1999 Rules for Cradle to Grave Fantasy Football League I. Concept and History II. Drafting III. Roster Management A. Number required B. Keeper systems C. Adding/dropping players D. Trading IV. Scoring V. Schedule A. Year-long schedule B. Weekly schedule VI. Owner Retention VII. Commissioner power and rule changes I. Concept and History The concept behind the Cradle to Grave Fantasy Football League originated from the desire to protect college players who I knew would do well in the NFL, but would be gone by the time I normally draft rookies in my NFL draft. The first idea I tinkered with was to allow each team to protect a couple of college players, but that seemed useless: to have players on your roster that did nothing. I then decided to expand the idea to include the play of college football. That lead to the whole concept of doing both at once and allowing keepers. 1998 was the first year of the Cradle to Grave Fantasy Football League. We had a couple of false starts on draft night, but eventually started the season with 8 teams. The season went along with few bumps, and Phil Blaser of "One Nation Under the Groove" emerged as the champion. Lessons were learned along the way and the gameplay overall was fair; however, the departure of half of the owners lead to the league's restart in 1999. II. Drafting The draft will consist of 28 rounds. Teams may draft from all NFL teams and all Division I-A college football teams. Each team is drafting for two different rosters: one college (13 players) and one NFL (15 players). Any number of a position may be drafted, as long as the team has enough players to fill out the rest of both teams. Again, 13 college and 15 NFL players must be drafted. For the initial draft, the order of the first round will be determined randomly. This will also set the order for all the odd-numbered rounds. The even-number rounds will be the mirror image. For every subsequent year, the order will be based on reverse-standings order (i.e. the owner with the worst record gets the first pick) for the first round. The exception is that the league champion will receive the last pick and the league runner-up will receive the penultimate pick. The odd-numbered rounds will be the same order, the even-numbered rounds will be reversed. This gives the poorer teams a chance at the best players, while not penalizing the better teams too much. III. Roster Management A. Number required The college teams will start a roster each week of: 1 QB 4 RB/WR/TE (minimum of 1 RB and 1 WR) 1 K 1 Def. In addition, the college roster will contain 5 reserves. The only restriction is that you must have at least one player on your team from each class (frosh, sophomore, juinor, senior). The NFL teams will start a roster each week of: 1 QB 4 RB/WR (minimum of 1 RB and 1 WR) 1 TE 1 K 1 Def. In addition, the NFL roster will have 7 reserves. B. Keeper systems 1. College (The scholarship rule) After the CTGFFL Championship Game, each team will designate whether they want to extend the scholarship of certain college players. Each team can extend the scholarship of one player per year of eligibility (in other words, one frosh, one sophomore, and one junior). Once extended a scholarship, that player will/must remain on the CTGFFL team until he leaves his college team (by graduating, getting kicked off, etc.) Let me make this point again: once a scholarship is extended to a player, it can not be taken away. Each CTGFFL team does not have to extend a scholarship even if they have one open. I think an example is needed: The Orlando Cormorants extend a scholarship to Drew Brees (a junior) of Purdue after the 1999 season. The Cormorants will/must have him on their team for the next two years, unless he leaves Purdue. If he goes to another college, he enters the pool of draftable players. If he goes to the NFL, he falls under the CTG rule: He can be kept his first NFL season for the last pick the Cormorants have in the draft. After that year, he falls under the DV (Draft Value) rule to be discussed later. The Cormorants can not extend a scholarship to Jamal Lewis because he is also a junior. They also extend a scholarship to Peter Warrick (a senior) of Florida State and Quincy Carter (a sophomore) of Georgia. They choose not to extend a scholarship to any of their freshmen. At the end of next year, they will have the ability to extend a scholarship to any of their freshmen (because Warrick’s scholarship has run out) and/or any of their sophomores (because they did not extend a scholarship to any of their freshmen this year). They can not extend a scholarship to any of their juniors because that slot is taken by Carter or seniors because that slot is taken by Brees (unless, of course, either one leaves college early for the NFL). 