A.    Syndicate and League Definitions

The Pigskin Syndicate is a formal fantasy football partnership made up of two separate dynasty Leagues, the Leather Helmet League (LHL) and the Platinum Rings League (PRL). The two Leagues will operate independent of each other, but will be partnered in a number of Syndicate activities. These activities include, but are not limited to, the Week 17 Syndicate Shootout, the initial League Draft, and miscellaneous Commissioner cooperation.

B.    Rules for Assembling a Syndicate

Once complete rulebooks for each league have been created and distributed amongst Owners, a League Draft will be held. Each Owner, when it comes his turn to pick, will select which League they would like to participate in. The order of the draft is determined by the order that Owners made public their intent to join the Syndicate. When one League reaches the limit of 16 Owners, the remaining Owners that have not yet drafted must either affirm their desire to participate in the remaining League or withdraw from the Syndicate and be replaced by an alternate owner who is willing to join the shorthanded League. Owners' choices are permanent, and no switching of Leagues will be allowed without the approval of the league the Owner wishes to join.

C.    League Properties

Divisions will alternate which non-Conference Division they compete against each year. This schedule yields 13 Regular Season games.

The Platinum Rings League shall be organized as follows:

A.    Draft Order

• Double Picks

A.    Total Players Allowed

During the Season, each Team is allowed up to 28 active players on its Roster.

B.    Positional Definitions

The different positions are defined to be Quarterback (QB); Running Back (RB), which will also include Fullbacks; Wide Receiver (WR), which will also include Tight Ends, Flankers, Split Ends, and H-Backs; Kicker (K); Defensive Lineman (DL), which will also include Nose Guards, Defensive Ends, and Defensive Tackles; Linebacker (LB); and Defensive Back (DB), which will include Cornerbacks and Safeties. Flex players will be used on both offense (Offensive Flex (OF)) and defense (Defensive Flex (DF)) to allow owners to vary their lineups from week to week. Please note that Tight Ends will not be required in the Leather Helmet League, and any TEs drafted will be designated as and score as WRs as shown above. MFL will be considered the official source when issues of roster position are raised.

C.    Number of Players at Each Position

Teams must be able to submit a valid Weekly Lineup. Other than that, there are no restrictions on the number of players that a Team must have at each position.

D.    Injured Reserves

Each Team may have up to 2 Players on Injured Reserve at any given time during the season. These Injured Reserve players will not be counted as a part of a Team’s 28 player active roster but they are considered to be roster players and may not be acquired by other teams through Free Agency. In order to be eligible and continue to remain eligible for Injured Reserve, players must be on the Injured Reserve list, or Physically Unable to Perform list for their NFL team or listed as "Doubtful" or "Out" on the official NFL Injury Report. While on Injured Reserve, players still count their full amount against the Contract cap.     

E.    Development Squad

F.    Steal rule

An owner may attempt to steal a development squad player from another team. To initiate a steal the owner must announce their intentions to steal the player by posting a notice on the league message board. The player’s current owner must then either activate the development player by signing them to a contract in which case they will retain the player, or else the player will become the property of the stealing owner and the stealing owner must compensate the original owner with a draft pick in relation to when the player was originally selected per the rules below.

The following rules cover "stealing" a player from another Owner's Dev Squad:

1. Stealing Owner gives up draft pick one round higher than player was originally drafted. For example :
...To acquire a 1st rounder, compensation would be a first and a second.
...To acquire a 3rd rounder, compensation would be a second.
...To acquire a rookie free agent, compensation would be a fifth.

2. Draft picks that can be used in a steal are any tradable picks. (ie. 2017 draft picks become available to trade when the 2016 season is officially over, Feb.1.)

3. In the event that the stealing owner had traded away the compensatory pick, the cost would default to one round higher. If no picks of one round higher are available, the cost would escalate to the next highest round where the stealing Owner's still has available picks in the next LHL Draft. This compensation would be determined and locked in at the time the "steal" attempt was announced.

4. If the stealing Owner has multiple picks available in the round designated as the compensation round for the "steal", the Owner being stolen from will choose which of the stealing Owner's picks in that round he will take as payment for the steal. Locking in the compensation in this manner simplifies record keeping and makes the system much more flexible, eliminating the need to deal with "frozen" picks or to wait until the season is over to sort out who gets which picks based on the final standings.

5. If the stealing Owner does not have sufficient picks available in the next LHL Draft to pay for the player he is attempting to steal, the steal attempt will be disallowed.

6. When a steal is announced, it will be posted publicly on the LHL Conference Room message board. During the season and playoffs, the Owner being stolen from will have 3 calendar days to respond to the steal attempt by either promoting the player in question to his active roster and signing him to a contract or by releasing the player to join the stealing Owner's team and collecting compensation from the stealing Owner as stated above. During the offseason, the Owner being stolen from will have 7 calendar days to respond to the steal attempt. During a successful steal during the offseason, the stealing owner must sign the player in question within 7 calendar days.

7. If an Owner surrenders a Dev Squad player to a steal attempt, he may re-use that slot on his Dev Squad immediately.

8. No "steals" will be allowed after the Trade/Steal deadline (currently week 12). No other Developmental Squad moves will be allowed after the FA Acquisition deadline (currently week 13) until after Contract Rollover Day.

