This rulebook is the result of the fine work and thoughtful contributions of many individuals since 1995, hereby recognized and gratefully remembered.
Every week each SAFFL fantasy team will be matched up head-to-head against another SAFFL team. A SAFFL team scores points in a fantasy game when players on the SAFFL team, who've been designated as starters, score points in real NFL games that week. A fantasy game is won by the SAFFL team with the most points.
After a regular season of fantasy games, qualifying SAFFL teams engage in a playoff to determine a league champion for the season. The league champion will be awarded possession of the Sparty Cup for one year.
ESPN Fantasy Football will serve as the data management site for SAFFL. As such, ESPN provides features and constraints that will be utilized to support SAFFL operation.
Owners will be responsible for managing their own teams and submitting team roster and lineup information as described in these rules.
The Thomas Marquis Rule: No person shall be constrained from assisting any SAFFL team or owner unless that person has an explicit agreement with a SAFFL team specifying constraints, and that agreement has been approved by the League Office and distributed to all owners. (In other words, it's OK to be nice and support your fellow owners.)
The commissioner and assistants, collectively referred to as the league office, will provide the necessary organization, communication, and support functions required to set-up and execute SAFFL games, along with other activities described herein.
SAFFL seasons will begin August 1st of every year, and end one week after the completion of the NFL regular season (late December/early January). The league office will be open only during this period.
SAFFL assumes the all owners operate to competitively better their respective teams. If circumstances arise where a team significantly fails to do so, the commissioner may act to correct the situation.
An owners meeting will be held within the first two weeks of a season to review and plan SAFFL operations, changes, rules, and activities.
Owners present at the annual Owners' Meeting will form the 'Rules Committee' for the forthcoming season. This committee will support the commissioner during the season in interpreting rules as needed.
Owners may change any rule through a vote. Voting rules are as follows:
(1) Any team owner, or the commissioner, may initiate a new rule proposal. A proposal will be sent to ballot if at least 4 owners commit to supporting it. Balloting will be open for 1 week.
(2) All preseason proposals must be approved by 75% of team owners. For voting purposes, the SAFFL preseason extends from August 1st until the start of the NFL regular season.
(3) All in-season proposals must be approved by 75% of all team owners, with zero dissenting (NO) votes. If an owner fails to vote or abstains, the vote must not be counted for or against.
(4) The commissioner may veto any proposal.
(5) The commissioner may during the course of a season issue rulings or establish regulations which deal with subjects unaddressed by this document, or are addressed and ambiguous. These rulings and regulations will be codified or rescinded the following season as appropriate.
SAFFL is designed to operate with minimum of 4 teams, a maximum of 20 teams, as allowed by ESPN.
Each SAFFL team is managed by an owner or co-owners. ESPN allows official designation of up to 2 owners per team, each with equal power of roster control.
SAFFL teams may designate additional titles to owners to clarify roles to be recognized within SAFFL.
A SAFFL team, owner willing, will continue from season-to-season.
If a team wishes to cease operations, its players/coach will be released to league pools and its rights assumed by the league.
If a team wishes to transfer ownership, its resources will be maintained. Ownership transfers must be approved by the commissioner and a majority of owners.
New teams may also join via an expansion process. Expansion team entry must be specified in a league voting proposal, and approved as rules require. Rules on expansion teams rights are included in appropriate clauses of this rulebook. Additional rules may be specified in the expansion voting proposal.
SAFFL teams will be grouped into a single conference.
Each team will play at least 14 regular season games. These regular season games will occur during weeks 1 through 15 of the NFL season. If there are an odd number of SAFFL teams, each team will have one week off (on bye). If there are an even number of teams, an extra 15th game will take place.
Scheduling will attempt to have every SAFFL team play every other team at least once, subject to the number of teams.
If byes are to be scheduled, they will be done so in an equitable manner.
Any two SAFFL teams may request that they be scheduled to play each other in a rivalry game during the last week of the regular season. This week is known as 'Rivals Week'.
The league office will publish a detailed schedule via ESPN in advance of the first regular season game.
After the end of the regular season (week 15), the top eight teams in the standings will advance to the playoffs.
Regular season standings are decided first by won-loss record, then head-to-head match-up, then most total points scored, then most total points against, then finally a coin-toss.
A regular season tie is considered a half-win, half-loss.
There will be three rounds of playoffs, to be held during the last three weeks of the NFL regular season.
The playoff qualifiers will be matched up in four 'Elite Eight' matches during NFL week 16.
The winners from the Elite Eight will play in two 'Final Four' matches during NFL week 17.
