§ 1 General Provisions
The rules provided by Yahoo! govern all transactions, unless otherwise specified by these rules.

§ 2 Rule Changes
(a) The commissioner may change or amend any of the rules herein. The changes may be vetoed by a vote to disaffirm the change by a majority of the owners in the league.
(b) An owner that does not submit a vote within seven days after notice of the rule change is deemed in favor of the change.

§ 5 Roster
A maximum of twenty-five (25) players are allowed on a team's roster. There are no non-roster injured list positions.

§ 6 Starting Lineup
The starting lineup consists of one quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, one tight end, one kicker, four defensive lineman (includes linebackers), and two defensive backs.

§ 8 Scoring System
The scoring system is as follows:

(a) Offensive Scoring: Passing Touchdown - 6; Interception Thrown - (2); Passing Yard - 1 point for every 50 yards; Rushing Touchdown - 6; Rushing Yard - 1 point for every 20 yards; Receiving Touchdown - 6; Receiving Yard - 1 point for every 20 yards; Return Touchdown - 6; Return Yard - 1 point for every 40; Field Goal - 3; Extra Point - 1; Fumble Lost - (2); Two Point Conversion - 2.
(b) Defensive Scoring: Solo Tackle - .5; Assisted Tackle - .25; Sack - 4; Interception - 4; Forced Fumble - 2; Defensive Touchdown - 6; Pass Defended - 1.

§ 10 Player Contracts
(a) All players on a team's active roster must be signed to a contract at a salary that is equal to or exceeds the league minimum salary. The minimum salary requirement need only be met at the time the player is signed. In contract years after the signing year, a player's salary may be below the league minimum.
(b) If the salary cap is increased more than ten percent from one season to the next, the current player contracts shall be increased to make the effective increase of the salary cap equal to ten percent.

§ 11 Contract Lengths
A player obtained through the free agent auction or the rookie draft may be signed to a contract for a minimum of one year to a maximum of five years. A free agent acquired during the season may be signed to a contract for that season only.

§ 12 Minimum Player Salary
The minimum league salary is equal to one percent of the league salary cap. The minimum salary should be rounded up to the nearest five-cent increment.

§ 13 Player Guaranteed Contracts
All player contracts are guaranteed, meaning an owner must pay for the player's entire salary for each year of the player's contract, subject to the exceptions listed in sections fourteen through seventeen.

§ 14 Salary Exception - Injury or Demotion
(a) If a player does not play at least two games for an NFL team, the player's salary does not count against the team's salary cap and the owner need not pay that player's salary.
(b) An owner must notify the commissioner within seven days of the final day of the NFL regular season to claim an exemption for that season under this rule.

§ 15 Salary Exception - Released Player
(a) If a player is waived (removed from the active roster) by a team prior to the expiration of the player's contract, the owner must pay the full amount of the player's salary in the year the player was waived, and thirty percent of the player's salary for every other year remaining on the player's contract. For example, if a player is signed to a three-year contract and is waived in year one, the owner is responsible for the player's full salary in year one and thirty percent of the salary in years two and three.
(b) If a player is waived before the free agent auction begins, but after the end of the previous NFL season, that player is not considered to be on that team's roster for that season. Thus, if a team waives a player before the auction, the owner must pay only thirty percent of the player's salary for that year.

§ 16 Salary Exception - Acceleration of Contract
(a) If a player is waived, that player's salary in future years (as determined by section fifteen) may be accelerated thereby adding future contract obligations to the player's salary for the current year.
(b) Only the entire salary obligation for a future contract year may be accelerated, acceleration of salary obligations for a partial contract year is not allowed.
(c) If an owner has salary responsibility for a waived player in more than one future year, the last year of salary obligation must be accelerated before any year prior to the last year of salary obligation may be accelerated.
(d) An owner must notify the commissioner within seven days of the season's end to accelerate a contract obligation to that season.

§ 17 Salary Exception - Trade
(a) If a player is traded, the parties to the trade will assume the contracts of the players received in the trade. The parties to the trade may split the salaries of the players as desired. Assigning portions of the player's salary is referred to as a trade adjustment.
(b) A player's salary may be adjusted for multiple years, but the adjustment must be equal for each year in which the salary is adjusted and may not exceed the length of the traded player's contract.

