The roster consists of three parts.

1. The active roster consists of 2 quarterbacks, 4 running backs, 4 wide receivers, 2 tight ends, 2 kickers and 2 defensive units.
2. The taxi squad will consist of not more than 9 players and 1 defensive unit.
3. A Voluntary Retirement/Injury List will consist of a maximum of 2 players.

Each team will be allowed to protect SIX players from its roster to start the next season with. A team may protect a defensive unit in one of these spots. These players may be a combination on players on the active roster or the taxi squad.

Protected lists must be submitted by August 7.

Kevin Appier Rule – Teams may make a change to their protected lists if a player is injured on or before September 1 and is being projected to begin the season on the inactive list. After September 1, there is no injury exception.

The following criteria must be met for a player to be eligible for the Voluntary Retirement/Injury List (VR/IL):

• He must be placed on the VR/IL before week one of the NFL season.
• He must have announced his retirement from the NFL
• He must be placed on the injured reserved list by his NFL team.

Once the first game of the NFL season in played, a player cannot be activated from this list for the remainder of the season.

If a player that was placed on the VR/IL unretires before the season begins, he may be activated.

A player cannot stay on the VR/IL for more than one consecutive season. After he has been on the VR/IL for a season, the team owner must do one of the following with that player before the next season starts:

• Protect the player as part of his six man protected list.
• Trade the player.
• Release the player.

Players placed on the VR/IL do not count against a teams six man protected list.

The draft will always occur before the start of the NFL season, when it is convenient for all the owners. The draft order for rounds 1 through 5 will be determined as follows. Round one will be a weighted lottery for all returning teams that did not make the playoffs the previous season. In rounds 2 through 5, the lottery teams will draft in reverse order of finish.

NOTE: If a returning team that has a new owner is in the lottery, that team or teams may not receive the number one overall pick. They will be included in the lottery, but if chosen first, they will be given the next best available draft pick.

After lottery teams, any expansion teams will be placed in the draft. If there is more than one expansion team, the order will be chosen out of a hat. For rounds 2 through 5, the expansion teams will rotate among themselves, with the team with the highest draft spot in the previous round falling to the lowest spot, with all other teams moving up one spot each.

Following any expansion teams, the teams that won prize money the previous season will select in reverse order of finish for rounds 1 through 5.

The remaining rounds of the draft will be handled in a rotating manner. The teams in the top half will rotate with each other and the teams in the bottom half will rotate together (ex. If six teams are in the league, 1 through 3 and 4 through 6 rotate, if there are ten teams, 1 through 5 and 6 through 10 rotate.)

A team will not be allowed to have more than 1 defensive unit that has a bye in the same week. If this occurs, they will forfeit the second unit selected that has the same bye week.

***The draft will consist of 21 rounds. A team may stop drafting after it has filled all 26-roster spots (16 active and 10 taxi squad)

***A team must cut down to 26 roster spots immediately following the draft.

***Any player that has completed his college eligibility may be drafted.

There is an entrance fee of $35 for all league members. This money goes into the prize pot to be dispersed at the end of the season. Any owner that wants standings and statistics mailed to him weekly, will pay an additional $10 for the season.

Additional fees will be assessed as follows:

$5 to acquire a free agent

$1 to activate a player from taxi squad (this includes all players listed on the injury report as probable, questionable or doubtful)

$0 to replace a player that has been placed on injured reserved, is listed on the injury report as "out" for the week or is entering or coming off of a bye week.

All money collected from additional fees will be added to the prize pot for dispersal.

The salary of a player is determined by using USA Today Fantasy Football salary sheet. The salary cap for 2000 will be $24.2 million.

Any player that is unlisted on draft day, will be given a salary of $1.5 million.

Taxi squad players do not count against the salary cap until activated.

Defensive team units are assigned salaries based on the previous season’s results and the upcoming season’s predictions. Each team is weighed and then given a pre-assigned dollar value for their team ranking. All dollar values assigned will be consistent with the player salaries.

The following statistical categories will be used to determine our standings.

