High Stakes Football League Rules

Overview:

High Stakes football leagues are intended to provide a more competitive environment for the experienced fantasy player. Every High Stakes league has a “buy in” cost and the winner of each league gets paid a cash prize.

League and Team Info:

The league consists of twelve teams, divided into two divisions. The regular season runs weeks 1-13 of the NFL season, followed by a 3 week playoff period during weeks 14-16 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.

Prizes and Fees:

There are currently three “levels” of High Stakes leagues:

• $20 Leagues - $20 to play, league champion wins $200
• $50 Leagues - $50 to play, league champion wins $500
• $100 Leagues - $100 to play, league champion wins $1000

The league champion is the winner of the league’s “Super Bowl”.

Filling a League:

A league must fill before it can start the draft. Leagues fill up in a first come, first served basis and we will make every effort to accommodate players getting the specific league and draft date they selected. If a league is only partially filled, we may need to move teams between leagues in order make a complete league. Players will be notified ahead of time if this happens and any change to draft date will be explained in advance.

Drafting:

Draft for the High Stakes leagues is a live, online process that will take place at the time specified for each league. Because drafting is a very important part of a prize league, the draft date and time are determined in advance and you can select a league that is drafting at a time convenient to you. That being the case, 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.

There is no limit to the number of players from a given position that you may draft. You can draft any player you would like but remember that you need to be able to field a team based on the starting requirements listed below.


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:

There is no trading in the High Stakes games. This is done to prevent players from attempting to own two teams within the same league and trading in order to give one of their teams an advantage (loading a team).

Adding and Dropping Players:

Adding and Dropping players is done through a Blind Bidding system. Each team is awarded $1000 fake dollars with which they can place bids on free agent players. Team owners may make bids on any unowned nfl player starting Tuesday morning at 9:00am eastern through Friday’s at 12 noon. At 12 noon ,the computer will award the player to the highest bidder and the bid amount will be deducted from the winning team’s available funds.

You will not be able to see bids placed by other team owners (i.e. blind bids) and the full amount of your bid will be deducted upon winning a free agent player, even if the bid is higher than necessary to have won the player.

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 blind bid add/drops or if there is a late injury situation that requires them to get a player last minute. Players added during the real time window do not count against your available blind bid money.

Add/drops will start week 2 of the season and run through week 14. After week 14 there are no more add/drops processed in order to prevent teams that did not make the playoffs from "dumping" their roster.

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 14 of the NFL season and go through week 16.
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.