League Rules

Pan American League Rule Book

I     General

A.     These will serve to be the official rules for AF International's Pan-American League (PanAm)

B.     Rule/Settings Lock Date

    1. At a date TBD before the draft, both the rules on this rules page and the settings at the hosting site’s league home will be “LOCKED” and will not change until the following offseason
      1. Coaches will be notified of this both before the Lock Date and at the time rules/settings are locked
      2. No changes will be made to settings after this date under any circumstances even if particular settings have been mistakenly set up in a way that is unintended

C.     For anything not covered in these rules, please refer to the League Settings page at LeagueHosting Site

    1. Should there be ANY discrepancy between the rules contained therein on this rules page and the rules listed in the hosting site’s League Settings, either in description or in function, the Hosting Site’s settings will supercede

D.     All arbitration of League Rules to be arbitrated solely by League Manager (LM)

    1. LM may maintain their own team in the tournament, OR may be listed as a “Co-Owner” of a team, in the event LM is listed as a “Co-Owner” it will only be for the purposes of running the tournament and LM will have no actual control over the team they are Co-Owner of
    2. Should any unforeseen event arise not covered explicitly in the rules, LM will exercise final judgment
    3. Any LM decision that involves LM's team in such a way as to create an advantage - real or perceived - will cause LM's team to be removed from Championship and/or prize money eligibility
    4. This rule applies ONLY if LM is a team owner.  If LM is a Co-Owner, that team will not be effected by this rule
II     Format

A.     10 teams, 2 Divisions, Redraft, Paid Entry

B.    Teams will be divided into 2 Divisions of 5 teams each

C.    Teams must follow the naming conventions of using a city/region name followed by a mascot or teamname

III     Entry Fees and Payouts

A.     The PanAm League is a paid entry/prize payout league

B.     Entry fee is be $40.00(US) per team

    1. $30 entry x 10 teams = $300.00 League Prize Pool
    2. The additional $10 goes into the Federation Prize Pool to be paid out based on rankings within the Federation among all paid entry teams

C.     Payout scale for the League is as follows:

1.   1st place (League Champion) = $150.00(US)

2.   2nd place (League Runner-Up) = $100.00(US)

3.  Regular Season (Wks 1-13) Total Scoring Leader = $50.00(US)

D.     Entries and payouts will be handled through LeagueSafe.com

E.     Deadline for payment will be Aug 1 for returning teams or upon entry for new teams

1.   Late payments are allowed, but be advised that LeagueSafe charges a $10 late fee for payments made after the deadline, and the late fee goes to LeagueSafe, not to the league 

F.    Prize money will not be disbursed until the Friday following Week 17 of the NFL Regular Season

IV     Rosters

A.     Roster Set

    1. PanAm will use the AF Arena Roster Set
    2. AF Arena Roster Set:

 

B.   Team Rosters will have slots for a maximum of 17 Active Players with 0 slots for Injured Reserve Players

    1. This includes slots for 11 Starting Players and a Bench of 6 Players
    2. Teams are allowed to carry fewer than a full 17 player roster
    3. Position Maximums will be in effect

C.     Position Maximums

1.  There are no ‘Position Maximums’

2.   There are no ‘Position Minimums’

V     Draft

A.     Draft held live online, anually on a date and time TBD

1.   The 2020 Draft will be live online on TBD at TBD

B.     Draft will be serpentine style, 17 rounds in length

C.     120 seconds are allotted for each pick

E.     Draft order is determined by descending order of previous season‘s total regular season points totals

1.   Highest Regular Season points total, gets 1st pick; second highest Regular Season points total gets 2nd pick; and so on

2.   If there is 1 new team replacing a non-returning team, draft position for  the new team will be the position earned by the vacating team based on their prior season points total

3.   If there are multiple new teams replacing non-returning teams, draft position for new teams will be determined by the following:

      1. The Draft Order Generator at FF Toolbox.com will be used
      2. All new teams will be entered into the generator, and it will randomize a draft order (1 thru the total number of new teams) for those teams and email the teams a copy of the order for verification
      3. The team drawing the #1 pick from the Draft Order Generator will assume the draft position of the highest picking non-returning team; the team drawing the #2 pick will assume the draft position of the next highest non-returning team; and so on
      4. This will not affect the draft slots of any returning teams who will retain their draft slot based on their prior season regular season points finish
VI     Scoring

