I've spent some time scouring the internets for rules on running Dynasty leagues. The following are what I thought were the best ideas to get this Empire league going. After ingesting all of this info, add your comments below.
A 12-team, 3-division league. 14 Week season with a 3-week playoffs culminating in a championship game in week 17 of the NFL season. Entry fee will be $100 per team per season. After any league fees are taken out (should only be for paying for the leagues website), the pot will be split in half. One half will be split between the two teams that make it to the leagues championship game (80/20 split). The other half will roll-over and will be held until one team wins back-to-back league championships. Once one team wins back-to-back league championships, the winning team wins the accumulated pot and all rosters are cleared and the league will start over.
No one can be commissioner two years in a row. At the conclusion of a season, the owners will vote in a new commissioner.
Rule changes can happen when both a league majority and the commissioner agree on a rule change. The commissioner can veto any rule change voted for by the league. The commissioner has last say on approving trades.
Rosters: Each team will carry a 30 player roster. The starting positions will be as follows: 1QB, 1RB, 2WR, 1TE, 2 RB/WR/TE Flex, 1K, 3IDP(1 each DL, LB, DB). The bench has no requirements and can be comprised however an owner chooses. Each team will have 2 Injured Reserve spots that can only be used when a player is on IR in the NFL.
At the end of each season, rosters remain intact. Trades can take place only during the off-season. In-season trades are not allowed to avoid collusion in trying to win what will eventually become a large pot. During the off-season, players AND draft picks can all be traded. Draft picks can be traded only up to two years out.
During the season, free agent adds and drops can happen every week. A blind bidding session will happen every Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Owners will have a limited stash of points/dollars to use to bid on free agents. Once that pool is used up, they can not bid on any more players. After the blind bidding session, it is first come-first serve. All players lock when their game starts. The period between the rookie draft and Week 1 of the season is open and all free-agents are on a first come basis.
There will be a “No Cut List’ that will contain the leagues top 50 players.
Starting lineups lock when each players NFL game starts.
The initial draft/auction will have to be agreed upon. 30 players per team could take a long time. My preference is a serpentine draft. We could do an extended draft that starts in, say, July and continues through August. Or just pick a day and get it done with. My suggestion is to hold the initial draft in May or June, and have that draft limited to 25 picks per team with no rookies available in that draft. Then later in August have a 5-round draft where the rookies are available, along with players not drafted in the earlier draft. The 2nd draft would run in reverse order of the initial draft.
The season will run for 14 weeks. Each team will play their division rivals two times, and the rest of the league one time. At the end of the regular season, the three division winners will make the playoffs, along with the top 3 records of the remaining teams. This will make a 6 team playoff format. The top 2 teams receive a first week playoff bye and will face the winner of the first weeks playoff games. The bracket will be as follows: 1 vs bye/4 vs 5///3 vs 6/2 vs bye.
If a game ends in a tie, bench points determine the winner.
To break ties for playoff seeds, we will use the following: 1) Head-to-head 2) Points scored 3) Coin flip.
After the season ends, the free-agent pool locks up. Trades can be made between teams but no free agent signings. Free agents will be available to be drafted in the rookie draft.
March will be when league rule changes will be brought up and voted on.
May will be when the leagues rookie draft takes place.
An 8-round rookie/free-agent draft will commence 4-weeks after the NFL draft. The draft order will be in a modified reverse order of finish the previous season. To encourage teams to keep trying to win and not tank at the end of seasons, the four teams that do not make the playoffs will be seeded best record to worst record. So a typical draft order would be as follows: 1: 9th ranked team. 2: 10th ranked team. 3: 11th ranked team. 4: 12th ranked team. 5: 8th ranked team. 6: 7th ranked team. 7: 6th ranked team. 8: 5th ranked team. 9: 4th ranked team. 10: 3rd ranked team. 11: Championship loser. 12: League champ.
Another option is to rank teams based on their total team points, with the champion picking last. This would also keep teams from tanking to get a better draft pick as if they put their better players on their bench hoping to lose a game, those points count in total team points. This would truly give the worst teams the best pick in the rookie draft.
The rookie draft will not serpentine. It will follow the same order for all 8 rounds.
We could use a 5-player taxi-squad that is limited to rookies only?
I suggest the following scoring system:
QBs: .05 points per yard (passing/rushing/receiving), 6 pts for TDs (passing/rushing/receiving), -1 pt for turnovers. 1 pt for passing two-pt conversion. 2pts for scoring two-pt conversion.
RBs: 0.1 point per yard (passing/rushing/receiving/returns), 6pts for TDs, -1pt for turnovers. 2pts for 2pt score. 0 pts per reception.
WRs: 0.1 point per yard (passing/rushing/receiving/returns), 6pts for TDs, -1pt for turnovers. 2pts for 2pt score. 1 pt per reception.
TEs: 0.2 point per yard (passing/rushing/receiving/returns), 6pts for TDs, -1pt for turnovers. 2pts for 2pt score. 2 pts per reception.
PKs: 1pt per extra point. 3pts per field goal.
IDPs: (I found this scoring system that makes all three positions similar in points, instead of the typical LB heavy scoring system) 1pt per solo tackle, 4pts per sack, 3pts tackle for loss, 1pt pass defended, 6pts interception, 10 pt safety, 6pts blocked kick.
We would have to agree to a league website to use (I personally like the myfantasyleague website, but am open to others.
We would also have to decide to use leaguesafe, or where else to stash the rolling funds that accumulate every year. If we go with a 12-team league with 50% roll-over until a team wins back-to back titles, the eventual Emperor would win the following: If someone wins the first two season, they would win the single season pot, plus $1,080. Every following year would increase by $540, so year 3 would be $1,620, year 4 $2,160, year 5 $2,700, year 6 $3,240. As you can see, the pot can get pretty substantial. So we need to make sure we agree on where to keep it.
If you are interested in doing this, let me know via facebook messenger. I will then add you to the facebook page I created for it and we can discuss the rules there.