• League Name: Champions League
• Duplicate Player Allowance: Not Used
• Scoring System: Head-to-Head Most Categories
• Maximum # of teams: 16
• League Creator Username: NaturallyAged
• Commissioner Team Name: Naturally Aged
• League ID: ymz3u7fkk1rywvac

• Your league stats begin accumulating on: Thu Jul 23, 2020
• Your league stats end accumulating on: Sun Sep 27, 2020
• Merge first n periods of season: 2
• Merge last two periods of season: Yes

Playoffs

• Playoffs will begin in this Scoring Period: 6 (Aug 31/20 - Sep 6/20) and last for 3 periods (rounds).
• Playoff matchups entered manually: Yes

• Player Pool: All teams
• Players traded out of league's player pool continue to accumulate stats: Yes
• Only include players associated with a MLB team in the player pool: No
• Lock Player Pool: Yes

Restrictions

• Minimum Total Players: 8
• Maximum Total Players: 43
• Minimum Active Players: 0
• Maximum Active Players: 20
• Maximum Reserve Players: 8
• Maximum Injury Reserve Players: 5
• Maximum Minor League Players: 10
• Prevent any transaction that would cause a roster to become illegal: Only for Total roster size
• Allow suspended players to be moved to Injured Reserve: No
• Allow players on a bye week to be moved to Injured Reserve: No
• Injured Reserve players count toward roster limitation rules: Yes
• Only players on the MLB Injured List may be moved to the Injured Reserve slot: No
• Minor League players count toward roster limitation rules: Yes
• Injured Reserve Enforcement type: Make roster illegal
• Number of Lineup Periods until Injured Reserve Enforcement takes effect: 3
• Prorate Min/Max according to period length: Yes

Minor League Eligibility Options

• Minors roster slot eligibility type: None - any player can be put into a Minors roster slot
• Prevent moving players out of Minors slots: Never
• Minors Enforcement type: None
• Number of Lineup Periods until Minors Enforcement takes effect: 0

Position Eligibility

• Games needed from previous season for a player to qualify at a specific hitting position : 18
• Games needed from current season for a player to qualify at a specific hitting position: 9
• Starts needed from previous season for a player to qualify as a Starting Pitcher : 5
• Starts needed from current season for a player to qualify as a Starting Pitcher : 3
• Relief appearances needed from previous season for a player to qualify as a Relief Pitcher : 8
• Relief appearances needed from current season for a player to qualify as a Relief Pitcher: 5
• Use Fantrax's default position(s) in addition to any position(s) a player qualifies for based on above criteria: No
• Note: If a player does not qualify for any positions based on the above selections, he will qualify at the position(s) played most in the previous MLB season. If he did not play at all last season, then the default position(s) will be used.

Team Minimum and Maximum Requirements per Scoring Period

• If a maximum has been met or exceeded: All hitters or pitchers, depending on the scoring category exceeded, will stop accumulating stats for the rest of the scoring period. If the max has not been met or exceeded at the beginning of a day, stats will accumulate throughout that entire day, even if the max is exceeded.<span style="color:#ff0000"> Note that ALL pitchers includes both SP and RP. For example, if a max is exceeded for Relief Appearances, stats will stop accumulating lost for the scoring period for Relief Pitchers (RP) as well as Starting Pitchers (SP).</span>
• If a minimum has not been met by end of scoring period: Do nothing.
• Prorate Min/Max according to period length: Yes

Other Scoring Preferences

• Players will accumulate all stats in all scoring category groups: Yes
• Only 2-way players (i.e. Ohtani) will accumulate all stats in all scoring category groups (Beta): No
• Stat Correction Handling: No Official Scoring changes will affect your league beyond the default stat freeze time. Official corrections will be applied to your league if they come in within 7 days (168 hours) after the end of that game. Any Official Scoring changes which come in after this time will not be reflected in your league stats/scores and standings.

