UFFL V League Rules

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Basic Rules & Highlights

League Play

2. Divisions:  

There will be three divisions. Each division will have four teams. There will be 12 total teams in the league.

The divisions will be realigned every two (2) years in odd numbered years. (2007, 2009, 2011, etc) The realignment will be done by random draw (dice roll) one week prior to the supplemental rookie/free agent draft.

3. Rosters:  

Rosters will consist of 30 active players and 2 developmental squad players made up of players from the following positions: Quarterback (QB), Running back (RB), Wide Receiver (WR), Tight End (TE), Place Kicker (PK), Defensive Linemen/Defensive Ends (DL/DE), Linebackers (LB), and Defensive Backs/Safeties (DB/S). The active players will be chosen by way of a 28 round draft. The taxi squad players the first year are picked up during free agency. The 2 developmental squad players are not mandatory and will be filled as the team owner sees fit. Since there is a taxi squad there will be no Injured Reserve. A player may be put on the taxi squad at any time but may only be brought off the developmental squad either by cutting the player and allowing him to become a Free Agent or if you want to move him to your active roster you may do so by paying a fee of 20 Blind Bidding Bucks. After the final playoff game of the year all taxi squad players will become part of your active roster when your roster will be allowed to grow to 32 players. One week prior to the start of the regular season, August 31, 2007, all rosters must be cut back to the 30 active player limit by either cutting players or moving players to the taxi squad.

Each owner may draft as they see fit. The only roster requirement is that you must have enough players at any one position to field a starting line-up.

4. Starting Lineups:  

Lineups will consist of 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 FLEX (RB, WR, or TE), 1 K, 2 DL/DE, 2 LB, 2 CB/S, & 1 Flex IDP (DL/DE, LB, or CB/S).

All starting lineups may be submitted on the league web site and are due by 1:00 pm ET on Sunday (12:45 am ET if you are submitting a lineup by phone) for ALL Sunday games. The only exceptions are for players involved in games earlier in the week. Those players must be submitted into lineups 5 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the game. It is highly recommended that all owners submit a lineup earlier than the deadline to avoid any technical glitches, which may interfere with a lineup submission. If you are having technical troubles on the site, you may either ...

Post to the web-site message board explaining to the league that your team is having a technical issue with the lineup submission process and then list your starting lineup.

Send your starting lineup via email to the Commish and your opponent, explaining the technical problem along with your starting lineup. One important point, the date/time stamp on the e-mail sent must be PRIOR to the deadline. The Commish will accept that lineup and submit it for the league owner onto the league website.

During weeks with early games (those played on Saturday, Friday, or Thursday), a partial lineup may be submitted involving players of the early games. You may also submit a full lineup at this time. Players playing in the early games will be locked at kick-off and can not be changed, however any players who have been submitted in a full lineup who have NOT played, may be changed prior to the Sunday morning deadline or start time of their game if earlier than Sunday.

Any team that does not have a lineup submitted for the week will result in the prior weeks lineup being used.

Should any team not submit their lineup two weeks in succession, their team will be put under review. This means that the Commish will be contacting the owner (by e-mail or phone) and expecting a quick response regarding the lack of activity from the owner. If no contact can be established within a week (7 days) of being put under review, the Commish will take over control of that team until contact can be made. The lack of activity may result in disciplinary measures being taken with that owner. That includes the possibility of having the team removed from the inactive owner and any possible prize monies as well as all entry fees being forfeited by that team.

Should the very unlikely event of a team owner being removed occur, the commish will take the following actions.

The Commish will personally run that team until another owner is found as replacement.

Any weekly prize won from the having the high score that is being operated by the Commish will NOT be awarded to that team. Instead, the next highest scoring team for that week will be awarded the weekly Hi-Score Prize.

Any prizes won regarding playoff placement and division status will be awarded. However, if the team being run by the Commish should win the Grand Championship game, then the top two prize monies will be pooled and equally split between the Commish run team and the runner-up.

