Words from your commish
SLUGA returns with minor changes, but under the same format of the past years.  SLUGA merges the scoring quality and league pluses of original format with the competitive edge and smack-talk opportunities that head-to-head formats give.  This is the sixth year of the current SLUGA format.  I play these leagues for fun first, love of football second, pride third, and other "advantages" last.  These rules are all-encompassing and possibly long-winded to make sure all issues have full clarity and are covered in depth so there are no disputes. Any advice, suggestions, or comments can always be e-mailed to me or posted on the message board.  Remember, this is your league, too. I believe that eight solid owners coming back year after year speaking volumes of this league's competitive spirit (and a word about the trustworthiness of the commish). Hope you enjoy and as always remember,

HAVE FUN!!!

Laddi
Your commish

The Draft
    Friday, August 24 at 7 PM in Athens.  There are NO EXCUSES why you and a friend should not be there! On-line drafting will also be possible.
    The draft format is serpentine and consists of 18 rounds:  17 to select your roster and then a final one to drop one player and add another.  Kind of like having a FA pick after the draft.  This year, there will be a time-limit on picks. The first 5 rounds, 30 seconds per pick. Rounds 6-10, 45 seconds per pick. Rounds 10-15, 60 seconds per pick. Rounds 16-17, 30 seconds per pick. You get one 15 second extension per 5-round bloc. If you miss your time, the next person can make a selection. The skipped owner can make a selection at any time, but cannot take a player picked by another owner after his/her time-limit had expired.

Draft order is determined by RTSports at the time of the draft.  Fees are due by or at the draft.  Time will be alloted to discuss changes and answer any questions before the draft begins. GET THERE ON TIME FOR Q&A TIME or call with questions before the draft any time.

EXPANSION DRAFT

    Should there be a reason to have an expansion draft, owners at the live draft will designate 4 players to become unprotected.  Two of these must be some combination of RB and/or WR.  This will be the case regardless of the number of new owners to be included in the expansion draft. Each new owners can only take one player per team. Additional compensation round(s) will be done via e-mail.

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Roster size and Starting lineups
    Each team will consist of 17 players with no individual position limits.  Even though your roster can be made up of any different combinations of positions, every owner MUST be able to turn in a starting lineup that consists of the following:

 1 Quarterback
 2 Running backs
 2 Wide Receivers
 1 Tight End
 1 Flex starter (Running back, Wide Receiver, or Tight End)
 1 Kicker
 1 Team Defense

All starting lineups can be modified online.  If you can't get to a computer or if rtsports is down, your lineup must be received through e-mail at least 2 hours before first kickoff or called in no later than 30 minutes prior to kickoff for the players being swapped. You must contact the commish AND your opponent(s).  If a STARTER is playing on a Thursday or Saturday, you must have your them in your lineup by the deadlines stated. If a player plays Thursday or Saturday and started the previous week, then they will remain active if the deadline has passed, even if a starter is injured. Though this should not be possible with the given web-engine, if for some reason an owner turns in a lineup including a player who has already played that week (e.g., adding a player on Sunday after he played a Thursday game) that player will not be added.  Persistent abuse of any here-to-fore unknown faults/bugs in rtsports will result in that owner being immediately removed from the league with no compensation.  The infracting owner's roster will be set to the best avg non-bye players that week and frozen for the year, excepting bye-weeks.  Bye week substitutes will be set that same week so there is no confusion/commotion later.

The Larry Centers Rule
    Any player playing multiple positions only qualifies for the position they are primarily listed in rtsports.com.  For example, RB LaDanian Tomlinson cannot be placed as starting as WR but will still earn any applicable receiving points.  Likewise, an individual defensive player lining up on offense cannot gain points for his defense for any action while on offense.

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Scoring
Visit our scoring page for complete scoring details.  The scoring details listed are the official scoring policy of SLUGA and supercede any mis-executions in rtsports. 