Lineups

• Lineup Change System: Managers enter lineup changes
• Lineup changes are executed: Daily
• Lineups will become locked 0:05 (hours:minutes) before scheduled start-time of game

Trades

• Trade System: Managers propose their own trades
• Trading Period: All Year
• Maximum Trades per Team: Unlimited
• Trade Deadline Date: Wed Aug 12, 2020 11:59 PM EDT
• Trade Voting System: Managers
• Days to Vote: 2
• # of Objections Required: 9
• Allow trading of claim budget: Yes
• Allow trading of salary cap space: No
• Allow trading of draft Picks: Yes
• Number of future years for draft pick trading: 1
• Number of rounds available for draft pick trading: 38

Claims/Drops

• Claim/Drop System: Managers perform their own claims & drops
• Max # of claims per season: Unlimited
• Max # of claims per week: Unlimited
• Use Waiver Wire process: Yes
• Allow claims/drops before the draft: No
• Can't drop list: Not Used
• Pending claims/drops are viewable by: One's own team
• Failed claims/drops viewable by: One's own team

  Free Agents

• Free Agent Claim System: Bidding
• Free Agent bids are processed on: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat at 3:00 am EDT

Bidding Settings

• Vickrey/Proxy (ebay-style) Bidding: No
• Bid tie-breaker: Lowest ranked team in the standings wins the bid
• Player claim budget:  $50
• Bid increment: $1.00
• Minimum bid: $1.00
• Show highest pending bids: No
• Show team with highest pending bid: No
• Pending claims/drops are viewable by: One's own team
• Failed claims/drops viewable by: One's own team

• Default Free Agent Salary:$1.00
• Minimum Player Salary$1.00
• When a player is released to the Free Agent Pool, his salary: Is conditional
• If salary was at least $20.00, it stays the same. Otherwise, it becomes $1
• Default Waiver Wire Salary: $1.00
• When a player is released to the Waiver Wire, his salary: Is conditional
• If salary was at least $20.00, it stays the same. Otherwise, it becomes $1.00

• Contract Type: Custom
• Custom contracts: (* = Default)

Name	Description
1*	First Year - Eligible For Extension
2	1 Year Contract - 100% Raise
3	2 Year Contract - 75% Raise
4	3 Year Contract - 50% Raise
5	4 Year Contract - 25% Raise

• When a player becomes a Free Agent, his contract: Changes to1
• When a player goes to the Waiver Wire, his contract: Changes to1
• When a player is drafted, his contract: Changes to1

• Draft Date: Sun Mar 15, 5:00 PM EDT
• Draft Type: Live Online Auction
• Draft Budget: $350
• Minimum Opening Bid: $1
• Bid Increment: $1
• Undrafted players go to the: Free Agent pool

Tie Breakers

Keeper League

• Keeper league Type: Keeper
• Maximum keepers allowed: 25

Fees

• League Entry: $150.00
• Free Agent Claim: $0.00
• Waiver Wire Claim: $0.00
• Drop Player: $0.00
• Activate Player: $0.00
• Reserve Player: $0.00
• Send Player to Injured Reserve: $0.00
• Move Player from Injured Reserve: $0.00
• Move Player from Minors: $1.00
• Send Player to Minors: $3.00
• Change Position of an Active Player: $0.00
• Trade (flat): $0.00
• Trade per Player Received: $0.00
• Trade per Player Sent: $2.00
• Illegal Roster (per period): $1.00

• **This is a custom league.  There are rules that didn't quite fit the parameters available for some settings.  In all cases this constitution supersedes computer generated pages.  Especially the prizes.  The prizes are clearly defined here in this constitution.  All payouts will refer to these guidelines set here in our constitution.  All rules disputes will be settled by this constitution.  Any incorrect information on computer generated pages is a reflection of incomplete or sometimes incorrect information imputed into our set up.  Ex. ~Our 10-year prize is not an option Fantrax provides.  So, we push that prize forward to the next year, each year. ~  We make it work.  Some of the things we are doing in this league are not available in the regular set up options.  Ex2: Our contracts are very unique.  I had to create an Excel document and manually input the keeper information for each year.  Even though we understand how we are playing and the rules are very clearly defined and laid out here, the computer does not always understand and sometimes spits out gibberish (2019, in my original league The Procrastinators, saw the prize page display the regular season combined standings, not the playoff results).  We will payout based on the correct, game results.  When a conflict like this arises, we will refer to this constitution.  I will address these issues as they come up, some can be fixed and others we deal with.  Please refer to this constitution here for everything.  And as always, common sense and decency should prevail.  You not knowing the rules is not an excuse to make waves and try to fake news your way into a bigger payout.  The stats pages never get deleted, our home pages with the playoffs results posted are available to reference forever.  Our finances are completely transparent, a complete rundown of our league’s finances can be found under the TEAM header in Team Finances.  There is also a log of all moves made by the system and commissioner under the OTHER tab in System Log.  Everything is recorded and made available to us in this league.  There is a lot of information here, it can get over whelming, if you need any help navigating the site please reach out to me.  Thank you for your patience and please contact me if you have any questions**