Regarding partial lineup submissions. Should an owner submit a partial lineup for an early game and then not submit the remaining roster lineup for that week, the following action will be taken.

The partial lineup that was submitted will stand.

The remaining starters will be filled around the partial lineup based on the prior weeks submission. Example: If its Week 12, then Week 11 roster that was submitted will be used.

5. Draft:  

5A. Initial Draft:  

The draft will start on July 30, 2005 at Noon EDT unless the league votes to change the starting date to an earlier time.

The initial draft will be a serpentine draft. Round 1 will be picked #1 through #12, then reverse order (#12 to #1) for round 2, and so on until 28 rounds have been completed.

The order of drafting will be randomly determined (dice roll in a chat room) after all teams have been filled in the league.

The draft will be an e-mail style draft and will have a timer of 24 hours per pick for the first round to ensure every team becomes aware of the draft starting and to avoid any potential technical issues. Starting with the first pick of the second round and continuing to the end of the draft, the timer will be reduced to a 8 hour timer. The draft will be suspended from 12 AM - 6 AM (after round 1). You can still make picks but the clock will be stopped. Picks are made through the web-site and e-mail notifications are then sent out to all teams that request it. Be sure to check the website to ensure than an e-mail alert was not 'lost in cyberspace'. If you miss your pick, the computer will automatically select a player for you.

5B. Subsequent Drafts:  

Starting in 2006, there will be an six round rookie/free agent supplement draft. In 2007, there will be an eight round rookie/free agent supplement draft to account for rosters increasing to 32. The draft will start on July 16, 2007 at Noon EDT unless the league votes to change the starting date to an earlier time. Teams may use their draft picks on any free agents and any incoming rookies.

The draft will be an e-mail style draft and will have a timer of 24 hours per pick for the first round to ensure every team becomes aware of the draft starting and to avoid any potential technical issues. Starting with the first pick of the second round and continuing to the end of the draft, the timer will be reduced to a 8 hour timer. The draft will be suspended from 12 AM - 6 AM (after round 1). You can still make picks but the clock will be stopped. Picks are made through the web-site and e-mail notifications are then sent out to all teams that request it. Be sure to check the website to ensure than an e-mail alert was not 'lost in cyberspace'. If you miss your pick, the computer will automatically select a player for you.

Any teams that tie with the same winning record from the regular season will have the tie broken by the Total Points For scored during the regular season.

6. Roster Cutdown:  

One week prior to the start of the draft each owner must drop four to six players from their roster. All owners will have 24 players on their roster prior to the draft. The deadline to cutdown rosters is July 9, 2007 at noon EDT. If an owner misses the deadline, the Commish will cut one WR, TE, PK, LB, DL, and one DB (in order).

7. Transactions:   Transactions consist of Free Agent Signings and Trades. They are instrumental to the success of your team. It is very important that you remain active and up to date on all information regarding your players. Note: Only owners who have paid their entry fees are allowed to make transactions, unless they have taken over a team within seven days of the transaction.

7A. Trades:  

Trading is allowed and encouraged. Multiple player trades are fair. Collusion is not fair. In no way will collusion be tolerated at any time.

Any trade that results in a team going over their roster limit of players will require that team to either drop a player or players to rectify the situation or to notify the commish how they wish to proceed to remain under their roster limits. The team has 24 hours following the official announcement of the trade via the league website to notify the Commish as to which action will be taken if the situation is not rectified by the owner promptly.

Should any team not rectify the roster issue within 24 hours, the trade shall be revoked and all players returned to their original team.

The Commish approves all trades and reserves the right to veto any trade. However, the Commish will only veto trades that are considered lopsided or collusional.

Any team owner that disputes the trade must contact the Commish via e-mail and give a specific rationale as to why this particular trade is unfair. This e-mail must be received within 48 hours of the trade being announced. The reason must be specific and not involve, “I don’t agree with the trade…” or “I want to call a vote…” That is not specific, that is vague. The rationale WILL be posted for the league to discuss, but the team that provided the rationale will remain anonymous.