 

G.    Noncompliance Procedure

If an Owner’s active roster is found to be out of compliance with the 28 man limit during the LHL Regular Season or Playoffs because of an imbalanced trade, the return of a player from Injured Reserve, or for any other reason, the following procedure will be followed:

When an infraction of the roster limit is discovered, the League Commissioner will immediately notify the Owner whose roster size is out of compliance with the rules. Included in this message will be the number of players who must be removed from the active roster for the Owner’s roster to be back in compliance.

When an Owner receives an e-mail from the League Commissioner stating that he is over the roster limit, he has 24 hours or until the next lineup submission deadline, whichever is greater, to remove the mandated number of players from his active roster. This may be accomplished through one of the following methods:

If an Owner has been notified by the League Commissioner that his roster is out of compliance and the Owner’s roster is still out of compliance beyond the deadline set above, the following penalties will apply:

H.    Offseason Rosters

During the offseason, there will be no upper limit to the number of players and Developmental Squad players a Team can carry on its roster until the first cutdown date. (See section X, subsection F, “Roster Cut-Down Dates” below.)

A.    Positions

Every week, each Team shall start exactly 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 OF, 1 K, 2 DL, 2 LB, 2 DB, and 1 DF. Teams must also name 1 Overtime Player (OT) as a part of their weekly lineup. During the Playoffs and the Week 17 Syndicate Shootout, each Team must name 3 Overtime Players, and rank them 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in order of preference.

B.    Definition of Flex Players

Offensive Flex (OF) positions may be filled by RBs or WRs only. Defensive Flex (DF) positions may be filled by any DB, LB, or DL.

C.    Definition of Overtime Players

Overtime Player (OT) positions may be filled by RB's, WR's, or any defensive player (DL, LB, or DB).

D.    Time / Date Due

Lineups will be due one hour prior to the kickoff of the first NFL game of the week. This includes Thursday and Saturday games.

E.    Early Games and "Audibles"

In practice, it is always preferable for Owners to submit full lineups one hour prior to the earliest game of the week. Anyone submitting only a partial lineup or failing to submit a lineup at all prior to this deadline will have last week's lineup inserted as their lineup for this week. This means that if you started someone the previous week who is playing in the early game and you don't submit a lineup an hour or more before the game starts, the starter from last week will automatically be named a starter for this week and their inclusion in your lineup will be irreversible for the week.

However, Owners will be allowed to "audible" on Sunday mornings and replace any players in the early lineups they submitted with any other eligible player who has not already played that week. Similarly, Owners who did not submit a lineup prior to the early deadline will be allowed to change their lineup and replace any player who has not already played in an NFL game that week.

F.    Submission Method

Lineups are to be submitted in accordance to the rules set by the League’s Commissioner. If for some reason an Owner is unable to submit his Lineup to the Commissioner in the preferred manner, he may e-mail his lineup to the League Commissioner unless the Commissioner has previously specified otherwise.

G.    Non-Submission of Lineups

If an Owner does not submit a Lineup for the week prior to the time and date such lineup is due, the Owner’s lineup from his most recent game will be used. Failure to submit a lineup for three consecutive weeks will cause the Owner to receive a warning from the Commissioner and, if he misses a fourth consecutive week, he will be subject to being removed from the Syndicate. (See Section XIV, subsection F “Removal & Replacement of Owner”, for details on the Owner removal process.)

H.    Invalid Lineup Penalty

The Owners Highest scoring player at that position(s) will be disqualified for the week in volved.

A.    Scoring System

A.    Head-to-Head

Order in the League Standings shall be determined by overall win/loss record. The following methods shall be used to break a two-way tie:

B.    Three-Way or Greater

In the case of a three-way or greater tie, the following tiebreakers should be followed to eliminate one of the teams in the tie. If, following the removal of that team, there are only two teams that remain tied, the tie between them should be resolved by the Head-to-Head tiebreaker rules stated above. If there are still three or more teams tied, the following tiebreakers should be used until only two teams remain tied:

C.    Coaching Ratio

Coaching ratio is calculated as the number of points scored by a Team for the season divided by the highest possible number of points they could have stored had they started all their highest-scoring players. The result is rounded down to the nearest 100th of a percent.

C.    Week 17 Syndicate Shootout

All 16 Teams shall participate in the Syndicate Shootout, with each team matched against its like-seeded team from the other League. The Champions of each League shall play each other, and so on down the line.

In each game, one Team will be designated the Home Team. In odd years (2001, 2003, etc.), the LHL Team will be the Home Team in all odd-seeded games (1 vs. 1, 3 vs. 3, etc.). The PRL Team will be the Home Team in all even-seeded games. In even years, vice-versa will be the case. Each game will be played using the rules of the Home Team's League, with the exception of the items noted below.

The "Home Team Rules" will even apply in the use of Defense. When an LHL Team is the Home Team, the PRL Team may use any Individual Defensive Players who are on any of the Defensive Teams on his roster to field his defensive lineup. When a PRL Team is the Home Team, the LHL Team will use a Team Defense determined by the makeup of IDPs on his roster: he would use the Team Defense that he has the most IDPs from with the restriction that each NFL Defensive Team may be used by only one LHL Team. LHL Teams will determine their Defensive Team by means of a Draft. The highest-seeded Team will be the first to select. He must select the Defensive Team that he has the most IDPs from. If there are at least two teams that share the distinction of having the most representatives on his roster, then he may choose between the two teams. The next-highest-seeded Team will choose next. Once a Defensive Team has been chosen, no other Owner may choose that Team. Injured Reserve and Development Squad players will count toward the total IDP’s for a given defense.

