National Fantasy Football Championship

Rules

Section I: Official Rules and Regulations of the National Fantasy Football Championship

1. Overview: The National Fantasy Football Championship (NFFC) will consist of 28 leagues (or a maximum of 35 leagues), each comprised of 14 teams/managers. The NFFC regular season will begin with all Week 1 NFL games (including results from the Thursday, Sept. 4th game) and through all Week 13 games. Teams will play every other team in their league once in head-to-head competition and if a team finishes Week 13 with both the best overall record and the most total points it will win $5,000, with the next highest point total team finishing second and winning $2,500 and the third highest point total team finishing third and winning $1,250. However, if one team wins the h2h title and another team wins the total points title after Week 13, then each team will earn $2,500 and compete in Weeks 14-16 for the remaining $2,500, with total points from that three-week period determining the league champ and earning an additional $2,500. Each league will have a total of $8,750 in prize money: $5,000 to 1st, $2,500 to 2nd, $1,250 to 3rd. Tie-breakers for league title are listed elsewhere in the rules. All league h2h champions and the team with the best total points (or in the case that the league champion had the highest points, then the team with the next highest point total in that league) advance to the Championship Round, which will be held Week 14 through Week 16. Teams will carry their weekly scoring average from the first 13 weeks of competition (i.e. 130.15 points) into the playoffs and then add their point totals from Weeks 14, 15 and 16 to that initial total to determine the overall champion. Managers may be assisted by other individuals (“Co-Managers”), but only Managers are eligible for cash prizes.

2. Draft: All 28 leagues (or a maximum of 35 leagues) will hold their drafts simultaneously at the Flamingo Las Vegas, the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center in Chicago, the New York Sheraton Hotel & Towers in New York and the Orlando Holiday Inn International Drive Resort on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008. Each league will be comprised of 14 teams, and each draft will last for 18 rounds, with each team selecting a player in each round in a serpentine fashion (team 1 through team 14 in Round 1 and team 14 through team 1 in Round 2). All NFFC draft leagues will use 3RR (3rd Round Reversal) in 2008, meaning that the draft order will go back down to 14 to start Round 3 and then continue in serpentine fashion after that. The NFFC is using 3RR in 2008 to balance the talent pool throughout these 14-team leagues. Players can be drafted at any position at any time in the draft, but each team must have at least one player for each of the designated starting positions by the end of the draft. Each team must start a weekly lineup of 10 players and the team roster must remain at 18 players; there are no injured reserve lists beyond the team total of 18.

3. No Trading: Trading is not allowed during the NFFC season and owners are not allowed to trade draft picks.

4. Roster Requirements: Maximum of 18 players at all times.

5. Starting Lineup Requirements: Starting lineups will consist of:

1 Quarterback
2 Running Backs
3 Wide Receivers
1 Tight End
1 Flex Player (RB, WR or TE)
1 Kicker
1 Team Defense/Specials Team

(If no Week One lineup is submitted, the NFFC will determine your starting lineup. After Week One, if no starting lineup is submitted, your starting lineup will be that of the previous week.)

6. Scoring: Players can accumulate points in a number of ways:
PASSING:

.05 points for every yard passing (works out to 1 point every 20 yards).
6 points for every passing touchdown
2 points for every 2-Point conversion
minus 1 point for every interception and lost fumble

RUSHING:

.10 points for every yard rushing (works out to 1 point every 10 yards).
6 points for every rushing TD
2 points for every 2-Point conversion
minus 1 point for every lost fumble
6 points for a recovered offensive fumble for a touchdown (RB, QB, WR, TE)

RECEIVING:

.10 points for every yard receiving (works out to 1 point every 10 yards).
6 points for every receiving TD
1 point for every reception for WRs, Tight Ends and QBs
0.5 points for every reception for RBs
2 points for every 2-Point conversion
minus 1 point for every lost fumble

KICKING:

1 point for every extra point
3 points for every field goal from 1-30 yards
3 points for every field goal plus .10 points for every yard after 30 yards (i.e. a 47-yard field goal would be worth 4.7 points)

DEFENSE/SPECIAL TEAMS:

1 point for every sack
2 points for every interception or opponents' fumble recovery
6 points for every touchdown (interception return, defensive fumble return, punt or kickoff return, blocked field goal return, blocked punt return). All special teams and defensive points are awarded to the team responsible, not the individual player. Should a kicker, punter or field goal holder throw a pass off a fake attempt, however, the offensive output for that offensive play would go towards the individual player, not the special teams. Also, any lost fumble or "muff" on a specials team play does not result in negative points for that individual player.
2 points for every safety
12 points for a shutout by the entire team
8 points for allowing 2-7 points by the entire team
4 points for allowing 8-12 points by the entire team
2 points for allowing 13-17 points by the entire team

