Playing Fantasy Football is a lot of fun and can be, in some cases, incredibly addictive. However, I’ve been in some leagues where the rules of play were either so confusing that as an owner you didn’t know how to follow them or the rules were just a lack there of. I currently run/organize a salary capped keepers league and wanted to give those who were interested in starting one a set of guidelines and rules we use in our league. Please use this article to help you create a fun and entertaining league. This league is set-up using Sportsline, however, these rules can be tailored for the many other Fantasy Football sites and Fantasy League formats. Enjoy!

Rules and Regulations 20xx-20xx
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How to Set Up Fantasy Football Line-ups:

Line-ups can be set five minutes before each game. Once a player has played a game, that player cannot be removed from the active line-up until the end of that week’s games.

Each team’s line-up must have eight (8) active (“A”) players (one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end or wide receiver (Flex Position), one kicker, and one defense), and six reserve (“R”) players, and may have two injured reserve (“IR”) players.

The IRs MUST BE INJURED. The Commissioner will check rosters daily to avoid misuse of the IR positions. If a player is not injured, the Commissioner will call or send an e-mail requesting the team owner to take this player out of the IR position. Two scenarios can happen at this time. The first is that the player may very well be injured and it hasn’t been updated by CBS Sportsline or ESPN (which will be the standard for injury reports) and the player will stay in the injured reserve spot. The second scenario is that the player isn’t injured and the team owner will be asked to remove that player from that position. If the player isn’t injured and the team owner doesn’t remove that player within 24 hours, the player will be placed back into free agency.

If there is a problem with setting line-ups, please don’t hesitate to contact the Commissioner; he will correct all fair requests.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football IR: Continued

This is probably the most talked about section for the entire league, hence requiring a continued explanation of how IR works.  The point of the IR is not to have two extra roster slots to keep and harbor extra players. If a player can play then the player needs to be on the active or reserve position. I also understand that sometimes these decisions of whether a player is playable on game day are not made until the last second before game time. Merely having an injured cross next to the player does not make them injured. For example, Tom Brady was listed as injured the whole year yet he played the entire season.

The rule is if it looks as if your player is truly not going to play in the upcoming game then you can put that player on the IR to make room to add another player through waivers to fill the gap. If that player ends up playing the game then that player needs to be put back into your active/reserve roster for the following week, in which your roster needs to be adjusted accordingly. This move needs to happen during the Wednesday/Thursday waiver process. I understand that this occurrence can happen in consecutive weeks, if it does, then you have to wait until that player doesn’t play a game to put him back on the IR or it is certain that the player is definitely not playing in the game.  I will not manually make this change myself.  The owner needs to use their one waiver pick on Friday.  However, I reserve the right to make changes for special circumstances/services that Sportsline does not provide.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football Waivers:

There will be no transaction fees.

You can add and drop up to three players on Thursday through Sportsline. Thursday is the day of execution. This means on Wednesday Sportsline will set the waiver order from weakest team to the strongest team. You can put your request for the players you would like to pick up prior to Wednesday. On Friday, you will be given one last chance to pick up one additional player. Saturday is the day of execution. All players, even the dropped ones, are available for pick-up. If there is a Thursday game, the player you picked up Friday/Saturday will not be able to play that week if on the team that played Thursday. If you have an empty roster spot and everyone has drafted, please contact me or the Co-Comish and we will manually get you the player you need to fill that empty position.  However, every attempt should be made by the owner in-case the Comish /Co-Comish is not available.  In other words, DO NOT RELY ON US!

How to Set Up Fantasy Football Trades:

There can be an unlimited amount of trades until the trade deadline. The trading deadline is 14 November; however, the Commissioner reserves the right to change this date. Team owners will be notified of changes.

Trades can be voided by a vote of league owners. It will take six objections to void a trade. Owners have two days to make their decision if they want to deny or accept the trade; after that it is a legal trade. However, if trade vetos are done out of spite and not out of fair, objective, and logical review, then the Commissioner has the right to overrule trade disputes.

