The Constitution

The letter of the law.

Anton Sather
The D|League
11 min readAug 17, 2016

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Dynasty Summary

Dynasty football is a yearly league with the same owners who retain their players from year to year. This creates an environment very different from that of a redraft league. By enabling team owners to keep players and build a team over time, there is a much stronger sense of team ownership, and success is achieved with a greater sense of satisfaction. Mistakes or successes in a dynasty league can affect the fortunes of a franchise for years to come, just like in the NFL. A dynasty league also facilitates trades, including trading of draft picks, and it encourages a deeper roster pool, so young ‘project’ players can be identified and groomed.

League Purpose and Pledge

This dynasty league will be compiled of only the most committed of fantasy football players. By joining this league, I am pledging that I will stay committed to my team and the other members of the league. I promise to participate in all league discussions, never auto-draft, set my weekly line-ups, and all of the other little things that go into being an active owner. I will abide by all by-laws, and will not participate in collusion with other league members at any time. I will help foster a fun, competitive league for all members, and will help build not only a great league for all the years to come, but friendships for many years after that.

By-Laws

I. League Members

A. There will be 14 league members for each season.

B. All members from the previous season have the right (and are expected) to retain their franchise as long as they have not been banned by the league.

1. Bannings will be instituted by the league based on a majority vote.

2. Bannings will be issued as a result of repeated franchise negligence, collusion with other members, or for reasons currently beyond comprehension but for which, at said time, the league will decide through a majority vote.

C. If a member makes the decision to leave the league voluntarily, they may do so upon these conditions.

1. Minimum of one nomination of an interested new member.

2. Payment of the following year’s league fees for the decided upon new member. This is done to provide extra incentive for the new member to join, as taking over an existing dynasty team is not the easiest task.

D. Adding of a new league member will be done by nomination, and nominees must receive 75% majority vote of existing members to join.

II. League Setup

A. League Fees

1. Will equal the decided upon entry fee for the league plus any fees associated with league setup and activation such as cost of the League Trophy.

2. Will be due at the start of the NFL/fantasy season. Failure to do so will result in forfeiture of all weekly matchups until dues are paid (i.e. if an owner does not pay dues until Week 2, their week 1 matchup will be forfeited and their opponent will be awarded the victory regardless of points scored.)

B. Roster Size

1. Each team will have 20 active roster spots and 1 IR spot during the regular season.

2. Roster size will increase to 25 open spots prior to the offseason draft and further detail is discussed under Constitutional Law VIII-A.

C. Lineup Requirements

1. Starting lineups will be set as follows.

a. 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DEF

2. Must start a full lineup. Sitting of a player/defense to prevent negative points is not allowed. Infractions will result in forfeiture of the owner’s next year’s second highest draft pick at time of infraction.

a. Team owners will be penalized $15 FAAB for each empty starting position, or each player that makes a start while being on their Bye Week/IR/suspension. Players ruled out due to injury will not be penalized.

3. Commissioner Roster Adjustments — League owners may request a roster edit to be made by the Commissioner, under the following conditions.

a. Once per season.

b. By game time with a 1 minute grace period. Text/call/etc. must be time stamped within a minute of game start.

c. Request can be made conditional and in advance. Example: Owner knows they won’t have service Sunday and makes a request for a game-time decision player to be switched if they are ruled out.

D. Anti-Tanking Measures

1. Tanking will not be tolerated. Since this is hard to define, we will use a committee approach.

a. If a line-up decision is called into question for tanking, 5 members will be chosen at random to vote. The owner in question can make their case. If all 5 vote unanimously that tanking is occurring, the offender will be penalized.

b. Commission will review verdict to ensure penalty is justified and collusion between the committee is not occurring.

2. Penalties

a. 1st Violation: 1st Round Pick forfeited

b. 2nd Violation: Two 1st Round Picks forfeited (Future picks may be taken as necessary)

c. 3rd Violation: Suspension from the D|League until the end of current season

3. Suspension

a. All owner actions and activity will be frozen. This includes: waiver add/drops, trades, and setting of line-ups.

b. Commissioner will set line-up for the suspended team using Yahoo’s highest projected points.

E. Scoring

1. Scoring format is listed in the Yahoo League Settings.

III. Draft Process and Picks

A. Inaugural Draft

1. The inaugural draft will be 17 rounds, 1 for every active regular season roster spot.

2. The inaugural draft will be “snake” format and draft positioning will be determined randomly 1 week prior to the draft.