A head-to-head format will be used to determine the league standings. During each game, the two teams will be matched against each other, with the team winning the most categories during that week’s game being declared the winner. If a game ends in a tie, the following tiebreaker sequence is to be used:

1. Points Allowed
2. Turnovers Forced

If there is still a tie after the two tiebreakers, the game will be declared a tie.

The league will be divided into TWO divisions of equal size. The division alignment will be chosen at random. Any expansion teams will be randomly inserted into the two divisions. A 15 game regular season will be played, with 4 teams qualifying for the playoffs. The two division winners will receive the top two seeds, determined by record. The number 3 and 4 seeds will be the two teams with the best records that did not win a division.

Round 1 of the playoffs (week 16) will match #1 vs. #4 and #2 vs. #3. The two winners will play in the Super Bowl (week 17).

**There may not be a tie in any playoff game. Before the start of the season, the league will determine additional tiebreakers for playoff games.

If there is a tie in the standings at the end of the regular season, one of the following tiebreakers will be used to determine playoff seed:

1. Head-to-head
2. Division record
3. Total categories won during victories
4. Total categories won during all games
5. Total categories lost during victories
6. Total categories lost during all games
7. Coin toss

1. Head-to-head

Player moves must be into the commissioner by 12 noon on the day of the first game of the new week. The commissioner will then relay all moves to the league statistician. For example, if the first game is on Sunday, moves must are due Sunday at noon, and so forth.

All moves must keep a team at or under the salary cap. If a team makes a move that puts it over the cap, the move will be negated for that week and the owner will be notified of this.

The regular season trading deadline is Saturday night at midnight, immediately before the beginning of week 10’s games. During the off-season, a freeze on trades will occur one week before the draft, and will continue until draft day.

Trades do not have to be an even exchange (one for one), but do have to be made in "the best interest of all teams involved, and the league". Dumping star players will not be tolerated if the team does not receive "fair" value in return. (See Section XIV, Hearings) If a two-for-one trade is made, the team acquiring two players must keep his roster at 26 players.

**When a team acquires a player in a trade, the new player is placed on the taxi squad unless the owner notifies the commissioner to activate this player(s).

**Trades can only involve players and draft picks for the following years draft. Trades may not include draft picks beyond the following season, salary cap money or a money exchange between owners.

**All trades must be completed at the time they are made. Trading conditional draft picks are considered as a completed trade

Free agents may be picked up anytime in between the draft and the end of the regular season. The free agent claim system will be as follows:

• Draft day to opening day: First come, first served. During this period, the first team to contact the commissioner will acquire the player.
• Opening day to the end of the regular season: If a player is claimed by a team, and no other team claims him within 24 hours, he becomes property of that team, and can be activated for the next weeks game. If more than one team claims the same player in a 24-hour period, the team with that is lowest in the standings will acquire the player. If the same teams try to claim a second same player, the next best team will acquire this player. This continues as needed.

If at any time one owner suspects that two teams are colluding or making a trade that is not in the "best interests of the game", evidence may be brought to the commissioner or assistant commissioner. The commissioner and assistant commissioner will decide whether these charges are legitimate, and if deemed so, will require a hearing for the teams involved in the alleged behavior.

The teams involved will have the chance to explain why their action is legal. The commissioner and assistant commissioner will then decide if any actions should be taken against the teams. The following are actions that may be taken and used as penalties:

• Negating of any trade that is made.
• Loss of draft picks.
• Loss of prize money (if applicable).

**More than one sanction may be used if deemed necessary.

**If the commissioner or assistant commissioner’s team is involved in any accusations, they will not take part in determining any sanctions. Instead, one of the senior members of the league will be chosen to assist.

**If both the commissioner and assistant commissioner are accused, then two of the senior members of the league will be chosen to act in this case, but not any member that brings up accusations.

**Neither the commissioner nor the assistant commissioner can bring up charges against another team.

The prize money will be the total of all money collected for entrance fees and fees for player moves, minus a minimal amount (approx. $5) to be used for postage and/or copies. The prize money will be dispersed as follows:

The team that has compiled the top statistical week in each of the 11 categories (including points allowed tiebreaker) will be awarded $10 for each category that they are tops in. The remaining money will be distributed as follows:

Winner of Super Bowl: 60%

Runner Up: 25%

Two losers of 1^st round playoff games: 7.5% each