   

  Welcome to the Champions League  ~ A Roto+ League ~

  
  
  --All Play regular season schedule (weekly roto) with a H2H playoff tournament
  
  --We will use a unique Champions League style approach to our scheduling.  The hope is to create a more competitive league while putting an end to the carousel of bottom teams leaving and joining.  This system will create a path to the playoffs for everyone, hopefully keeping our league together for the long run.  The playoff teams will make up the following season's Senior Circuit.  The remaining teams will be placed into the Junior Circuit.   Any future new owners will be placed into the Junior Circuit.  This will allow weaker teams to stay in the game.  The Senior Circuit will receive 5 playoff spots, with the bottom 3 teams in the division moving to the Junior Circuit for the following season.  Teams will move up from the Junior Circuit by making the playoffs, they will have 3 playoff spots to play for each season.  The first year will have 2 divisions with the top 4 teams making the playoffs.  Year 2 will be the start of our Champions League format
  
  
  
  Entry Fee 
  
  --$75  ($150 First two years will be required to join) *Season 2 is non-refundable.  You will need to find your own replacement and recoup your deposit from the new owner should you quit and not play in season 2.  The money will stay in the playoff prize pool for 2021.  Any new owners, additional entry fees, will go into the 2021 playoff prize pool too

     *Season 2 (2021) entry fees will be prepaid for all owners who play in 2020, everyone will be automatically in, 16 returning teams is all but guaranteed.
  
  $4.99 towards Fantrax Premium ($79.95 / 16 teams) - $12.50 towards overall prize pool - $57.51 towards playoffs prize pool
  
  *After February 16th, entry fee is required to join.  I don't want to be chasing people down in the days leading up to the draft.  Email is unsurprisingly ineffective when trying to contact people.  You can quit the league and receive a full refund up to 48 hours prior to draft time.  Fantrax will refund you your entry fee to your account.  This is just an effort to find the owners who want to play and make my life leading up to the draft a little easier.  Thank you & good luck!

  --1 owner per team.  This is an advanced league where daily activity is rewarded.  It's an unfair advantage to have more than 1 owner who can log in and handle day to day deadlines for moves.  This league will operate with a strict 1 owner per team policy.  This also includes financiers.  Team owners are expected to finance their own team.  *Any team found in violation will forfeit the current season and will not receive any refund
  
  --Owners are only allowed to play 1 team in this league.  Any owner found to be playing multiple teams will forfeit the current season for all teams involved and will not receive any refund.  Owner will be banned from league indefinitely 
  
  Payouts 

  --We us Fantrax Treasurer for all thing’s money

  --16 team prize pool is $920.05

  --Playoff winners will receive cash prizes

  --Regular season division winners will receive a cash prize
  
  --We will use a 40/30/20/10% distribution for prize payouts.  The Playoff Prize pool will start here:

  First Place             $368.02

  Second Place       $276.01

  Third Place           $184.01

  Fourth Place        $92
                   

   

  --Fees collected during the season will be distributed into two prize pools: Division Winners & Playoff Winners 
                
  --The two division winners will receive cash prizes from the in-season fees.  ** Up to $100 each.  Any ties will split their division's share of the prize evenly.  The playoff seeding will be decided by the tie breakers listed in the rule’s summary
  
  **any remaining money from the in-season fees will go into the playoff prize pool.  First, we will add a 5th place prize of $75.  The remaining money will go into the playoff prize pool  ~  Split  40-30-20-10% -- 1st-2nd-3rd-4th
  
  --Playoff Tiebreakers 
  
     -First two rounds will use highest seed for the tie breaker to decide who moves on
     -Finals will be based on year-to-date rotisserie stats in our league's 7x7 categories
      *Our standings page also keeps track of total stats, we will refer to this page for our numbers
     -Consolation matches will split their prize pool money evenly should their final match end tied