The winners from the Final Four will compete in the 'Sparty Bowl' for the SAFFL championship during NFL week 18 (the last week of the NFL regular season).
In each round, top seed plays bottom seed, second highest seed plays second lowest seed, etc. A team retains its seeding throughout every round of the playoffs.
Head coaches are not designated by name per ESPN, but rather by team.
Players/coaches used in SAFFL are classified into one of the following pools:
Active pool - on a SAFFL team roster;
Draft pool - available to be drafted;
Free agent pool - available to be added to SAFFL roster anytime;
Ineligible pool - unavailable to be added to SAFFL roster.
At season start, players/coaches are either in the active or draft pools.
Upon draft completion, the draft pool is closed and all players/coaches not on a SAFFL roster are moved to the free agent pool. During the season, players/coaches move between active and free agent pools as SAFFL teams make personnel decisions. Later in the season, after the trading deadline, players/coaches cut or released from a SAFFL roster enter the ineligible pool.
For brevity, coaches (or the head coach position) will also be referred to as 'players' unless explicitly stated.
Each SAFFL team may have a maximum roster of 36 players.
SAFFL rosters consist of three parts: starters (22), bench (12), and injured reserve (2).
For every SAFFL game during the season, a SAFFL team designates 22 starters by position that contribute to the SAFFL team's score.
All non-starters on SAFFL team rosters can either be kept on bench or injured reserve. These players do not contribute to SAFFL team scores.
Only players designated by ESPN as qualified for injured reserved can be moved to a SAFFL team's injured reserve. These are players marked with an 'O' (out) or 'IR' (injured reserve) designation on ESPN.
Players will be designated by ESPN as to the position(s) they are eligible for.
A head coach is considered a player for roster purposes, and is identified within ESPN by NFL team. If a coach is replaced in the NFL, no change occurs from an ESPN perspective, and no change occurs within SAFFL.
The quantity and positions of each team's 22 starters must be:
OFFENSE (11)
DEFENSE (11)
Bench and injured reserves can be players from any position.
There are no limits per position for bench and injured reserve players.
Owners are expected to manage their weekly starting lineups via the ESPN website.
Players can be moved between starting, bench, and injured reserve slots up until kickoff time of a player's NFL game.
All teams can view all other team lineups in real-time. ESPN will show which players are locked into slots due to their NFL games having started.
Scoring will be done automatically by ESPN in real-time.
ESPN Fantasy Football is the official source for all SAFFL scores.
Many different factors contribute to player, and thus SAFFL team scores.
The factors, and their weighted contribution to scoring, have been tuned such that these objectives are achieved:
A SAFFL team's final score for a regular-season game will be the sum of its individual starters scores. If a game ends with both teams having the same score, the game is declared a tie.
Passing Every 5 pass completions (PC5) 4 TD Pass (PTD) 3 40+ yard TD pass bonus (PTD40) 5 50+ yard TD pass bonus (PTD50) 7 Interceptions Thrown (INT) -10 2pt Passing Conversion (2PC) 1 300-399 yard passing game (P300) 7 400+ yard passing game (P400) 15 Sacked (SK) -1 Rushing Every 5 rush attempts (RA10) 2 TD Rush (RTD) 6 40+ yard TD rush bonus (RTD40) 4 50+ yard TD rush bonus (RTD50) 5 2pt Rushing Conversion (2PR) 2 100-199 yard rushing game (RY100) 6 200+ yard rushing game (RY200) 25 Receiving Each reception (REC) 3 TD Reception (RETD) 6 40+ yard TD rec bonus (RETD40) 4 50+ yard TD rec bonus (RETD50) 5 2pt Receiving Conversion (2PRE) 2 100-199 yard receiving game (REY100) 2 200+ yard receiving game (REY200) 10 Kicking Each PAT Made (PAT) 1 Each PAT Missed (PATM) -8 FG Made (0-39 yards) (FG0) 3 FG Made (40-49 yards) (FG40) 9 FG Made (50-59 yards) (FG50) 20 FG Made (60+ yards) (FG60) 33 FG Missed (0-39 yards) (FGM0) -6 FG Missed (40-49 yards) (FGM40) -4 FG Missed (50-59 yards) (FGM50) 5 FG Missed (60+ yards) (FGM60) 9 Punting Punts Inside the 10 (PT10) 9 Punts Inside the 20 (PT20) 4 Blocked Punts (PTB) -18 Punts Returned (PTR) -5 Touchbacks (PTTB) 3 Fair Catches (PTFC) 4 Punt Average 44.0+ (PTA44) 4 Punt Average 42.0-43.9 (PTA42) 2 Punt Average 40.0-41.9 (PTA40) 1 Defensive Players 1/2 Sack (HALFSK) 6 Every 3 Total Tackles (TK3) 2 Blocked Punt, PAT or FG (BLKK) 20 Each Interception (INT) 13 Each Fumble Recovered (FR) 10 Each Fumble Forced (FF) 14 Each Safety (SF) 2 Stuffs (ST) 12 Passes Defensed (PD) 9 Miscellaneous Kickoff Return TD (KRTD) 6 Punt Return TD (PRTD) 6 Fumble Recovered for TD (FTD) 6 Total Fumbles (FUM) -4 Total Fumbles Lost (FUML) -8 Interception Return TD (INTTD) 6 Fumble Return TD (FRTD) 6 Blocked Punt or FG return for TD (BLKKRTD) 6 2pt Return (2PTRET) 25 1pt Safety (1PSF) 100 Head Coach Team Win (TW) 7 Team Tie (TIE) 4 25+ point Win Margin (WM25) 35 20-24 point Win Margin (WM20) 28 15-19 point Win Margin (WM15) 21 10-14 point Win Margin (WM10) 14 5-9 point Win Margin (WM5) 7 1-4 point Loss Margin (LM1) 3 5-9 point Loss Margin (LM5) 2 10-14 point Loss Margin (LM15) 1 20-24 point Loss Margin (LM20) -2 25+ point Loss Margin (LM25) -6
Scoring will be the same for the playoff games as the regular season with one addition. Teams will be given "handicap" points based upon their seeding in the playoffs.
Eight teams qualify for the SAFFL playoffs, with single-elimination games conducted over three rounds. Here are the handicaps that would be granted to the higher seeds in each round.
Round 1 (Elite Eight Round) -
The team receiving the handicap chooses either a larger fixed handicap or a smaller handicap along with a "12th man": #1 seed ... (+35 points) OR (+30 points plus one player) #2 seed ... (+25 points) OR (+20 points plus one player) #3 seed ... (+15 points) OR (+10 points plus one player) #4 seed ... (+ 5 points) OR ( +0 points plus one player) No other seeds add or subtract points.
Round 2 (Final Four Round) -
Again, the team receiving the handicap will choose which handicap they prefer: top seed .. (+15 points) OR (+10 points plus one player) 2nd seed .. (+ 5 points) OR ( +0 points plus one player) No other seeds add or subtract points.
Round 3 (Sparty Bowl) -
No handicaps will be employed.
If a team does not designate a handicap choice before the first NFL game of the week, the default will be the larger fixed handicap.
If a playoff game ends with both teams having the same score, the higher seeded team will be declared the game winner.
Fixed handicap points will be added to SAFFL team scores before weekly NFL games begin. Variable points from players will be added after the player's NFL game has ended, and verified/updated before SAFFL game scores are declared final.
Game results will be computed by ESPN and published in real-time.
ESPN is the official source of all player scores.
ESPN may automatically correct a players score up to several days after completion of the last weekly NFL game.
During the first 14 weeks of the regular season, ESPN scoring corrections that occur are accepted by SAFFL and may alter weekly SAFFL team scores and game outcomes.
Beginning with Rivals Week (week 15) and continuing through the playoffs, SAFFL game results are considered final as of 9:00am Eastern Time the morning after all NFL games for the week have been completed. Scoring corrections that ESPN may produce later in the week will not affect which SAFFL teams have been declared winners of their games and can progress in the playoffs. This includes the final championship SAFFL game, the Sparty Bowl.
Team rosters and rights are considered to carryover from season-to-season. A teams' roster at the end of a season will become the teams' initial roster for the following season. Also, teams retain rights to draft picks or other resources acquired in an earlier season.
Carryover may not span more than two (2) seasons. For example, draft picks no more than 1 year in advance of the current season may be exchanged in a trade.
A fictional currency, Sparty Bucks, will be made available to support player transactions. ESPN tracks this as a team's 'Free Agent Budget'.
Each SAFFL team will be budgeted 1000 Sparty Bucks at the beginning of every season.
ESPN provides a mechanism for teams to offer an amount per free agent claim that is used to prioritize claims. When making a free agent claim, a SAFFL team will specify the amount it is willing to pay for that free agent. If the acquisition is successful, that amount is automatically deducted from the SAFFL team's budget.
Every SAFFL team must choose to be exclusively affiliated with a single NFL team. NFL affiliation provides two benefits:
A SAFFL team automatically retains its NFL Affiliate across seasons.
