Rules every fantasy league should consider having
In this thread over at our message board, several people — led by GregR — have collaboratively organized this list of considerations that every commissioner should address in the league rules. Note that this is not a list of specific rules. Rather, it’s a list of situations that require some sort of rule. In other words, this list doesn’t suggest whether “trade-backs” should or should not be legal in your league, whether there should or should not be a penalty for starting a player on bye week, whether a league vote should or should not be grounds to veto a trade, or anything else. It merely gives you a list of things that can be problematic if there is no rule in place.
If you’re a commissioner, you can save yourself a lot of headaches by addressing these issues before they happen. I’ve just listed the main points here, but the full thread, which contains examples and lots of good discussion, is worth checking out.
- For leagues with entry fees: League fees must be paid by X (days/weeks) prior to the draft.
- Fantasy games are final as of (the start of the following week of games / the following Friday / two weeks from… etc).
- Owners are responsible for verifying the scores and the legality of lineups of both their own team and their competition. Owners are responsible for notifying the commissioner/website of stat changes should they occur.
- The official source of stats for our league is (our website / NFL.com gambebooks / etc).
- For leagues with Def/ST units, a definition of what constitutes a Defense/Special Teams/regular offensive play. Make sure your rule accounts for changes of possession.
- What, if any, communications with the commish will be considered official in regards to the commish changing lineups, etc.
- Whether any transactions committed on the website by an owner are final. If you allow owners to “take back” a mistake, you need to detail exactly what the conditions are for them to take it back and what steps they must take as far as league notification.
- Trades offered on the website are considered valid offers until they are revoked or rejected. Owners are responsible for removing offers they have made. Due to the risk of a player asked for in a trade being injured, it is strongly recommended owners conduct negotiations outside the website and only use the website to consummate trades that are agreed to.
- Trades must be consummated on the website to be official. Agreement by any other medium is not binding. -OR- Trades may be consummated by email only by both parties separately indicating their acceptance of a trade, including exact parameters, by email to the commish/entire league. Once such acceptance by both parties is received the trade is final.
- A rule to handle confusion over players with the same name.
- There is a class of issues which depending on your league may or may not be considered acceptable behavior/sportsmanship. Be specific as to if they will be allowed or not. They include:
- Starting a player on bye week
- Tanking a game (such as to get a better playoff matchup. In some leagues situations can arise where an owner may have a better chance at making the playoffs himself by losing which changes division and wildcard tiebreaks to ones he can win.)
- Making trades that result in worsening your team in order to stock another team who plays a rival you want/need to lose.
- Firesales (in keeper/dynasty leagues)
- Using waivers to make a trade after the trade deadline.
- “Loaning” players. (i.e. “I’ll trade you my backup defense, but you have to give it back after your bye week.”).
- Two-part trades. (”You give me LT this week and I’ll give you LJ next week,” or, “Here’s a 3 player for 3 player trade, but I don’t want to give you my RB until next week. Let’s trade the other 2 for 2 now and agree to swap the remaining players next week”)
- For leagues with voting to veto trades, what constitutes grounds for vetoing a trade.
- You should always have established and documented tie-breaking procedures, whether for games if you don’t allow ties, or for playoff spots. It should be clear how you handle multi-team ties (see following comments). And you should always end your tie-breakers with a method that will always work like a coin flip.
- A rule that has an imperative (you must do this or you must NOT do that) should have stated what consequence results from violating it.
- Your rules should detail the decision making structure (commish/league vote/etc).
- Your league rules should be in writing, and distributed to the league in advance.
- You should have a final source for determining what position a player is listed at. You also may wish to address whether a player’s position stays what it was at the draft, or changes as your official source changes.
- Money leagues: Future draft picks may only be traded for years which the owner has paid his league fees in advance.
- Money leagues: In the event of an owner leaving or being removed from the league, his entry fee shall be handled as follows.
- Provide clear guidance on the situation where an owner is not able to manage his team. It could be due to illness/hospitalization, family tragedy, etc.
- For leagues that lock players after they are dropped, what happens if a team picks up players and drops them just to deny them to other teams?
- Use examples in your rules whenever there is a chance that someone might not understand from just the text.
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