Scoring discrepencies should be reported within one week of the noted inconsistency.  Any changes noted after this time frame cannot not be used to change the outcome of a game, but the points will be added to the team's yearly total (i.e., you'll get the points, but not the win).  Any game results affected retroactively beyond the two-week timeframe will have the points deducted from the affected team by commissioner's edit during that week, and these points will be added in other week in which the points added would not affect the game's outcome.  In other words, if a correction if Week 5 affected a Week 1 outcome, the Week 1 team affected would have the points deducted (still getting a loss) and added to Week 2 (effectively adding them to total points) in such case that Week 2's final results would not change.

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The League and Seasons
The regular season format is head-to-head. League Playoffs occur with the NFL playoffs.
7-owner league format
No divisions and Team DUMMY will be added.  The season and playoffs will work like an 8-man format.  Team DUMMY will be drafted the week prior to NFL week 1 games and consist of non-injured, non-bye top 3-yr avg performers who of course were not drafted.  Each week, Team DUMMY's roster will be dropped Tuesday morning and re-chosen Fridays, selecting the best available (i.e., highest weekly-average) FAs who are not going on bye and not injured.  By the time DUMMY's team is selected, everyone should have their FA picks submitted.  Again, the Team DUMMY's players are released effective Tuesday for anyone to acquire during FA pickups.  Therefore, Team DUMMY does not have FA picks, per se, that effect any other team.
8-owner league format
No divisions.  The season will consist of two 8-week halfs.  Each team plays each other twice, and two other games according to this order: Week 15 - #1 in head-to-head results v #8 in head-to-head results, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5; Week 16 - 1 v 2, 3 v 4, 5 v 6, 7 v 8.  Each week is determined by the ranking coming in using the full-year win-loss ratio (YTD total points gets higher rank).  At the end of each half, the team with the best record during that half earns a playoff spot.  The team with the highest overall score that did not win a half will be a wildcard. (Three total playoff slots)
9-owner league format
"Three-headed monster" schedule.  Each team will be placed vs. two other owners each week.  The team with the best score in their triumvirate gets 2 pts. and second place gets 1 pt. If you have one of the top four scores that week, you get an additional point.  The season will be divided into two 8-week halfs.  The leader of that half at the end of each 8-week half moves to the playoffs.  The non-half-winning team with the highest overall FF points enters as a wildcard.  Rtsports.com does support this format. (Three total playoff slots)
10-owner league format
No divisions and the season will consist of two 8-week halfs.  Scheduling will be determined by using a divisional format, in which each team plays their division twice and the other division once.  Weeks 8, 15, and 16 will be determined by overall yearly ranking. Week 8 follows Week 16 format in an 8-man league schedule. At the end of each half, the winners advances to the playoffs.  There will be two total-points wildcards. (Four total playoff slots)
12-owner league format
Two divisions.  The season is divided into two 8-week halfs.  The teams with the best record in their division at the end of each half gets into the playoffs.  One wildcard will be determined by total points at the end of the season. (Five total playoff slots)

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Free Agents
    Any player not on a FFL team is considered a Free Agent (FA).
1) You get one (1) FA pickup option per week. Unused FA options will not be carried over to the next week.
2) FA Order is determined by the most recent week's game results. Losers get first priority according to their score that week: worst to best score order. Winners get final priority: worst to best score order, also.
3) Owners will set their FA Waiver Wire order in rtsports. See the FAQ for an explanation of how to do this. Waiver Wire order must be set by 11:50 PM Thursday.
4) If you do not set your FA Waiver Wire by the deadline, you can still acquire a FA by calling the commish or by using the Drop/Add function on rtsports.
5) Dropped players cannot be picked up in the same week.
6) You can trade a FA option but ONLY if there is at least one non-FA player involved; and the owners involved states this in the trade comments.  Once the trade is approved, the FA pickup can be made with the current-week FA pickups as long as the FA-to-be-acquired's game has not started that week. The FA acquistion will be selected as normal during the week indicated or, if it's a current week selection but the FA's game has begun, will be processed manually by the commish the following Tuesday.  SO, if it's Week 4 and you trade Braylon Edwards and your Week 4 FA pick for Joe Horn, if the trade is not approved until Sunday night, you still get to acquire that Week 4 pick but it will be processed that Tuesday.
7) As with lineups, FA pickups for players you want to start that week and have an early game must be done by the time line used in rtsports prior to kickoff.
8) Week 12 is the last week for FA pickups.