A SAFFL team may change affiliation at the beginning of a season, but will be restricted from securing the affiliate's rookies in the first season of the new affiliation.
SAFFL teams must notify the commissioner of a new desired affiliation prior to player protection, draft, and acquisition.
If there is contention for an unaffiliated NFL team with another SAFFL team, the commissioner will facilitate resolution as needed.
When a SAFFL team acquires a free agent from its NFL Affiliate, the amount bid for that player will be refunded manually by the SAFFL League Office on Mondays of every week.
A SAFFL team must have at least 5 affiliate players protected on its roster prior to the draft. After the draft there are no minimum or maximum affiliate player limits.
Teams may acquire or remove players from their rosters by executing a transaction. Transaction types are as follows:
PRESEASON
retire - automatic removal of player from roster due to leaving the NFL and ESPN database.
secure - add player from NFL Affiliate team to roster prior to draft;
keep - protect player on roster prior to draft;
draft - selection of player from draft pool;
IN-SEASON
add - pickup a player from the free agent pool and add to roster;
drop - cut a player from roster and send to free agent pool;
trade - exchange of players/resources with another team;
Retirement will occur automatically by ESPN, usually in the off-season.
Securing and protecting players will take place in the week before the draft.
Drafting will take place several days before the start of the NFL regular season.
Drops & adds will be processed during the NFL season automatically by ESPN every day except Mondays, at noon (12pm) Eastern Time.
Trades will be reviewed by the League Office and processed with 24 hours of submission.
Further details about transactions are provided in the following sections.
All NFL players in the ESPN database are available for SAFFL use in a given season.
At the beginning of a season, ESPN adds players entering the NFL to its database, and retires those players no longer expected to return to the NFL.
If a player is on a SAFFL team's roster when retired by ESPN, that player will simply disappear from the roster without notification.
Players dropped after the SAFFL trade deadline (during NFL week 11) will be not be available for free agent claims the rest of the season. The League Office will manually isolate such players by placing them on a utility 'Ineligible Team' and prevent their availability.
SAFFL teams automatically carryover all non-retired players from the prior season.
SAFFL teams may secure free agent players from their NFL Affiliate prior to the draft.
A SAFFL team may submit securing requests to the league office by email/text/voice anytime during the preseason up until 3 days before the draft.
Secured affiliate players will be added to team rosters by the commissioner/League Office. A SAFFL team must ensure open roster slots are available for such players. All secured players will be considered protected for the draft.
Each SAFFL team must protect exactly 20 players prior to the draft. ESPN refers to these protected players as 'keepers'.
Of these 20 players, at least 5 must be from the NFL Affiliate team.
Of these 20 players, all must fit into roster starter slots.
SAFFL owners last day to designate initial protected players (keepers) will be 7 days before the draft.
There will be a 48-hour window after the initial keepers deadline to add any NFL Affiliate players of interest that were cut by other SAFFL teams. The League Office will manually add such players upon owner request.
SAFFL rosters must remain at exactly 20 protected, with at least 5 of them affiliate players and all 20 in starter slots, prior to the draft.
The SAFFL Draft will take place in the week prior to the beginning of the NFL season.
The draft from the available pool of players will complete the stocking of SAFFL team rosters. The draft will proceed until all SAFFL teams have filled their rosters.
All players not on a SAFFL team protected/keeper list will enter the draft pool. The total pool of available players are those provided through ESPN.
Draft order will be as follows. All non-playoff teams will enter the regular draft lottery. Lottery chances will be assigned according to a Fibonacci distribution, where the chances increase in an (n-2)+(n-1) fashion. For example, the non-playoff team with the best record gets 1 chance in the lottery, second best gets 2 chances, third best gets 3 chances, fourth best gets 5 chances, fifth best gets 8 chances, etc.
The winner of the lottery will receive the first pick in the upcoming draft, the runner-up second pick, etc.
Expansion teams will be placed in the draft order after non-playoff teams but before playoff teams. If multiple expansion teams enter the league in a season, their relative draft order will be determined be a separate equal-chance lottery.
Playoff team draft ordering will be according to playoff seeding. The playoff team with worst seed will pick first after the lottery teams, and so on. The league runner-up and league champion (Sparty Bowl participants) will pick next-to-last and last, respectively.
Non-playoff teams that were transferred to new ownership will not participate in the lottery, but will be placed in the draft order in the same manner as expansion teams. Transferred playoff teams will be placed according to their playoff seeding.
ESPN provides an automated system for executing the draft. To participate in the live draft, SAFFL owners need to be logged into the ESPN system in order to directly make their selections. If an owner fails to make a pick in the allotted time, the ESPN system will make a pick on the SAFFL team's behalf.
