2016 COLLEGE LEAGUE RULES

All questions, disputes and interpretations of these rules subject to commissioner’s rulings.
All commissioner rulings will be final.

Commish:    Jeff Snyder

Season
 The season will consist of 10 weeks of regular season play beginning with the week of Saturday September 3rd, 2016. There will be 3 rounds of playoffs to determine the league champion. The participants in the playoffs will be the 3 division winners along with 3 wild card teams for a total of 6 teams that will participate in post season play. The weekly team point totals will be ranked 1-12, with the top 6 receiving a bonus win, and the bottom 6 receiving a bonus loss. In the event of a tie for the 6th and final spot in the top 6, both teams will receive the bonus win.

Scoring
The scoring system is available on the main page of the league website. This scoring system will be used to determine the winner in each game played. Results for the week will be posted by the Commish on Sunday or Monday of each week. In the event of a discrepancy in the scores, the commissioner will verify the scores through various websites and the decision will be final. (Due to the nature of college score reporting, the use of several websites may be required to get an official result) In the event of a tie game, both teams will receive 1 point for the tie. In the playoffs, the higher seed will get the win in the event of a tie game. When looking at the QB stats for yardage thrown, look at the individual player stats, not the team net yards passing. Net yards includes yards loss by sacks. We will however use net yards for player rushing totals. An offensive fumble recovery for a TD, regardless of who fumbles it, is worth 6 points for the player that recovered it.

The cutoff for college games to be used on a given week is Monday. Any college game played on Tuesday or Wednesday will count for the following Saturday week. If any owner notices a discrepancy in something that was updated on the website, they will have one week in which to notify the league of the problem. This applies to scores of games, scores of players, game results or side pot issues. After a period of one week, the updated results becomes OFFICIAL unless an official scoring change was made by the NCAA.

Starting in 2013 there is a new scoring chart for scores that occur in overtime. This affects TD Pass, TD Run and TD Reception, Field Goals and PAT's. Please refer to the league scoring system.

Rosters
The teams will consist of 10 players, distributed as follows:
(2) QB    (2) RB    (2) WR/TE    (2) Optional (RB or WR/TE)    (2) K    (2) Team Defense        

A specific player will be used at the QB position. Only stats accumulated by that specific player at QB will be counted. At the draft, once a specific player is taken from a school, no more QB's from that school may be selected. For example, Tebow of Florida is selected. No additional Florida QB's may be selected at that point. During the season the same rule applies, only one QB from a school may be on a active roster at any time. If a QB is placed on the IR and the replacement is a QB from a different school, a QB from the school of the now IR QB may be claimed as the QB on IR is no longer on an active roster. Team K's will be used. Teams will receive all K stats from the college team that have as their Team K, no matter how many individual K's a college team may use in a given game. Team defenses will be treated as any other individual player on a roster, and eligible for the High Player Score Game side pot. If a player is considered a H-Back, we will use him as a TE. TE's will be combined with WR into a single position, known as WR/TE. TE's will still receive points based upon the TE scoring system. If there is any questions in regards to a players position eligibility, please contact the Commish.

Due to the lack of an official NCAA injury report, injury verification of players will done in several ways. Many injuries are obvious in nature as it is seen on TV and in news headlines that is easy to verify. (i.e. star Player X suffers a torn ACL and is done for the year) There are multiple websites that offer college injury reports. While some of these websites are credible, they are often not 100% accurate. Injury reports from credible sports websites are best used, websites hosted by fans or non-major sports websites are not encouraged to be used. (i.e. Jim & Bob's college injury news website that obviously has no significant affiliation to a major website) If you have questions about a injury report website please ask the Commish to verify the credibility of the website. The injury designation of probable, questionable, doubtful or out often varies on a player from the different websites. We will not use any type of injury designation, a player is either injured or not injured. There is many college news websites that offer player injury updates, as well as each school's website sometimes offers injury news. These websites offer news and updates, just not an official injury report of any kind. If injury news can be verified from these websites it will substantiate an IR move or franchise player protection. Injury news must be substantial, not just Player X missed a series but returned and finished the game without any further evidence of injury. Schools often withhold injury info and players with significant injuries are not reveled to the public. If a player does not play in a game with no explanation from the school, this would also qualify a player as injured. We will not use websites such as fan forums or message boards to verify injuries. (i.e. I read on School X's fan message board that Player X was seen talking to a trainer, that is why they missed the 4th quarter) Given the complicated matter of college injury news just detailed, the Commish may have to use his best judgment on specific unclear situations, often siding on a cautious approach as the NCAA and schools often prefer to not reveal any credible information.