A.     Offensive Scoring Settings

    1. PanAm will use the AF Rally Offensive Scoring Package
    2. NOTE: The AF Rally Offensive Scoring Package has been revised in the 2019-20 Offseason.  Changes are as follows:
      • Passing Completions/Incompletions changed from +1/-1 to Completion Percentage: 60.00-74.99% = 4 points; >=75.00% = 7 points
      • Passing Yardage changed from 1pt/30yds to 1pt/25yds
      • Receiving Yardage changed from 1pt/15yds to 1pt/10yds
    3. AF Rally Offensive Scoring Package:

B.     Defensive Scoring Settings

    1. PanAm will use the AF Nickel Team Defense Scoring Package
    2. AF Nickel Team Defense Scoring Package:

 

 

VII     Free Agency and Trading

A.     Waivers

    1. Waivers are “Revolving”, meaning waiver priority order will not reset, with franchises moving to last after a successful claim but maintaing their position in the order if no claim or an unsuccessful claim is made
      1. Initial Waiver PriorityOrder will be set as the inverse order of the first round of that season’s draft
    2. Waiver Period will be 2 days
    3. Players lock at individual game time

B.     Trading

    1. There is no Trade Deadline
    2. Trades are subject to Team Owner Review with a 4 day trade reject time
    3. Any combination of personel may be packaged into a trade deal
      1. Roster Size limitations must be observed
    4. No Trading of Draft Picks is allowed
VIII     Schedule/Regular Season

A.     Regular Season will be held in Weeks 1-13

    1. Teams will play a randomized round robin schedule within their division in weeks 1-4 in which all teams in each division will play all other teams within their division one time
    2. Teams will play a randomized round robin schedule of teams outside of their division in weeks 5-9 in which all teams in the league will play all teams outside of their division once each
    3. Teams will play a randomized round robin schedule within their division in weeks 10-13 in which all teams in each division will play all other teams within their division one time
IX    Playoffs

A.     Qualifying

    1. 4 teams will qualify for post season play as follows:
      • The 1st place team (by standings) in the East Division (tiebreakers apply)
      • The 1st place team (by standings) in the West Division (tiebreakers apply)
      • The highest ranked (by standings) team among all 8 remaining teams, irrespective of division (tiebreakers apply)
      • The team with the highest Regular Season (Wks 1-13) Points Total among all 7 remaining teams

B.     Seeding

    1. The number 1 ranked team overall (by standings, tiebreakers apply) at the conclusion of the Regular Season (Wks 1-13) will be seeded #1 and receives the option of choosing their Playoff First Round opponent from among the other 3 qualifying Playoff Teams
    2. The remaining pair of teams will face each other in the Playoff First Round

C.     Gameplay

    1. Round 1 of the playoffs will be a two-week, cumulative points match in weeks 14 and 15 in which the total scores of teams over both weeks are combined to produce the results of Round 1 at the conclusion of Week 15
    2. The two winners will advance to Round 2/League Championship\
    3. Round 2/League Championship of the playoffs will be a two-week, cumulative points match in weeks 15 and 16 in which the total scores of teams over both weeks are combined to produce the results of the Championship at the conclusion of Week 17
    4. The winner will be named League Champion and will receive the League Champion Payout
    5. The losing team will be named League Runner-Up and will receive the League Runner-Up payout

X     Tiebreakers

A.     Individual Match-ups are allowed to end in ties

B.     Order of tiebreakers for standings’ ties in the regular season is as follows:

    1. Division Record
    2. Total Season Points
    3. Total Division points
    4. Head-to-head record
    5. Head-to-head cumulative points
    6. Total, combined FLEX position points in head-to-head matches
    7. Total, combined FLEX position points in Weeks 1-13
    8. Total kicking points in head-to-head matches
    9. Total kicking points in Weeks 1-13
    10. Total TEAM DEF points in head-to-head matches
    11. Total TEAM DEF points in Weeks 1-13
    12. Coin Flip

NOTE: Division Record will be sorted and ranked in the standings automatically by the hosting site using the NFL’s standings tiebreaker method which includes methodology for breaking ties when more than two teams have a standings tie (NFL method)

C.     Tiebreakers for individual match-up ties in the playoffs  are: 

    1. Total combined QB points (both weeks for playoff matches)
    2. Total FLEX position points (both weeks for playoff matches)
    3. Highest total number of TDs scored in match (both weeks for playoff matches )(all positions and all forms of TD)
    4. Total passing yards (both weeks for playoff matches )
    5. Total rushing yards (both weeks for playoff matches)
    6. Total receiving yards (both weeks for playoff matches)
    7. Total Kicker position points (both weeks for playoff matches)
    8. Total number of field goals kicked (both weeks for playoff matches)
    9. Longest field goal kicked
    10. If still tied, coin flip will determine outcome and winner will be astericked in the record book