§ 20 Salary Cap
(a) The salary cap for the 2003 season is $100. The salary cap shall increase ten percent each season starting with the 2004 season. Team's salaries that exceed the salary cap are subject to a luxury tax.
(b) Each team must have salary responsibilities greater than or equal to fifty percent of the salary cap. A team that does not meet this requirement must pay a penalty equal to the difference between the team's salary responsibility and an amount equal to fifty percent of the salary cap.

§ 21 Luxury Tax
A luxury tax shall be paid on all player salaries that exceed the salary cap in accordance with the following:

 

 

§ 22 Owner Fees
Each owner must pay a league fee in the amount of its player's salaries plus any luxury tax or other penalties assessed under these rules.

§ 23 League Prizes
(a) All fees collected shall be distributed to the league winner(s). The fees collected for player salaries up to the amount of the salary cap and penalties under section 20(b) are to be distributed to the league winners for that season. The fees collected for player salaries in excess of the salary cap and luxury taxes are distributed in the following season.
(b) Twenty percent of the prize fund shall be split among the high scorers for each week of the NFL season. The weekly prize shall be equal to one-seventeenth of weekly high prize fund rounded down to the nearest five-dollar increment. Twenty-five percent of the prize fund shall be paid to the tournament winners in accordance with section twenty-four. The balance of the prize fund shall be paid to the top teams in the standings in accordance with the following table:

 

 

 

 

(c) The prize amounts provided in the table above shall be rounded to the nearest dollar. Any excess due to rounding shall be added to the carryover. Any shortfall due to rounding shall be taken from the lowest placed team on the prize distribution scale.

§ 24 Tournament
(a) There shall be a single-elimination tournament during weeks 13 through 16 of the NFL season. There shall be two brackets, a winner's bracket and a consolation bracket. The winners of the week 13 games shall advance in the winner's bracket, and the loser's of the week 13 games shall advance in the consolation bracket.
(b) The seeding for the tournament shall be based on the total points standings at the end of week 12. The top 16 teams in the standings comprise the tournament field.
(c) The prizes for the tournament shall be equal to twenty-five percent of the total prize fund.
(d) The top three finishers in the winner's bracket shall be paid a percentage of the total prize money for that tournament in accordance with the following table:

 

 

 

 

§ 25 Rookie Draft
(a) A two-round draft for NFL rookies will be held before the free agent auction.
(b) To qualify as a rookie, a player must be eligible to play in the NFL, and must not have played in the NFL prior to that season. Thus, college players are not eligible for the rookie draft.
(c) A team is not required to make a selection in the rookie draft and may choose not to select a player.

§ 26 Rookie Draft Order
(a) The draft order for the rookie draft will be the reverse order of the previous year's final standings subject to the provisions in this section.
(b) To qualify for the draft position designated under part (a), an owner must continue to put forth his best starting lineup each week of the season. This provision does not require that a team acquire additional free agents to fill roster positions that have been vacated by injury. However, an owner may not drop players to fill his roster with lower-quality players to improve his draft position.
(c) The commissioner shall determine whether an owner has fulfilled his obligation under subpart (b). In the event that an owner has not satisfied the requirements of subpart (b), the commissioner may change the owner's position in the draft order. The commissioner shall attempt to place the owner in the position that the owner would have earned had the obligations of subpart (b) been met.

§ 27 Rookie Salaries
Rookie salaries are assigned as a percentage of the salary cap based on the draft position of the player selected as set forth in the following table:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

§ 28 Length of Rookie Contracts
The owner shall determine the length of a rookie contract subject to section eleven. The owner must notify the commissioner of the contract length by the trading deadline. If the commissioner is not notified during the required period, a one-year contract shall be assigned.

§ 29 Restricted Free Agents - Rookies
If a player acquired through the rookie draft is signed to a one-year or a two-year contract, that player becomes a restricted free agent when the contract expires. The owner of a restricted free agent has the right to retain the player by matching the highest bid for that player during the free agent auction.

§ 30 Free Agent Auction
Before each season, all free agents (players not on an active roster) are auctioned and acquired by the highest bidding team. To qualify as a free agent, the player must be on an NFL roster or must have played in the NFL prior to that season. Thus, college players are not eligible for the free agent auction.

§ 31 Free Agents Not Acquired Through Auction
During the season, free agents may be acquired for the league minimum salary.

