League Rules

WFL Rules Page Masthead

NOTE: 2020 Rules changes appear in GREEN text

Rules Directory:

I     General

A.     These will serve to be the official rules for AF’s World Fantasy League (World League)

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 (SEE Sec I.C.1)

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

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

    1. Should any unforeseen event arise not covered explicitly in the rules, LM will exercise final judgment
    2. Any LM decision that involves LM’s team will cause LM’s team to be removed from Championship eligibility

E.     League will be hosted on NFL.com

II     Format

A.     12 Teams, Dynasty

    1. Teams will be aligned geographically into two conferences (East and West) of 6 teams each
    2. Dynasty Rules, SEE Sec  V.B
III     Entry Fees and Payouts

A.    AF's World League is a free entry – non payout league

IV   Draft

A.     World League Drafts will be conducted as a long-running email draft through MyFantasyLeague.com at a start date/time annually TBD approximately beginning in the third week of the NFL preseason

    1. Teams will be required to follow provided links and register for the draft league on MyFantasyLeague.com in order to participate in the draft
      1. Any team that does not register for the email draft will have their draft selections determined by autopick

B.     Draft will be linear (1-12, 1-12, 1-12, etc) and 10 rounds in length (not including any supplemental rounds)

C.    Draft Order will be determined by inverse order of previous season's standings (NFL formula)

D.     The Pick Timer for the email draft will be set to 10 hours per selection

    1. Teams that exceed the 10 hour timer will have their selection autodrafted
    2. Exceeding the 10 hour timer 2 times in any given draft may cause a team to be locked out and have their draft finished by autoselect 
V     Rosters and Keepers

A.     Rosters

    1. Team Rosters will have slots for a maximum of 16 Active Players with 2 additional slots for Injured Reserve Players
      1. Teams are allowed to carry fewer than a full 16/18 player roster
      2. Starting Line-Ups will have spots for 10 players, leaving a Bench with 6 slots, not counting Reserve (SEE Sec V.A.4. Starting Line-Up)
    2. Injured Reserve
      1. The 2 Reserve Slots on the roster are position options that allow an injured or suspended player to be kept on a team but not count as a bench spot
      2. Players are eligible for the Reserved slot if they are officially labeled by their NFL team as:
        1. IR: Injured Reserve
        2. NON: Non Football Related Injured Reserve
        3. SUS: Suspended
        4. PUP: Physically Unable to Perform
        5. EXE: Exempt
      3. A player may be moved back to the Active Roster from the Reserve position at any time, but in order for a reserved player to be moved back to the roster, the roster must have an open space for him
    3. Position Limits
      1. There are no Position Maximum restrictions for teams to adhere to
      2. There are no Position Minimum requirements for teams to adhere to
    4. Starting Line-Up:

B.     Keepers

    1. Teams will have the option to select 6 Keepers annually in the preseason corresponding to the following positions:
    3. Teams may keep fewer than their allotted 6 keepers if they choose
      1. Teams that keep fewer than the allotted 6 keepers will be compensated with an additional draft pick(s) in a round(s) added to the end of the draft
      2. If multiple teams opt to keep fewer than their allotted number of Keeper Players, compensatory draft picks will be awarded according to the draft order
      3. If teams have multiple keeper positions to fill in the draft, the compensatory picks will come one additional round at a time, interspersed with the picks of any other teams awarded compensatory picks, all within draft order
    4. Teams may select their keeper players from the previous end-of-season roster OR from any player acquired by trade during the Pre-Season Trading Period (SEE Sec VIII.C  )
    5. The deadline for naming Keepers for the upcoming season - Keeper Lock-In Date - will be 72 hours prior to the start of the draft
    6. Keeper players may be dropped during the course of the season
    7. Keeper players may be traded
    8. Keeper players may be placed on Reserve
    9. In the following off-season, when keeper players are selected, teams may either keep or change any of their 6 keepers from the previous season
VI    Scoring

A.     Offensive Scoring Settings

    1. World League will use the AF STANDARD Offensive Scoring Package
    2. AF STANDARD Offensive Scoring Set:

B.     Team Defense Scoring Settings

    1. World League will use the AF STANDARD Team Defense Scoring Package
    2. AF STANDARD Team Defense Scoring Package:

VII   Free Agency

A.     World League Free Agency will be conducted through the use of Waivers

    1. Waivers are “Revolving”, meaning waiver priority order will not reset, with teams moving to last after a successful claim but maintaining their position in the order if no claim or an unsuccessful claim is made
    2.   Initial Waiver Priority Order will be set as the inverse order of the first round of that season’s draft
    3. Waiver Period will be 2 days
    4. Players lock at individual game time
    5. Dropped players go immediately to waivers
    6. Once the waiver period has expired, players become open Free Agents until locking at their individual game time
VIII    Trading

A.     There will be two seperate trading periods, In-Season Trading and Pre-Season Trading in which players AND draft picks may be traded