2. Pro (The Draft Value rule) When a NFL player is drafted, he is assigned a draft value(DV) equal to the round he was picked in. A player retains the same DV throughout the year, even if he is traded. If he is cut, his DV becomes 0. When you pick up free agents, the new player assumes the DV of the player you cut to pick him up. If two teams try to pick up the same player, the owner releasing the lowest (more valuable) DV gets him. The DV is important for future drafts because this will determine what pick a team must give up to keep him. At the end of the season, all NFL players have 4 subtracted from their DV. If the number is negative or zero, the player can not be kept and will re-enter the draft pool. Another example is needed: The Cormorants drafted the following players: Favre - Round 1 (no draft value the following year because 1-4 is -3) Brees - Round 2 (no draft value because he is a college player) Lewis - Round 3 (no draft value because he is a college player) Watters - Round 4 (no draft value because 4-4 = 0) A. Smith - Round 5 (DV=1; he can be kept for a Round 1 pick next year) ... Rhett - Round 11 (DV=7; he can be kept for a Round 7 pick next year) and so on. Thanks to Eric Nelson of the International Fantasy League for introducing me to this system. This system keeps the best players in the draft pool year after year, but rewards a team for picking good sleepers. It also makes the free agent game more intriguing. An example Eric gave was Jerry Rice two years ago when he was injured for the majority of the season. The owner who drafted him could hold on to him for the whole season, but having drafted him in 2nd round, he couldn’t protect him the following year. However, if he released him, an owner could release one of their bench players and pick up Rice cheaply and own him for years. Another effect is that the college players that use the CTG rule to move from the college roster to the NFL roster can be kept cheaply for a long time. In our ongoing example, Brees would be kept for the 22nd pick in the draft the year he comes out (if the Cormorants had two players extended scholarships to, they would not have a 23rd or 24th pick). The following years he can be kept for the 18th, 14th, 10th, 6th, and finally 2nd. This is the meat of the Cradle To Grave league. If you draft good NFL prospects in college, you get to keep them for a good number of years cheaply. Also notice that the fact Brees was drafted in the 2nd round initially is irrelevant because he was a college player. C. Adding/dropping players You may add and drop as many as 2 college players and 3 pro players per week. In order to discourage kicker and defense swapping, you may not drop a player that you picked up the week before. This does not apply to trades, only to adding free agents. For college add/drops, the dispersal of free agents will be based on record. The team with the worst record gets priority on the first transaction. Example: The worst and best teams in the league submit transactions for the same two players. The worst team will get the first one while the best team will get the second one (because it's still his first transaction). For pro add/drops, the draft value of the player being released determines who picks up the free agent. See III.B.2 Keeper Systems-Pro (the Draft Value rule) above. If teams wishing to acquire the free agent intend to drop equally valued players, then the team with the worse record will gain the free agent. Each team has 1 Injured Reserve slot to use for their NFL players. If a player shows up on the NFL Injury Report (available in local newspapers and online), an owner may place this player on the IR. The IR lasts for four weeks however, and if the player is no longer listed on the Injury Report after those four weeks, he must either be dropped or a place must be made for him. In terms of Draft Value, the injured player retains his draft value until released. His replacement will not have a DV until the injured player comes off the IR. The replacement will assume the DV of whoever is dropped at that time. D. Trading Trading is normal enough. Both players and draft picks can be traded. Even college players under scholarship can be traded. A pro player maintains his DV after the trade. Therefore, it is possible to have two players on your team with the same DV. You can keep both players if you’re willing and capable of giving up the proper pick and one better. Example: You make a trade so that you now have two players with a DV of 6. Next year, you can protect one of them with a second-round pick (as determined by the DV system) and the other with a first-round pick (one better than the proper pick). Note that if you have two players with DVs of 5, you can’t protect both unless you have two first-round draft picks. Players under scholarship can be traded, but the team accepting the scholarship player must have one available. College and pro players can be combined in the same trade, but at the end of the trade, both teams must have the correct number of college and pro players (can be accomplished through simultaneous add/drops). The commissioner reserves the right to veto any trade he feels unbalances the future of a team. Since owner longevity is a key concept, extreme mortgaging of the future must be avoided or else that owner may not return, since he will have little to work with. As with any commissioner ruling, it can be overturned with a 60% vote. Trades begin by one of the owners involved sending an e-mail to the commissioner. The commissioner will then e-mail the other owner(s) involved for positive confirmation. Until positive confirmation is received, there is no trade. As soon as positive confirmation is received, the commissioner will announce the trade to the