League Bylaws

I. General Rules

1. There will be a player salary cap of $100.
2. There will be a minimum roster size of 14 and a maximum roster size of 16 after the auction.
3. During the regular season, if you are under or over our roster limit (14-16 players) OR over the $100 salary cap at the time a given week's games kicks off, be that Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, whatever, you will forfeit that week's game.
4. The league minimum salary, and therefore minimum bid will be $1.
5. Only players that have been drafted by an NFL team, or have signed a contract with an NFL team are eligible to be on a PRF team.
6. Each week's schedule consists of 6 head to head contests. Each team's schedule consists of 2 games vs. each division rival and 1 game vs. every other team in the league. This makes up a 14 game schedule.
7. Player trades may consist of any combination of players. All of the involved parties must approve the trade in the MFL system in order for it to be official. Trades are subject to review by the commissioner, but usually all trades made in good faith (i.e. no deception and not designed to circumvent the rules) will be approved. It is unlikely that lopsided trades will be disallowed.
8. Each team is responsible for verifying the validity of starting lineups and final scores in their own game.
9. The score of a given game is final come kickoff of the following Sunday's games. This means that any NFL stat adjustment before this can alter the outcome of a PRF game or score, but any NFL change after this cannot.

   II. Offseason Procedures

10. Rosters will be frozen following each season, to be unfrozen upon commencement of the NFL's college draft. Trades and other business can be discussed during this "off season," but nothing can become official until rosters are unfrozen.
11. Each team may keep any number of under-contract players from the previous year's roster to apply to the next year's 14-16 man total roster. These keepers will be turned in 3 days before Selection Day.
    1. Any players under contract who are dropped on cut-down day will be unrestricted free agents (UFAs) thereafter.
12. Between opening of trading (usually in April) and the keeper turn in date (aka cut-down day), you may have any number of players on your roster.
    1. You must cut down to 16 by keeper turn in.
    2. You may be over the salary cap between the opening of trading and cut-down day.
    3. Only trades are allowed between cut down day and the auction - you may not cut any players during that period.
13. During the offseason, you will have to decide which players whose contracts are up you want to try to keep.
    1. Any player you want to keep must be tendered an offer equal to or greater than their previous year's salary.
    2. These offers must be made by the keeper turn in date 3 days before the auction.
    3. All players who are made offers by their current teams will be restricted free agents (RFAs) for purposes of the auction.
14. All free agents that are not tendered offers will be UFAs and will be available in the auction starting at $1.

    III. Auction Procedures

15. Selection Day will take place each summer on the Saturday before Labor Day Weekend, and will consist of a player auction. You are strongly encouraged to attend. If attendance is impossible, other arrangements can be made.
16. Players will be put up to bid in the auction by owners.
17. The auction will consist of all RFAs and UFAs.
18. Any player acquired in either auction will receive a 3 year contract.
19. You will be allowed to pass on your turn to nominate 5 times during the auction.
20. The auction will be conducted poker-style, including the option to bid, pass, or fold each time your turn comes up for a given player.
    1. The bid option means you must commit at least $1 more to a player than the previous high bid.
    2. The pass option means you choose not to bid that time around, but may bid on a subsequent turn.
    3. The fold option means you do not want to bid on that or any subsequent turn.
21. All owners will have an opportunity to bid on other teams' RFAs during the auction, with the bidding starting at $1 more than the player's current salary. The original owner will have a chance to match the best offer and thus keep the player.
    1. Owners may put their own restricted players up for bid during the auction, with the price starting at the amount of the offer tendered before the auction.
22. During the auction, you are obligated to pay the salaries of any players you made offers to on cut down day. If at any point during the RFA auction, you make an offer on a player which would put your combined RFA/contract player salaries over $100, you will lose as many newly acquired players (meaning you got them in the auction) as it takes to get you back under the cap, starting with the highest priced one. They go into the UFA pool, but you can't bid on them in the auction. If they make it through the auction, you can't pick them up until week 3 of the season.
23. Trades may take place during the auction, however once bidding starts on a given player, he cannot be traded until bidding on that player is finished.
24. Come Selection Day, you cannot cut anyone until after the auction is completed.
    1. After the auction you must maintain a roster size between 14 and 16 players until the next offseason.
25. Good natured table-talk during the auction is part of the fun and is encouraged, but be mindful of not saying anything that would influence the competitive balance of the league and/or anger other owners. Repeated violations of this rule will result in some sort of sanction on your team. In short, don't say anything that is going to make someone else angry.