Teams must declare 1 player at the RB & WR positions to be a Franchise Player. Franchise RB & WR must be from your active roster, IR players are not eligible. If a franchise RB or WR meets the injury qualification all RB or WR from the same NCAA team not already on an active roster will be ineligible to be picked up by another team. Teams will retain rights to the backups until the franchise player plays in a game, with one exception. The exception is a player who tries to play through a injury in a limited role, these players will continue to receive franchise protection. For example, Player X suffers a injury and misses 2nd half of a game. He meets the injury qualification for the next week, but does play in the next game, but only in a part time role due to injury limitations. This player would continue to receive franchise protection. The Commish may have to use his best judgment on specific situations, often siding on a cautious approach. If a team places an injured franchise player on the IR and replaces them with a player other than a backup from the same NCAA team, they forfeit their rights to all backups from the same NCAA team. If a player is benched but active, you do not have rights to his backups. Franchise players may be changed each week at the 12 midnight Friday lineup deadline. The only exception will be if a team's franchise player is placed on the IR during the week, the team may declare a new franchise player at that point. If no new franchise player is declared when making the transaction, the team must wait until the next lineup deadline to make the change. Once playoffs start franchise players can not be changed unless a IR move is permitted.

Rosters are frozen once they are submitted for the first week of post season play and scrub bowls. In the event that a team can not submit a full starting lineup due to injured players, teams will be allowed to make a change(s) in order to submit a full starting lineup. If a team can submit a full starting lineup from their existing players, no transactions are allowed. If a QB or a franchise RB or WR meets the injury qualification, teams may replace the QB or franchise RB or WR with a player from the same College team, at the same position.

Draft
The draft will consist of 12 rounds of 12 picks with teams picking in reverse order in even numbered rounds. Example: If you have the first pick in the first round, you will have the 24th overall pick in the 2nd round. Draft position will be determined and will be posted on the website. You are permitted to make trades of your draft positions.

Line-ups
Lineup changes are due to the league by 12 midnight mtn time Friday. The "default lineup" for teams each week will be the previous week's lineup. (The only exception to this rule is week #1, when a full lineup is required to be submitted) If no legal changes are made to a lineup by the Friday deadline, the previous weeks lineup status, sub priority and franchise players will be used. If there is a Thursday or Friday night game, teams will have until kick-off of that game to make any lineup changes. If no changes are submitted before an early game, the previous weeks lineup, sub priority and franchise player status will be used for player(s) in the early game(s). The rest of the teams lineup changes may still be submitted by the Friday night deadline.

Starting line ups will consist of several options:

(1) QB    (1) RB    (3) WR/TE    (1) K    (1) Team Defense
(1) QB    (2) RB    (2) WR/TE    (1) K    (1) Team Defense
(1) QB    (3) RB    (1) WR/TE    (1) K    (1) Team Defense

Only points scored by these players will be tabulated into the game results.

Teams must also prioritize their back up RB/WR with a #1 and #2 sub designation. Due to bye weeks team may only have one or no subs available. A specific player must be named as the backup to the starting QB each week. Teams must also prioritize their back up QB priority with a #1 and #2 sub designation. Teams must chose whether the #2 QB on their roster or the specific named player as backup to the starting QB is their first choice as sub. If no new sub priority is submitted, previous week sub priority will be used. If roster changes are made or players are on a bye, the Commish will never assume sub priority, it must be clearly designated. (i.e. sub #2 was dropped, the new player acquired does not automatically assume the #2 sub designation) In the event that a player does not play, regardless of reason, you may use a backup. The player must be inactive for the game or dressed but DNP. If the starter plays a single down the use of a sub is not permitted. Teams do not get a sub if they started a player who was on a bye week. It will be an owner's responsibility to substantiate the status of a starter in question. A player simply not appearing in a box score is not a verifiable source. Verifiable sources for this will include major sports news websites and official school websites. Sources not eligible to use as verification include message boards, blogs and fan run websites. The Commissioner reserves the right to determine if the source and information meets the substantiation requirement. If there is no subs available due to bye weeks or subs are also DNP, then the a DNP (0 Pts) will be taken by the starter. The same DNP substantiation rule will apply to a team's starting QB. If the player starting at QB meets the DNP criteria, the priority sub QB will be used. If a team is forced to use a backup in place of an injured starter, they must still maintain a legal lineup. If a WR gets hurt, and their #1 priority sub is a RB, but they already have 3 RB's started, they must go to the #2 priority as teams can not have 4 RB's started under any circumstance.

