Full Contact Football League Rules

Overview:

Full Contact Football leagues on Homegrown Sports are free, public leagues open to players of all skill levels. Players sign up for a league and compete against other players from the across the internet in friendly competition. There is no cost to play the Full Contact games and there are no prizes.

League and Team Info:

The league consists of ten teams, divided into two divisions. The regular season runs weeks 1-14 of the NFL season, followed by a 3 week playoff period during weeks 15-17 of the NFL season. The top 3 teams in each division (based on overall record) make the play-offs. In the event of a tie, the team with the higher total points will be awarded the playoff spot.
Each team may carry up to 18 players of any position. You are not required to keep a full roster, but you may not exceed the 18 player limit.

Drafting:

Draft for the Full Contact leagues is a live, online process that will take place sometime during the month of August. Specific drafts dates for each league will be set once the league has filled. If you are unable to attend the draft at the date and time specified, the computer will draft for you. You can pre-rank players in each position from the My Draft screen. These rankings will be used to help determine your pick, if you are not online at the time of the draft.

Each team may pre-rank their players in the order that you want to draft them, with a set of rankings for each position (QB, RB, WR, TE, K, D). You can change the rankings as often as you like up until draft day. Keep in mind pre-ranking is not necessary for players who will be attending the live on-line draft. They are only used in the event that your turn passes and you have not made a selection or you are not logged into the draft.

The draft order is determined randomly by the computer 15 minutes before your draft begins. At this time a link will appear on the league home page that allows you to start the live drafting application. Be sure to login to your draft 15 minutes before it starts. It is best not to wait until the exact draft time and risk missing your first pick. If you are not online to make your pick the computer uses an algorithm to figure out which player you should take.

The algorithm is a bit involved but in general it assumes a couple rules:
1) Positions are weighted based on their value relational to each other. Meaning, we use historical performance in this scoring system and figure out which is the most valuable position. RB's have a higher weighting then QB's based on the overall ration of points that position scores compared to other positions.
2) When it's your turn to get a player, the computer finds the next most valuable player to give you. Value is based on the rank you gave that player multiplied by the player's weight. This means that if it was your turn and your #2 QB was available and your #1 WR was available, it would take the QB for you because that person is more likely to score more during the season.

Each position has a "player cap" of "twice the number of starters". A team can not draft more than 2 QB's, 4 RB's, 6 WR's, 2 TE, 2 K's, and 2 D's

A detailed explanation of the automatic selection process can be found HERE

Scoring:

Points are awarded using the following scoring system:

Offensive Score Type	Points
Passing TD	4
Pass/Rush/Catch Yds (QB)	1 pt per 20 yds
Rush/Catch TD	6
Pass/Rush/Catch Yds(non-QB)	1 pt per 10 yds
2 pt Pass/Run/Catch	1
18-39 yd FG	3
40-49 yd FG	4
50+ yd FG	5
Extra Pt	1

Defensive Score Type	Points
Defensive TD*	5
Sack	1
Interception	2
Fumble Recovery	1
Safety	5
Allow less than 10 pts	5
Allow less than 21 pts	3
Allow less then 200 yds	5
Allow less then 300 yds	3

*Defensive TD’s include the following: Kickoff Return for a TD, Punt Return for a TD, Interception returned for a TD, Blocked FG returned for a TD, Blocked Punt returned for a TD, Off Fumble returned for a TD, Defensive Fumble returned for a TD.

Starting Lineups:

Each team starts 9 players ( 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 D ) each week.
Starting lineups deadline is game time (i.e. 1:00pm, 4:00pm, 8:00pm eastern) on any week that does not include an early game. For weeks with early games, players who play in the early game must be started before the early game starts. Once an early game commences, players on those NFL teams playing in the early game become "locked". For more information on locked players, see the Locked Players section below.

Trading:

Unlimited trading is allowed from week 1 through week 12 of the season. There is no trading after week 12 of the regular season and during the playoffs.
1) Two teams agree upon a trade and Team #1 submits the trade via the trades screen. Once the trade is submitted a "Pending Trade" will appear on both teams Trade screen.
2) Team #2 may either accept or decline the trade by clicking on the appropriate menu choice from the trade screen.
3) Any trade accepted by both team owners must then be approved by the commissioner.
4) If the trade is approved, the players are exchanged between teams as long as both teams still own the players being traded (it is possible to have more than one pending trade that includes the same players). Traded player are added to your roster as non-starters. If the trade is declined or denied than the pending trade is marked as declined and removed from the pending trades table.
5) Team #1 may retract a trade offer at any time before Team #2 accepts the trade. A retracted trade is marked as such and removed from the pending trades table.
6) Trade deadline is every Friday at 12:00 noon EST. Any pending trades remaining after trade deadline are discarded.

Adding and Dropping Players:

Pickups and drops are "auto" style, meaning that starting Tuesday mornings at 9:00am and ending Friday at 12:00 noon, team owners build a list of the players that they would like to add to their team. They also create a list of the players that want to drop in order to make space on their roster. At the deadline the computer will divvy out the players going last to first based on YTD points. Meaning, the person with the least points gets first pick, and so on, up to the team with the most points. You may only add up to 2 players in any given week.

Team owners must create a list of players to drop if there are no available spots on your roster. When the computer runs the add/drop program, it will pick up a player for a team if and only if there is a roster spot available. If no spot is available, it will drop the first player in the drop list to make room. If there is no drop list specified the team will not pickup any players. Add/drops occur starting week 2 of the season and run through and including week 14 (the regular season).

A second add/drop window begins on Friday at 1:00pm eastern and continues through Sunday at 12 noon. The second add/drop windows occurs in real time in a first come, first served manner. Players that are added are immediately placed on your team. Players that are dropped are immediately removed from your team and available for other owners to pick up. The second add/drop window allows teams a “second chance” option for situations where they did not get the player they wanted during the automated add/drops or if there is a late injury situation that requires them to get a player last minute.

Playoff Games:

The top 3 teams in each division make the playoffs for a total of 6 teams in a 3 week playoff. The playoffs start week 15 of the NFL season and go through week 17.
The playoff teams are seeded #1 through #6 with the two division winners getting the #1 and #2 seeds. The remaining 4 teams are seeded #3 through #6 based on winning percentage (YTD points to break ties).
The first round of the playoffs has the #3 seed playing the #6 seed, the #4 seed playing the #5 seed, and the #1 and #2 seeds getting a Bye. Round 2 of the playoffs has the #1 seed playing the winner of the #4 vs #5 game
and the #2 seed playing the winner of the #3 vs #6 game. Round three of the playoffs is the League Championship game and the last game of the season. Ties within playoff games are broken using the highest scoring starting player to determine the winner. If both teams have the same highest scoring player, it moves to the second highest scoring player, and so on, until the tie is broken.