CFFL Bylaws

By-laws and Policies

established - 1996
R. Lee Wrights - League Commissioner
Tommy F. McCarthy - Deputy League Commissioner
Sean Haugh - By-laws Committee Chairman
G. Tom McCarthy - Nominating Committee Chairman

THE LEAGUE

The CAROLINA FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUE (CFFL) will operate as a twelve team, three conference, fantasy football league with scoring based on individual player performance and team defense and special teams performance. The league will be officiated by a Commissioner and a Deputy Commissioner, who will be chosen by a simple majority vote in elections held every two (2) years. The CFFL will play an interleague regular season schedule of fourteen (14) games, six (6) of which will be conference games, to be determined and published by the Commissioner annually. The Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner will set and officiate all league functions; score all games and record the results; record all trades, waivers, activations or other transactions; collect all fees, fines or other money owed to the league; pay all money owed by the league; as well as, represent the CFFL to other leagues.

Fees and fines to be collected and imposed by the Commissioner will be as follows:

FEES
Annual Franchise Fee $82
Activate Developmental Player $5
Disabled Player Fee $5
Protected Player Fee $5
Waiver Fee (per transaction) $1
Trade Fee (per transaction) $1

FINES
Missing League Meetings $10
Missing League Vote $10
Late for League Meeting or Vote $5
Late Payment of Fees (per week) $5
Failure to Report Line-up $5

Franchise, Website and Protected Player fees are due annually on Draft Day. All other fees and fines are due two (2) weeks after a team is no longer eligible to waive or claim players due to either season ending or elimination from the playoffs. (By paying their franchise fees owners imply and affirm that they agree with and will adhere to the Bylaws and Policies of the CFFL.)

In the years when fresh drafts are held (each team only protecting two players), fees will remain the same as the previous year unless otherwise designated by league vote.

THE DRAFT

Teams shall retain the rights to all players on their roster when their season ends. Before the draft, the Commissioner shall set a deadline for teams to turn in their Protected Players list. Each team must protect two franchise players and has the option to protect up to four Protected Players at a fee of five dollars ($5.00) each. (The fee for franchise players is included in the Franchise Fee.)

The Commissioner in consultation with all team owners shall set a date for the CFFL Draft to be held between five (5) and twenty-one (21) days before the first regular season NFL game. In the first three (3) rounds franchise owners will have five (5) minutes to make their draft selections. In subsequent rounds owners will have three (3) minutes to make their selections. Selections not made within the time limits will be forfeited.

Draft order will be determined based on the results of the previous season in the following manner:
A. the six teams that did not make the playoffs will pick 1st through 6th in reverse order of record (e.g., worst record picks first).
B: The two first round playoff losers will pick 7th and 8th, with the team with the worst regular season record picking 7th.
C: The two losers of the conference playoff game will pick 9th and 10th, with the worst regular season record picking 9th.
D: The Super Bowl runner up will pick 11th and the Super Bowl Champion 12th.

Each round will draft one (1) through twelve (12) with no round inversions.

After all team rosters have been filled in each draft, a one-round Developmental Draft will be conducted by the Commissioner. A lottery will be held to determine the order of the developmental round and each franchise will be allowed to draft one (1) undrafted NFL rookie that will be placed on their roster as a Developmental Player. Developmental players may be activated to a team's roster after an appropriate roster spot has been made available; and, a five ($5.00) dollar fee has been assessed to the franchise. Once a developmental player has been activated that team's developmental roster spot remains open until the following draft or the franchise trades for another team's developmental player. Franchise owners may protect developmental players three (3) times before either activating them, trading them or releasing them to free agency.

The CFFL will operate a West Coast type offense; therefore, each franchise will be required to draft a team roster consisting of two (2) quarterbacks, four (4) running backs, six (6) wide receivers or tight ends, two (2) kickers, two (2) team defenses and one (1) developmental player. No team may carry more players than previously described with the following exceptions:
A. If a trade is made in the off-season, extra players may be carried until the cut-down date of the ensuing CFFL season, which will be set by the Commissioner.
B. If a player is placed on injured reserve he is carried until the cut-down date of the following season.

Beginning in 2000, and repeating every fifth (5th) year thereafter, the CFFL will conduct a fresh draft. In these seasons each franchise will be allowed to protect two (2) franchise players from the previous season, while all other players return to free-agency and become available in that year's draft. This creates a virtually new draft twice every decade.