league and it becomes official. IV. Scoring The scoring is the same for both the college and pro teams: 6 pts for a TD (rushing, receiving, kick/punt return) 4 pts for a passing TD 2 pts for a 2-point conversion (rushing, receiving or passing) 1 pt for each 10 yards rushing or receiving 1 pt for each 20 yards passing 2 pts for a field goal under 30 yards 3 pts for a field goal between 30 and 50 yards 4 pts for a field goal greater than 50 yards 1 pt for a XP Defense: 2 pts for a turnover recovered (fumble rec., interception) 2 pts for a safety 1 pt for a sack 6 pts for a TD by interception return or fumble return 10 pts for a shutout 6 pts for holding the opponent under 7 offensive points 4 pts for holding the opponent between 7 and 13 offensive points 2 pts for holding the opponent between 14 and 20 offensive points Offensive points means that special teams and defensive scoring does not count. The only exception is the extra-point after an offensive touchdown. That does count as an offensive point. Each team will compete against another with both rosters. Each roster is separate but equal. Therefore, a team can emerge from a week with a sweep (both the college and NFL team won), a split (one or the other won), or being swept (neither won). The college and NFL wins are combined so it’s important to be strong in both. College players/teams only score points against Division I-A schools. If they play a non-Division I-A opponent, their points will not count. Ties are broken by comparing reserves in order. Therefore, it is important to order reserves when submitting a lineup. If unordered, they will be placed in the order they were drafted, and if free agents, the week they were picked up. V. Schedule A. Year-long schedule The meat of the college football season is from the week ending Sept. 4 to week ending Nov. 20. Teams play before and after that but not enough to be fair. Unfortunately, the NFL season doesn´t start until Sept. 12. Therefore, the first week will be college only. There is then 11 weeks where pro and college will be run the same week. The college football season is then mostly over, so there will be 2 weeks of just NFL play. Only 1 win or loss can be had on each of those weeks where either college or pro are playing alone. The 12 teams will be split into 3 divisions. Each team will play the other teams in their division twice and everyone else once. At the end of 14 weeks, 6 teams will make the playoffs: the three division winners and 3 wild cards. The only exception is that no team that finishes below .500 may make the playoffs. If only 5 teams are at .500 and above, then only 5 teams go. This seems like a useless rule, but it actually happened in another league. The team that finished below .500 won the championship, making the regular season seem useless. Standings will be ordered by percentages using the following formula: (# of wins + (.5 * # of ties))/(# of wins + # of losses + # of ties) Standings ties will be broken as such: - Division record (for division ties) or interdivision (for wild card ties) - Total points - Pro points (No need to do college points, because if total and pro points were equal, then college points will be equal) - Head-to-head record - Head-to-head total points - Head-to-head pro points - Record vs. regular season champion (if relevant) - Record vs. 2nd best record in regualr season (if relevant) - and so on, down to worst record - If it gets this far, then the teams must be identical, so coin flip. The two division winners with the best records will receive a bye in the first week of the playoffs, while the lowest division winner plays the lowest wild card and the two top wild cards square off. In the second round, the division winner with the best record (known as the regular-season champion) faces the team remaining with the worst record while the other division winner receiving a bye plays the other survivor. The winners will then square off in the championship game. For the first two rounds of the playoffs, only NFL teams will be used. This is regrettably necessary since the college teams aren't playing. However, for the championship game, both college and pro teams will be used. The college teams will use their bowl games and the NFL will be on Week 17. The winner will be the team with the most combined points. The only conflict that might occur will be bowl games during the second round of the playoffs, but the commisioner will decide how to handle those when the time comes. B. Weekly schedule Here are the deadlines during each week (All times Florida times, adjust for time zones and daylight savings as necessary): - Wednesday 7pm - College transactions submitted - Thursday 7pm - College lineups submitted - Saturday 12 noon - Pro transactions submitted - Sunday 12 noon - Pro lineups submitted There will be occasions when there is no college game on Thursday. In these cases, the time move to Friday noon for transactions and Saturday noon for lineups. There will be occasions when the NFL will have games on Thursdays and/or Saturdays. In these cases, move the schedules up accordingly. The schedules will be announced during the affected weeks. The commissioner will provide his best effort at announcing transactions in adequate time for owners to