When the LHL team is a home team, the TE position will not be required, and flex players will be used. Any TEs on either team may be played as WRs, in accordance with LHL rules. When the PRL team is a home team, TEs will be used if the LHL team in question has a TE on its roster. Otherwise, both the LHL team and the PRL team will be allowed to start a WR (or TE in the case of the PRL team) of their choice in the place of the TE.

Each game will be assigned a number of points, with the higher-seeded games being weighted more heavily. The winning Team in each game will win the assigned points for his League. Whichever League can amass at least 51 of the 101 possible points will win. Beginning with the #1 vs. #1 Game and continuing down the seeding, the points assigned will be as follows: 16-10-10-9-8-8-7-6-6-5-4-4-3-2-2-1.

A.    Trading

Any combinations of Players, Megabucks, and/or Draft Picks may be traded. These are the only assets that may be traded. No trades may be made that include cash, future considerations, or a player to be named later. However, trades are allowed even if both sides do not include a "tradable asset" if one side offers relief of "baggage" such as CAP. When Draft Picks are involved in a trade, only Draft Picks for the current year or following year may be traded. The next year's draft picks become tradable on February 1st of each year (ie. 2017 draft picks become available to trade when the 2016 season is officially over, Feb.1.).

After any trade, both Teams' rosters must comply with League standards.

As long as both owners posted and agreed to it on the Boards/MFL site it is all right to approve in the lineup submission. Owners involved in the trade just have to get it finalized by the kickoff deadline or it will not take effect until the following weeks' kickoff deadline.

All trades must be announced and reviewed before 11:59 PM (ET) on the Trade/Steal Deadline night leading up to Week 12’s games. Trading will not again be permitted until February 1st of the following year.

Obviously, Teams in different Leagues may not trade with each other.

B.    Free Agent Acquisition

Free Agents will be acquired during the season using a Blind Bidding of Megabucks each week during the LHL regular season. An Owner that would like to pick up a FA must select the waiver option in the MFL menu. Included in the request, he must select the Player he would like to bid on, the amount of the bid, and the Conditional Release Player (if necessary). He may also include Conditional Bids on other players to be placed based on whether he wins or loses the auction for the Player he is most interested in. The minimum bid is M$1. Owners may bid on more than one Player in a given week. Bids may also be revised by the Owner who placed them until the bidding deadline is reached. If multiple bids for a Player are received from an Owner, the last one received prior to the bidding deadline will be counted as the official bid. All FA bids must be submitted between 11:00 PM (ET) on Tuesday through 11:59 PM (ET) on Wednesday nights. The high bidder for each Player will be awarded that Player, and his Megabucks Account will be deducted by the amount of his winning bid. Losing bidders will not have any M$ deducted from their accounts. A summary of all FA Transactions will be posted on the League web page. If you make a mistake with a player move on the MFL site you have a one hour grace period to post your mistake, whether it has to do with Blind Bids, Waivers, or any other player movement.

A Free Agent player is defined as any player who is eligible to be placed on the active roster of an NFL team but who is not currently on the roster of a team in the LHL. All Free Agent players are available each week in the weekly FA Auction except for those players who have been waived by another LHL team between 11:59 PM (ET) Monday night and 11:59 PM (ET) Tuesday night. Players who are waived under these conditions will be available for pickup during the next scheduled FA auction. This is to ensure that all Owners have at least 24 hours notice to consider and bid on any FA before bidding is closed. In addition, any Player waived by a Team after the Week 12 Trade/Steal Deadline (see section IX.A.4.b for details) will not be available to be picked up via FA until after the season is over. This is to done to prevent any late season roster moves by Teams out of the running for the playoffs from affecting the rosters of playoff bound Teams.

A Conditional Release Player must be named on the bid request if the bidding Owner’s roster does not have an empty roster spot for the Player to be acquired. The Conditional Release player will be the player waived by the Owner to make room in the event his bid for the Player is successful. If a Conditional Release Player is not included on the bid and the bidding Owner’s team is at the full 28 man roster limit at the time the auction results are finalized, that bid will become null and void and the Player will not be awarded to the Owner in question.

A Conditional Bid may be named on a bid request if the bidding Owner wishes. This Conditional Bid should list an additional Player or Players in order of preference to bid on along with a fixed M$ amount to bid on each named Player, a specific condition that will trigger the additional bid, and a Conditional Release Player for each Player that an Owner bids on which would put him over the Roster Limit if he won the auction.

Kicker X - 1 MB

COMMENT BOX:
“Bid M$1 on the following kickers in this order until one bid is successful:
(1st)Kicker X, (2nd)Kicker Y, (3rd)Kicker Z
If a bid is successful, drop Player V from my roster to make room for the new kicker.”
------------------------------------------------------------------
Kicker Y - 1 MB

COMMENT BOX:
“Bid M$1 on the following kickers in this order until one bid is successful:
(1st)Kicker X, (2nd)Kicker Y, (3rd)Kicker Z
If a bid is successful, drop Player V from my roster to make room for the new kicker.”  
------------------------------------------------------------------
Kicker Z - 1 MB

COMMENT BOX:
“Bid M$1 on the following kickers in this order until one bid is successful:
(1st)Kicker X, (2nd)Kicker Y, (3rd)Kicker Z
If a bid is successful, drop Player V from my roster to make room for the new kicker.”

Player Y - 4 MB

COMMENT BOX:
“Bid M$4 on Player Y, but if I don't get him then bid M$2 on Player Z. I will drop Player F to make room if I win either of these bids.”  
------------------------------------------------------------------
Player Z - 2 MB

COMMENT BOX:
“Bid M$4 on Player Y, but if I don't get him then bid M$2 on Player Z. I will drop Player F to make room if I win either of these bids.”   