THE REGULAR SEASON

Every week, each franchise must report a starting line-up and a back-up depth chart to the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner. Starting line-ups with depth charts must always include:

STARTERS BACK UPS
1 Quarterback
2 Running Backs 1 Running Back
3 Wide Receivers 1 Wide Receiver
1 Kicker
1 Defense
1 Alternate

Only players and defenses/special teams that are playing that week may be on the submitted Roster list. Players and defenses/special teams on their "bye" week may not be listed on an owner's submitted roster as active starters.

Players must be reported, as active or as a back-up, according to the following deadlines:
A. Players playing in NFL games other than those played on Sunday or Monday, must be reported no less than one (1) hour prior to game time EST. Any players playing in these "early" games not reported as active will be considered inactive for that week's game and will not be allowed to help determine the outcome of that week's game in any manner, including being waived and replaced with an active player involved in a later game.
B. Players playing in NFL games played on Sunday or Monday must be reported prior to or by 12:00 noon EST on Sunday.

Failure to report a starting line-up will result in a five ($5.00) dollar fine; the previous week's starting line-up will be used; and, no back-up players will be allowed to move up in that week's game. Failure to report a starting line-up in the first week of a new season will result in a five ($5.00) dollar fine and forfeiture of the first game of the year. (Games will continue to be forfeited until offending franchise reports a starting line-up.)

SCORING

Players, team defenses and special teams score points according to their statistics as recorded in the box scores of the daily USA Today newspapers or on the USA Today Internet website. If for whatever reason statistics from USA Today are unavailable, the Commissioner may select another source for official statistics. Scores will be determined by matching the statistics with the CFFL Scoring System (see Scoring System Appendix). If a starting player has no printed stats in the daily USA Today or on the USA Today Internet website, a back-up player will be allowed to advance and be scored. (Only one back-up at each position will be allowed to advance per week.) If the back-up also has no printed stats then a score of zero (0) will be assessed at that position for that week.

Winners of tie games will be determined in overtime by the score of alternate player. One point will be added to the final score of the team with the higher scoring alternate. If a tie still exists after alternate player scores have been counted, both teams' full rosters will be added in to determine a winner. If a game is still tied after both teams' rosters have been tabulated the game will be declared a tie.

ROSTER CHANGES

INJURIES - Any player placed on injured reserve by the NFL team he plays for will also be placed on injured reserve in the CFFL. The CFFL owner holding the rights to the player retains those rights until the cut-down date of the following CFFL season and is allowed to replace the injured player on their team roster with a player from the free-agent pool, free of charge.

Any player listed as out by the NFL team he plays for may be placed on the CFFL Disabled List for a period of twenty-one (21) days, and replaced with a player from the free-agent pool. A fee of five ($5.00) dollars will be assessed to the franchise for each player placed on the DL, and all normal waiver fees will apply. Once a player has been placed on the disabled list he must remain there until twenty-one (21) days have elapsed.

TRADES - Trading will be allowed from the day following each CFFL Super Bowl until the end of the last game in the ninth (9th) week of the following CFFL regular season. Owners may exchange players and draft picks for whatever compensation they are able to negotiate subject to the approval of the Commissioner. The Commissioner can not approve any multi-player trade that, in his opinion, is specifically designed to give one team an advantage over the rest of the league. (Example: Two teams cannot be combined to make one "super-team," one owner cannot own interest in two teams and trade with him or herself, no mergers, etc.) Any trade disallowed by the Commissioner can be appealed to the CFFL Bylaws Committee. Trade fees will be one ($1.00) dollar per transaction for all involved owners.

WAIVES - Players may be waived, subject to the approval of the Commissioner, and replaced with free agents from the time they are drafted until franchise elimination occurs, either by their season ending or loss in the post-season. Once a franchise's season is over, they are no longer eligible to waive or claim players until the following CFFL draft. Waived players become free agents at 9:00 pm EST the Thursday following the time they are waived. (9:00 pm EST Wednesday when NFL plays on Thursday.) Rights to waived players will be awarded to the franchise that has claimed the player and holds the worse win/loss record determined as follows:
A. For the first four (4) weeks of the season, owners will be ranked according to how they finished the previous season.
B. From the fifth (5th) week on, franchises will be ranked according to win/loss record (worst to best) of the current season.