Should a trade be challenged it will be put up to a vote for the league to decide if the trade should stay or be reversed. The two teams involved with the trade may not vote. There must be a 2/3 majority of the remaining teams to overturn a trade.

A team may make as many trades per month during the off-season as they like, there is no limit.

A player can not be traded back to a team during the season until four (4) games have passed. During the off season a player may be traded back and forth between teams.

All trading is suspended between the kickoff of the first Week 12 game and the conclusion of the NFL regular season. Trades can be made during the offseason provided both owners have paid at least half of their entry fees for the upcoming season. (Entry fee deadline is July 2, 2007)

7B. Free Agency:  

Free agency signings will be conducted every week concluding November 30. All free agent transactions will be requested and processed through the site. Once a player is dropped, there is a waiting period of one week before he can picked be picked up by another team, including yours.

Preseason Free Agency:

Free agency will begin two weeks prior to the start of the NFL season. Owners have two free agent transactions during the preseason, one for each week. The first FA period is August 20-24 and the second FA period is August 27 - August 31. The order for the first week of preseason free agency is reverse from draft order. The order for the second week is reverse order of the first week. Free agency moves will be processed at midnight on Fridays.

Season Free Agency:

The free agent system will be a “blind bidding” process. Each team will start with 200 Blind Bidding Bucks (BBIDs) for the season, and will be permitted to bid for free agents on a weekly basis. No team will be informed of any other team’s free agent bids until after the winning bids have been awarded. The team with the highest bid on any given player will be awarded that player. The amount of the winning bid will be deducted from the winning team’s free agent dollars. For each winning bid, the winning team must drop a player to make roster room for the free agent acquisition. No bid will be accepted without a dropped player. If a team’s free agent dollars go to zero, that team will no longer be allowed to bid for the rest of the season. No bid will be accepted that is larger than a team's remaining BBIDs. The minimum bid is $1. All bids must be in increments of dollars (no cents).

Bidding Time Frame: The bidding process starts after the completion of Week 1 and ends Week 13 on Friday, November 30, 2007 at 9 pm ET. Bids will be accepted on the league web site from Tuesday at 9 am ET until Friday at 9:00 pm ET in each of these weeks. Rosters will be updated by 9:05 pm ET Friday night with the results of all successful bids. There will be no free agent pickups after the completion of the regular season.

Conditional Bids: Conditional bids can also be offered. In the event you may lose out on a player, you can place conditional bid(s) for other players during the bidding time frame. The first conditional bid will become relevant only if you lose out on the first bid. Subsequent conditional bids will become relevant only if the previous conditional bid fails. Bids do not require conditional bids. Bids may have several sequential conditional bids, but may not include bidding on the same player more than once.

Number of Bid Limits: There is no limit to the number of bids each week in which bids are permitted.

Tied Bids: If there is a tie, the team that receives the player will be determined in order by: 1. Worst total points. 2. Worst won/lost record. 3. Worst previous week score. 4. Worst QB points total to date. 5. Coin toss.

Any unused Blind Bidding Bucks will be carried over to the following year at which time each team will also receive an additional 100 BBIDs. Blind Bidding Bucks may also be used in trades.

8. Scoring:  

Position players may score from any position. (IE. A QB that catches a pass for a touchdown will receive pts for a receiving TD).

Points will be scored in the following manner:

                                                     Offensive scoring:

9. Tiebreaker Rules:  

Regular season tie games are allowed. In the event a team ends a game in a tie, the tie game will reflect as one-half of a win and one-half of a loss.

Division Champions tie breaker:

Wildcard tie breakers:

Playoff Game tie breakers:

10. Playoffs:  

A total of six (6) teams will qualify for the playoffs, the three (3) division champions and the three (3) wildcard teams. The division champion with the best record (total points tiebreaker) will be seeded #1 and receive a first round bye. The division champion with the second best record (total points tiebreaker) will be seeded #2 and receive a first round bye. The division champion with the third best record will be seeded #3. The wildcard teams will be seeded #4 to #6.