Refer to “Special Rules of the Keeper League” below for additional rules involving trades and drafts.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football Playoffs:

The playoffs will start on week 14. It is a three-tier playoff with the winner of each division getting the first round bye. Players 3-6 will play one another based on their power rating. This rating can be found under the “Standings” tab. If there is a tie for the first round bye, the team with the best divisional record will take the bye with the other team taking the next playoff spot. If there is still a tie, the team with the most points scored for the season will take the bye. The same rules will apply for other playoff spots.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football Winnings:

Each owner must pay $50 to “buy in” to the league each year. The fee must be paid to the Commissioner on or before draft night. When all entry fees are paid, the total is $500. Fees for running this league through CBS Sportsline is $150, leaving $350 to be distributed amongst the winners. Distribution of winnings are:

First place: $275
Second place: $50
Third place: $25

The top prize may change depending on the cost of awards. The award for the winner will be a plaque that will have the names of all the winners of past years. The year’s Championship winner gets to keep the plaque for the year as long as he remains in the league.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football Special Rules of the Keeper League:

Team owners MUST keep either three, four or five players from their previous season’s roster. All other players will be released to the free agency and will be available for draft on draft day. Owners keeping three (3) players will draft beginning in Round 4. Players keeping four (4) players will enter the draft in Round 5. Owners keeping five (5) players will enter the draft in Round 6. There are 14 rounds in the draft, with the first three being the retention of three required players.

Team owners cannot keep any player for more than three consecutive seasons. After maintaining a player for three years, that player MUST be released to the free agency to be eligible to be drafted by another owner. A year, as discussed in previous seasons, is a player who was on a team’s roster for the majority of weeks 1 through 8 of the Fantasy Football (FF) season.  If a player is on your end of year roster that player is listed as playing for your team for that Fantasy Football season.  A team season ends when that team can no longer play any regular or post season games.  The week 8 rule only applies for players that are in their third consecutive year and cannot be traded after week 8.  Those players on the same team in their third year of consecutive play after week eight are not eligible for trade and will be put into the waiver pool for next year.

Team owners may trade players to other owners prior to draft day, but not until the Commissioner opens the season for trades. This date will normally be approximately one week before draft day. The Commissioner will notify all team owners via e-mail. Additionally, team owners may include losing or gaining draft picks as part of the trade when trades occur prior to draft day.

This is a salary-capped league and draft, capped at 110 points/dollars. Owners must field a complete team roster under or equal to that value. It is the owner’s responsibility to ensure players are drafted who meet the team’s needs and salary cap requirements. Player values applying to the salary cap are listed at the end of these rules. Players not listed in the posted list hold a salary value of $1.  Player values are located on the League Home Page/Cover Story/Rankings.  Please refer to this list often because the player values change daily.  As we get closer to the draft date player values will be halted either the day before or the day of the draft.

It is understood that mistakes are sometimes made. If an owner over-drafts too early in the draft, the situation will be rectified by the Commissioner as soon and best as possible. However, most likely, owners will have to drop a player at the end of the draft to make available funds, then acquire appropriate players to complete the above roster and salary cap requirements.

To further help ease the salary cap, owner’s players that become placed on the IR roster will not count toward the salary cap. This rule will go in effect after the draft; owners must draft based on the current player values whether they be injured or healthy. This is a tedious process to maintain, and the Commissioner has enlisted the help of a Co-Commissioner. Therefore, when owners acquire a player off of waivers to replace a VALID injured player, the owner must notify the Commissioner.  In order to satisfy a deficiency with Sportsline’s Fantasy engine, injured player values will follow them to the IR but not go against your Salary Cap.  A max Salary Cap of 210 has been added to cover the IRs salaries.  Each owner still needs to maintain an active/reserve roster of 110, which means you will have to do the math of subtracting the salary of your IR players.  Don’t worry, I’ll be watching as well.  It is the owner’s responsibility to adjust players to satisfy the salary cap requirements and to notify the Commissioner.

Teams cannot score any points for the week if the team is over the salary cap.

Although some of these rules may sound harsh or unfair, this league is a money league in which a cash payout will be received by winning owners. If team owners have an objection, they should e-mail the Commissioner, who will then post it for a league vote (if applicable) or otherwise settle the objection.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football New Owners:

If a new owner is introduced to the league in replacement of one leaving that owner assumes all aspects of that team except for one item.  If the team the new owner takes over has players entering their third year of consecutive play those players will not go to the waiver pool until the following year.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football Revisions:

Unless major revisions are made before the first game of the season, further revisions of importance need to be voted on by the owners before they take effect.

This is just a sample of how the rules for a fantasy football league can be established. When creating a league, you can tailor the rules to fit your needs and desires. Be flexible when establishing the rules, but once established be firm and fair to create a great experience for all involved.

Do you have any tips or questions concerning fantasy football or any other fantasy sports team? We would like to hear from you, please feel free to submit a post.