Teams may reclaim players they waived the previous week; however, teams may reclaim no more than two (2) players per week per position.

Waiver fees will be one ($1.00) dollar per transaction, with the following exceptions:
A. Free agents being claimed to replace players who have been placed on injured reserve.
B. Free agents being claimed to fill starting roster spots made vacant due to bye games in the NFL. (Only used when franchise does not have enough players to field a starting roster because of bye weeks.)

THE POST-SEASON

With the conclusion of the last game of the CFFL's regular season the Commissioner will submit to the league for vote no less than two (2) nominees for the awarding of the CFFL Coach of the Year. A simple majority vote will be held prior to the CFFL Super Bowl so that the Commissioner may announce the award at each Super Bowl.

The league will vote on proposals to change these Bylaws or other rules at the end of each season. Changes to these Bylaws require a two-thirds majority vote of all teams (eight votes) to become effective. All Bylaws changes become effective immediately unless otherwise noted in the proposal.

The final three (3) weeks of the NFL's regular season will serve as playoff and Super Bowl weeks for the CFFL. The playoff format will be as follows:

Getting in - All three division champions advance to the playoffs and are seeded #1 - #3 according to better win-loss record from the regular season. Also advancing will be the three (3) franchises with the best win-loss records of the teams that remain and will be seeded #4 - #6.

Week #1 (15th NFL regular season) - The #1 and #2 seeds remain idle while the #3 seed faces the #6 seed and the #4 seed plays the #5 seed.

Week #2 (16th NFL regular season) - The #1 seed will play the lowest seed of the winners from Week #1 while the #2 seed will have to face the higher seed of the two winners.

Week #3 (17th NFL regular season) - Winners from Week #2 meet for the CFFL SUPER BOWL.

PRIZE DISBURSEMENT

Week #1 (15th NFL regular season) - Conference champions each receive fifty ($50.00) dollars.

Week #2 (16th NFL regular season) - Losers will receive forty ($40.00) dollars each.

Week #3 (17th NFL regular season) - Winner will receive seventy (70%) percent of prize remaining and seventy-five (75%) percent of the waiver pool. Loser will receive thirty (30%) percent of prize remaining and twenty-five (25%) percent of the waiver pool.