Week 14 is the Wildcard Games. The #3 seed will play the #6 seed and the #4 seed will play the #5 seed. The winners will advance to the Semifinal Games.

Week 15 is the Semifinal Games. The #1 seed will play the lowest remaining seed and the #2 seed will play the other team. The winners will advance to the UFFL V Championship Game.

Week 16 is the UFFL V Championship Game! The winner is the UFFL V Champion!

There is also a Consolation Game for the two losers of the Semifinal Games.

Week 16 is the Consolation Game!  The winner is the Consolation Winner!

11. Rule Changes:  

During the offseason (Jan & May-Jul), owners may send reasonable proposals/recommendations on rule changes to the Commissioner. The Commissioner does not have the authority to change league rules unless it specifically addresses a website programming issue. Any proposals submitted by the Commissioner are subject to the same voting criteria as outlined below. Note: The Commish reserves the right to not put up a rule for vote so long as an explanation as to why is provided. (Such as the MFL site does not support such a rule change). Proposal(s) will be forwarded to the league and each owner will have a maximum of 72 hours to vote. "Abstaining votes" do not count as either a "yes" or "no" vote. Proposals will require a minimum of 5 affirmative votes to pass, but also must reflect at least a 67% margin of those casting votes to pass. This proposal means that there is no specific quorum, but a vote with only 5 people voting can only pass if the vote is 5-0.

Number of people voting -- outcomes:

1 - proposal is defeated
2 - proposal is defeated
3 - proposal is defeated
4 - proposal is defeated
5 - proposal is adopted if the vote is 5-0
6 - proposal is adopted if the vote is 6-0 or 5-1
7 - proposal is adopted if the vote is 7-0, 6-1 or 5-2
8 - proposal is adopted if the vote is 8-0, 7-1, or 6-2
9 - proposal is adopted if the vote is 9-0, 8-1, 7-2 or 6-3
10 - proposal is adopted if the vote is 10-0, 9-1, 8-2, or 7-3
11 - proposal is adopted if the vote is 11-0, 10-1, 9-2, or 8-3
12 - proposal is adopted if the vote is 12-0, 11-1, 10-2, 9-3, or 8-4

There are no rule changes once the draft starts.

During the season, the Commish will handle any rules interpretation matters. The EC can review any Commish decision if 3/4 of the owner requests it.

11A.Rule Re-Evaluation:  From time to time, a situation may arise in which the rules, as written, may lend themselves to harming the position of a team in a way for which they were not meant to do when written. If such a situation arises, the league Commissioner has the right to re-evaluate the league rules to determine whether the situation at hand is such that the intent of the rules when they were written can not be upheld because the literal interpretation would lend itself to the contrary. If so, the Commissioner can forego the rules, as written, in favor of the rule's intent.
   If the commissioner comes to such a decision, he must inform the other league owners by email; explaining the situation, the decision to forego the rule in question, and the reasoning for making such a decision. League owners who believe that the situation in question does not warrant a reevaluation of the league rules must inform the commissioner within 24 hours. If three (3) league owners independently send a message to the Commissioner stating that they do not believe the rule should be forgone, the Commissioner's decision will be overruled. If not, the Commissioner's decision will be final.

11B.Rulebook Gaps:  In the event that a situation should arise in which no effective solution can be found due to amibiguities in the league rules, the league Commissioner has the right to use his own discretion to resolve the issue. That decision must then be followed consistently for any situation of significant similarity for the remainder of the season.