digest the transactions. VI. Owner retention This league had to be restarted after one year initially because there were no guidelines in place for replacing lost owners. The following sections will help alleviate that. During the season, each owner must notify the commissioner that he is still around at least once every 14 days. This is normally accomplished by submitting a lineup; however, some owners are content to let their lineups ride for weeks on end. If that is the case, a simple "I'm here" e-mail will suffice. If the commissioner does not hear from an owner within 14 days, he will send an e-mail to the owner. If there is no response within 7 days of that e- mail, the commissioner will place 3 phone calls, once a day, during evening hours, to the owner's home (if provided a phone number, owner's choice). After that time, the commissioner considers the team abandoned and will search for a replacement owner. In the interim, the abandoned team may make no trades and the lineup will only be changed to replace players on bye weeks or players known to be out of that week's game. The lineup changes will place the highest drafted players into the positions they belong. The only reason this is done is fairness to the league. If the lineup is allowed to remain stagnant, it is unfair to the teams who played that lineup when it had an owner. The search for a replacement owner will be conducted as follows: Upon notification that the team has been abandoned, the other owners may inform the commissioner of interested parties and the commissioner will pursue those people. The commisioner will also post to rec.sport.football.fantasy searching for a new owner. All avenues will be explored in hopes of finding a new owner as quickly as possible. Upon abandonment, the abandoning owner loses all rights and fees associated with his/her team. If s/he contacts the commissioner before a new owner is found, the league will vote on admitting the owner as a replacement for himself/herself. The replacement owner will be required to submit a pro-rated entry fee to be eligible for year end awards. This also applies to an owner who has abandoned his team and was accepted to replace himself/herself. What does this mean to you as an owner? If you will be on vacation, or otherwise out of touch for a while, make arrangements for an exemption from the rule. The commissioner will normally approve exemptions and will notify the league when one has been granted. During the offseason, the commissioner will e-mail the owners to propose rule changes, discuss expansion, etc. Response during the offseason is not required but would be helpful. You will receive an e-mail asking if you are going to participate in the upcoming year sometime in June. If an owner feels that the commitment is too much, he may ask to be removed from the league. If asked, the owner will immediately begin a search for a replacement. The leaving owner is asked to maintain the team until a replacement is found, but is not required to. The leaving owner will receive a pro-rated return of fees if a replacement is found. Thus the simple act of asking to be excused from the league removes headaches from all involved. The league is currently set at 12 teams. If the league decides to expand or contract the number of teams, rules will be made up and approved by the league at that time to allow for this circumstance. VIII. Commissioner power and rule changes The commissioner is also an owner in the league. It is therefore necessary to run the league as a borderline democracy/benevolent dictatorship. The commissioner will strive to rule in the best interests of the league. Any major rule change will be brought before the league for majority vote. The commissioner has no vote except to break a tie. However, the commissioner may make cosmetic adjustments to the rules to ease gameplay or maintenance. Any cosmetic rule change will be broadcast to the league and can be overturned by 50% of the owners. There are also circumstances where the commissioner must rule on disputes, trades, etc. Any ruling made by the commissioner in these circumstances may be overturned by 60% of the owners. Therefore, if the commissioner rules that the sky is blue, it only takes 60% to overrule and decree (within the realms of CTGFFL) that it is not. The commissioner will vote in the best interests of the league. I ask that you do so also, but I understand that each of you have a stake in the rules and sometimes must vote in the best interests of your team instead of the league. One point that the commissioner(me) will make only once: this is a volunteer effort for me. Therefore, as good-natured as I am, don't push the limit of my patience or I will disband the league and refund all fees. That said, you would have to push real hard before I took that step. My first step would probably be to ask the problem owner to remove himself from the league. I will allow someone to take over the commissioner's role if they wish, after they have served a year as associate commissioner. There are no rewards for being commissioner except for the enjoyment of the game, but for me, that is enough. I am running the league because I thought it was a good concept and the only way to see it carried out is to run it myself.