ESPN provides supporting services to specify players, positions, and preferences for making automatic picks on a behalf or in conjunction with an owner making live picks.
There will be 14 rounds in the SAFFL draft.
All rounds will proceed in a rotating, round-robin, non-serpentine (non-snake) order.
Because ESPN roster bookkeeping maps protected/keeper players to rounds in a draft, SAFFL's 1st round will actually appear as ESPN's 21st round. The first ESPN 20 rounds map to the 20 protected/keeper players of every SAFFL team.
SAFFL teams will be granted 120 seconds to make a pick. The ESPN software will automatically make a pick if no owner directed pick is made in that time. ESPN auto-pick will follow pick selection preferences if provided by an owner in advance.
The draft may have pauses scheduled for about 5 minutes after predesignated rounds.
An owner may request the commissioner to pause the draft. It is at the commissioners discretion as to whether provide the pause, and if so, the duration.
The draft is expected to complete in less than 2 hours.
ESPN provides direct owner control of claiming, dropping, and adding players.
A SAFFL team may drop a player at any time except:
SAFFL teams may put in a claim/bid to add a free agent player at anytime after the draft.
Claims will be processed once-a-day, every day except Mondays, at noon (12:00 pm) Eastern Time. Transactions will automatically be executed by ESPN. Added players will appear within minutes on a SAFFL team's bench.
If adding a player would exceed roster size limits, ESPN will ask that a player to be conditionally dropped be identified.
When submitting a claim for a free agent, ESPN asks for a bid (fictional $$$ -- Sparty Bucks) with that claim.
The bid can range from a min of $0 to a max of the entire remaining SAFFL team budget ($1000 at beginning of season).
If more than one team places a claim on the player, the team with the highest bid is awarded the player.
If bids are equal, the team with the worst won-loss record prevails (secondary tie-breakers as used in team standings also apply).
The winning bid amount is automatically deducted by ESPN from the SAFFL team's budget, even if only one team made a bid.
All winning bid amounts that were made by a SAFFL team for players from its NFL Affiliate will be refunded 100%. The league office will manually perform these refunds every Monday during the season for the prior week's claims.
Once a SAFFL team plays its final (regular or playoff) game of the season, it will not be allowed to add players for the remainder of the season.
A trade constitutes an exchange of players, coaches, draft picks, considerations, and/or other SAFFL resources with another SAFFL team.
Simple trades, those that only involve two teams and their players, may be made directly using ESPN.
Complex trades, those made between 3 or more teams and/or involving other resources, will require commissioner assistance.
Trades will not be allowed after the trading deadline (during NFL week 11). Trades may resume after the playoffs.
Teams may specify trades that have scope up to one season in the future. For instance, SAFFL '22 draft picks may be traded for beginning in the SAFFL '21 season.
Trades are subject to commissioner review. Once the commissioner is aware of a pending trade, an approval decision will be made within 24 hours.
Each season the League Office may implement additional incentives, controls, and activities that will add interest and balance competitiveness amongst SAFFL teams. Such special features may change from year-to-year depending on feedback of team owners. Again for the 2021 season, two special features will be in effect: 'ZOMBIES' and 'Bonus Bucks'.
ZOMBIES are a group of players that will be acquired by the League Office during the draft and kept inaccessible to SAFFL teams until mid-season (Halloween Week). Such players will be picked during the draft by automatic utility teams in sequence with regular SAFFL team selections. During Halloween Week, ZOMBIE players will be made available to SAFFL teams via a special auction.
SAFFL teams can earn Sparty 'Bonus' Bucks by proposing, counter-proposing, and consummating trades. The League Office will specify in what ways and how much SAFFL teams can earn of these bonus bucks. These bonus bucks will be added by the League Office to team acquisition budgets and used by SAFFL teams when bidding on free agents.
A trade proposal or counter-proposal will earn $10 Sparty Bucks for the initiator. A completed trade will earn $20 Sparty Bucks for each party. A maximum of $30 Sparty Bucks can be earned by a SAFFL team per each team engaged, regardless of the number of trade actions. Trade action credits will be added to SAFFL free agent acquisition budgets once a week on Mondays. Frivolous (unreasonable) trade actions will be not be credited by the League Office. The commissioner can solely decide reasonableness for all teams except his own; a single objection from an owner voids crediting to the commissioner's own team.
The commissioner will publish information regarding the league via email/text/voice/ESPN/web as appropriate.
ESPN will publish all roster, player, game result, standings, transactions in real-time on its website.