FA Blind Auctions will be held through Week 13 of the season. No Free Agent auctions will be held during the League Playoffs or during the Syndicate Shootout. Weekly FA auctions will resume according to the schedule set down in Section X, subsection E, “Offseason FA Blind Auction”.

C.    Waiving Players

A Player may be waived from an LHL team’s roster at any time. In order to waive a player, the Owner wishing to waive the player will contact the League Commissioner via the method approved for FA transaction communications by the Commissioner and clearly identifies the Player or Players he wishes to waive. The waived player or players immediately become Free Agents and are removed from the roster of the waiving LHL team.

An Owner who waives a Player irrevocably renounces all rights to that Player. Once a Player is waived he immediately becomes a Free Agent with no ties to the former Owner and no contract to be assumed by any Owner wishing to acquire the waived Player. The waiving Owner will still be responsible for some or all of the waived player’s contract for up to a year after waiving the Player. (See subsection 3 below, “Waivers and Contracts” for more detailed information on the number of contract years which remain payable after a Player is waived.) However, an Owner is not prevented from re-acquiring the waived Player at any later date through Free Agency, RFA, or via a trade.

Waiving a Player in most cases will not immediately alleviate the burden of that Player’s existing contract with a Team. The following contract rules will be applied when a Team waives a Player:

These penalties apply only to the Team that waived the Player under contract. The Player in question may be acquired by another Team via FA with no contract penalty. In addition, the Player in question may be re-acquired by the Team that formerly released him and had to pay a contract penalty to do so; however, the penalty will still be enforced and will count against the Team’s contract cap in addition to the Player’s new contract.

Any Owner who successfully acquires a player via trade, the weekly blind FA auctions, or the offseason RFA auctions shall be required to post "smack" about each player acquired of not less than 25 words on the league message board before that player will be officially added to the new Owner's roster. Said "smack" may include reasoning why the player was acquired, affirmations of the quality of said player's skills, or derogatory comment about other Owners based on their failure to acquire the player in question beforehand.

If an owner makes a mistake with a player move on the MFL site, the respective owner has  a one hour grace period to undo your mistake. To undo your error, you must post on the boards that you have made an accidental incorrect pickup and have corrected your mistake. If you do not catch your mistake within one hour and you do not post your error report, then your move becomes official and you can't back out of it. Just to be clear both the correction on the MFL site and the post to the forum here must be made within one hour of the time stamp of the original incorrect waiver transaction, or else the move becomes official. Only errors with the MFL site are able to be undone.

A.    Megabucks

Megabucks (M$) are the official currency of the Pigskin Syndicate. At the inception of the League, each Team shall be allocated M$100. Any amount not used during the season to bid on Free Agents is carried over to the next season. On February 1st, each Team is awarded additional M$ based on the previous year's finish. The allocation is as follows:

B.    Contracts

Players acquired either through the Draft or Free Agency must be signed to a Contract prior to being named to the starting lineup or as an Overtime Player for an LHL Team. This Contract will be the number of years a Player is committed to that Team. Each Team has a Contract Cap of 80 years. Contracts expire at 11:59 PM (ET) on the last day of February of each year.

Players acquired either through the Draft or Free Agency must be signed to a Contract prior to being named to the starting lineup or as an Overtime Player for an LHL Team. Contract signings of all players acquired in the offseason -- whether gained through the Rookie Draft, Free Agency, or Restricted Free Agency -- must be announced by each Team by 11:59 PM (ET) on Cutdown Day, the Wednesday preceding the opening day of the NFL Regular Season. Free Agents acquired through the blind auction during the season must be either signed to a contract prior to the next lineup due deadline or released.

Contract years are non-transferable, and so they may not be traded. 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 80 total years for all players.

A Player currently signed to a contract may be signed to a Contract extension at any time prior to the expiration of his current contract so long as the Owner in question has room available under the Contract Cap. However, in order to more evenly equate the cost of extensions with their value to a team, extended contract years will cost more than original contract years and the additional cost will increase for each additional extension added to a Player’s contract. The cost for contract extensions will be:

Extension years are amortized at the same rate that they are applied. So on the contract expiration date (one minute before March 1st each year), all original contracts on an Owner's roster would be reduced by 1 year; all contracts that have been extended once would be reduced by 2.5 years; all contracts that have been extended twice would be reduced by 5 years; all contracts that have been extended three times would be reduced by 10 years; and all contracts that have been extended four or more times would be reduced by 20 years.

When dealing with the cost of contract extensions, decimals are not discarded but are additive and included in the cap. In addition, Owners who sign players to contract extensions must pay for the extensions at the same time as the last year of the contract.

LHL Owner X has 28 players, all of them under their original contract at a total cap figure of 60 years. He wants to extend the original contract of Players Y and Z who are in the final year of their original contract, for three years each. When he signs Players Y and Z to an extension, his new cap figure for the current year would be:

If he decided instead to only extend one of the Players' original contracts by 3 years, the new cap figure would be:

If either of the extended Players were traded, he would carry this contract with him, as well as the extra years against the Contract Cap.

Assume that Owner X decided that he wanted to keep both Players so he signed both of them to 3 year extensions as shown in the first example above. A full breakdown of the contract cost of each of these players would be:

So after the contract expiration date on the last day of February, the Players’ cap cost would be 7.5 years each.

