2004 AFFL Constitution

1. Entry
1a. The entry fee for the AFFL is $20 for each season.
1b. Once you have joined the league, you should decide upon a name for your team. If you don't name your team, I will name it for you. Trust me, you don't want that.
1c. Teams can also select their own colors. A palette is available here.

2. Keepers
2a. After each season, each owner will select four players (i.e., �keepers�) that will return the following season. All remaining players will be returned to the draft pool.
2b. A player can only be selected as a keeper for two consecutive offseasons. Thereafter, that player must be returned to the draft.
2b.i. If a player is traded to another owner, that player�s expected year of free agency does not change.
2b.ii. If a player is released, and picked up by another owner, that player�s expected year of free agency does not change unless that player was available for the draft since his last release.
2b.iii. Any player available to be taken in the draft (i.e., not kept) is eligible to be selected as a keeper for the next two consecutive offseason periods.
2c. If the league should choose to expand, a draft will occur after the keepers have been chosen. Each expansion team will be able to select four players from the entire remaining pool.
2c.i. NFL rookies are not eligible for the expansion draft.
2c.ii. If the league should contract, players from the eliminated teams will simply released and be made available for the upcoming draft.
2d. Keeper decisions will be due August 8.
2e. Information about a player�s remaining time available before he must be returned to free agency will be available on the roster page. Any disputes should be forwarded to the commissioner.
2f. If a team drops out of the league, and a replacement is found, the new owner will inherit the team, the choice of whom to keep, and the spot in the draft order from the owner s/he replaces. (Although considerations may be necessary according to the time of the year in which the new owner joins.)
2g. Offseason transaction rules are as follows:
2g.i. From the date of the Superbowl until the draft is completed, no player pickups are allowed. However, trades may be allowed according to rules 2.g.ii-iv.
2g.ii. Prior to the date where keepers are announced, trades are allowed provided that any players involved in such trades are kept by the recipient team. If player A is traded for player B, both player A and player B must be kept by their respective teams. If player C is traded for a draft pick, player C must be kept. These players will be identified as keepers automatically.
2g.iii. Players acquired during this period, who are automatically keepers, can still be traded to other teams, but must also be keepers for the recipient team(s).
2g.iv. Teams are not allowed to keep more than four players, and no trades will be accepted in which the result is a team with five automatic keepers.
2g.v. Once keepers have been announced, any number of keepers or draft picks possessed can be traded for any number of keepers or draft picks possessed by other teams. You can accumulate more than 4 keepers (or less) or more than 10 draft picks (or less) this way.

3. Draft
3a. The draft will consist of 10 rounds. In each round, teams will draft in a the reverse order of last year's overall standings.
NOTE: Roster will consist of 4 keepers and 10 drafted players, and owners may add 2 additional players as in-season pickups. See Transactions for more details.
3b. The draft will be conducted by e-mail, starting prior to opening day with sufficient time allotted to complete the draft.
3c. Owners who know that they will be absent for periods of the e-mail draft should indicate to the commissioner, if possible, when these absences will occur so that the league can adjust.
3d. Owners can select others to be �substitutes� in the draft, making selections in place of that owner, provided the commissioner is given advance notice by the owner of this arrangement..

4. Games
4a. Each week, your team will play another team. In order to score any points, your team will have to submit a lineup. This lineup will consist of the following players:
1 quarterback (QB)
2 running backs (RB)
3 wide receivers (WR) or tight ends (TE)
1 kicker (K)
1 defense or special teams (D/ST)
4b. You can submit a lineup every week, but if you do not, the lineup that you submitted the previous week will be used. You can also submit up to four alternates (discussed below). You will have 2-4 players left over.
4c. On each day of a given week, lineups are due at gametime of the first game of that day.
4c.i. If there is a Thursday game, lineups will be due at gametime of the earliest Thursday game.
4c.ii. Thereafter, if a player's team played on Thursday, that player's status (starter, alternate, or bench) is frozen.
4c.iii. Players who did not play Thursday can have their status (as starter, alternate, or bench) changed; they can also be released and replaced with a pickup.
4c.iv. On Sunday at gametime of the earliest game, the status of all players who have a game scheduled Sunday are frozen, and further adjustments or transactions can only be done if they involve players in the Monday game.
4c.v. Transactions can be made for the Monday night game; but only players scheduled to play Monday can be released.
4d. In the case of an illegal lineup, the owner may be contacted and adjustments may be requested; however, it is the responsibility of the owner, and not the commissioner, to make corrections to an illegal lineup.
4d.i. A lineup is considered illegal if it does not conform to the standards listed in 4a.
4d.ii. If a lineup is deemed illegal at the time of the start of play, the first listed legal players will be counted, and any illegal players will be skipped. For example, if an owner sent in a lineup with 3 RB�s and 2 WR�s, the first two listed RB�s would count, and the third listed RB would be given a score for the week of zero.
4e. The schedule of games for each team consists of 2 games against other teams in the same division (for a total of 8 intradivisional games), 1 game against 4 of the 5 teams in the other division, and 2 games against a 5th team in the other division (for a total of 6 interdivisional games).
4e.i. In general, the 2-game opponent from the other division will be determined based on the previous season's divisional standings, such that the previous year's first place team in the Butkis division faces the previous year's first place team in the Kotite division twice, and so forth. However, if two teams, ranked the same, have played 2 regular season games in the previous season, the Commissioner may adjust the schedule for the sake of variety.

