2002 FRANCHISE FOOTBALL LEAGUE (FFFL) RULES

1.       Bring yourself to the auction, held on Sunday, August 25, 2002. The auction will begin at 12:00 noon at The Pizza Hut in West Point.

2.       Auction Night:

• The player selecting will be done in “auction format”. You have a $1500 “budget” (imaginary dollars) with which to bid on auction night. All bids are to be in increments of a minimum $1. Once you make a bid, you may not rescind it. Each owner will nominate an NFL player for bidding, and throw out the first bid. If nobody puts forth a higher bid, he obviously becomes yours. Any player left out of the bidding will be considered a free agent, and may be acquired via free agency (see below). As you remember from last year, you’ll need between $175 and $300 set aside for free agent acquisitions and trades during the season, so PLAN ACCORDINGLY. You may keep up to 18 players on your active roster at any time.

3.       Salary Cap: 

(A)   Our league is a continual one. You will carry over some players from year to year, and you decide which players to keep and which ones to release, according to our salary cap and player contracts. You will begin the 2001 season with a $1500 salary cap to work with. In the future, you will start the season with whatever you have left under the cap.

(B)  If you want to release a player before his contract is up, you may do so. The rules below will help you in your decision making regarding releases…

 (B.1)  During the season you keep the salary & CY until the player is re-acquired. At that time, you will be responsible for the difference. For example, you have Randy Moss signed for $100 and a one-year contract. You release him, and another owner wins the bidding at $25 via free agency. You would be responsible for the $75 difference (which is $100 - $25) and 1 CY. 

(B.2)   If Randy Moss had a 2 year deal the same above would apply (providing he’s picked up via free agency) but you would be charged 50% of the salary in year #2, which would be $50 ($100 x 50%) and lose CY’s for both years. 

(B.3)   If Moss had a 3 year deal, Rule B.1 would still apply, but in year #2, you would be charged 66% of his original salary ($100 x 66% = $66), and in year #3, just 33% would apply of the original salary ($100 x 33%) 

(B.4)   What happens if Randy Moss were to be arrested, or just suck, and nobody wanted to pick  him up?  In that case, once you release him, you are stuck with his contract and CY’s in full.  Say you had a 3 year contract on him, and released him in year #1, then nobody picked him up in year #2, then in year #3, the Bonecrushers acquired him. Rule B.1 would apply. 

(C)  Trading a player during the season works differently than releasing a player. When you trade, you also trade CY’s and salary. So, for example, the Nads trade Jeff Garcia and his $160 salary to the Dancing Titos for Nappy Kaufman and a $72 salary. Judd would free up some cap room. Hatten had better make sure before the trade that he can fit Garcia and his hefty salary in under the cap, otherwise the trade is void, and Hatten is fined $10 on his salary cap, as he has gone over the cap. When making trades, keep in mind that there are CY’s to consider, as well. (HINT… don’t use all your 40 contract years when allocating at the beginning of the year, as you may want to save some of them for a trade or two). 

(D)  If a player suffers an injury, you may place that player on Injured Reserve. This means that the player is inactive and frees up a roster spot. Only players listed at least “doubtful” may be placed on IR. The Commissioner’s Office will rule on any questionable situations. Players on IR still affect your salary cap. Once the season ends, his status returns to “active” (you could have 18+ players on your roster after the season due to IR’d players—so it must be trimmed to 18 by the time the next season begins). When you choose to place a player on IR, he is done for the year, as far as our league is concerned, and cannot be reinstated to your active roster until after the season. Only 2 IR spots per team. 

(3D.1)  A player on IR will effect your 38 CY’s.

4.       Player Contracts: 

(A) All players are signed to a 1, 2, or 3 year contract – your choice. The only exceptions are free agent pickups during the season. They are signed only for the remainder of the year (1 year contracts). After the contract period is up, the player becomes a free agent, and is placed in the player pool for the next auction. 

(B) All salaries for holdovers will increase by 20% each year. The minimum amount that the increase can be is $10. So, for example, you have Andre Hastings with a salary of  $15. His salary would only go up $3 at 20% so we must raise his pay to $25, as the minimum is $10.

5.       Scoring Format:   The scoring system will be the same as 2001. Please see the attached sheet for the point breakdown.   

6.       Starting Lineups:   Starting lineups need to be in by Saturday at 6pm via phone or before kickoff via email. Anything after that will not be allowed, and you will use your lineup from the previous week. If there is a Thursday game, the due time is before kickoff. If you would like to leave your lineup the same, there is no need to call your lineup in, as it will stay the same as the week before. Check the scoring format sheet for the available offensive formations to choose from. If you do not turn in a lineup in week #1, you will get your highest salaried players at each position in the “Pro-Set” Offense.       

7.       Free agent bids:     All free agents are acquired through the use of a sealed bid process, just like last year. These bids are due at 7pm each Monday. You may call and leave this bid on my voice mail, or you may preferably email them to me at rsknispel@cableone.net    Here’s how it works: You would call/email me and say, “I would like to bid $24 on Ike Hilliard and if I get him, I’ll drop Rob Moore.” You will then find out in the Commissioner’s Report the next day if you acquired that player. You may give “backup picks”. Say for example you need a backup QB. Give me a few players in order, and your bids on each. There is no limit to the number of acquisitions per week.

8.       Trades:  Please call or email me with your trades when they are made. All trades are subject to approval by the Commissioner’s Office, which is usually not a problem. CY’s are included in trades, so deal accordingly. There is a trading (this does not apply to free agent pickups) deadline of the Monday after Week 9. All rosters freeze at 6pm the Monday before Week 12.

9.       Season Schedule:    The league has been divided into four divisions of four teams each. Each team has “doubleheader weeks” sprinkled throughout the season. This way, we will play a total of 18 regular season games. You are provided with a league schedule. During the “doubleheader weeks”, you can turn in separate lineups or formations for each of your games. The season will be 13 weeks in length (but remember..18 games), and will end with 8 teams making the playoffs in the winners bracket, and the remaining 8 teams will battle it out in the losers bracket. The two division winners will be the #1 and #2 seeds. The remaining spots will be chosen according to the teams with the best records. The first tiebreaker will be total points scored. The second is head to head. Third is a coin flip, and fourth is Commissioner’s choice.      

10.    Future Seasons:   As stated earlier, we will have a salary cap of $1500 and it will not change.

11.   Total Contract Years (CY’s):    The total number of contract years on your team for 2002 is 44. To get this total, you must add together the number of years you have players signed for. It can, at no time go over 44. Players on IR will affect this number as will released players. Also, you may want to keep in mind that when you make a trade, the player you are getting may move your contract year total up, so it may be a good idea to save some CY’s. This is to offset the contracts on players that have been released, because it will happen. Contracts may not be “renegotiated” at any time.