    
    IV. In-Season Procedures

26. Starting lineups must consist of 1 of the following:
    
    

    Pro-Set	Spread	Run & Shoot	Single Back	Full T	Double Tight	Ace
    QB	QB	QB	QB	QB	QB	QB
    RB	RB	RB	RB	RB	RB	RB
    RB	RB	WR	WR	RB	RB	WR
    WR	WR	WR	WR	RB	WR	WR
    WR	WR	WR	WR	WR	TE	TE
    TE	WR	WR	TE	TE	TE	TE
    K	K	K	K	K	K	K
    ST/D	ST/D	ST/D	ST/D	ST/D	ST/D	ST/D

    
    
27. Failure to submit starters will result in the previous week's players being started. You must submit by kickoff of that day's games.
28. You need only turn in the starters on your team that are actually playing that day.
    1. If you have a player who started the previous week and is playing on Thursday or Saturday (or Sunday or Monday, for that matter), you need to deactivate him if you don't want him starting for the current week.
29. Players not on anyone's team are free agents. There are 2 types of free agents:
    1. Restricted Free Agents (RFA): Players dropped during a given week will be restricted ("locked") until the following Thursday at 5AM, Eastern Time.
       1. Highest bidder gets the player. Put your best bid forward. That is, it is not allowed to "ladder" your bids to try to acquire players as cheaply as possible.
       2. In the result of a tie for the highest bid, the winner will be the team that submitted their bid earliest.
       Any players not claimed in this process become . . .
    2. Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA): Players who are not on anyone's team and/or were not "just dropped" (i.e. have passed through the above RFA waivers process).
       1. These players are restricted each week between kickoff on Sunday and Thursday at 5AM. During this time they are subject to the above RFA bidding process.
       2. After Thursday at 5AM each week, UFAs are available on a first come, first serve basis at a salary of $1.
30. All free agents acquired during the NFL season will be given a 1 year contract which expires in the following offseason.
31. The rights to NFL players who retire remain with the PRF team whose roster they were on when they retired. If a player decides to "un-retire," the PRF team who last had him has the option to make the player a restricted free agent.
    1. If the player comes back in the offseason, he will be an RFA in the auction, but bidding will start at $1.
    2. If a player comes back in-season, he will be available as a special RFA on a regular weekly free agent list. The original owner will have the opportunity to match the highest bid and keep the player. A player acquired in this manner will be awarded a 3 year contract, with that current season being year one.
    3. Retired players are ineligible to be on any roster as long as they remain retired.
32. The regular season trading deadline will be at 1:00PM ET on the Sunday of Week 11.
33. There will be a 1 week post-season trading window lasting from Sunday kickoff of the week 16 games until Sunday kickoff of the week 17 games.

    V. Scoring/Standings

34. Scoring is as follows:
    
    

    QB/RB/WR/TE Action Points TD Run/Reception 6 TD Pass 4 2 Pt. Conversion 2 Turnover -1

    Special Teams/Defense Action Points Sack 1 Interception 1 Fumble Recovery 1 Safety 1 Blocked Kick 1 Shutout 3 Any TD 6

    Kickers Action Points Field Goal < 50 yards 3 Field Goal > 49 yards 4 PAT 1

    
    

    QB Performance Yards Points 150 2 225 3 300 5 375 6 450 8 525 9 600 11...

    RB/WR/TE Performance Yards Points 50 2 75 3 100 5 125 6 150 7 175 8 200 10 225 11 250 12 275 13 300 15 ...

    
    

35. Division rankings are determined as follows:
    
    
    1. Overall win percentage
    2. Head to head record
    3. Division win percentage
    4. Total points for
    5. Coin flip
    
    
36. Ties within a game are broken by adding the scores of all bench players on each team. Highest total wins.
    1. If the bench totals are equal, the game is a tie.
    2. Homefield advantage is the tie breaker in the 1st round of the playoffs.

    
    VII. Post Season

37. The 3 division winners and a wildcard team will participate in the 2 championship playoff games in week 15.
    1. The wildcard team is the team with the best overall win percentage after the division winners. Ties for the wildcard spot will be broken as follows:
       1. If two or more teams are from the same division, apply the division tiebreaker (see rule 35) first to eliminate all but the highest ranked team from each division.
       2. Among teams from different divisions, apply the tiebreakers in rule 35 until a wildcard team is selected.
    2. The playoffs will be seeded (i.e. best overall team plays worst overall team, regardless of wildcard status). In case of a tie for seedings, ties will be broken similarly to rule 37.A.
    3. The winners of these games will play in the PRF championship, the Fantasy Bowl, in week 16.
38. The 3 teams that are last in each division and the next worst team will participate in the 2 Toilet Bowl playoff games. These will be seeded. The losers of these games will play in the Toilet Bowl.
39. The league will select an MVP and a Rookie of the Year each season.
40. Each division will have players chosen to participate in an all-star game, the Vomit Bowl. Selection is based on regular season scoring. The winning division gets nothing.
    1. NOTHING!
41. Prizes are awarded as follows:
    
    
    • Toilet Bowl loser: must bring a case of "good beer" to the following year's draft. Bottles are nice.
    • Division winners: $30 each
    • League runner-up: $30
    • League Champion: $55
    
    

    VI. Miscellaneous

42. Dues are $40 and are due by kickoff on opening day. If you have not paid your league dues by opening day, you will forfeit each game until you do so.
43. In the event that an owner drops out, his/her team will not be disbanded. Any new owner will inherit this team as is, including draft picks. This is somewhat analogous to a change of coach or ownership in the NFL.
44. All rules changes, additions, etc. that are to be voted on must be passed by 2/3 of the league (currently 8 votes). Existing rules can be discussed and possibly modified at any league meeting.
45. Although every effort has been made to present a complete rules summary, these rules are not exhaustive and are open to interpretation. The commissioner is the final arbiter of these rules and he/she/it can apply new or undocumented rules as warranted. Major rules changes will usually be subject to a league-wide vote.

Note: Recent rules additions or modifications are shown in orange.