B.     In-Season Trading

    1. Any player(s) and/or draft picks may be combined in trade packages for In-Season Trading.  See SECs D & E below for any restrictions.
    2. Trading of Players 
      1. May be conducted through normal hosting site protocals at any point between the conclusion of the draft and the conclusion of the season (no trade deadline)
      2. Any Player, (including Keeper Players and players on Reserve status) may be involved in any trade.
      3. Trades will undergo League Review (vote by team owner) with a 2 day Review Period
    3. Draft Picks
      1.  In-Season Trades involving any Trading of Draft Picks may be conducted through commissioner action when BOTH trading partners contact the commissioner by email
      2. Commissioner will dispatch details of the trade to all franchise owners by email and trade will then undergo League Review (email vote by team owner) with a 2 day Review Period

C.     Pre-Season Trading

    1.  The period of Pre-Season trading will be conducted at any point between July 1 and 72 hours prior to the Keeper Lock-In Date (72 hours prior to start of the draft) (SEE Sec V.B.4)
    2.  Any player(s) on a team's prior season roster OR any round(s) draft pick in the upcoming OR following season draft OR any combination thereof may be traded during Pre-Season Trading
    3.  The process for conducting a Pre-Season Trade is as follows:
      1. Terms of the trade, including player(s) and/or draft picks involved must be emailed to commissioner by BOTH TRADING PARTNERS
      2. Once the above conditions have been met, Commissioner will dispatch details of the pending trade to all franchise owners by email
      3. Once the email is posted, trade will have a 48 hour window in which any other team may offer a counter-offer to either party in the transaction
        1. Either trade party may quash the trade to accept an offered counter, but MAY NOT back out of the trade otherwise once the trade has been announced and the 48 hour countdown has begun.
      4. An accepted counter-offer to a trade will involve the same process as the original trade:  terms must be emailed and posted; commissioner will issue an emailed notice to the league, and a new 48 hour countdown will begin during which the counter-offer may also be countered by any team.
      5. If a counter-offer to a trade causes a 48 hour countdown to carry over into the 72 hour period before the Keeper Lock-In Date, trade (and countdown) will proceed, BUT the 48 hour time limit for counter-offers to be made MAY be shortened at commissioner's discrestion.

D.     Restrictions on Trading Players

    1. Rosters Must Remain Legal through all trading, meaning that rosters may not exceed the League roster size (number of players)
    2. Lopsided trading (2 players for 1, 1 player for draft pick, etc) IS allowed, however, teams CANNOT exceed total allowed roster size either In-Season or Pre-Season
    3. If lopsided trading causes a team to exceed the roster limit in an In-Season trade, the team exceeding the limit must either drop a player from their roster or place a player on Reserve status
    4. If lopsided trading causes a team to exceed the roster limit in a Pre-Season (off season) trade, the team exceeding the limit must announce AT THE TIME OF THE TRANSACTION which player from their prior season roster they intend to 'drop'.  This will cause that player to be unavailable to be named as a Keeper

E.     Restrictions on Trading Draft Picks

    1. Whether performed as part of a Pre-Season Trade or an In-Season Trade, the trading of draft picks will conform to the following parameters:
      1. Trades DO NOT neccessarily have to involve players, but may involve any combination of player(s) and eligible draft pick(s)
      2. ONLY DRAFT PICKS IN THE CURRENT OR FOLLOWING SEASON may be traded; if the current season's draft has already passed that means that only the following season's picks may be traded
      3. Traded Draft picks may involve picks from any round of the draft (not including supplemental rounds)
      4. All teams will always have the same total number of picks in any given draft, therefore, any team that acquires a draft pick (or picks) through trade will forfeit an equal number of picks from the final round(s) of the draft in which the acquired picks are a part of, AND any team that trades away a draft pick will acquire a supplemental pick AFTER the final round of the draft (including supplemental rounds) in which their pick was traded away.  Whenever multiple picks are traded by a team (or teams) within the same draft, supplemental picks will be awarded in the overall order of the original picks that were traded away and in correspondence to the draft order
IX    Schedule

A.     Regular season will be Weeks 1-14

B.     Week 1

    1. For week 1, teams in each conference will be ranked 1-6 , based on previous season's regular season conference standings.
      1. Any team in it's first year will take the ranking generated by the team whose slot the new team fills
    2. Match-ups for teams will be conference vs conference games, based on those rankings as follows:
      • #1 vs #1
      • #2 vs #2
      • #3 vs #3
      • #4 vs #4
      • #5 vs #5
      • #6 vs #6

C.     Weeks 2 and 3

    1. For weeks 2 and 3, teams in each conference will be ranked 1-6 , based on previous season's regular season conference standings.
      1. Any team in it's first year will take the ranking generated by the team whose slot the new team fills
    2. Match-ups for teams will be in-conference games, based on those rankings as follows:
    3. Week 2:
      1. #1 vs #4
      2. #2 vs #3
      3. #5 vs #6
    4. Week 3
      1. #1 vs #6
      2. #2 vs #5
      3. #3 vs #4

C.     Weeks 4-9

    1. Teams will play a randomized out-of-conference single round robin schedule in weeks 3-8 in which each team in each conference will play every team in the opposing conference once

D.     Weeks 10-14

    1. Teams will play a randomized in-conference single round robin schedule in weeks 9-13 in which each team in each conference will play every team in their own conference once
X    Playoffs