7. Free Agent Acquisitions: Any player who is not on a team roster within your league is considered a free agent for that league. The free agent system will be a "blind bidding" process for each individual league (Free Agent Acquisition Bidding or FAAB). Each team will start with a $1,000 FAAB budget, and will be permitted to bid for free agents on a weekly basis through Week 13. No team will be informed of any other team's free agent bids before they're announced and only the winning bid and the runner-up bid will be announced afterwards to NFFC owners. The team with the highest bid on any given player will be awarded that player. The amount of the winning bid will be deducted from the winning team's free agent dollars. For each winning bid, the winning team must drop a player to make roster room for the free agent acquisition. If a team's free agent dollars goes to zero, that team will no longer be allowed to bid for the rest of the season. No bid will be accepted that is larger than a team's free agent dollars. All bids must be in increments of dollars (no cents).

8. The Draft: The draft will be held simultaneously at locations in Las Vegas, New York, Chicago and Orlando. The draft will be held in a serpentine fashion for each round using 3RR (1-14 in Round 1, 14-1 in Round 2, 14-1 in Round 3, 1-14 in Round 4 and continuing from there in serpentine fashion).

A. League Management Web Address: STATS, Inc. will manage the NFFC and provide real-time stats online. You can access your league via the Internet by going to http://game.fantasyfootballchampionship.com.

B. Lineup Submission: All lineups may be submitted on the league web site and must be entered prior to the scheduled kickoff for the game affected.

C. NFFC Phone In: All transactions should be made online via the league website. In the event you cannot access a computer to make your moves, STATS, Inc., one of the largest and most respected providers of statistics and fantasy games, can accept transactions via phone at 888-450-2730 during normal business hours. You will need your login and password to submit transactions via phone. You may leave transactions on voice mail during non-business hours, however, you do so at your own risk and any and all changes which result in an invalid lineup, will be voided.

D. Scoring: The National Fantasy Football Championship will use a head-to-head scoring setup. Scoring will be accumulated each week from your 10 starters. Scores in the NFFC are finalized with no changes possible after 6 p.m. EST each Thursday after the weekend games.

9. Bidding Time Frame: The bidding process will be held each week after Week 1 and continues through the end of the NFFC regular season. Bids will be accepted on the league web site from Tuesday at 9 am ET until Friday at 9 p.m. ET in each of those weeks. If you are submitting by phone, you must submit your bids by 2:30 p.m. ET on Friday. Rosters will be updated by 10 p.m. ET Friday with the results of all successful bids. The FAAB deadline will be moved to Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 9 p.m. EST to comply with the Thanksgiving Day games and to Wednesday, Nov. 26 at 9 p.m. EST to comply with the Week 13 Thursday games as well. There are no FAAB pickups in Weeks 14 through 16 during the NFFC Championship Round and NFFC Consolation Round. All winning FAAB bids on Nov. 19 and 26 are final at that time, even if a scoring change is made after that which would affect tied winning bids.

The FAAB deadline will be moved to Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 9 p.m. EST for Week 10, Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 9 p.m. EST for Week 11, Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 9 p.m. EST for Week 12 and Wednesday, Nov. 26 at 9 p.m. EST to comply with the early Thursday games for each of those weeks. There are no FAAB pickups in Weeks 14 through 16 during the NFFC Championship Round and NFFC Consolation Round. All winning FAAB bids on Nov. 19 and 26 are final at that time, even if a scoring change is made after that which would affect tied winning bids.

10. Conditional Bids: Conditional bids can also be offered. In the event you may lose out on a player, you can place conditional bid(s) for other players during the bidding time frame. The first conditional bid will become relevant only if you lose out on the first bid. Subsequent conditional bids will become relevant only if the previous conditional bid fails. Bids do not require conditional bids. Bids may have several sequential conditional bids.

11. Number of Bid Limits: There is no limit to the number of bids each week in which bids are permitted.

12. Tied Bids: If there is a tie bid, the team that receives the player will be determined in order by:

Worst league record.
Lowest total points.
Head-to-head matchups of teams (losing team would get the player).
Worst previous week score.
Coin toss.

13. Trades between managers: To minimize the possibility of collusion, there will be no trading allowed. All drops are also subject to review by the commissioner of the NFFC and can be revoked if the dropped player is deemed too valuable to be offered to that league's free agent pool, thus damaging the credibility of the overall contest. In the case of a "star" player being dropped in a league for a valid reason, the NFFC commissioner does reserve the right to allow the cut but keep the player out of that league's free agent listing for any length of time, possibly the entire season. All decisions by the NFFC commissioner will be final.