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Trades
1)  All trades must be proposed AND approved by all owners involved by 11:59 PM Friday of each week to allow for a potential voting period.  If a player being traded and an owner wishes to start one of the players being traded for, the trade must be proposed and accepted by all parties at least 24 hours before kickoff.
2)  Trades will be approved by the commish as soon as possible unless it is questionable.
3)  If the commish determines the trade as questionable, the trade will then be put to a vote.
     a)  Voting will occur through the Message Board provided in rtsports by sending a private message to the Commish stating your vote.
     b)  A majority of owners not involved must veto for revocation to occur. 
     c)  Only owners not involved in the trade can vote.
     d)  Voting is to take place in a 36-hour time-frame.
     e)  A non-vote is to be considered a vote for trade approval.
4)  Trades involving the commissioner can be voted upon by e-mailing the commish requesting one.
     a)  On commish trades, it takes only one e-mail of request to initiate this process.
     b)  Voting will occur through the Message Board or via e-mail.  A private message should be sent to all voting parties stating your vote.
     c)  The final result will be posted on the Message Board.
     d)  All other rules are to be followed as stated in part 3 of this section.
5)  As long as item 1 was adhered to, any owner who plans to use a player being traded for but being voted upon or otherwise in commission pending status should follow the rules outlined in the Starting Lineups section of these rules and contact the commish and opponent(s) with BOTH a trade-approved lineup and a trade-vetoed lineup as the commish may not be able to excute a valid trade in time for starting lineups to be set.
6)  An owner who trades away a player cannot reacquire that player by means of trading with ANY owner.
7)  FA picks can be traded so long as it is packaged with another player.  (i.e., trading WR Isaac Bruce for the other guy's Week 8 FA is acceptable.)
8)  Trade deadline is during Week 11 according to rtsports.  This deadline includes trades involving FA pickups.

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Commissioner Corrections & Common-sense judgments
The Commish reserves the right to modify scores for any of the following reasons:
1)  A discrepancy.
2)  Adding the following player bonuses:  Kicker +5 Pat bonus; 200+ yardage scores
3)  Adding a BEST WEEK bonus.

Common-sense judgments (CSJs) are a special provisions to allow for competitive play despite oversights caused by using rtsports.com.  A CSJ is a correction to an owner's starting lineup in which the commissioner after the games have been played goes in a corrects what obviously should have occurred had rtsports allowed automatic starting of FA players in vacant positions.  Rtsports does not automatically start an acquired FA even if that player is the only available starter for that position.  This is why the rule was established.

CSJs generally occur when an ACQUISITION is made which causes a lack of a full lineup. 

This is common with TE, K, and D positions, but may occur at QB as well.  The idea is it is common sense the owner meant to start the player acquired because this acquisition is the ONLY possible starter for that week.  The reason for CSJs is to keep the league competitive without binding owners to their computers.  However, since the commish should not be bound either, only THREE (3) CSJs will be granted in a season.  Oversights and busy schedules happen.  They shouldn't dictate your wins-losses. 

Any corrections and CSJs will be announced to the whole league at the time of correction.  It is all owner's understanding that this by-law is in effect at all times and should take into consideration this rule when evaluating their team's matchup.  Don't cry to the commish if it looks like you would have won, but you know a CSJ will be claimed or enacted.

The rule of thumb is if the commish cannot clearly discern the intentions of the owner regarding a CSJ, then it's highly unlikely to be judged as a CSJ situation. Remember, CSJ can only be claimed in regard to a FA acquisition. If you forgot to change out your guy who was on bye with a backup who was already on your roster, that's a shame. You had all week to do it and should know your roster. There was no delay or void in your lineup caused by rtsports preventing you from switching your starters. You can always call the commish and your opponent to update your lineup if you can't get to a computer.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is each owners individual responsibility to double-check scores and information. Any discrepancies should be reported by the start of the following week's games.  No whining!