A.     Playoffs will be Weeks 15-17 with 6 teams qualifying

B.     3 teams from each conference will qualify for the playoffs and will be placed into opposite arms of the playoff bracket, guaranteeing a conference vs conference championship

C.     Seeding will be as follows:

    1. The top team by standings in each Conference will receive the #1 seed for their conference and a first round bye for Week 15
    2. The second place teams by standings in each Conference will make the playoffs as seed #2 for their conference
    3.  The teams with the highest season points total of the remaining 4 teams in each conference will earn their Conference Wildcard slot and be seed #3 for their conference
    4. The #2 seeds will play the #3 seeds in each conference in Week 15
    5. The Winners of Week 15 will play their Conference #1 seed in week 16 for the Conference Championship
    6. The winners of the Conference Championships will play in the World Bowl in Week 17

D.     (Beginning with the 2021 playoff season) Teams that do not make the playoffs will be automatically seeded by NFL.com into a consolation bracket to coincide to the playoffs

    1. (Beginning with the 2022 draft) The winner of this Consolation Bracket will receive a Supplemental Draft Pick between the first and second round (overall #13) in the following season

E.     For league stat-keeping purposes, teams that do not make the playoffs are considered to be idle/eliminated for the remainder of the season and will have  no stats produced for playoff weeks

    1. The above rule will also apply to playoff teams that have been eliminated from the playoffs in all weeks following the week in which they were eliminated
XI    Tiebreakers

A.     Individual Match-ups are allowed to end in ties (except for playoff matches)

B.     Standings Tiebreaker progression is as follows:

  1. Total season points
  2. Head to head record
  3. Total head to head points
  4. Total FLEX position points in head-to-head matches
  5. Total FLEX position points in Weeks 1-13
  6. Total kicking points in head-to-head matches
  7. Total kicking points in Weeks 1-13
  8. Total TEAM DEF points in head-to-head matches
  9. Total TEAM DEF points in Weeks 1-13
  10. Coin Flip

C.     Tiebreaker Progression for individual games of the Playoffs (except Championship) are as follows:

  1. FLEX position points
  2. Kicker position points
  3. TEAM DEF position points
  4. Total, combined RB position points (does not include RBs starting at FLEX)
  5. QB position points
  6. Total, combined TE position points (does not include TEs starting at FLEX)
  7. Total, combined WR position points (does not include WRs starting at FLEX)
  8. Team with highest total number of receptions among starting WRs (includes WRs starting at FLEX)
  9. Team with highest total number of TDs among starting RBs (includes RBs starting at FLEX)
  10. Team with highest total, combined passing yards at QB position
  11. Team with longest successful Field Goal attempt among starting kickers
  12. Team with highest total, combined sacks at starting TEAM DEF position
  13. Coin flip

D.     If Championship game is tied it will use Playoff Tiebreakers above 1-12, and if still tied after #12 the Championship will be shared

XII     Awards

A.     The Atlas Trophy

    1. The Atlas Trophy will be awarded each year to the winner of the World Bowl/League Champion

B.     Conference Championship Trophies

    1. Conference Championship Trophies will be awarded to the #1 team (by standings) in each conference

C.     MVT Award

    1. The Most Valuable Team Award will be awarded annually
    2. Criteria:
      1. "All-Conference Players" will be determined by building a hypothetical starting line-up for each conference using the top available player from conference teams to fill each starting line-up position
      2. Each Teams' roster will be analyzed and given a "Roster Power Rating" based their players' total scoring rank as follows:
        • 5 points for each "All-Conference Player" on team roster
        • 3 points for all rostered players that finish in the top 5 by individual position
        • 2 points for all rostered players that finish at #1 by position
        • 1 point for RBs and WRs that finish in the top 10 by position but outside of the top 5
        • (NOTE: points are counted for all of  the above categories combined that they register for each player)
        • Total season scoring by team is ranked 1-12 and each team gets the inverse of their rank added to their Power Rating (1st gets 12 points, 2nd gets 11 points, etc)
      3. The Roster Power Ratings for all 12 teams are then ranked, and the team with the highest Roster Power Rating is awarded the MVT Award

D.     Coach of the Year Award

    1. The Coach of the Year Award is given each year to the Team's Coach with the highest "Coach Rating"
    2. Coach Rating formula is as follows:
      • Actual Points divided by Potential Points

 

Appendix A: Covid and the 2020 and 2021 Season

A.     Keepers

    1. Any team with a player on their 2019 end of season roster who opts out of the 2020 NFL season for reason of covid will retain the rights to that player
      1. A team wishing to retain the rights to a player that opts out of the season, must contact the commissioner with the name(s) of the player(s) in question
      2. Commissioner will then add that player to the team's 2020 end of year rosters so that the individual team will have access to the player in the following season

B.     In Season Covid Circumstances

    1. One additional IR spot has been added to the roster for the 2020 season to assist owners in roster management vis-a-vie covid
    2. Should the commissioner decide it has become neccessary, more IR spots may be added during the season
    3. This, and any additional, added IR spot(s) will be removed for the 2021 season