14. League Structure: Each league will consist of 14 teams competing in a head-to-head format for the league championship. The team with the best won-loss record in each league plus the team with the highest point total (second highest point total if the team with the best won-loss record also has that) advance to the three-week playoffs. Any team that finishes in the top 10 percent of the total number of teams that didn't finish first or second in their league will also advance to the playoffs as a wild card team. So if the NFFC finishes with 392 teams in 2008, the top 39 teams in total points will be guaranteed a playoff spot in the Championship Round even if they finished third or lower in their league. Teams will carry their weekly scoring average (i.e. 130.15 points) into the playoffs and then accumulate points to that total over the last three weeks of the regular season to determine the overall NFFC champion. Those teams which did not advance to the playoffs will carry their weekly scoring average from Weeks 1-13 into a consolation round playoff and add their weekly totals during Weeks 14-16 to determine the consolation round champion.

15. Random League/Draft Spot Selections: The NFFC will randomly select the leagues and the draft orders of each league once all entries have been submitted by city. For instance, if the NFFC receives 140 entries for the main event in Las Vegas, we'll put all 140 names into a computer program and select in order: League 1, pick 1 is John Smith; League 1, pick 2 is John Doe, League 1, pick 3 is Jane Andrews, etc. until all 140 names have been selected. We will do this in each city for all of the leagues. In the NFFC main event, the Draft Champions and in the Ultimate Draft Leagues, we'll also implement the Kentucky Derby Style process to allow owners more draft preference. The KDS process allows owners to rank their order of preference for Draft Day, ranking their preferences 1 through 14 BEFORE the leagues are selected. If an owner wants the third pick and is selected No. 1 overall in his league, he would choose that option and he would then be moved to third in that league on Draft Day. NFFC officials will look at every owner's Draft Preferences after the leagues and orders are randomly selected and then announce the draft orders for each league. Once each NFFC owner has officially signed up for the contest, they can find this feature in their game site under My Settings. Then click on Draft Preferences and you'll see the Draft Order ranked 1 through 14 and the option to change those preferences next to them. If you decide not to rank your preferences, your preferred order will remain 1 through 14. Owners can change their Draft Preferences right up until the announced deadline is set. An example of a KDS preference would be: 1, 2, 3, 14, 13, 7, 8, 9, 4, 5, 6, 12, 11, 10. If you were picked fourth out of the hat for your league and the top three teams took 1, 2, and 3, then you'd be slotted in the 14th spot (your fourth preference) on Draft Day.

If a main event league in one of the cities doesn't fill exactly with 14 teams, the NFFC also reserves the right to fill that league with owners from one or more other host cities to make it full. In that scenario, the NFFC reserves the right to place some of the final signups in any of the cities in that teleconference league. Early-bird signups will not be placed in a teleconference draft league.

16. Tie-breaker procedures. If after 13 regular season games, teams are tied for first place, second place or third place, the following tiebreakers will be used in this order:

Total points through 13 weeks
Head-to-head won/lost record (if three or more teams, it's cumulative wins against those common opponents)
Highest point total from Week 13
Highest point total from Week 12
Highest point total from Week 11
Coin toss

This procedure is for determining the head-to-head champion and the league total points leader.

In the post-season, should any teams finish in a tie for prize money, the money would be split among those teams. In the unlikely event that teams are tied with the exact same point total during the playoffs for the NFFC title, the prize money for first and second place would be added together and split evenly. The same is true if teams tied for third place or fourth place or any of the other money spots, including the consolation round.

17. Prize Breakdown:

National Fantasy Football Championship = $100,000, PLUS a crystal National Fantasy Football Championship trophy.

Second Place = $15,000
Third Place = $7,500
Fourth Place = $2,500
Fifth Place = $1,300 or free entry in 2009 NFFC
Sixth Place = $1,300 or free entry in 2009 NFFC
Seventh Place = $1,300 or free entry in 2009 NFFC
Eighth Place = $1,300 or free entry in 2009 NFFC
Regular Season Total Points Leader = $1,300 or free entry in 2009 NFFC
Each league has $8,750 in league prizes: $5,000 for first, $2,500 for second, $1,250 for third
Each League Champion (won/loss record + total points after Week 13) = $5,000 **
Each 2nd place (2nd most pts after Week 13 if one team had best h2h record and most total points) = $2,500
Each League 3rd place finisher (3rd most total points in each league) = $1,250

** If after Week 13, one team was h2h champ and another team was total points champ, then those two teams would each receive $2,500 and would compete in Weeks 14-16 for the remaining $2,500 and the title as league champ. That league playoff would be total points from Weeks 14-16.