Entry Fees
There will be an entry fee of $170 due on draft day. Teams that are drafting online only must pay their entry fee by draft day. In the event that the entry fee is not paid by draft day your team will be restricted from making any transactions until the entry fee is paid or arrangements have been made with the Commish.

*Entry Fee Breakdown:    $2040 Entry Fees Collected

-$170 Commish Fee
-$60 Website Services
-$20 Trophy Engraving
-$20 Draft Monitor
-$180 Scrub Bowls *($5/week to be refunded to active playoff teams.)
-$995 Playoff Team Breakdown (6 Teams)
-$90 Division Winners (3 Teams)
-$265 Side-Pot Winners
-$240 Post-Season Pool

There will not be any charges for transactions during the year. This should help owners in keeping the best team on the field during the entire season, especially when the playoff spots may be in jeopardy.

Prize Money
 The total of all eligible fees collected will be returned to the league in the form of prize money. All six (6) of the playoff teams that qualify for the post season will share in the prize money. The league prize fund breakdown is available on the league website. All side pots will conclude at the end of the regular season.

Weekly Points Pool
The top 3 teams scores each week will receive the following prize:     1st $15         2nd $10       3rd $5
The bottom 3 teams will have to pay the following amounts:     16th $15    15th $10       14th $5
This will be a running total throughout the year and will be available on the website. Payoffs will be at the following years draft. Any winnings or losses from the prior year, would be the responsibility of the owner that incurred them. If a team chooses not to come back to the league the following year, they would receive any winnings they may have won, as well as must pay any losses they may have had. If a team does not pay off any losses, they would not be permitted to participate in ANY UAL Fantasy League until their debt is settled.

Post Season Play
Each Division Winner and 3 wild card teams qualify for the playoffs. The top two division winners will receive a bye in the first round of the playoffs. In Round One the #1 seed will play the #4, and the #2 seed will play the #3 seed. In Round Two, the highest seed remaining will play the lowest seed remaining, and the two remaining teams will play each other. In Round Three, the two winners from round two will play for the league championship. When determining final order of finish, a wildcard team can never be ranked higher then a divisional winner, regardless of the teams final record. "Home-field advantage" will apply in the playoffs ONLY, with the higher seeded team receiving the advantage in a tie game.

Tie Breakers
If at any time during the season a tie occurs with respect to records, the league will use the same formula through out:
1) total team points (wins/ties(1/2 point) + top 8 finishes)
2) winning percentage ((wins + 1/2 point for ties)/games played)
3) head to head
4) record within division (*only in the event of a tie between two teams in the same division)
5) most points scored
6) most points scored against
7) coin flip

Transactions
****All transactions should be e-mailed to the commissioner at ualcommish@gmail.com. If necessary, transactions may be called in to the commissioner at 303-868-7039.****

Free Agents
The cut off time for free agent moves is 9:00 PM each day. There will be no transactions after the draft. The first transaction day will be Monday night Sept. 5th 2016 after week one is complete. At this point any players that were not drafted are considered free agents. Teams may acquire a free agent provided they release a player to maintain a legal roster. All free agent acquisitions are on a daily basis. There is NO TRANSACTIONS  permitted on Saturday or Sunday of each week. This will allow for all teams to review the weekend stats, and also allow the most current standings to be used in case of multiple claims of a player. There is a limit of 3 free agent acquisitions per year at the following positions: QB, K, DEF. Players that meet the injury qualification may be claimed as free agents, but they can not be placed on the IR until they play in a game first, then can be placed on the IR the following week. Transactions placing a player on the IR do not count towards the 3 transactions limit, only moves where a player is dropped for a free agent. Changing from one QB to another QB at the same school does not count as a free agent move.

In the event of a Thursday or Friday game, any players involved in that early game, whether they are started or not, can not be released for a new player during that same week. (i.e. player started on Thursday, and then dropped on Friday for a new player). Once the early game is played, those players are locked out until the next transaction period on Monday, the same way players involved in the regular Saturday games are. Teams with players involved in early games can still make roster moves up to the Friday night lineup deadline for players not involved in the early games, including changes to add a sub in case a starter in an early game is dnp.

