4.0 ROSTER AND LINEUPS

Rosters in GoTFFL consist of 16 active players from any NFL team. There are no position limits, and owners are free to have as many players from any position as they like. Only players from the active roster may be used as part of a team’s starting lineup.

4.1 The Initial Draft

The commissioner will designate a draft night each season. The draft will be conducted live and the location will be emailed to each owner. The Owners are expected to attend the draft in person and must have all league fees paid before the draft begins. Provisions will be made if an owner cannot make the draft. The draft will be determined by a random draw for the initial draft only. Owners will pick numbers (No. 1 through No. 12) out of a hat, and the number will correspond with their draft position in the first round.

The initial draft will be a serpentine order, where the person with the first pick in Round 1 will have the last pick in Round 2 and the first pick in Round 3. When it is the owner’s turn to draft, they will have two minutes (120 seconds) to make their pick for each of the first 5 rounds and 90 seconds for each of the remaining rounds. The commissioner will designate a timekeeper and when the timer expires, the next owner may make their selection. The skipped owner will then have another 30 seconds to make their pick, or the next owner will be on the clock.

4.2 The Annual Draft

The Annual Draft is used to re-allocate unrostered players in years following the Initial Draft. The draft order will be set based on the teams’ prior year’s record, using standard tie-breakers and with a draft lottery for the bottom six teams to determine the first 2 picks in the 1st round only. For teams that made the league playoffs, they will be ordered based on their finish in the playoffs. The draft lottery is to encourage owners who are near the bottom of the league to stay competitive and prevent tanking. The remaining six teams who did not make the playoffs have 28.57%, 23.81%, 19.05%, 14.29%, 9.52% and 4.76% chances of landing the top two picks. The lottery will be conducted using draftpicklottery.com. Once the top 2 picks have been selected by the lottery, the remaining picks are given out based on regular season record with the worst teams getting the highest picks. Rounds 2-16 will remain based on the previous years standings. This assures each team that it can drop no more than two spots from its projected draft position in the first round.

4.3 Free Agency and Waiver

The Waiver period is two days and is based on FAAB (Free Agent Acquisition Budgets). In a Free Agents Acquisition Budgets (FAAB) waivers system, each manager receives $100 (fake money) to place blind bids on players that are on waivers. The manager with the highest bid at the end of the waiver period claims that player and that bid amount is deducted from the team’s acquisition budget.

• Unowned players who are free agents will be placed on waivers as soon as their game begins each week.
• Players on a bye week will be placed on waivers at 5:30pm PT on Monday, which corresponds with the start time of the Monday night game.
• The waiver period ends at 11:59 pm Pacific Time on Tuesday. Unowned players without a pending waiver claim will become free agents at that time.
• Waiver claims will process 1-8 hours after the end of the weekly waiver period. Until claims process, unowned players with a pending waiver claim will continue to display waiver status, but no further claims may be placed on them.
• Once their game has started, players in your starting lineup cannot be dropped to pick up an available free agent. They may be included in any waiver claims set to process after the weekly waiver period ends.
• Benched players, even if their game time has begun, may be dropped for an available free agent.

4.3.1 FAAB RULES

• The FAAB does not apply to free-agent pickups. All free agents can be picked up on a first-come, first-serve basis, without bids.
• Bids are hidden to other managers until a player clears waivers. The winning bid will display in the Transaction log. 
• Players with multiple bids placed on them will display under “FAAB Bids” on a league’s Transactions log. If only one owner bid on a player, that transaction will not display under “FAAB Bids.”
• The FAAB system charges you the exact amount you bid if your bid is successful. It will never automatically adjust your bid to beat any other bids by $1.
• The FAAB budget for teams is $100.
• You can submit $0 bids, and if no one else bids more, you will be able to claim that player.
• There isn’t an option to force managers to make a minimum bid amount.

4.3.2 FAAB TIEBREAKERS

If multiple managers place an equal bid on a player, the tiebreaker option is as follows:

• Reverse order of standings: Waiver claims are processed in reverse order of standings and successful claims do not affect waiver priority list.

Players will lock at their individual game time and will be available on Waivers starting on Tuesday.

After the two day waiver period, all available players become free agents.  Free agency will be conducted on a first come, first served basis.  Free agency closes at the start of that player’s game.

Owners may add or drop up to eight players from their active rosters each week, starting on Tuesday.

Starting lineups in GoTFFL will consist as follows:

• 1 quarterback
• 2 running backs
• 2 wide receivers
• 1 tight end
• 1 flex (running back, wide receiver, or tight end)
• 1 place kicker
• 1 defense / special teams
• 7 bench players
• 2 injured reserve spots

Owners must submit their starting lineup each week. Players may be added or removed from the starting lineup up until the individual player’s kickoff.  After the player’s kickoff, that player is locked. 

4.4.1 POSITION DESIGNATIONS

From time to time, the NFL may change their designation of a particular player from one position to another or a player may line up in multiple positions throughout the game. For example, a wide receiver may be switched to a tight end and vice versa. For the purposes of GoTFFL, a player may have only one official designation; any disputed designations will be resolved by the executive committee, using the official distinctions on NFL.com as a guide. Players may only start and score points based on their GoTFFL distinction. See the League Scoring section for more details.

4.5 Bye-week Penalties

Any owner who starts a player that is on a bye week, regardless of intention, the owner will be forced to drop that player from their active roster. The player will become a free agent and will be eligible to be added to any roster, including the original owner, during the normal free agent policy. It is each owner’s responsibility to submit a valid lineup each week and no exceptions will be made. This clause is to encourage fair and competitive play. It is also to prevent tanking. If for whatever reason an owner is not able to change their lineup that owner may contact the commissioner with their lineup change and the commissioner will set the lineup as soon as possible.

4.6 Active Ownership Requirements

Each owner is expected to actively manage their team each week, even if they are eliminated from any playoff consideration. Owners must submit a valid lineup each week (injured players, suspended players or players on a bye week are not considered valid players). If an owner does not submit a valid lineup for two consecutive weeks, the executive committee will have the right to assume control of the team and manage it for the rest of the season.

4.7 Anti-Tanking Provision

GoTFFL is a competitive league, created for the league owners to have fun playing fantasy football. While the competition may be fierce, this is not considered a cut-throat league. In the spirit of competition and league fairness, owners are not allowed to intentionally create a legal starting lineup that gives the opposing team a clear advantage. The executive committee reserves the right to step in and adjust the starting lineup of a team that is clearly trying to intentionally lose a game. If the committee must adjust a team’s lineup in two consecutive weeks or for three or more weeks in any one season, the team will be considered inactive and the executive committee may assume ownership of the team as detailed in the active ownership requirements section.

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