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Playoffs
    Playoffs will occur during the NFL playoffs. Participants are decided depending on the league format.  Playoff owners will redraft Wildcard 1 weekend.  If a team wins both halves, he can draft two teams.  Moreover, he can trade players BEFORE the first week of playoffs between his two teams.  This is his advantage for dominating the league in the regular season.  Once the first playoff game kicks off, he cannot trade any further.  No other team will be allowed to trade, and a person who has won both halves cannot trade with any teams outside of the two he drafted. All playoff redrafts are non-serpentine. Draft order is by total points. If an owner wins both halves but doesn't have the overall #1 points, then that owner will draft in the appropriate spot with both teams being represented by the total points. (i.e., Team 1 with 3000 points drafts first, Team 2 (who won both halves) at 2900 drafts second AND third, Team 3 with 2850 drafts fourth.) In Week 1, the top 2 players get two choices in the each of the first two rounds (pending rule: first round only for 12-owner leagues), then one choice all subsequent rounds. All others draft one player per round. This is the advantage for scoring well throughout the season.

After week 1 of the playoffs, the top two will redraft one more time for the Championship game. Each owner can keep up to three players from Week 1. Then each owner drafts. In round 1, the #1 owner drafts until his roster has three players, including keepers. Then #2 owner does the same. Then, the draft continues in a straight, non-serpentine format until a roster of 9 players has been drafted. Then the owners will draft 1 additional RB and 1 WR for tie-breaking. These two combined score will be the tie-breaker.

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Tiebreakers
Ties can occur in regular season matches.

FA Order Tie-breakers
- Worst record (season)
- Worst of Head-to-head
- Lowest total points (season)
- Lowest weekly score during the season
- Lowest points starting defense/HC combo that week

Playoff game tie-breakers:
- At the draft, each team will select one RB and one WR to be their tie-breakers. Both players playoff totals will be used.
- At the draft, each team will select a tiebreaker Defense (scoring is with win/loss)
- Weeks 1 and 2 Playoff total points
- Championship tie after the above will force a Super Bowl week head-to-head (no redraft)
- Total playoff points of regular season players on your regular season roster as of Week 16

Tie-breakers for entering playoffs as a half winner:
- Head-to-head record that half
- Overall points that half

For Wildcards & remaining tiebreakers for half winners (full season stats used):
- Total points
- Head-to-head record
- Head-to-head combined score
- Divisional record (12-owner league only)
- Highest Points Against
- Lowest PointsFor(minus)PointsAgainst result
- Coin toss

Tiebreakers used to settle three-way or more ties are used in order as shown above.  Once teams are determined to be eliminated on one level, only the remaining teams will move to the next tiebreaker until two remain, at which point those two will start back at the top of the tiebreaker order. In Head-to-head records comparisons, multiple head-to-head games will be reduced to a win, loss, or tie. Should the teams have split their games, then their h-2-h games would be counted as one tie in comparitive analysis with the other teams, not one win and one loss.  Should one team have a majority of wins, this will reflected as only one win for comparative analysis with other teams; and a majority are losses are one loss.

Example:

A v B -- A won game 1, B won game 2 = a tie A 0-0-1 B 0-0-1 C 0-0-0

B v C -- C won three games in three matchups = one win A 0-0-1 B 0-1-1 C 1-0-0

A v C -- A won once = one win A 1-0-1 B 0-1-1 C 1-1-0

Team B would be eliminated, and Team A would beat Team C by virtue of their head-to-head matchup. Had straight records been used the results would have shown Team C as having a better head-to-head record by virtue of being scheduled three times vs. Team B: A 2-1-0 B 1-2-0 C 3-1-0. Instead, by reducing matchups to 1 win/loss/tie a fairer comparison can be used.

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Other Items
Well, I hate to have to cover these types of items, and we SLUGA owners never had to address any of these, but I've played FF long enough to know you have to have these issues covered.  So here they are:

-  Collusion trades will be rescinded after a vote.  Persistent tries at collusion will be dealt with as a delinquent owner.