In the event that more than one team wishes to acquire the same free agent during the same period, priority will be determined on a rotating priority basis. During week #1, priority will be determined by reverse order of drafting positions. The initial priority list will be set on Monday Sept. 5th based upon the reverse order of the standings from week #1. Once that initial priority list is set, when a claim for a player/unit is made, the team that has made a claim and received a player/unit will drop to the #12 spot on the priority list. Teams will only drop to the bottom of the priority list on free agent acquisitions. Teams making a IR move will keep their spot in the priority list. Priority is determined by which team is higher on the priority list. The priority list will not be reset at any point during the year, just continuing throughout the year. The priority list will appear on the transaction page on the website and updated regularly.

If a team wishes to place a bid on more than one free agent or waiver wire player during any given claim period, the owner must rank the players in an order of preference. The league will award players in a draft like manner, with the highest ranked bidding team on the priority list getting their first choice of players then the next highest ranked team getting their choice, and so on. If a team makes multiple claims, the claims will be processed one "round" of claims at a time, with the priority list reset after each "round" of claims. Teams will each get one move processed before going to the second round of claims. For example, two teams make two claims each on a given day. The highest ranked team gets their choice, then the #2 ranked team on the priority list gets their choice. The teams are re-ranked on the priority list, and then round two of claims begins with the team highest on the priority list.  Players must be on an active college roster in order to be claimed as a free agent.

After week #10, all playoff teams will get priority on free agent claims. All free agent claims made by Scrub Bowl teams will be processed on Friday night after playoff teams.

Waiver Wire
When a player is released by a team he will be considered "on waivers". The weekly waiver period will end at 9pm Monday. Players dropped on Tuesday will appear on the following week's waiver wire. All players on waivers for the week will be processed at 9pm Wednesday. Players claimed from waivers on Wednesday will be eligible for line-ups that Friday. The same rule for multiple claims applies for the waiver wire as for free agents. If a player goes unclaimed during the waiver period he will then be classified as a free agent. If a player that is on waivers is playing in a Thursday game, all claims for that player must be received by 9pm Wednesday night, so that the claims may be processed Wednesday night and teams know whether they received that player or not. These players will be eligible to be used in a team's lineup for that Thursday game. When you acquire a player through free agency or waivers, you MUST retain him on your roster for that week's scheduled game. The only exception is in an injury situation, where an injured player may be replaced or a player is activated off the IR. A player may be claimed and then traded during the same week, but the traded player must remain on their new teams roster for the remainder of the week.

Injured Reserve
There will be an unlimited injured reserve. Please see the roster section of the rules above for injury verification of a player. If a player meets the injury verification process, they may be placed on the IR. Players that are suspended, dismissed from school or not active for a game for any reason qualify for the IR. Once a player who is on the IR plays in a game, they must be activated prior to their next available game at the relevant lineup deadline. (i.e. if the player plays a Thursday gmae the next week, activated by kick off of that game). An IR player who plays on Saturday but has a bye the following week does not have to be activated during the bye week. If the IR player is not activated by the required deadline they will be released and eligible to be claimed on the following Monday. There is one exception to this activation of an IR player rule. If a player is on the IR, they play in a game, but suffer a new injury or a reoccurrence of the old injury and they meet the injury verification process, they do not have to be activated.

Trades
Trades are permitted at anytime until the trading deadline. Owners must have a complete and balanced roster at the conclusion of a trade. In the event of a "2 for 1" trade, owners must release and/or acquire free agents to fill any roster voids. The trading deadline for our league will be 9:00PM on Friday of week #7 (October 14th, 2016).

Fines
Fines will be issued for not reporting scores on time or for an incomplete lineup. An incomplete lineup occurs when a player on a bye week is started, or a player listed as out is started. A mulligan will be issued for the first offense and a $10 fine for all subsequent offenses. There will be a running total of fines listed on the standings page on the website. These fines will be deducted from any winnings a team may have, or must be paid prior to the draft if a team has no winnings. These fines will go to draft food, meeting room cost or will be added to the prize fund if necessary.

Draft Day Tidbits
 During the course of the draft, if a team attempts to draft a player that has already been drafted by another team, they will get to choose a different player. The Commish reserves the right to issue a warning to teams that repeatedly make this mistake and enforce necessary penalties if it continues.