§ 32 Free Agent Salaries
If a free agent is acquired through the free agent auction, the player's salary (contract) amount is equal to the winning bid in the free agent auction. If a free agent is acquired during the season, the player's salary is equal to the league minimum salary. The player's salary shall be the same for any subsequent year in that player's contract.

§ 33 Length of Free Agent Contracts
If a free agent is acquired through the free agent auction, the owner shall determine the length of the player's contract in accordance with section eleven. The owner must notify the commissioner of the contract length by the Wednesday after the first week of the NFL season. If the commissioner is not notified during the required period, a one-year contract shall be assigned.

§ 34 Franchise Player Designation
A team may designate one player each season as a franchise player if the player's contract expired after the previous season and the player was not designated a franchise player by any team in the previous season. The franchise player will be assigned a one-year contract at a salary equal to the greater of the player's salary for the previous season or the average salary of the top three contracts at that player's position during the previous season. Franchise players must be designated before the rookie draft by a date set by the commissioner.

§ 35 Unlisted Free Agents
(a) A player who is not listed on Yahoo when the season begins is put on waivers when the player is added to the player list. In the event that Yahoo does not place new players on waivers when they are added to the player list the rules set forth in subparts (b) and (c) apply.
(b) If a player is not listed as an active player on the fantasy sports website on which the league is organized, that player may be retained in accordance with the following:
(1) Notifying each owner of the name, position, and team of the player to be claimed. This requirement can be satisfied by posting a notice on the message board on the league page, if applicable, or by sending an e-mail to every owner in the league; and
(2) Dropping a roster player if the team claiming the unlisted player has the maximum number of players on its roster. Alternatively, the owner can pick up a non-active player and use that player as a placeholder until the unlisted player becomes available.
(c) A team loses its right to an unlisted free agent if the roster spot vacated for the unlisted player is filled by another player, or if a non-active player is used as a placeholder, the team will lose its rights if that player is placed in the starting lineup and accumulates fantasy statistics.

§ 36 Waivers
A player that has been dropped from a team is on waivers for a period of time specified by the commissioner before the start of the season. While on waivers, each owner will have the opportunity to request that the player be added to his or her team. The team with the highest waiver priority will have the requested player added to its roster.

§ 37 Wavier Priority
The waiver priority is set at the beginning of the season. The team with the last pick in the first round of the rookie draft shall have the highest waiver priority. The team with the second to last pick in the first round of the rookie draft will be second in waiver priority, and so on. When a team claims a player from waivers, it moves to the bottom of the waiver priority list.

§ 40 Trading Players
When a player is acquired through trade, the new owner assumes the player's contract-both the contract amount and length. The salary for the current year shall be split in accordance with section seventeen.

§ 41 Assigning Player Contracts
Player contracts may be assigned from one team to another if the assignment occurs before the NFL season begins and the player contract was obtained in the free agent auction during the same season that the assignment occurs.

§ 42 Trade & Assignment Approval
(a) All trades must be fair are subject to the approval of the commissioner.
(b) Trades shall be analyzed by looking at a totality of the circumstances. The commissioner shall consider each player's ability in comparison to their salary, the salary responsibility of each party to the trade, each team's position in the standings, and any other factor that may be relevant to the fairness determination.
(c) Player assignments are presumed unfair and shall be analyzed under a higher standard of scrutiny as compared to player trades.
(d) Trades involving a team owned by the commissioner can be vetoed by an affirmative vote by the majority of all owners not involved in the trade to veto the trade. All votes to veto the trade must be received within five days of notice of the pending trade. Owners that do not submit their votes within the specified period are deemed to approve the trade.

§ 43 Appealing Trade Rulings
(a) One or both teams involved in the trade may appeal a trade that is denied by the commissioner. On appeal, the trade ruling may be overturned by:
(1) The decision of the commissioner, or
(2) An affirmative vote by a majority of all owners not involved in the trade to allow the trade.
(b) All votes to overturn the decision of the commissioner must be received within five days of the commissioner's veto of the trade. All owners that do not submit their votes within specified period are deemed approve of the commissioner's veto.

§ 44 Canceling Trades
A pending trade may be cancelled by notifying the commissioner before the trade is approved. One party to the transaction may cancel the trade unilaterally.

§ 45 Trading Deadline
The trading deadline shall be set by the commissioner before the start of each season. Trades will not be allowed after the trading deadline.