	By-laws and Policies established - 1996 R. Lee Wrights - League Commissioner Tommy F. McCarthy - Deputy League Commissioner Sean Haugh - By-laws Committee Chairman G. Tom McCarthy - Nominating Committee Chairman THE LEAGUE The CAROLINA FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUE (CFFL) will operate as a twelve team, three conference, fantasy football league with scoring based on individual player performance and team defense and special teams performance. The league will be officiated by a Commissioner and a Deputy Commissioner, who will be chosen by a simple majority vote in elections held every two (2) years. The CFFL will play an interleague regular season schedule of fourteen (14) games, six (6) of which will be conference games, to be determined and published by the Commissioner annually. The Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner will set and officiate all league functions; score all games and record the results; record all trades, waivers, activations or other transactions; collect all fees, fines or other money owed to the league; pay all money owed by the league; as well as, represent the CFFL to other leagues. Fees and fines to be collected and imposed by the Commissioner will be as follows: FEES Annual Franchise Fee $82 Activate Developmental Player $5 Disabled Player Fee $5 Protected Player Fee $5 Waiver Fee (per transaction) $1 Trade Fee (per transaction) $1 FINES Missing League Meetings $10 Missing League Vote $10 Late for League Meeting or Vote $5 Late Payment of Fees (per week) $5 Failure to Report Line-up $5 Franchise, Website and Protected Player fees are due annually on Draft Day. All other fees and fines are due two (2) weeks after a team is no longer eligible to waive or claim players due to either season ending or elimination from the playoffs. (By paying their franchise fees owners imply and affirm that they agree with and will adhere to the Bylaws and Policies of the CFFL.) In the years when fresh drafts are held (each team only protecting two players), fees will remain the same as the previous year unless otherwise designated by league vote. THE DRAFT Teams shall retain the rights to all players on their roster when their season ends. Before the draft, the Commissioner shall set a deadline for teams to turn in their Protected Players list. Each team must protect two franchise players and has the option to protect up to four Protected Players at a fee of five dollars ($5.00) each. (The fee for franchise players is included in the Franchise Fee.) The Commissioner in consultation with all team owners shall set a date for the CFFL Draft to be held between five (5) and twenty-one (21) days before the first regular season NFL game. In the first three (3) rounds franchise owners will have five (5) minutes to make their draft selections. In subsequent rounds owners will have three (3) minutes to make their selections. Selections not made within the time limits will be forfeited. Draft order will be determined based on the results of the previous season in the following manner: A. the six teams that did not make the playoffs will pick 1st through 6th in reverse order of record (e.g., worst record picks first). B: The two first round playoff losers will pick 7th and 8th, with the team with the worst regular season record picking 7th. C: The two losers of the conference playoff game will pick 9th and 10th, with the worst regular season record picking 9th. D: The Super Bowl runner up will pick 11th and the Super Bowl Champion 12th. Each round will draft one (1) through twelve (12) with no round inversions. After all team rosters have been filled in each draft, a one-round Developmental Draft will be conducted by the Commissioner. A lottery will be held to determine the order of the developmental round and each franchise will be allowed to draft one (1) undrafted NFL rookie that will be placed on their roster as a Developmental Player. Developmental players may be activated to a team's roster after an appropriate roster spot has been made available; and, a five ($5.00) dollar fee has been assessed to the franchise. Once a developmental player has been activated that team's developmental roster spot remains open until the following draft or the franchise trades for another team's developmental player. Franchise owners may protect developmental players three (3) times before either activating them, trading them or releasing them to free agency. The CFFL will operate a West Coast type offense; therefore, each franchise will be required to draft a team roster consisting of two (2) quarterbacks, four (4) running backs, six (6) wide receivers or tight ends, two (2) kickers, two (2) team defenses and one (1) developmental player. No team may carry more players than previously described with the following exceptions: A. If a trade is made in the off-season, extra players may be carried until the cut-down date of the ensuing CFFL season, which will be set by the Commissioner. B. If a player is placed on injured reserve he is carried until the cut-down date of the following season. Beginning in 2000, and repeating every fifth (5th) year thereafter, the CFFL will conduct a fresh draft. In these seasons each franchise will be allowed to protect two (2) franchise players from the previous season, while all other players return to free-agency and become available in that year's draft. This creates a virtually new draft twice every decade. THE REGULAR SEASON Every week, each franchise must report a starting line-up and a back-up depth chart to the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner. Starting line-ups with depth charts must always include: STARTERS BACK UPS 1 Quarterback 2 Running Backs 1 Running Back 3 Wide Receivers 1 Wide Receiver 1 Kicker 1 Defense 1 Alternate Only players and defenses/special teams that are playing that week may be on the submitted Roster list. Players and defenses/special teams on their "bye" week may not be listed on an owner's submitted roster as active starters. Players must be reported, as active or as a back-up, according to the following deadlines: A. Players playing in NFL games other than those played on Sunday or Monday, must be reported no less than one (1) hour prior to game time EST. Any players playing in these "early" games not reported as active will be considered inactive for that week's game and will not be allowed to help determine the outcome of that week's game in any manner, including being waived and replaced with an active player involved in a later game. B. Players playing in NFL games played on Sunday or Monday must be reported prior to or by 12:00 noon EST on