C.    Restricted Free Agents

Any players currently on a LHL team roster will have their existing contracts reduced by one year on March 1; if a Player's contract expires (drops to zero years), the Player is considered a Restricted Free Agent (RFA). Such a Player may have his Contract extended up until the final day of February; if it is not, the Player becomes an RFA. RFA bidding begins March 1 and closes March 21. No new bids will be accepted after March 21; bidding in process may continue beyond March 21 until a final offer is reached for a player. No regular Free Agent acquisitions will be allowed during the month of March.

All bids are made to the entire league and each bid must include the following: your team name, player name, current LHL team, and the amount bid. A matching bid by a current owner is sufficient to beat an incoming bid for any player. Once a bid is posted for a player, that auction will not close for seven (7) full business days. This period of time is known as the “hold-open period”. At the end of the hold-open period, a responding bid must have been made in the prior two (2) full business days, either by the player's current team or another. Otherwise, the auction is closed and the player awarded to the highest bidder. Following the close of the hold-open period, once a bid is posted and no counter-offer is made within a 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 at 11:59 PM (ET) the day of the last bid. Weekends will be considered an extension of Friday. Owners may drop out of the bidding process for any player at any time and still re-enter the process as long as bidding remains active for the player in question. Any Owner may join the bidding process for any player within two (2) full business days of the latest bid. Once the deadline passes for new RFA bids on March 21, the required response time is reduced from two (2) business days to one (1).

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 M$ total. Contracts do not have to be announced at this time. At the end of the RFA signing period, any remaining RFAs on a team's roster (players who did not receive a bid) can be retained at no cost or waived outright. All teams must announce their intentions regarding such players by March 31, 11:59 PM (ET). Any RFAs remaining on a Team's roster on April 1 that an Owner has not specified that he wants to keep on his roster will be released to enter the general free agent pool.

Rosters will have no player limit throughout this process.

Any bids posted while the 48 hour response deadline is in effect will maintain their 48 hour deadline; any bids posted after that deadline has passed will be 24 hour deadline bids.

A matching bid from an Owner does restart the bid response deadline countdown.

All matches by Owners with matching rights for a player must be made in the course of the regular auction -- there will not be a "second chance" to match after the auction closes.

 

Bid Retractions:

There is absolutely no bid retractions on RFA and UFA players. However, there is bid retractions on the in season blind bidding process. The bidding owner must have enough Megabucks available to cover all outstanding bids.

Overbid Auctions:

In the event of an overbid on an in-season free agent bid, then that bid will simply be discarded. If there are other bidders then the next highest bidder will be awarded the player. If there are no other bidders the player simply remains unsigned.

If any owner outbids his budget at any time during RFA or UFA, the auction will be suspended for 48 hours. The next highest bidder will have the option during that 48 hour period to determine if they wish their bid to stand. If so then the bidding will restart at the end of the 48 hour hold open period. The clock will start at that time as if the last bid had occurred at that point. If the next highest bidder no longer wishes to acquire the player then at the end of the 48 hour hold open period then the auction will be reset to zero as if no bids had been placed and the auction will start over from scratch. If the next highest bidder does not state their intentions within the 48 hour hold open period then the auction will restart at zero. The over bidder will not be permitted to bid again on this auction in either case.

In the event that an over bid occurs the following punishment will be assessed on the overbidder:

1. Half the amount of the over bid rounded up with a maximum penalty of 5 MB. (i.e. if the overbid was 7 MB then the penalty would be 4, if it were 18 then the penalty would just be 5 since that's the maximum penalty.)

2. If the owner does not have sufficient MB's to pay the penalty, then they will be penalized a 4th round draft pick in the following rookie draft. If the owner does not own a 4th round, then they will be penalized a 3rd rounder, etc. through a 1st tround pick. If they own multiple picks in the round then the owner may select which pick they will surrender.

3. If the owner has no eligible draft picks then they will be penalized 3 cap years from the current years cap.

D.    Compensation for lost restricted free agents

Restricted Free agents that are signed by other teams may result in an extra draft pick being awarded to the former team as compensation. Owners will be awarded a "sandwich" pick (ie., a draft pick that is sandwiched between rounds, so a 1st round sandwich pick would be inserted into the space between the 1st and 2nd rounds; a 2nd round sandwich pick would be inserted between the 2nd and 3rd rounds, and so forth. A 5th round sandwich pick would just be added to the draft after the 5th round.) which will be determined by how well the player performed in the previous year. The compensation tables are weighted by position to reflect the relative value of these positions on the LHL roster. The rankings will be based on the totals for the full NFL season. The proposed schedule is as follows:

QB:
Ranked 1-3 -- 1st round pick
Ranked 4-7 -- 2nd round pick
Ranked 8-12 -- 3rd round pick
Ranked 13-18 -- 4th round pick
Ranked 19-25 -- 5th round pick

RB:
Ranked 1-5 -- 1st round pick
Ranked 6-10 -- 2nd round pick
Ranked 11-15 -- 3rd round pick
Ranked 16-20 -- 4th round pick
Ranked 21-30 -- 5th round pick

WR:
Ranked 1-2 -- 1st round pick
Ranked 3-5 -- 2nd round pick
Ranked 6-10 -- 3rd round pick
Ranked 11-20 -- 4th round pick
Ranked 21-30 -- 5th round pick

PK:
Ranked 1 -- 3rd round pick
Ranked 2 -- 4th round pick
Ranked 3-5 -- 5th round pick