5. Scoring
Any touchdown a player scores, regardless of the circumstances, counts for the team who has that player as 6 points.
TD pass: 3 points
Passing Yards: 1 point every 20 yards (No rounding)
Extra-Point Pass: 1 point
TD rush: 6 points
Rushing Yards: 1 point every 10 yards (No rounding)
Extra-Point Rush: 2 points
TD reception: 6 points
Receiving Yards: 1 point every 10 yards (No rounding)
Extra-Point Reception: 2 points
Field Goal: 3 points
Extra Point Kick: 1 point
Defense or Special Teams TD: 6 points
Shut-out by your Defense: 10 points
Your defense keeps the opponent to 1-6 points: 6 pts.
Your defense keeps the opponent to 7-9 points: 3 pts.
Your defense keeps the opponent to less than 175 yards passing: 3 pts.
Your defense keeps the opponent to less than 100 yards rushing: 3 pts.
Your defense gets a safety: 2 pts.
Whichever team scores the most points for the week wins.

6. Alternates
6a. In addition to the starting lineup, you can also submit up to 4 alternates.
6b. Alternates will serve two purposes: to fill in for players who do not qualify for a given game, and to break ties for a game.
6c. If a player is listed as inactive or did not play in a game, that player's statistics will be replaced by the statistics of the first listed alternate who qualifies at that position.
6d. An alternate can only be used once. If an alternate has been used to replace one player, he cannot be used to replace another player. Further, if an alternate has been used to replace a player, he cannot be used as a tie-breaker.
6e. If two starters playing the same position both fail to qualify, the first listed starter at that position will be replaced by the first alternate, the second listed player at that position will be replaced by the second alternate at that position, and so on.
6f. If both a starter and an alternate fail to qualify, and there is another alternate who qualifies as the same position, the second alternate's statistics will count (and so on).
6g. Wide receiver and tight end will be viewed as the same position for all intents and purposes.
6h. If an alternate qualifies at more than one position, he will be used to replace the first-listed starting player at either position that did not qualify for the given game (for example, if an alternate was both a RB and WR, and a starting RB and starting WR both failed to qualify, the alternate RB/WR would replace the RB).
6i. You cannot submit a D/ST as an alternate.

7. Breaking Ties
7a. There are two kinds of ties that must be broken: ties in games for the week, and ties in the regular season standings.
7a.i. The first alternate you list will be used first to break ties that occur that week. If a tie remains, the second alternate will be used, and so on.
7a.ii. If an alternate has already been used to fill in for a player you started, however, that alternate will not count for breaking ties.
7a.iii. If all of the alternates are used and a tie remains, the team with the most touchdowns wins (QB passes will count as half a TD). If a tie still remains, the team with the most total yards wins.
7b. If two teams have the same record at the end of the season, the team that has scored the most total points will finish ahead of the other team.
7b.i. If a tie remains, the results of head-to-head competition will be used, with the team that has the better head-to-head record finishing ahead of the other. If a tie still remains, we will use head-to-head points scored.
7b.ii. Points accumulating while breaking a tie shall not count for a team's overall points scored for that season.