12. Governance:  

12A. Commissioners' Duties: The Commissioner is responsible for maintaining the league web site, the rules site, and contacting MFL Support for any league wide issues with the site. Owners can and should contact MFL Support for help with individual issues. The Commish will forward all trade challenges to the Executive Committee. The Commissioner has vetoing power but will only use such power in extreme cases, i.e. life threatening. A fair and impartial decision is guaranteed. As Commissioner, I do not make any profit running the leagues. The only compensation is a waived entry fee.

12B. Assistant Commissioners' Duties: The Assistant Commissioner (AC) will be nominated and elected during the offseason. He will serve one year unless re-elected. The powers of the AC include assuming the duties of the Commissioner if need be, serving on the Executive Committee, making recommendations on improving the league to include rule changes that do not require a vote, and giving advice to the Commissioner if league issues arise and a decision is required. The UFFL V AC for the 2006 season is Albert Leach.

12C. Executive Committee:  The Executive Committee (EC) has the authority to handle any disciplinary issues. The UFFL EC consists of the five Assistant Commissioners. The 2006 members are Mike Obstgarten (UFFL), Mark Edgar (UFFL II), Brian Thorne (UFFL III), Ken Daube (UFFL IV), and Albert Leach (UFFL V). If an AC has a conflict of interest (determined by the Commish) in the particular issue being voted on, he will not participate in the vote. Their decision will be e-mailed to the league within 72 hours and is final. The Commish can remove any AC from the EC for failure to vote or conduct detrimental to the league.

12D. League Disputes: Any disputes will be sent directly to the Commissioner who will then either make a decision which will be final or forward said complaint to the league for a democratic vote. The overall good of the league as a whole will be greater then the benefit to any sum of its constituents.

13. Expected Owner Conduct:  

Owners will be expected to conduct themselves in a manner that will not disparage the league, Commisssioner, league officers, nor its owners in any way, shape, or form.

1. While bragging is always a part of some owner's personality and is to be expected, insults, personal attacks, and inflammatory or taunting acts will not be tolerated. The Commissioner will have total authority in drawing the line between trash talking and the above mentioned acts. This will be strictly enforced.

2. Any correspondence attacking the Commissioner to other owners or to public message boards violates the Owner Code of Conduct.

3. Removing an Owner. If an owner is considered by the Commissioner to be conducting himself in a manner not in the Best Interest of the League or DETRIMENTAL to the league, the owner may be removed. If an owner feels it is necessay to attack the league or any of its' owners in any form, then it is in their best interest to find a different league. A refund of the entry fee will be determined by the league and any refund will affect the prize money.

4. Whining: NO WHINING, BICKERING, CRYING, BELLY ACHING, ETC, ALLOWED! The Commish will be the sole determinor of any owner guilty of violating the "Whining Clause". Punishment ranges from forfeiture of future auction money to forfeiture of free agency privileges. The Commish reserves the right to issue one warning. My advice is to do a whine check before clicking send in e-mails and IMs. The league was created to have fun. Let's keep it that way.

14. Prize Money:  

Prize payouts are mailed PROMPTLY during the week following the conclusion of the NFL regular season (Week 17).

Prize distribution is intentionally diverse to allow more people a shot at winning prize money while still giving the league champ a decent prize for winning the Grand Championship.

Prizes will be distributed as follows:

Total Payout = $800.00 (95% payout)

15. Entry Fee:  

Since UFFL V is a dynasty league, I expect owners to remain with the league for many years. Starting in 2007, to deter owners from leaving after one year, each owner will pay a franchise fee of $25. Franchise fees are refundable after the 3rd year. New owners will pay the franchise fee their first year. If an owner leaves prior to their 3rd year, the franchise fee will go towards the new owners entry fee.

The total entry fee for the 2007 season is $100.00 and due by July 2, 2007. Owners who miss the entry fee deadline will have $10 deducted from any prize money they win. This money will be added to the prize money. Owners who do not pay the entry fee by July 16 will have their drafting priveledges suspended until they pay the entry fee.

Mail checks to:

David Torreano
263d AAMDC
3111 Mall Rd.
Anderson, SC 29625