Sunday. Failure to report a starting line-up will result in a five ($5.00) dollar fine; the previous week's starting line-up will be used; and, no back-up players will be allowed to move up in that week's game. Failure to report a starting line-up in the first week of a new season will result in a five ($5.00) dollar fine and forfeiture of the first game of the year. (Games will continue to be forfeited until offending franchise reports a starting line-up.) SCORING Players, team defenses and special teams score points according to their statistics as recorded in the box scores of the daily USA Today newspapers or on the USA Today Internet website. If for whatever reason statistics from USA Today are unavailable, the Commissioner may select another source for official statistics. Scores will be determined by matching the statistics with the CFFL Scoring System (see Scoring System Appendix). If a starting player has no printed stats in the daily USA Today or on the USA Today Internet website, a back-up player will be allowed to advance and be scored. (Only one back-up at each position will be allowed to advance per week.) If the back-up also has no printed stats then a score of zero (0) will be assessed at that position for that week. Winners of tie games will be determined in overtime by the score of alternate player. One point will be added to the final score of the team with the higher scoring alternate. If a tie still exists after alternate player scores have been counted, both teams' full rosters will be added in to determine a winner. If a game is still tied after both teams' rosters have been tabulated the game will be declared a tie. ROSTER CHANGES INJURIES - Any player placed on injured reserve by the NFL team he plays for will also be placed on injured reserve in the CFFL. The CFFL owner holding the rights to the player retains those rights until the cut-down date of the following CFFL season and is allowed to replace the injured player on their team roster with a player from the free-agent pool, free of charge. Any player listed as out by the NFL team he plays for may be placed on the CFFL Disabled List for a period of twenty-one (21) days, and replaced with a player from the free-agent pool. A fee of five ($5.00) dollars will be assessed to the franchise for each player placed on the DL, and all normal waiver fees will apply. Once a player has been placed on the disabled list he must remain there until twenty-one (21) days have elapsed. TRADES - Trading will be allowed from the day following each CFFL Super Bowl until the end of the last game in the ninth (9th) week of the following CFFL regular season. Owners may exchange players and draft picks for whatever compensation they are able to negotiate subject to the approval of the Commissioner. The Commissioner can not approve any multi-player trade that, in his opinion, is specifically designed to give one team an advantage over the rest of the league. (Example: Two teams cannot be combined to make one "super-team," one owner cannot own interest in two teams and trade with him or herself, no mergers, etc.) Any trade disallowed by the Commissioner can be appealed to the CFFL Bylaws Committee. Trade fees will be one ($1.00) dollar per transaction for all involved owners. WAIVES - Players may be waived, subject to the approval of the Commissioner, and replaced with free agents from the time they are drafted until franchise elimination occurs, either by their season ending or loss in the post-season. Once a franchise's season is over, they are no longer eligible to waive or claim players until the following CFFL draft. Waived players become free agents at 9:00 pm EST the Thursday following the time they are waived. (9:00 pm EST Wednesday when NFL plays on Thursday.) Rights to waived players will be awarded to the franchise that has claimed the player and holds the worse win/loss record determined as follows: A. For the first four (4) weeks of the season, owners will be ranked according to how they finished the previous season. B. From the fifth (5th) week on, franchises will be ranked according to win/loss record (worst to best) of the current season. Teams may reclaim players they waived the previous week; however, teams may reclaim no more than two (2) players per week per position. Waiver fees will be one ($1.00) dollar per transaction, with the following exceptions: A. Free agents being claimed to replace players who have been placed on injured reserve. B. Free agents being claimed to fill starting roster spots made vacant due to bye games in the NFL. (Only used when franchise does not have enough players to field a starting roster because of bye weeks.) THE POST-SEASON With the conclusion of the last game of the CFFL's regular season the Commissioner will submit to the league for vote no less than two (2) nominees for the awarding of the CFFL Coach of the Year. A simple majority vote will be held prior to the CFFL Super Bowl so that the Commissioner may announce the award at each Super Bowl. The league will vote on proposals to change these Bylaws or other rules at the end of each season. Changes to these Bylaws require a two-thirds majority vote of all teams (eight votes) to become effective. All Bylaws changes become effective immediately unless otherwise noted in the proposal. The final three (3) weeks of the NFL's regular season will serve as playoff and Super Bowl weeks for the CFFL. The playoff format will be as follows: Getting in - All three division champions advance to the playoffs and are seeded #1 - #3 according to better win-loss record from the regular season. Also advancing will be the three (3) franchises with the best win-loss records of the teams that remain and will be seeded #4 - #6. Week #1 (15th NFL regular season) - The #1 and #2 seeds remain idle while the #3 seed faces the #6 seed and the #4 seed plays the #5 seed. Week #2 (16th NFL regular season) - The #1 seed will play the lowest seed of the winners from Week #1 while the #2 seed will have to face the higher seed of the two winners. Week #3 (17th NFL regular season) - Winners from Week #2 meet for the CFFL SUPER BOWL. PRIZE DISBURSEMENT Week #1 (15th NFL regular season) - Conference champions each receive fifty ($50.00) dollars. Week #2 (16th NFL regular season) - Losers will receive forty ($40.00) dollars each. Week #3 (17th NFL regular season) - Winner will receive seventy (70%) percent of prize remaining and seventy-five (75%) percent of the waiver pool. Loser will receive thirty (30%) percent of prize remaining and twenty-five (25%) percent of the waiver pool.
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