The '95 rules are almost identical to '94, but review ALL of them so you don't get surprised later in the season. A couple points to be brought up first: - If you don't have FTP capabilities, you can use FTP mail or send re- quests to me for the file(s) you want. (Make sure they stand out -- or send it in a separate message -- to ensure that I see it.) - If you see a problem with your roster, you have two weeks to spot it and let me know. (I.e., you make a transaction during Week 3 and it's noted in the weekly report, but the following week's roster feed doesn't show the player on your roster. You have until the end of Week 5 to inform me or the situation stands.) 1) Securing Your Spot for 1995 ============================================ To retain your franchise for '95, send a note to me at by July 1 that includes the following information: - your name (as you want it to appear in the mailings) - the Email address to which the mailings are to be sent. - your team name (30 characters). - KEEPER LEAGUES: the players you want to keep for '95. ***All of these must be present for a complete message. I'll have the full list of players being kept posted by July 4. Draft lists are due by August 11. Changes can be made (via COMPLETE list replacements) until August 18 at 18:00 EDT. At this point, I'll roll the draft lists down to my PC for the weekend's draft. *** NOTE: Missing a deadline will result in the loss of your franchise. *** 2) Rules for Keeper Leagues =============================================== Each team indicates which five players they are going to keep (no more than 2 from a single position). This shortens the drafts to 7 rounds each year. Also, we will allow off-season activity with the following restrictions: - Only players with prior NFL experience can be involved. - The window ends on April 22 (the start of the NFL draft). - Draft picks can be traded -- but only for this year's draft. (This means that you can't do a Herschel Walker-type deal.) - Rosters are still limited to 18 players. All other rules are all the same. 3) Fielding a Team/Roster Size ============================================ Every week each team will field one of the following formations: QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, K, DST, CCH QB, RB, WR, WR, WR, WR, K, DST, CCH QB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE, K, DST, CCH QB, RB, WR, WR, TE, TE, K, DST, CCH In addition, another position is needed for the tie-breaker. Because of the bye week and fielding requirements, the roster will be eighteen positions. The team defense/special teams (DST) position is ONE TEAM chosen to fill BOTH roles on DEFENSE AND SPECIAL TEAMS. Points are awarded for turnover recoveries, sacks, and points scored. The coach (CCH) position will scores points based on how the coach of THE TEAM he coaches fared that week. (There is no longer a TM position.) See Scoring for the rest of the details. 4) Drafting/Filling Roster Space ========================================== The draft will be twelve rounds. The pre-draft submission from each team will need: - the team name (so I'll know which team the list is for). - a draft order of preference for picking positions (i.e., draft my highest available RB for round one, K for round 2, etc.). This ordering will play a major role in the shape and [lack of] strength(s) of your team. Remember, Keeper Leagues only have 7 rounds. - a position-by-position draft ordering in a single column. Those three-column lists that we got last year were difficult to work with during the drafts--especially as we were doing the third one. Please use this order to make the draft easier for us to do: QB, RB, WR, TE (if you're drafting any), K, Defense (DST), Coach (CCH). *** Do realize that you won't get all of your desired top choices, so make your lists as LONG as possible. If your list runs out before the drafting is over, I'll choose the highest remaining player for the position from the Combined Basic/Performance list (Basic list for kickers) in Cliff Charpentier's Fantasy Football Digest (Lerner Publications Company), usually available in early or mid June. I'll go alphabetically for DST and CCH. NOTE: We made use of Top 25 (or some other number) lists in '93. These are OK, but _please_ place them at the top of the list (right after the position preference list). If you put any conditions on the list (i.e., no more than two from any position from the list), place that just before the list so I don't miss it. The additional six positions will be filled by supplemental picks. These additional picks can be taken anytime after the draft results are posted, but before the start of the season. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED--just let me know who your choices are. + ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ + The draft will occur during the weekend of August 19-20. I'll mail and post (to the FTP site) the initial rosters and draft results as each league's draft is completed. + ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ + The draft order is available from the FTP site (RAFFLE/1995 directory). 5) Waiver Wire Activity =================================================== Obtaining an unselected player is perfectly legal (and will probably be necessary for most of us). Please wait until the weekly reports have been sent before starting any waiver wire activity. During the first three weeks (and weeks with a Thurs/Fri game): The owners can grab unselected players on first-come, first-served after the weekly summaries are posted. Our experience has shown that the good selections are taken during the first month. Therefore, it'll be a good idea to stay on top of things (and be an active trader) during the first several weeks of the season. After the first three weeks of play (without a Thurs/Fri game): The deadlines for each team will be given in the weekly summary. The worst team will get to choose first as long as the request is sent BEFORE the given deadline. Do note that the team whose deadline is first has priority for picking an unclaiming player. NOTE: This does not mean that you can't draft after the end of the deadlines. (After the deadlines it's first-come, first-served.) It simply gives the weaker teams the ability to become better by getting the devel- oping players first. 6) Trades With Other Teams ================================================ Trades between teams are OK at anytime except between league posts from the commish (usually Sunday at 11 AM thru Tuesday evening). The only thing to do is for both owners to let me know so that you don't get flagged for illegal substitution, resulting in a blank starting position. (I need to hear from both owners to ensure that one team isn't trying to get away with anything. So far, no one has ever tried to do so.) REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN TRADE ONLY WITH TEAMS IN YOUR OWN LEAGUE. 