8. Transactions
8a. If you release (a) player(s), and add (a) player(s) to your team, it will cost $1 for every player you add. If you trade a player to another team, there will be no cost. If you must pick up a player as a consequence of an unbalanced trade, that transaction will also be free.
8a.i. There is one exception to this rule. After the draft, each team will have 14 players: the four keepers, plus ten draftees. Two additional players can then be added to bring the total to sixteen.
8a.ii. These two players can be added at the owner's preference, free of cost, and without releasing any players. Once two players have been picked up, transaction costs are required and rosters may never exceed 16 players.
8a.iii. Owners are not required to pick up these two players by any specific date (other than the transaction deadline, which occurs when transactions are due for week 14).
8b. Transaction Due Dates.
8b.i. Transactions will be due on Thursday morning at 9am. No transactions will be processed before that time.
8b.ii. Priority order for transactions at the 9am Thursday deadline will be on the basis of the reverse order of the overall standings. That is, if two teams want the same player, the team ranked lower overall (by record, then points, then head-to-head W-L, then head-to-head points) will get the player.
8b.iii. After the 9am Thursday deadline, teams may request transactions any time up to the earlier of 1pm Sunday or gametime for both players (the player they are requesting *and*the player they are releasing). The final deadline is Monday night at 9pm.
8b.iv. For transactions made between Thursday 9am and Monday 9pm, priority order is given on the basis of the time of the request (i.e., first come first serve).
8b.v. Monday Night: if both the player released and the player picked up have their scheduled game on Monday night, the transaction is allowable for the given week, and first come-first serve rules apply after the 1pm Sunday deadline. If any player involved in the transaction had already played, the transaction will be forwarded to the subsequent Thursday 9am deadline, and the corresponding rules (reverse order of the standings for the subsequent week) apply.
8b.vi. Owners are advised to include contingencies in their transaction requests in case they don't get the players they request.
8c. You cannot have more than 16 players on your roster.
8d.i. In addition to their positions in the standings, all teams will also be ranked together, using the same rules, for the purpose of determining priority order for transactions and for playoff entry purposes.
8d.ii. Picking up and releasing players is allowed in the postseason. After the completion of the AFFL Super Bowl, picking up and releasing players is not allowed until the completion of the draft, the following year.
8d.iii. Pickups for week one will be prioritized according to last season�s draft order (like an eleventh round would be). However, once a team has been given one player, that team will be moved to the final priority spot for the second player they select. Subsequent teams who choose one player will be moved behind them in priority for their second pickup, and so forth.
8f. Trades are allowed during the regular season, but banned after week 14 lineups are due.
8f.i. As of the Tuesday following the Super Bowl, trades are allowed again, under the pre-keeper selection rules.
8g. Dumping is prohibited.
8g.i. Dumping is defined as engaging in transactions that are intended to hurt a team's long or short term chances of winning.
8g.ii. Dumping will be identified according to three criteria: at least one player involved must be good enough to start; the transaction must be viewed as unable to help at least one team considering both short term and long term consequences; and at least three owners must agree that it is dumping.
8g.iii. Dumping will be punished by cancellation of the tranasaction.
8g.iv. Pickups and dropping of players will also be evaluated in terms of dumping.
8g.v.There will be no officially undroppable players, but the commissioner may block a team from dropping a player if the intentions of doing so are deemed noncompetitive by the commissioner. Owners are expected to make transactions only for the purposes of helping his/her own team, long or short term.
8g.vi.Players cannot be picked up the same day they are released based on advance information; they can only be picked up the after their release has been made public.
8h.i. You can trade a player for a draft pick (and vice versa), but only for the upcoming draft. So, for the 2004 season, you could only trade for the 2005 draft.
8h.ii. You can trade "conditional" players, that is, a choice of players or draft picks, to be made at a later date (any possible choices must be made public).
8h.iii. You cannot trade a player for money.

9. Postseason
9a. The regular season will last 14 weeks.
9b. Each division winner makes the playoffs. The two best non-division winners will also make the playoffs.
9c. The four highest ranked teams will make the semifinals. The semifinals will take place week 15. Teams will be ranked by overall record (and standard tie breaking procedures), regardless of whether they were division winners. The first-ranked team will play the fourth-ranked team, and the second-ranked team will play the third-ranked team.
9d. The winners of the semifinals will meet in the finals in week 16 (the SuperBowl). The teams that lose in the semifinals will join the teams that did not make the playoffs in the Toilet Bowl.
9e. The Toilet Bowl will take place from weeks 14 to 16 and the winner will be the team (out of the eight) that scores the most cumulative points from week 14 to week 16. This includes the six teams that have been eliminated from the playoffs; their scores will include scoring from playoff games.

10. Awards
10a. The pot will consist of all of the money spent exclusively on that season, which is the sum of all entry fees and transactions costs. It will be divided as follows:
2/5 of the pot: Super Bowl Champ
1/5 of the pot: Best Record
1/5 of the pot: Toilet Bowl
1/5 of the pot: Super Bowl Loss

11. Commissioner
11a. Michael Ayers will be the commissioner, and will have full responsibility for keeping score, managing funds, maintaining the website, and resolving disputes. Rulings made by the commissioner are final. The commissioner can be contacted at m_ayers@yahoo.com.
At the start of each season, teams will pay all of their debts and entry fees. At the end of the season, teams will receive their awards or credits, and can choose to defer money if desired. These will be the only two times money is exchanged.

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