LB:
Ranked 1-2 -- 1st round pick
Ranked 3-5 -- 2nd round pick
Ranked 6-10 -- 3rd round pick
Ranked 11-20 -- 4th round pick
Ranked 21-30 -- 5th round pick

DL & DB:
Ranked 1 -- 1st round pick
Ranked 2-3 -- 2nd round pick
Ranked 4-8 -- 3rd round pick
Ranked 9-14 -- 4th round pick
Ranked 15-20 -- 5th round pick

 

E.    Rookie Draft

The LHL Rookie Draft is tentatively scheduled to begin on July 1st of every year. The Draft will consist of 5 rounds. The worst Team from the previous year will pick 1st and the League Champion will pick last in each round. The only players eligible for the Rookie Draft and Supplemental Draft are players who were eligible for selection in that season’s NFL drafts. The method of drafting and communicating will be the same as the initial Draft.

The following basic rules will govern the rookie draft:

-- 24 hour time limit between picks;
-- The time limit is frozen for the weekend (12:00:00 PM Saturday to 12:00:00 PM Sunday);
-- Trading is allowed;
-- Players elligible to be chosen include all players who were chosen in the most recent NFL draft and those who have been/are eligible to be picked up as undrafted free agents since then.

 
Trades During Draft
Trades before or during the Draft are allowed and, indeed, encouraged! Trades are subject to the same rules and regulations as during the regular season.

Time Limits
Each pick shall have a time limit of 24 hours from time of the post of the previous pick. If the pick is not made in 24 hours, the pick is bumped to the end of the Round. If the pick is already the last pick of the Round, it will be bumped to the end of the next Round, and so forth. Although 24 hours is the maximum, all Owners are encouraged to check the Board often, and make each of their picks as quickly as possible.

Weekend Picks
Weekends will be considered an extension of Friday, so time limits on selections will not expire on Saturday or Sunday. The time clock will be frozen at 11:59:59 PM on Friday and will thaw and restart at 12:01:01 AM Monday.

Available Players
The only players eligible for selection in the Rookie Draft are players who were eligible for selection in that season’s NFL draft.

Information Requirements
An Owner wishing to draft a Player or generate a draft list for use by a designated proxy must provide the following information at the time of the selection (in the case of a draft choice) or include it on the list (in the case of creating a prioritized draft list):
Player’s full name, Player’s NFL team, and Player’s intended LHL roster position.

Pick Violations
Double Picks
If an Owner submits a double pick by attempting to draft a Player who has already been drafted, the procedure shall be as follows:
a)Draft Continuance
The draft will continue as normal until the double pick is noticed.
Owners are free to continue making selections normally until notification of the double-pick is made in the draft thread. Such picks are *not* considered as "Picking Out of Turn" (see SubSection 2 below).
b)Double Pick Announcement
When the double pick is noticed by the Owner making the double pick, another League Owner, or the League Commissioner, the noticing person shall post a message on the round thread declaring a double-pick. In addition, the noticing person shall notify the League Commissioner by any method available and the Owner placing the double-pick by e-mail that a double pick has been made.
c)Draft Board
It is the League Commissioner's responsibility to verify that each selection is unique when he updates the draft board at the top of each round thread, so in any case, the notification of the double-pick will be made fairly quickly.
d)Draft Suspension
When the notification of the double-pick is made on the draft board, the draft is officially suspended until the double-pick is resolved. All picks made up through this point except for the double-pick will be recorded as official.
e)Double Pick Notification
When the League Commissioner receives notification of the double pick by any of the following methods -- post to the draft thread, e-mail, Instant Messenger, phone, or text message, he will e-mail the double-picking Owner to officially notify the Owner that he has made a double pick.
f)Repick Procedure
The Owner who made the double-pick will have one hour to make an alternate selection from the players available at that time. The hour will be measured from the time the League Commissioner sends the e-mail message notifying the Owner that a double pick has been made. The repack should be posted to the current draft thread on the message board.
g)Time Limit
If an owner has not responded within the allotted hour, the Commissioner will move the selection that contained the double-pick to the bottom of the current round. If this selection is already at the end of the round, the selection will be moved to the end of the next round.
h)24 Hour Limit
If the double-pick is noticed before another selection is made, the original 24-hour clock has precedence over the repick procedure laid out in this rule. This is done to prevent owners from intentionally double-picking then declaring the double-pick in order to get an additional hour to complete their selection.

Out-Of-Turn Picks
a)Procedure With No Subsequent Picks
If an Owner picks out of turn by making a selection prior to his official pick in the current round and no other Owner has subsequently selected a player, this pick is declared null and void and the draft will continue normally.
b)Procedure With Subsequent Picks
If another Owner or multiple Owners make a selection after an Owner has picked early, the draft will be rolled back to the point that the early selection was made so that those Owners may re-pick the player chosen early if they wish.
c)Second Offense Penalty
If an Owner picks out of turn for a second or subsequent time in the same draft, the early-picking Owner's most current pick will be moved to the bottom of that round. This is to prevent Owners from intentionally picking out of turn in order to manipulate the selection order by emphasizing or de-emphasizing the availability of certain players in the draft.