  --Fantrax Treasurer only allows one payout per season.  For this reason, we will wait as long as needed to collect unpaid fees.  There is a one week wait for stats to finalize after the finals are complete. I will do my best to have all of the fees collected during this week.  Please pay your fees as you get them.  Collecting fees is our only hold up to payouts.  There is a table that shows all fees, owed and paid, under the Team Finances tab

  
  
  Keepers 
  
  --Must keep a minimum of 8 players, max is 25
  
  --Keepers must be selected by the Sunday before spring training 
  
  --Scroll down under the TEAM header to Keeper Admin, select your keepers and hit save
  
  --Enter keeper selections in our Excel spreadsheet kept on Dropbox.com.  If you need another invite let the commish know and another will be sent out.  Use this link: https://www.dropbox.com/home/The%20Champions%20League

  
  --Keeper spreadsheet will lock the Friday before pitchers & catchers report to spring training.  You can still email your submissions to the commish up until midnight the Sunday before spring training starts.
  
  --If you do not want to work the Excel spreadsheet you can email the commissioner at fantasysports@PerdueArtworks.com, with your list of keepers.  Please include: Player / Current Salary / Amount of years extended. 

  --The commish will go in through commissioner controls and adjust the player's salary and contract terms

  --Any player on your team at the end of the season is eligible to be kept *provided they are not on an expiring contract
  
  --A player can only be extended a contract once.  When the contract expires the player will go back into the player pool for the following year's draft
  
  --Our contracts are custom.  You can extend a player for up to 4 seasons  
  
  --Keepers get raises
  
  --Minimum keeper salary is $2 (All $1 players will become $2 regardless of length of contract extension)
  
  --1-year extension 100% raise.  2-year extension 75% raise.  3-year extension 50% raise.  4-year extension 25% raise
                  ($10 -> $20)                  ($10 -> $17.50)                      ($10 -> $15)                          ($10 -> $12.50)
  
  Or check this chart for a reference: 

  Starting Annual Salary:	1-YR EXT (X2)	2-YR EXT (X1.75)	3-YR EXT (X1.50)	4-YR EXT (X1.25)
  $2	$4/YR	$3.50/YR	$3/YR	$2.50/YR
  $5	$10/YR	$8.75/YR	$7.50/YR	$6.25/YR
  $10	$20/YR	$17.50/YR	$15.00/YR	$12.50/YR
  $20	$40/YR	$35/YR	$30/YR	$25/YR

   

  --There is a penalty for releasing players under contract
  
   

  Team Salary Management

   

  --Players’ Salaries will be set based upon the amount the player is acquired via the draft or waiver wire.  Players and contracts acquired in a trade fully transfer to the new team. Teams must be compliant with the League Salary Cap from the beginning of our off-season (Sunday before pitchers & catchers report in February) until the waiver wire opens 24-hrs after the Draft. After the waiver wire opens, the salary cap becomes a soft-cap until the following off-season. Your team's Blind Bid money will act as your in-season cap.  Player Salaries can be extended on a 1, 2, 3, or 4-year basis.  See chart above

  --There is a cap penalty (Draft Budget) for releasing a player that has a contract
  
       *You can release a player under contract but you must pay out that contract in full.  Just like in the MLB, contracts are 100% fully guaranteed 

  First Year               100% Penalty

  Second Year        75% Penalty

  Third Year             50% Penalty

  Fourth Year          25% Penalty

  ** The default setting on Fantrax is to tax a 100% penalty for dropping players with a contract 2-5.  It is up to you to contact the commish when you drop a contracted player.  The commish will update our keeper spreadsheet with the proper penalty.  

