7 sections49 slots per team
Rules
We transcribe this sheet as the league filed it — blank cells stay blank, and nothing is recalculated to cover a gap.
Last reviewed
Photo: Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0 · source file
The league rules document, quoted as written. Seven sections cover the sports played, roster moves, roster sizes, scoring, how each league finish converts into points, the cycle and keepers, and free agency.
It is published unedited on purpose. Most disputes in a league this size are not arguments about what is fair but arguments about what was agreed, and a paraphrase — however careful — moves the line. So the wording here is the league’s, including the places where it is informal and the one place where it links out to a public help page for game limits. Section headings are the source’s own; only the typography is this site’s.
Read together, the seven sections explain the shape of everything else on the site. 49 drafted players per team and one supplemental spot across 14 teams is what produces a 700-pick board. Fourteen points to a league winner and one to its last place is what makes 42 the ceiling for a calendar year. And the keeper clause — minus two rounds in the first year, another four in the second, no third year — is what makes a draft in this league a different exercise from a draft anywhere else.
Two clauses are worth finding before a season rather than during one: the roster-move schedule, which is not the same in all three sports, and free agency, where the budget is separate per sport and per season. Both are the usual source of a dispute, and both are written down here in the league’s own words.
Sports covered
NFL · MLB · NBA
Roster sizes
NFL — 13 drafted per team
- 1 QB
- 2 RB
- 3 WR
- TE
- Flex
- DST
- 4 bench
- Unlimited DL
MLB — 25 drafted per team
- C
- 1B
- 2B
- 3B
- SS
- MI
- CI
- 5 OF
- UT
- 9 pitchers
- 3 bench
- Unlimited DL
NBA — 11 drafted per team
- PG
- SG
- SF
- PF
- C
- G
- F
- UT
- 1 bench
- Unlimited DL
TOTAL = 49 PLAYERS PER TEAM FOR ALL SPORTS AND 1 SUPPLEMENTAL DRAFT SPOT X 14 TEAMS = 700 PLAYERS DRAFTED FOR THE LEAGUE
Scoring
NFL
normal head-to-head format, normal NFL scoring rules re: yards, 4 points for TD pass, 6 for TD run or catch, etc. Straight wins and losses per week. 13 weeks of regular season, then 3 weeks of playoffs (6 teams), same as regular NFL fantasy leagues (Week 17 doesn’t count). NOT PPR
MLB
5 x 5 roto, except OBP instead of AVG. So HR/RBI/Runs/SB/OBP, plus Wins/K/Saves/ERA/WHIP
NBA
normal 8-category roto: points, rebs, assists, steals, blocks, threes, FT%, FG%
Standard ESPN leagues have game limits for each position, so we’ll just go by those rules: http://games.espn.go.com/fba/ resources/help/faq?name=how- do-matchup-limits-and-game- limits-work
How the leagues add up
- Each league standings then count for points.
- NFL if you win the championship you get 14 points. Team with worst regular-season record gets 1 point. And so on. For teams that lose in the playoffs, regular season finish is used to determine who finishes higher in the standings when comparing the losers of the 1st and 2nd rounds.
- MLB if you finish first in overall roto scoring you get 14 points. Last place 1 point. And so on.
- NBA if you finish first in overall roto scoring you get 14 points. Last place 1 point. And so on.
- Overall Winner has the most combined league-accrued points across the 3 leagues. Each season is scored separately, meaning the max overall score is 42 points.
The cycle and keepers
1 calendar year . League will be scored over 3 seasons, 1 each of NFL, NBA and MLB. Highest overall score after those 3 seasons is the winner.
However, there are keepers. Each team may keep up to 6 players total across all sports each year. Keeper lists will be due between 15 and 30 days before the next draft begins to give everyone a chance to prepare. Commissioner will send out deadline each year.
The first year a player is kept, their value is whatever round they were selected minus 2 rounds. The second year the player is kept, their value is deducted another 4 rounds. The player is ineligible to be kept for a 3rd year. So if Joe Schmoe is drafted in the 18th round in 2017, he may be kept as a 16th round selection in 2018 and as a 12th round selection in 2019. He must return to the draft pool in 2020.
If an owner has two keepers that have a keeper value in the same round, they will be subject to an extra round penalty. So if you have two keepers that both have 14th round value after penalties are assessed, you must give up your 13th and your 14th round selections to keep both.
Players selected in the Supplemental Draft will be considered 20th round selection for keeper purposes, unless the owner used a higher round draft pick to determine his place in the Supplemental Draft order. So if Owner A used his 14th round selection in the main draft to determine his supplemental draft order, any supplemental draft selection will be considered a 14th round pick for keeper purposes. If Owner A used his 40th round selection in the main draft to determine his supplemental draft order, any supplemental draft selection will be considered a 20th round pick for keeper purposes.
Any player obtained via a FAAB bid in any sport will be considered a 20th round selection for keeper purposes, unless that player was drafted in a round lower than 20. In that case, his original draft position will dictate the baseline of his keeper value. For example, if Joe Schmoe is drafted in round 12, but dropped during the season, he can be kept in the 10th round next year (not the 18th). If he was drafted in the 35th round and later dropped and picked up, he’d still be an 18th round keeper the next year.
Roster moves
Rosters set weekly, except for NFL, because of injuries/byes etc
Free agency and FAAB
FAAB bidding for all sports, $100 budget (per season, per sport). Minimum bid is $0. Tiebreaker is reverse order of standings on day waiver runs. For MLB and NBA, FAAB runs once a week on Sunday nights. For NFL, it runs daily Thursday – Sunday at 11am EST. Offseason pickups aren’t allowed, though trading is still fully available and encouraged. Each August, owners will participate in a snake draft via email for unallocated NFL and NBA players (think rookies and training camp phenoms). The draft order is determined by the initial draft. In addition to picking 49 players, each owner gets to select their spot in the snake draft. After this method is used to distribute unallocated players, pickups will resume when the respective seasons commence. Typically, the first FAAB run happens the week the season starts. For example, if the first game of the year is on Thursday, it would run on Sunday night for NBA and MLB and on Thursday morning for NFL. For clarity sake, there are 3 separate FAAB budgets. Each budget is a tradable asset. Additionally, the immediately following season’s FAAB may be traded as well. So during the 2018-2019 season, players may trade 2019-2020 FAAB. Future draft picks can’t be traded, with the exception of the current year’s supplemental draft. MLB season – 100 NFL season – 100 NBA season – 100
Calendar
- March 17th, 2018 – League of Leagues Draft
- 2018 MLB Season
- 2018 NFL Season
- 2018-19 NBA Season
- August, 2018 – Supplemental Snake Draft
Source: the league rules document. Quoted as written — nothing is paraphrased and nothing is added.