 

F.    Unrestricted Free Agent Auction

Seven days after the close of RFA, the offseason UFA auction will open for business. The UFA auction will continue without interruption through the remainder of the offseason until Cuts and Contracts Day. The rules of the UFA auction will be the same as the rules of the RFA auction (see Section X, Subsection C “Restricted Free Agents” above) with two exceptions:

G.    Taunting Rule

Any Owner who successfully acquires a player via trade, the weekly blind FA auctions, or the offseason RFA auctions shall be required to post "smack" about each player acquired of not less than 25 words on the league message board before that player will be officially added to the new Owner's roster. Said "smack" may include reasoning why the player was acquired, affirmations of the quality of said player's skills, or derogatory comment about other Owners based on their failure to acquire the player in question beforehand.

 

G.    Auction Overbidding

If an overbid of an auction (RFA or UFA) occurs, the auction will be suspended for 48 hours. The next highest bidder will have the option during that 48 hour period to determine if they wish their bid to stand. If so then the bidding will restart at the end of the 48 hour hold open period. The clock will start at that time as if the last bid had occurred at that point. If the next highest bidder no longer wishes to acquire the player then at the end of the 48 hour hold open period then the auction will be reset to zero as if no bids had been placed and the auction will start over from scratch. If the next highest bidder does not state their intentions within the 48 hour hold open period then the auction will restart at zero. The over bidder will not be permitted to bid again on this auction in either case.

In the event of an overbid on an in-season free agent bid, then that bid will simply be discarded. If there are other bidders then the next highest bidder will be awarded the player. If there are no other bidders the player simply remains unsigned.

 

In the event that an over bid occurs the following punishment will be assessed on the overbidder:

1. Half the amount of the over bid rounded up with a maximum penalty of 5 MB. (i.e. if the overbid was 7 MB then the penalty would be 4, if it were 18 then the penalty would just be 5 since that's the maximum penalty.)

2. If the owner does not have sufficient MB's to pay the penalty, then they will be penalized a 4th round draft pick in the following rookie draft. If the owner does not own a 4th round, then they will be penalized a 3rd rounder, etc. through a 1st tround pick. If they own multiple picks in the round then the owner may select which pick they will surrender.

3. If the owner has no eligible draft picks then they will be penalized 3 cap years from the current years cap.

H.    Roster Cut-Down Dates

A.    League Commissioners (Purple Raider, and SuperGar as Vice-Commish)

Each of the two Leagues in the Syndicate shall be run by a Commissioner. The Commissioner’s role is essentially that of an executive officer who will provide leadership and conflict resolution while ensuring that the league runs smoothly. Each Commissioner is sworn to act in the Best Interests of the League and Syndicate at all times. The post of League Commissioner is voluntary and is a long-term appointment; once appointed, Commissioners may serve until they step down voluntarily, leave the Syndicate, or are removed (see Section XIV, “Extraordinary Situations”). The Commissioner of each league is vested with the following powers:

Commissioner Powers:

The Commissioner of each league is also vested with the following responsibilities:

Commissioner Responsibilities:

B.    League Executive Committee

Each of the two Leagues in the Syndicate shall have an Executive Committee (XC) comprised of three owners from the League. The League Commissioner is ineligible to serve on the XC. The XC members will initially be determined by appointment of the League Commissioner. Appointments to the XC are long-term; once appointed to the XC, members may serve until they step down voluntarily, leave the Syndicate, or are removed (see Section XIV, “Extraordinary Situations”). The XC has the following powers and responsibilities:

C.    Membership Committee

Each of the two Leagues in the Syndicate shall have a Membership Committee (MC) comprised of three owners from the League. The League Commissioner is ineligible to serve on the MC. The MC members will initially be determined by appointment of the League Commissioner. Appointments to the MC are long-term; once appointed to the MC, members may serve until they step down voluntarily, leave the Syndicate, or are removed (see Section XIV, “Extraordinary Situations”). The MC has the following powers and responsibilities:

D.    Committee of the Whole League

The entire membership of Owners in each respective League shall be members of that League’s Committee of the Whole League (CWL). The CWL has the right to veto any decision made by the Executive Committee with a ¾ majority vote (with at least ¾ of the Owners voting). In addition, the CWL must ratify any proposed League rule change with a ¾ majority vote (with at least ¾ of the Owners voting). Each member of the CWL will be charged with the responsibility of acting in the Best Interests of the League.

E.    Syndicate Council

Two representatives from each League shall act as the Syndicate Council (SC). The League Commissioners are ineligible to serve on the Syndicate Council. The Syndicate Council representatives from each league will be determined by the appointment of that League’s XC. Appointments to the SC are long-term; once appointed to the SC, members may serve until they step down voluntarily, leave the Syndicate, or are removed (see Section XIV, “Extraordinary Situations”). The SC has the following powers and responsibilities:

F.    Committee of the Whole Syndicate

The entire membership of Owners in both leagues shall be members of the Committee of the Whole Syndicate (CWS). The CWS has the right to veto any decision made by the Syndicate Council with a ¾ majority vote (with at least ¾ of the Owners voting). In addition, the CWS must ratify any proposed Syndicate rule change with a ¾ majority vote (with at least ¾ of the Owners voting). Each member of the CWS will be charged with the responsibility of acting in the Best Interests of the Syndicate. The CWS has the right to veto any decision made by the Syndicate Council with a ¾ majority vote (with at least ¾ of the Owners voting). In addition, the CWS must ratify any proposed Syndicate rule change with a ¾ majority vote (with at least ¾ of the Owners voting). Each member of the CWS will be charged with the responsibility of acting in the Best Interests of the Syndicate.