  --Contracted players must remain on your team for the entire season, playoffs included if your team qualifies, to receive credit for a year played

  --Once a player is extended they are a part of that team's budget until the contract expires or can be traded. If an extended player must be cut, that team receives a cap hit (draft budget) penalty for the remaining years.  Contracts must be paid in full whether or not the player is on your current roster.  The only way to get a player's contract off of your books is to trade them
   

   *For example, Kevin Brown is a $10 player, you extend him 3 years. His salary for year 1 is $10, Year 2 is $15.00, Year 3 is $15.00, and Year 4 is $15.00. However, Browny turns into a shell of his former self after Year 2 and is released by his fantasy owner during the following off-season. That team would receive a $11.25 Cap Hit in year 3 and year 4 (75% hit because he only played out the first year of his keeper contract).  It's 100% penalty for cutting a player in their first year of contract.  75% in the second year of contract.  50% in the third year of contract.  25% in the final year of contract (only applies if cut before season 4's draft). 

  --If the player can no longer play in the MLB due to injury then the Salary Cap hit would only be 25% in any remaining years
  
  --Dead money will be deducted from team's draft budget
  
  --Retirement counts the same as being released  *or you can choose to stash them on your bench or in the minors 

  --If contracted player dies their contract will be voided out with zero penalty

  
  
  

  Draft Budget 
  
  -- $350
  
  --Each team will be required to be under the budget by January 31st each year.  You will also need to have enough money to draft a full team...at least $1 per player will be needed to fill out the roster
  
  
  Draft
  
  --We are using an auction style draft.  Bids will start at whatever amount the nominator chooses and increase from there.  Minimum bid is $1, minimum raise is $1
  
  --There will be one draft.  All minors will be in the player pool too.  You are allowed up to 10 minor league spots  
  
  --You will be required to fill out your entire roster during the draft.  The computer will restrict your bids to ensure you have at least $1 for every open roster spot remaining

  --IR slots must be empty before the draft.  (IR slots are roster exemptions for in-season play only)  

  --Teams are not allowed to draft players into IR slots.  IR slots will not become available until after the draft concludes
  
  --Each team will have 24 hours, starting from time of the last pick of draft, to make roster moves without fees.  Teams are free to shuffle players between minors and MLB during this time
  
  **After two years of drafting using this platform, it is painfully clear that autobid does not work.  This year we saw autobids throwing out nominations at the highest bid set, however it was not bidding on players not nominated by the autobid.  Please do not assume that autobid will work for you.  It is highly recommended that you attend the draft
  
  
  Blind Bid System
  
  --Each team will have $100 to spend in free agency throughout the season.  We are using a blind bid system with daily auctions; the highest bidder will get the player.  Tie breaker will be based off current standings, lowest ranked team will win the bid 

  --Daily auctions end at midnight pst

  --Minimum bid is $1
  
  --This is our in season "cap"
  
  --You can trade BB money
  
  --Free Agency opens immediately after the draft (with the first auction ending at midnight pdt) & closes as soon as your season is over
  
  --Free Agency is only for in-season play.  No more pick-ups through the waiver wire or free agency once your team is knocked out of the playoffs (or your season has ended) 
  
  --No waiver wire / free agency pick-ups during off-season

  --Player pool will be locked after draft.  This will freeze out mid-season additions to our player pool, saving them for the following season’s draft.  This will mean that all international signees and players acquired through the summer amateur draft will not go into our free agent pool upon becoming an MLB player.
  
  
  Can't Drop Players
  
  --We are not playing with a "Can't Drop List", anyone without a contract can be dropped at any time

  --Players under contract can be drop but the team's draft budget will be penalized in the following season(s)
  
  --Players with salaries over $20, either through the draft or blind bid auction, will keep their salary amount in free agency throughout the remainder of the season
  
  
  Rosters
  
  --10 position players

  --10 pitchers

  --8 reserves 

  --2 injured reserve

  --10 minor league players
  
  --There are no minimum requirements for your roster *you will be required to fill all roster positions during the draft
  
  --Can keep up to 25 players 
  
  --28 active, 10 minors, & 2 injured reserve spots total a 40 man roster for in-season play (38 max off-season)
  
  --Any player can be placed in the minors.  We charge $$ to use the minors.  If a team would like to pay to use it as an extended bench the option is there
  
  --Exceeding the player limits in any category will result in an illegal roster
  
  --IR slot(s) must be vacated by the keeper deadline each year
     
  --Must be at or under 25 players between Keeper Role-over day and Draft Day each year 
  
  --Roster "churning" is illegal.  Picking up more players than you have open roster spots for will result in an illegal roster (no points for the period & $1 fine).  Also picking up a player just to drop him immediately - to render the player useless to the rest of the league (looking at you Ruspin) is illegal too.  If you are found guilty of "churning" you will receive a $5 fine.  The fine will show up as Miscellaneous and will have a note attached that says "churning violation"
  
  
  

  
  Trades 

  
  --Trades cost $2 per player sent

  --Teams are free to trade players but must take on contracts and salaries as is.  

