deems unfair.

The trading deadline is week #11 of the Contest. No trades among any teams will be allowed after week #11.

ACTIVATIONS AND BENCHINGS
Teams can make changes to their lineup at any point during the week, moving athletes in and out of a team's active roster. However, an athlete must be moved to an active roster slot by 10 minutes before kickoff of the first scheduled game of the week in order to have that athlete’s stats count for that weekend’s games. An athlete can be activated or benched for each week of NFL games without any limitation provided the team meets the active roster requirements and the maximum 13-player roster limit.