G.    Voting Procedure

If the Committee of the Whole League (CWL) or Committee of the Whole Syndicate (CWS) is required to vote on an item such as a proposed new rule or the removal of an Owner, the vote will be carried out in the following manner:

A.    Participation

Participation is the lifeblood of a fantasy football league; more than fresh FAs, more than rivalries, even more than stats. If there is no sense of community going on between owners -- no trade talk, no trash talk, no football talk -- there will shortly be no Syndicate because there will be no fun. So Owners are actively encouraged to go out there and start a new rivalry or talk up some trade bait, not only for their own enjoyment, but also for the good of the Syndicate.

B.    Preparedness

It goes without saying that preparedness is the key to long term success in a fantasy league. Owners who come to the draft prepared, keep abreast of the free-agent market, and do their homework when it comes to researching players, coaches, and NFL rosters have the success from year to year that makes them the teams that everybody else is gunning for. On the other hand, nobody wants to play week to week with a roster full of scrubs. So Owners are actively encouraged to stay on top of NFL happenings and read the fantasy football message boards in March, not only for their own enjoyment, but also for the good of the Syndicate.

C.    Communication

Perhaps the most overlooked facet of fantasy football is communication. Players and Commishes alike need to be timely, complete, and accurate with the information they provide to each other. Because in a virtual game like fantasy football, based on statistics and one level removed from reality, communication is the only way that everybody can share the construct that is collectively built. Chuck Noll always stressed to his players that they had to all “be on the same page” to be successful. So Owners (and Commissioners) are actively encouraged to overcommunicate rather than undercommunicate whenever possible, not only for their own benefit, but also for the good of the Syndicate.

D.    Competitiveness

Competitiveness is the keyword in fantasy football. What point is there to play if there is no weekly rush of adrenaline preceding the post-kickoff mad dash for the freshest possible game stats? Any type of collusion between owners, dumping players, or tanking games through intent or indifference fly in the face of what fantasy football is all about. A legendary EA Sports ad put it best -- “I’m better than you, and I can prove it.” So Owners are encouraged to defend their honor vigorously every time they field a team, not only for their own honor, but also for the good of the Syndicate.

E.    Sportsmanship(!?)

Sportsmanship, a much maligned value these days, helps make fantasy football a much more pleasant experience for everyone. True enough, the FF environment is dog-eat-dog competitive, as it should be, but sportsmanship is knowing where to draw the line. Every Owner has had the guy in one of his leagues who no one wants to trade with because he will try to peddle his injured players for your healthy ones. Then there is the guy who can’t stand to lose without whining about it. Similarly, there is the blowhard who may go 1 – 13, but the one Owner he manages to beat will never hear the end of it. Any FFer will tell you that it’s the loser’s privilege to cite the “could haves” and that the greatest benefit of winning a game is getting to rub it in. But Owners are encouraged to temper these natural inclinations every once in a while, so that by raising the bar a little they also raise the enjoyment level for all the Owners in the Syndicate.

It is the policy of the LHL that all Owners must be active Owners; that Owners should be expected to actively participate not only in the routine tasks associated with actively maintaining a fantasy football league team such as submitting lineups and participating in FA auctions, but also in league chatter and smack talk on the league forums, occasional participation in other spontaneous league contests and events as they arise from time to time, and obvious dedication to the league as a whole with the goal of enhancing the sense of community within the ownership ranks of the LHL.

The LHL prides itself as an elite fantasy football league and, as such, will seek to continually improve itself through the rigorous enforcement of these ownership requirements through the means set forth below.

If, during the course of the season, an Owner has not sent in a lineup for three consecutive weeks without notifying the League Commissioner beforehand, the Commissioner will officially notify the Membership Committee via e-mail that the Owner in question is in violation of the participation rules of the LHL. The Membership Committee shall convene and determine whether the process of removing the Owner from the League should be started. (See subsection F, “Removal & Replacement of Owner”, for details on this process.) Note that this is not the only reason an Owner may be brought before the Membership Committee; however, if this situation occurs, it is mandatory that the MC investigate the matter.

ONLY 1 APPEAL WILL BE ALLOWED PER SEASON. NO EXCEPTIONS. Once an Owner has appealed 1 decision, all further Commissioner decisions involving that Owner will be final with no appeal possible. Appealing the decision of the Commissioner is a very serious action and is expected to be a rare occurrence. The process for appeal is as follows:

ONLY 1 APPEAL WILL BE ALLOWED PER SEASON. NO EXCEPTIONS. Once an Owner has appealed 1 decision, all further Syndicate decisions involving that Owner will be final with no appeal possible. Appealing the decision of the Syndicate is a very serious action and is expected to be a rare occurrence. The process for appeal is as follows:

Amendments to the Rulebook are allowed in the off season only; they can NEVER be made during a season. By definition, the season begins once the League Commissioner accepts the first selection of the annual player draft. Amendments to the Rulebook will follow this path:

As stated above, amendments to the Rulebook are allowed in the off season only; they can NEVER be made during a season. By definition, the Syndicate season begins once either League Commissioner accepts the first selection in either League’s annual player draft. Amendments to the Rulebook for Syndicate issues will follow this path:

This is an extremely serious consideration, one which the league will seek to avoid at all costs. If it arises, this path will be followed:

This is also an extremely serious situation. If it arises, this path will be followed:

If an XC member is determined not to be upholding the best interests of the League, this path will be followed:

If an SC member is determined not to be upholding the best interests of the Syndicate, this path will be followed:

This concludes the official Rulebook of the Pigskin Syndicate. Credits go to the following individuals for their contributions to the Syndicate:

Thanks, everyone -- see you on the gridiron!