-  A Delinquent owner is any owner who persistently:
    - attempts to collude teams
    - throws games
    - manipulates/causes or abuses a failure or bug in rtsports otherwise unknown for wins
    - attempts to tarnish the integrity of the league
Any owner in cahoots with a delinquent owner may be considered a delinquent owner.  All owners are asked to report any unusual behavior regarding the league to the league commish immediately (including bugs in the rtsports system).  Any owner deemed a Delinquent owner will have his access to the league removed and the team considered abandoned (see "Abandoned teams").  All rights to have fees refunded and prizes earned will be forfeited.

-  Abandoned teams.  Should an owner formally withdraw or have his/her team removed for delinquency, this team is considered abandoned.
    Acquisition of an abandoned team -- Any abandoned team may be acquired by another person not already an owner up to the end of the NFL Week 12 Monday Night game.  Unless the team falls under the following cases, the team can be acquired at value.

An abandoned team who was a first-half winner forfeits that right. The runner-up of that half will earn a playoff spot. After Week 12 games, all abandoned teams are considered Dead Teams.

   Starting Lineups for abandoned teams -- All abandoned teams shall have their rosters fixed according its players best yearly averages at the time of abandonment.  This roster will be fixed for the WHOLE season, excluding bye weeks and barring injury.  Bye-week substitutes for each position shall be named at the time of lineup fixing, so there are no questions later.  These substitutes are permanent roster members for that team until the bye week passes. The remaining players will be dropped. IR players will be added as needed according to best FA available by weekly average according to rtsports.  Dropped players will be available via FA in the week AFTER the abandoned team's first game.  Once the team is not in need of a bye week player, the bye-week acquisition will be dropped for FA acquisition.  If the abandoned team should need an extra player to be acquired due to injury, he will be acquired via normal FA for that week for that position, according to the best weekly average FA available in that position at the time needed.  This IR-substitute player will be dropped each week after the games are played unless he is needed to be permenantly on the roster due to the injury of the normal starter, at which time the injured normal starter will be dropped.

 - Dead team in the playoffs. Should a dead team somehow have won a playoff spot, there will be several ways of handling this depending on circumstance.  If the dead team was a half-winner, then the second-place team will enter automatically.  If the dead team would have entered as a wildcard, then the wildcard runner-up shall assume this position.  If dead teams would have earned more than half the playoff spots, then all remaining owners will be refunded their fees.  A playoff of the best active owners will be played for the dead team owners' fees.  A half winner retains his right to play in the playoff. Any other spots are filled by total points, and the playoffs and playoff draft will be conducted as normally stated in the Season section of these rules07. Remember, dead teams are only teams that were not acquired by the Week 12 deadline.

-  Failure-to-update.  Failure-to-update is when an owner stops making moves for his/her team without officially withdrawing from the league.  This is the owner's prerogative.  There are MANY reasons teams fail to update their roster.  As long as they don't throw games by fielding an uncompetitive lineup, this is not under the commissioner's purview.  The commish asks any owners who question another owner's decisions to first ask the owner before getting the commish involved.

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Using Rtsports.com
This league is powered by the rtsports.com fantasy league engine.  They have different summaries for each need: rosters, transactions, waivers.

To access the League through Rtsports.com, you must be an owner.  If you want to view as a guest, please e-mail me.  Only the commish can give you your password, and at any point in time your password can be changed by you. The commish can no longer change your password.

After you enter the league ID and your password in Rtsports.com, you will be taken to the SLUGA FFL Home Page and it should have your team name at the top of the main area.

Navigating Rtsports may seem difficult at first.  The interface isn't perfect.  To view and change your starters, put your cursor over "Team" at the top and then click "Lineup". This will display your team.

If you place your cursor over "RT Sports" and click on "Preferences", this will bring up your Home Page preferences. I suggest everyone check all boxes but the "League Status" and click "Save Preferences".

Anytime you want to go to the Home Page, just click the image next to the light blue "SLUGA FFL".

Changing your "Preferences" will keep you up to date on information from the commish and smack that might be aimed at you.

The Injury Report can be found if you roll over "NFL Info". You can find one also at http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/injuries.  Our league does not utilize IR.

Contact the commish if you encounter problems or bugs.

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