7) Lineup Submissions ===================================================== Lineups for each week will need to be submitted to me TWO HOURS BEFORE THE START of the first game each week (usually Sunday at 11 AM eastern time). For weeks with Thurs/Fri games, any lineup with a starter playing in the games is locked two hours before the [first] game. All other teams submit as normal. (Lineups will not be mailed until sometime after 11:00 AM Sunday). Any lineup submission you make will copied and returned to you within 24 hours. If you don't get one, you'll need to resend it. If you choose to keep the same lineup, you don't need to submit anything. On the same note, if you wish to change your lineup, you need to submit a new one or I'll use the lineup from the previous week. If there's a player that doesn't play in a particular week, it is the owner's responsibility to field another player for that position for the week. Since several teams will have the same week off, you'll probably have more than one player on your own team that won't play--hence the large rosters. For players that play multiple positions (i.e., Eric Metcalf as RB and DST), see the Scoring notes. 8) Scoring ================================================================ TD scored 6 points TD pass 3 pts 2-pt scored 2 pts 2-pt pass 1 pt Field Goal 3 pts Extra Point 1 pt Safety 2 pts (Team Defense/Special Teams) Sack 1 pt (Team Defense/Special Teams) Turnover Recovery 1 pt (Team Defense/Special Teams) Coach's TEAM wins 4 pts Coach's TEAM ties 2 pts For the players' performance: Rushing/Receiving 1 pt/10 yds (0-9 is 0 pts, 10-19 is 1, etc.) Passing 1 pt/20 yds (0-19 is 0 pts, 20-39 is 1, etc.) Kickers' FGs 45-54 yarders give 3 additional points 55 yards or more gives 6 additional points Def. Sack Yardage 1 pt/5 yds (0-4 is 0 pts, 5-9 is 1, etc.) Coachs' Margin of Victory 1 pt/10 pts over opponent (a 10-7 win gives nothing extra while a 57-16 blowout gives four additional points for a total of eight points) NOTE 1: If a player is selected for an offensive position but scores during special teams play (punts/kickoffs), ONLY the special teams (DST) gets the points. For example: Eric Metcalf of Cleveland runs a punt back for a TD. Team #2 has him as an offensive player, but Team #1 has the Browns' defense/special teams. Team #1 gets the points since Metcalf scored the TD on a punt return. If he had scored the TD during an offensive play, Team #2 would get the points instead. In short, the team that gets points is the one that had the player in the proper position. I.e., Deion scored two TDs in a game in 1993--one as a WR and one as special teams. The team who had him as a WR would get one TD and the Atlanta DST would get the other 6 pts. NOTE 2: If a coach goes down with a medical problem (i.e. New England in '92), the assistant takes over in the RAFFLE roster. This means that you're drafting for the overall record of the team rather than the record of that specific coach. NOTE 3: In the event of a tie, the non-starters are compared with the higher-scoring of the two getting the "W" for the game. The next two tb's are the combined return yards for the starting DSTs and the team with the highest scoring starter. 9) Scheduling ============================================================= There are nine divisions across the three leagues. League I consists of the Sisko, Kira, and Dax divisions; League II has the Picard, Riker, and Data divisions; and League III has the Kirk, Spock, and Scott divisions. The RAFFLE regular season is during weeks 1-14. Weeks 15-17 are devoted to the RAFFLE playoffs. See the files at the FTP site for each League's schedule. Playoffs: The top eight teams will be going to the playoffs. They will be seeded 1 to 8 based on record (with the usual tie-breakers applied as needed). When one of these teams loses, they will play another team that lost at the same level that week. (This keeps everyone playing for something until the very end.) The last four teams will play each other. After the three weeks, they will be ranked by their records during the "mini-tourney". 10) Standings ============================================================= Standings will be decided by looking at (in this order): Overall record Points for (most points) Head-to-head Conference record Points against (most points) Coin toss (witnessed by as much of the competition committee as possible) By the time the end of the season rolls around, we probably won't have to drop below the head-to-head line--but you never know! 11) Weekly summaries ====================================================== Every week, I will post the following information: Standings for the week Final scores for the week Trades/transactions from the week Next week's games The order for waiver wire activity for this coming week (when there are trade windows) 12) Unresponsive Ownership ================================================ If an owner is not heard from by the commissioner for four consecutive weeks, the commissioner will send a note to the owner (cc'ing the competi- tion committee members) asking whether the owner wishes to maintain owner- rship of the team. If a NO is returned (or no response within three days), the commissioner becomes the temporary owner of the team until an owner is found (via Usenet). If a YES is returned, the owner maintains ownership of the team. If a second four-week period elapses with no communication from the same owner, the commissioner automatically takes over temporary ownership until a new owner is found. The only exception is when the owner lets the commissioner know that he/she will be away from the computer for an extended period of time (a couple of weeks or more) and not have access to Internet and/or necessary the RAFFLE materials. 13) FTP =================================================================== There is an FTP site for football information at vnet.net. It contains NFL, fantasy football, and RAFFLE information. All posts will be available for those times you accidentally rm the files. :) If you have requests for information you wish to see at the site send me some mail and I'll see what I can do to take care of it. Likewise, if you have information you wish to contribute, don’t hesitate to put it in the football/incoming directory. 14) Miscellaneous information ============================================= There is no monetary requirement for this league. We are a league that believes in being run by the owners. In pursuing this course, we have a Competition Committee that meets about twice a year to tweek the rules. Any owner can submit a proposal to be considered. I am always open to changes in the rules, but the discussion will always be done during the off-season. The Competition Committee members are: John M. Troan League I --- Trouncers troan@vnet.net Mark Mickunas League I --- Thunderbirds usbwc2cc@ibmmail.com Allen Wiles League II -- Airballers gambit@vnet.net Brent Witzgall League III - Yankees bawitzga@eos.ncsu.edu Eric Witzgall League II -- Warlords eawitzga@eos.ncsu.edu If you have any questions, feel free to drop me Email. (I check my mail at least once a day while I'm in town.)