FOOTBALL FANS UNITED CONSTITUTION

Formulation updated August 2003

  1. Teams
    1. 16 teams in 4 equal divisions
    2. Up to 19 players per team
      1. 3 quarterbacks (QB)
      2. 10 skill position (S) players (RB, WR, TE)
      3. 2 kickers (K)
      4. 2 defenses (D)
      5. 2 special teams (ST)
    3. 8 players start per week
      1. 1 QB
      2. 5 skill position players
        1. 0-3 RBs
        2. 2-5 TEs and WRs combined
      3. 1 K
      4. 1 D
      5. 1 ST
    4. Lineups must be submitted in full before the kickoff of Sunday's early games
      1. If games are played on Thursday and/or Sunday, only the players involved in those games must be decided upon.
    5. Rosters must be legal at the end of each week, but may have more or fewer players during the week.
    6. Only players that have used up or relinquished their college eligibility may be on a roster at any time.
  2. Scoring
    1. Special Teams (ST)
      1. Safeties (2 points) and touchdowns (6 points) by any player on either team when the team with the ball is in a kicking formation are credited to the ST.
        1. This doesn't include field goals and extra points -- they go to the K.
        2. A touchdown pass from a fake field goal is 6 points to the ST, not 6 + 4 = 10 points.
        3. This includes fumbles returned for touchdowns after a kicking play, which are often credited to the D in stat reports.
      2. Scores from a 2-point conversion are credited to the ST.
        1. A touchdown pass is 2 points to the ST, not 3 or 3 1/3.
    2. Defense (D)
      1. Safeties (2 points) and touchdowns (6 points) by any player on the defense are credited to the D.
    3. Offensive Players
      1. Scoring a touchdown (being the person with the ball in the endzone, regardless of how the ball got there) is worth 6 points to the scorer.
      2. Throwing a forward pass on a play that results in a touchdown is worth 4 points.
        1. This includes passes thrown by non-quarterbacks.
        2. Lateral passes do not earn points for the lateral passer.
        3. If lateral passes are completed after the forward pass, the forward passer still gets 4 points if the final receiver scores.
        4. If the receiver of the pass fumbles, then the passer gets no points from a subsequent TD.
      3. Being credited with a safety on an originally offensive play results in 2 points to the player. No points are awarded for a team safety on offense.
    4. Kickers (K)
      1. Kickers are given 3 points for a field goal and 1 point for an extra point.
        1. Kicks made by emergency kickers are credited to that player, even if they are normally a quarterback or skill position player
    5. Miscellaneous Clarifications
      1. Hook-and-ladder TD: 4 points to the QB, 6 to the guy that scores, 0 to the guy in between
      2. Self-pass for TD: 10 points to the passer
      3. Quick kick returned for TD: 6 points to the D
        1. Definition: a punt attempted from a shotgun snap and otherwise normal offensive position
      4. Team lines up in kicking formation, and switches to offensive formation before snap: points to the players/D (not ST)
  3. Transactions
    1. Trades
      1. Can be made at any time, except between kickoff of Week 10 and the end of the playoffs
      2. Cannot involve money or other non-league-related assets
      3. Can involve explicitly stated future considerations
    2. Free agent pickups
      1. Can be made between the player draft and kickoff of the first week of playoff games
      2. Evaluated 3 times per week
        1. Tuesday, 9:00 pm Central
        2. Friday, 9:00 pm Central
          1. In weeks with Thursday or Friday games, this is moved to kickoff of the earliest game
        3. Sunday, kickoff
          1. This is the only evaluation time that's permanent -- the others can be changed unilaterally by the commissioner
      3. Evaluation order tiebreakers
        1. Worst record
        2. Fewest points scored
        3. Fewest points allowed
        4. Random
      4. Cuts do not need to be specified until kickoff Sunday
      5. Cut players are not available until the first pickup period of next week
  4. Regular Season
    1. 13 games, from week 1 to week 13 of the NFL season
    2. Ties are not broken
  5. Playoffs
    1. 4 division winners and 2 wild cards qualify
      1. Tiebreakers to determine divisional ranking:
        1. Record
        2. Head-to-head sweep among tied teams
        3. Divisional record
        4. Most points for
        5. Most points against
        6. Random
      2. Tiebreakers to determine wild cards:
        1. Apply the divisional tiebreaker to determine the top team in each division
        2. Record
        3. Head-to-head sweep agaist tied teams
        4. Most points for
        5. Most points against
        6. Random
    2. Bracketology
      1. Identical to 2003 NFL conference playoff format
      2. Single elimination -- top 2 teams get byes
      3. Seed the divisional winners 1-4 and the wild cards 5-6, using tiebreakers above
      4. Week 14: #3 plays #6; #4 plays #5
      5. Week 15: #1 plays lower-seeded winner in Week 14; #2 plays higher-seeded winner
      6. Week 16: Money Bowl
    3. Resolution of playoff ties
      1. Each team submits an ordered list of their reserves before Sunday kickoff (Thursday/Saturday lineup rules apply)
      2. The first player on the list is tiebreaker 1; the next player is tiebreaker 2, and so on.
      3. If no tiebreakers are submitted, a default ordering is used:
        1. the kicker, if he's an NFL "starter" that week
        2. a quarterback that's a "starter" that week
        3. skill position players, in the order they most recently played
        4. defense or special teams
        5. injured players (listed as "out" on injury report)
        6. players with a bye week
      4. If the teams are still tied after all players on the list are compared, the winner will be the team with the higher seed. [Commissioner's ruling, 2001]
    4. Exhibition playoffs (which don't affect draft position)
      1. The NIT consists of teams seeded 7 thru 14 in a 3-game, single-elimination playoff.
      2. The Toilet Bowl consists of a best-of-3 matchup between the teams seeded 15 and 16.
  6. Draft
    1. Order of selection
      1. Selections 1-10 are in inverse order of finish, according to wild card tiebreakers.
      2. Selection 11 goes to the lower-seeded quarterfinal loser; selection 12 goes to the higher-seeded one.
      3. Selection 13 goes to the lower-seeded semifinal loser; selection 14 goes to the higher-seeded one.
      4. Selection 15 goes to the Money Bowl loser; selection 16 goes to the winner.
    2. Player carryover from last season
      1. Any player may be protected from last year's final roster.
    3. Draft procedures
      1. No player can be chosen that would make a player's roster illegal.
      2. Unless traded, unused draft picks are forfeited.
    4. Draft logistics
      1. Protections must be announced a reasonable amount of time before the draft. Details are left to the commissioner.
      2. Draft location and time are left to the commissioner.
  7. Membership
    1. New owners determined by the Commissioner
    2. Owners in War Division
      1. Ward Cullum
      2. Edward Hawkins
      3. Mike Mills
      4. Bill Sastry
    3. Owners in Famine Division
      1. Randy Buehler
      2. Seth Holloway
      3. Keith Hudson
      4. Jason Schwengler
    4. Owners in Death Division
      1. Michael Hawkins
      2. Del Laugel
      3. Charlie Steinhice
      4. Joe Wright
    5. Owners in Pestilence Division
      1. Gourab Bhattacharjee
      2. Shane Parendo
      3. Ben Tabler
      4. Mike Turian
  8. Miscellaneous
    1. Powers of Commissioner
      1. The commissioner controls all other aspects of the league.
      2. Any decision of the commissioner can be overturned by a vote of 2/3 of the teams.
    2. Amendments to the Constitution
      1. Any team may propose an amendment to these rules, which shall be accepted with the approval of 2/3 of the teams.