3. Inaugural draft picks cannot be traded, and no trades of any kind will occur during the inaugural draft.

4. There will be a 5 minute intermission upon the completion of the 5th and 10th rounds. Selection timer will vary depending on the draft round.

a. Rounds 1–5: 60 seconds

b. Rounds 6–10: 45 seconds

c. Rounds 11–17: 30 seconds

B. Rookie/Free Agent Draft

1. The rookie/free agent draft will take place every offseason following the 1st year and will consist of 4 rounds.

2. Available players for drafting will include all incoming NFL rookies, and all unowned free agents in the waiver pool.

3. The rookie/free agent draft will NOT be “snake” formatted but rather standard NFL draft style (1st pick in round 1 will also receive 1st pick in round 2).

4. The rookie/free agent draft order will be determined per the following.

a. Playoff bracket teams will be given picks based on reverse order of the final playoff standings. League Champion will have the last pick (#14), 2nd place will have pick #13, and so forth until pick #9 is given to the 6th place finisher.

b. Consolation bracket teams will be given picks based on reverse order of the REGULAR SEASON standings. The 14th worst regular season team will have the #1 overall pick, the 13th team will have the #2 pick, etc.

5. Trading of players and draft picks can occur during the rookie/free agent draft, but all owners must abide by the selection timer.

6. Selection timer will be set at 10 minutes for Round 1, 5 minutes for Round 2, and 2 minutes for Rounds 3 and 4.

IV. Waivers/Free Agents

A. Waiver wire will open immediately following the offseason draft, and close immediately upon completion of Week 16.

B. Waiver wire priority will be determined with a Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB) waiver system.

1. Each team will receive $100 in FAAB immediately following the offseason draft.

2. At the end of the season, 25% of any unused FAAB will rollover. (An owner with $40 unused FAAB will receive an additional $10 FAAB the following season)

3. An owners FAAB will be capped at $125.

C. There will not be a maximum on waiver acquisitions.

D. Further waiver rules and settings are explained and available on the Yahoo league page.

V. Trades

A. Trade window will open 1 month prior to the offseason draft.

B. Trade window will close on the Wednesday prior to Week 13.

C. Future draft picks can only be traded up to three years in advance.

D. All trades will be reviewed by the commissioner.

1. All appeals of the commissioner’s decision will be left to a league vote.

VI. Regular Season

A. Head to Head format decided by overall weekly score.

B. The season schedule will be generated automatically by Sleeper.

C. The regular season will end upon the completion of week 13.

VII. Playoffs and League Champion

A. The three-round playoffs will take place during weeks 14, 15, and 16.

B. The playoff bracket WILL determine top 6 standings and draft order of the 6 playoff teams. See Constitutional Law III-B-4.

C. 6 teams will make playoffs, seeding is determined by regular season record and tiebreakers are decided by total season points scored.

1. The top two seeds will be given a Week 14 bye.

D. Final two competitors will match up in Week 16 to take the title of League Champion.

1. League Champion will have their team name inscribed on the League Trophy, and be awarded ownership of the trophy until a new champion is crowned.

E. Eliminated teams will continue to play out the bracket to determine final standings of the 6 playoff teams.

VIII. Consolation and Bunghole Bracket

A. The 8 teams not participating in the Championship Playoffs will be separated into a Consolation Bracket and a Bunghole Bracket, played out in Weeks 14 and 15.

1. Yahoo does not support these brackets, so they will be posted on Mazey. All scoring and tracking of the matchups will be done by the owners and commissioner. Any matchups listed by Yahoo of non-playoff teams during Weeks 14–15 are null and void.

B. The results of these brackets WILL NOT determine draft order of the 8 non-playoff teams. See Constitutional Law III-B-4.

C. The four teams that placed 7th-10th will enter the Consolation Bracket, seeding is determined by regular season record and tiebreakers are decided by total season points scored.

D. Final two competitors of the Consolation Bracket will match up in Week 15.

1. Winner will receive an additional 1st round pick in next year’s draft (#15 overall).

E. The four teams that placed 11th-14th will enter the Bunghole Bracket, seeding is determined by regular season record and tiebreakers are decided by total season points scored.