  --Off-Season Trades are allowed starting the day after our playoffs conclude 
  
  --Trade deadline will be 3 weeks before playoffs each year.  This season (2020), is Sunday August 9th
  
  --Trades can include Players, Draft Picks, & Blind Bid Money  
  
  --Trades must comply with roster and salary cap rules.  Roster restrictions apply year-round.  Teams must remain under the salary cap (Draft Budget) from the Keeper Rollover day through the start of free agency  
  
  --In cases where you receive more players than you are sending off your roster, you must cut the necessary number of players before the trade has been executed.  Too many players on your roster will trigger an illegal roster penalty.  Fine of $1 per day and no points scored until roster is fixed
  
  --Multi-Team trades are allowed

  --51% or half the league plus 1 is required for a veto (9 votes)
  
  --48 hour voting window
  
  --Off-season trades will have a 1 week voting window
  
  --Trades will process even if they make your roster illegal. It is the owner’s responsibility to make the necessary moves needed to remain legal – usually accomplished by cutting excess players *There is no grace period because you have 48 hours to make the move while the league votes.  Trading teams will have until 5 minutes prior to the day's first game to make changes before an illegal roster violation is triggered
  
    **There will be no angry commissioner veto’s in this league.  It's important to note that this is a keeper league, some teams may have their eyes set on future years, while others may be in win-now mode.  There are many reasons behind trades -- hype, ignorance, actual team improvement...  Vote however you like, object when you feel it is warranted. Talk chit in the chat forum...  Just take into consideration that everyone has paid to play, and people should be allowed to run their teams any way they like
  
  
  Fees
  
  -- All fees should be paid as you get them.  The feature to enforce a time period is still "coming soon"
  
  --72 hours to pay fees.  Penalty for late payment is an Illegal Roster (at some point the feature will be made available and this will be what it gets set to)
  
  --$2 per player traded away
  
  --$5 roster churning violation
  
  --$3 to send a player down to the minors
  
  --$1 to call a player up from the minors
  
  *Players can be placed directly into the minors when you acquire them.  During the draft, trades and free agency.  Use the drop-down menu to designate where you want to send the player before they land on your roster, this will avoid the minors fee
  
  **Also please note that the moving a player up from the minors fee ($1) is for all moves out of the minor slot, this includes moving the player to the IR slot.  The IR slot is meant as a roster exemptions for hurt players on your MLB roster only.**
  
  
  --$1 per period for an Illegal Roster - you can get an illegal roster by: not paying fees - leaving a healthy player in an IR slot (72 hour grace period) - too many players rostered as a result of a trade - too many players rostered (no roster churning) - having too many players on your 28 man MLB roster.  Even if the system allows it because you are under 38 total players, teams still need to be under the MLB limit of 28 & minor limit of 10.  *Carrying more than 28 active players during the season will result in an illegal roster penalty
  
  **Illegal rosters will also stop scoring points until fixed**  

  --A period is a day in our league, making the fine $1 a day once the grace period has passed.  --We will be setting the max fine for this penalty to $10, dead teams are the only ones at risk here.  That's 10 consecutive days not a season total.  If we do have a team go M.I.A. I will go in as commish and force their lineup to be legal and adjust the books.
  
  --Penalty fees and roster shuffling fees are for in-season play.  *Only trades cost money during the offseason.  All other fees will be cleared 24 hours after the draft
  
  
  ~**~ Each year there will be a 24-hour window post draft to adjust your rosters without fees.  The window will start at the time of the last pick of the draft
  
  
  Fee $$ Distribution
  
  --Fees collected during the season will be distributed into two prize pools: Division Winners & Playoff Winners 
                
  --The two division winners will receive cash prizes from the in-season fees.  ** Up to $100 each.  Any ties will split their division's share of the prize evenly.  The playoff seeding will be decided by the tie breakers listed in the rule’s summary.
  