Consolation Round Champion: $2,500
Consolation Round Runnerup: $1,500
Consolation Round Third Place: free entry in 2009 NFFC
Consolation Round Fourth Place: free entry in 2009 NFFC

18. Draft Rules:

Time Limit: Each participant will have a one minute time limit from the moment the draft facilitator tells him/her that they are on the clock to make their selection. The participant will be told when there is 15 seconds left by the draft facilitator and a countdown from five seconds will go until time has expired. The draft facilitator will have final say on whether a pick was called out in time or not. If a participant does not make a selection within one minute, he/she will be passed over until the next participant makes a player selection. The passed-over player goes back on the clock for one minute after the selection is made. The draft facilitator also has final say on the announcement of the picks as the pick becomes final AFTER he/she announces the pick.
Seating: Every team will have two draft spots available at the table and each team will be seated in their draft order.
Trading: There is no trading allowed during the NFFC season and all player cuts will be evaluated by the NFFC. Any player cut that will hurt the integrity of the league can be removed from that leagues' free agent pool for good by the NFFC.
Electronic Equipment: Participants can use electronic equipment during the draft as long as it fits in the allotted draft spot at the table. There will be no Internet connections or electrical outlets, so participants bringing laptops will have to supply their own power. Cell phones are allowed at the draft table, but we encourage participants to use them sparingly and not in a way that interrupts the draft process.
Smoking/Drinking: Smoking will not be allowed in the Draft Room. There will be a cash bar available in the Draft Room, but we ask that each participant drink responsibly.
Breaks: There will be a 20-minute break after Round 9 and we will finish the draft after the break.
Week One Lineups: Every participant is responsible for submitting their Week One starting lineup before the Thursday, Sept. 4th game. The Thursday night game results will count in the NFFC scoring. All teams are also required to confirm their team roster and sign off on the players on the list before leaving the draft. Any errors on your roster should be presented to the NFFC management as soon as possible.
League Management: The league will be available via the Internet at http://game.fantasyfootballchampionship.com. All lineups may be submitted on the league web site and must be entered prior to the scheduled kickoff for the game affected. In the event you cannot access a computer to make your moves, STATS, Inc., one of the largest and most respected providers of statistics and fantasy games, can accept transactions via phone during normal business hours. You will need your login and password to submit transactions via phone. You may leave transactions on voice mail during non-business hours, however, you do so at your own risk and any and all changes which result in an invalid lineup, will be voided.
Thanksgiving/Saturday games: Any players you want to place in your starting lineup for early games like Thanksgiving or the Saturday late season games, must be entered online at least five minutes before kickoff. Any player involved in those games that isn't in the starting lineup by the regular lineup deadline of Sunday morning, won't be available for those week's games.

19. NFFC Guarantee: Once a participant signs up online and submits valid payment, no money will be refunded to participants or co-managers unless the National Fantasy Football Championship is canceled. A team spot is considered filled when the entire $1,300 entry fee is paid.

Krause Publications reserves the right to cancel any entries not comprising a full 14-team league.

At its sole discretion, Krause Publications also reserves the right to terminate The National Fantasy Football Championship in its entirety if there are an insufficient number of teams by August 25, 2008. In this unlikely event, Krause Publications will refund all entry fees within 48 hours of cancellation notice and/or provide a new application form with the newly stated prize figures. All pre-registered applicants would have the right to a full refund or agree to play for the newly announced prize structure. Krause Publications is not responsible for any loss or liability incurred by any participant or co-managers due to cancellation of The National Fantasy Football Championship, including but not limited to travel or hotel expenses, time taken off from employment, etc.

20. Prize Winnings If your prize winnings exceed $600.00, The National Fantasy Football Championship must file a Form 1099 with the IRS at the end of this calendar year. If necessary, we will request your social security number. The Form contains the amount paid to the principal owner (and ONLY the principal owner) and you will receive a copy of the Form for tax purposes. You are responsible for paying any taxes that result from your cash prize. Please consult your income tax advisor for filing advice. The NFFC's 2008 prize structure is based on 392 teams, but the NFFC reserves the right to expand to 490 teams with the guarantee that 75 percent of all additional entry fee money will be returned in the overall prize structure.

21. $1 Million Bonus NBC Sports & F+W Publications will offer a $1 million bonus to any manager who can win the overall title in BOTH NFFC main events. The manager would have to win the $100,000 grand prize in the NFFC Classic main event and the $100,000 grand prize in the NFFC Primetime main event. The $1 million bonus is payable as a forty year annuity. Co-managers are not eligible for the bonus as the $1 million bonus is available only to the manager of both winning teams.

22. Eligibility The Championship is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who have reached the age of majority in their states of residence. Employees of the National Broadcasting Company, NBC Sports (“Sponsor”), Krause Publications, Stats Inc., their respective subsidiaries, divisions and affiliates, their advertising and promotion agencies, members of their immediate families, regardless of whether they reside in the same household, are ineligible to participate. For purposes of these rules, “immediate families” means parents, spouses, siblings and children.