1. The Bunghole Bracket is a “reverse bracket”, meaning that the losers advance.

G. Final two competitors of the Bunghole Bracket will match up in Week 15.

1. Loser will be deemed that season’s “Bunghole”.

2. They will be awarded the Bunghole Seat, which they will sign with their name and year won.

3. They will be deemed “Beer Boy” during the upcoming draft (not all weekend) and will have to fetch a beer for any league member that asks.

a. They cannot be asked to grab a beer during their pick.

b. In the event that a draft weekend is not planned, their punishment will be delayed until the next applicable get-together.

IX. Offseason/Dynasty Settings

A. Fantasy football season ends upon completion of Week 16, closing the waiver wire.

B. Owners must cut down their team from 21 (including IR) to 18 players within the first 30 days of the offseason.

C. After 30 days, all team activity will cease and a dead period will take place until 30 days prior to the rookie/free agent draft.

D. 30 days prior to the rookie/free agent draft, the trade window will open and roster size will increase to 25 spots to make room for trades and the upcoming draft.

E. Immediately following the draft, the waiver wire will open. (See Constitutional Law IV)

F. Owners will make their final team cuts back to 20 active spots (plus 1 IR, if applicable) prior to the start of the regular season.

1. Final Cuts Deadline will be midnight of the Sunday prior to Week 1 (i.e. if NFL kickoff is Thursday, Sept 8, the deadline to make final cuts will be 11:59 pm of Sunday, Sept 4)

X. Practice Squads

A. Each team has THREE practice squad spots separate from their active roster.

B. Practice Squad Eligibility

1. Only rookies drafted IN our rookie draft can be assigned to a team’s practice squad, and only during the offseason. (With ONE exception, explained under stealing.)

C. Assigning Practice Squad Players

1. Designating players to your practice squad is done at the same time as team cuts prior to the start of the regular season.

2. During the preseason period after the rookie draft and before the regular season, any PS eligible rookies that are traded keep their PS eligibility on their new teams.

D. Holding Practice Squad Players

1. While only rookies can be assigned, a player can stay on a practice squad for up to 2 years, through their sophomore season.

2. A player on a team’s practice squad is not on their active roster and cannot be placed in a starting lineup.

E. Promoting Practice Squad Players

1. A team can promote their practice squad players at any time but doing so requires adding them to their active roster (and likely dropping an existing player to make room).

2. There are no demotions back to a practice squad. Once a player is promoted, they are ineligible to be returned to any practice squads.

F. Stealing Practice Squad Players

1. A team may attempt to steal another team’s practice squad player with compensation of a draft pick in the upcoming draft, one round higher than the round the player was originally drafted in.

a. 1st Round practice squad players are compensated with one 1st Round Pick and one 2nd Round Pick.

b. If a team has multiple picks within the required round, the stealing team chooses which pick to offer.

2. The player’s current owner has two options. They can keep the player by promoting him to their active roster or they can accept the draft pick compensation and allow the player to be stolen.

3. When a player is successfully stolen, the new team can either transfer them into their own practice squad or straight on to their active roster. Roster/practice squad size is enforced during this process. This is the only time a player can be added to a practice squad outside of preseason assignments.

4. If a player is stolen but placed on the new team’s PS, they are eligible to be stolen again but compensation value increases by a round.

a. 1st Round PS players move from one 1st Round Pick and one 2nd Round Pick to two 1st Round Picks.

XI. Payouts

A. Current payouts, totaling $840, are:

1st Place: $330
2nd Place: $150
3rd Place: $60

Season Points Leader: $30

Weekly High Scorer: $10 ($130 total through the season)

Rival Week Winners: $10 ($140 total)

B. In addition to the payout, the league champion will receive the prized trophy to be used in an appropriate manner until the conclusion of the following season.

XII. Amendments

A. Amendments to any of the above by-laws may be proposed at any time, but will be only be reviewed in the offseason during the dead period, and not be made effective until the following season.

B. All amendments proposed by league members must receive 70% approval (10 votes) from the league 30 days prior to the rookie/free agent draft.

1. One re-vote per offseason may take place for any proposed amendment, regardless of whether the initial amendment was approved or denied. Following the decision of a re-vote, it may not be voted on again until the following offseason.

XIII. Special Circumstances

A. Should circumstances, issues, or problems arise for which a remedy is not stated in the rules or by-laws, the commissioner reserves the right to take whatever actions he deems necessary within the best interests of the league.

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