  **any remaining money from the in-season fees will go into the playoff prize pool.  First, we will add a 5th place prize of $75.  The remaining $$ will go into the playoff prize pool ~ Split  40-30-20-10% -- 1st-2nd-3rd-4th
  
  
  Schedule
  
  --The regular season will last 21 periods (2 periods may be longer than 1 week)
  
  --We will merge the short first week with the second week to make the first period.  We will also merge the all-star week with its following week to create 1 period

  --Divisional Play ~ Your team will only play the other teams in the same division during the regular season.  This will allow us to use our unique champions league style play, eliminating strength of schedule arguments through a balanced schedule.  
  
  **Year 1 we will use two 8 team divisions, each will send their top 4 teams to the playoff tournament at the end of the season

  --Two 8 team divisions
  
  --The Senior Circuit will send their top 5 teams to the playoffs
  
  --The Junior Circuit will send their top 3 teams to the playoffs
  
  --The top teams in each division will receive top seeds & will receive a cash prize  **Up to $100 for each division winner**  paid out from the in-season fees pot

  --In case of a tie, to determine the final playoff spot:

  1. Head-to-Head record
  2. Most Wins
  3. Fewest Losses
  4. Roto Style – Whoever has the best cumulative score (regular season) in our 14 categories.  *Standings page breaks down our league’s season stats into a roto score (assigning points for each category)

   

  --The playoff teams from previous year will make up the Senior Circuit
  
  --The non-playoff teams will make up the Junior Circuit
  
  --Matchups will be set randomly prior to the draft
  
  --Playoffs will start in the 22nd period and last 4 weeks (3 periods)
  
  
  Playoffs
  
  --Playoffs will start Monday August 31^st (for 2020) and last 4 weeks  
  
  --The two division winners will receive top seeds, & will receive a prize from the in-season fees (up to $100 each)  
  
  --Top 5 teams from the Senior Circuit & 3 from the Junior Circuit for a total of 8 teams
  
  --Teams will be seeded based on regular season record

      In case of a tie, to determine playoff seeding:

  1. Most Wins
  2. Fewest Losses
  3. Roto Style

  --The first two rounds will be standard 1-week periods.  The finals will be a 2-week period *the final week can get pretty weak...so we'll merge the final two and make sure we find the true champ! 
  
  --We will set the playoff bracket with seeds 1-8 (Based on win%) once.  A PDF bracket template is available in our dropbox folder The Champions League
  
  --There will be two consolation brackets played to determine 3rd-8th place finishers.  The first round losers will square off in a two round bracket to determine 5^th-8^th place. With the 3rd & 4th place match playing during the final two weeks of the tournament at the same time as the finals.  This is needed to extend the pay scale down to 5 teams and to determine league points distribution
  
  --Playoff Tiebreakers 

  • First two rounds, highest seed moves on
  • Finals will use roto stats to determine the winner.  Regular Season stats in our 14 categories will be used  *Standings page breaks down our league’s season stats into a roto score (assigning points for each category)
  • Consolation matches will split their prize pool money evenly, the highest seed will win the higher point total for Overall Standings

   

  Overall Champion
  
  --This is a keeper league with contract extensions that can last up to 4 years, allowing you to keep a player on your roster for up to 5 years.  So, I set this up as a 10-year league.  Basically 2 rounds of keepers... The owner with the most points at the end of the 10th season will get $1000!   
  
  $12.50 x 16 Teams x 10 Years = $2,000  
  
  --The points schedule is based on playoff finishes:

  First                 6 points

  Second           5 points

  Third                4 points

  Fourth             3 points

  Fifth                 2 points

  Sixth                1 point

  Seventh         1 point

  Eighth             1 point

     **Your team must be active for the 10^th season to collect this prize.  Teams are free to quit and rejoin throughout the 10-year period, however only active teams playing in the 10^th season will be eligible to win

                           

  --In cases of a consolation match ending in a tie, the highest seed will win the points **To determine points distribution only 
  
  --Owner with the most points after the 10^th season wins.  We will pay out the top 3 places.  This prize pool will be split three ways: 50% to 1st place, 30% to 2nd place, & 20% to 3rd place

  First Place             $1,000

  Second Place        $600

  Third Place           $400
  
     

  
  --Managers are allowed to sell their team during the off-season months pending league approval (the new owner would have to be a complete asshole to not get approved) ;0).  Points accumulated will not carry over with the team to the new owner.  *most likely if an owner decides to leave they will just leave.  We will give them a chance to sell their team.  The commissioner will notify the league once a new owner has been identified.
  
  --Points stay with the owner who earns them.  They will not transfer with the team in the event that an owner quits the league or sells their team
  
  ** We have a Legacy Prize in this league.  If a team wins consecutive championships they will be awarded a $200 Legacy Prize.  This will be paid out from the overall prize pot.  The prizes will be recalculated to reflect the lower totals. 

   

  
  Democracy
  
  --We will vote
  
  --We will hold an off-season meeting.  Conference call would be great, I think we will most likely just hash out league issues through the league message board and email
  
  --No new rules during the season
  
  --Any adjustments that may need to be made on the fly, during the draft, and just before the season starts will go with a simple majority.  This will be done to make sure we can handle the situation quickly if needed.  Any permanent changes will be voted on in the following off-season
  
  --Commissioner has the power to make simple changes as needed, when needed.  There are a lot of moving parts here, to vote on everything would be way too time consuming.  If you see a change that you don't agree with bring it up in the message boards and let’s have a discussion followed by a vote

  Majority Requirements

  --Trade Approval - Simple 51% majority (9 votes) - 48-hr vote window

  --Rule Changes - 2/3rd's majority (11 votes) - 1-wk vote window

  --Ownership Change - 75% majority (12 votes) - 1-wk vote window (in the event of an in-season ownership change)
  
  --Ownership Approval - Simple 51% majority (9 votes) - 1-wk vote window 

  
  
  Dead Teams
  
  In the event that a team owner goes M.I.A. I will go in as commish and set their line up to remain legal.  No roster moves will be made on any team's behalf.  In commish tools I can force a line up to be legal, even if there are violations.  Most common example of this will be the IR violation.  A dead team will end up being a bye week and will rack up a ton of fees.  Neither is good for the league.  If/when a team reaches the max illegal roster fee ($10), I will act unilaterally to make this move.  It's important to note that I will not be making any changes to the dead team's lineup.  Just merely putting an end to the violation.  It will still be an easy opponent when you face a dead team, it just won't be handed to you as a 14-0 victory...   More importantly, let's not have any dead teams!  

  -- Team owners will be contacted via league messenger or email.  *Multiple attempts will be made to reach any dead team before we consider this option
  
  --League will be notified of both the potential of and then any corresponding action by league emails

  --Any team found to be in violation of the 1 owner per team rule will forfeit the remainder of the season.  The commissioner will go in through commissioner controls and force the teams' roster to be illegal.  This team will not be eligible for the playoffs and all owners involved will be banned from the league 

  --Any owner found to be playing multiple teams in our league will forfeit the remainder of the season.  The commissioner will go in through commissioner controls and force the teams' roster to be illegal.  All teams involved will not be eligible for the playoffs and the owner will be banned from the league
  
  
  New Teams
  
  --New owners will start with a new team when joining the league
     *Owners are allowed to sell their teams in the off season. If a new owner has paid for a team they will inherit that roster as is.  They will be required to follow all keeper rules and take all existing contracts.  The original deposit will stay in the league.  It will be up to the individual owner to collect money from the new owner taking over
  
  --All new teams will start in the Junior Circuit  *Unless the team was purchased, the team will stay in its current division with its new owner
  
  
  
  Sunday Before Spring Training
  
  -League fees due ($75) 
  -Rosters need to be legal and under $350 
  -Keepers designated & given contracts 
  -Roster must be down to or below 25 players
   
  *This is the cutoff date for handing out contracts

  
  I'd like to hold off-season owner's meetings.  We can discuss any changes to the league during this time and vote on them. Any changes to the league will require 2/3's approval, 12 votes.  Any new additions to the league will be a simple majority, 9 votes.  I'd like to fine tune this into something we all can enjoy playing for many years.  We should be able to accomplish this over league emails or chat.  Or we can hope someone in the league has a conference call feature we can use.  Anything will work, should be a short conversation
  
  
  Thank you & good luck!