League Rules & Constitution

League Information

• The Official League Web Site is theleague.us
• The League is a 16 team dynasty/salary cap league.
• Brandon Shields is the League Commissioner.
• Franchise fee is $50.00 per team.
• PayPal fees on will be $1 for every $25 of league dues sent, starting in '08
• February 15th is considered the start of the calendar year.
• All times/dates posted are Pacific Standard Time unless otherwise noted.
• ⏰ Unless otherwise noted 8:45 PT / 11:45 ET is considered end of the league day.
  
  

Important Dates

Preseason	Date
Deadline to purchase your team for the following season	February 1st at 8:45pm PT
Last time to release players in the current season	February 14th at 8:45pm PT
Start of the new season	February 15th
Tagging Period
Tagging Period	February 1st - 14th
Teams may make offers to tagged players	February 15th - 28th(29th) at 8:45pm PT
Teams must match any offer on a tagged player, or lose the player	March 1st - 7th at 8:45pm PT
Free Agency
Off season FA period will begin	3rd Thursday of March (15th~21st) at 7am PT
One week after the NFL Draft, we'll hold our Rookie Draft	Early May
Teams must declare contract years for all rookies drafted in May	3rd Sunday in August (or 3 weeks before the first Sunday game of the season whichever is later) 8:45pm PT
Teams must also cut their rosters down to the 22 maximum on the active roster	3rd Sunday in August (or 3 weeks before the first Sunday game of the season whichever is later) 8:45pm PT
Regular Season
The off season FA period will conclude	One day before the kickoff of the NFL season
League trading deadline	The Friday before Week 11 at 8:45pm PT
The in-season Free Agency period will end	After the conclusion of Week 16

Division Set up

• The League consist of 4 divisions of four teams each: Pacific, Midwest, Central and Atlantic.
• Each team within the division will play twice during the regular season.
• Divisional winners receive an automatic playoff birth.
  
  

Team Rosters

• Each team can have up to 22 players on their active roster, plus an additional 3 practice squad (taxi squad) spots.
• During the offseason (from the conclusion of Week 17 until the 3rd Sunday in August at 8:45pm PT), there is no limit on the number of players on a team's active roster.
• Teams must have at least 20 players under contract from the first game of the season until the last game of the year (Week 17). "Under contract" means exactly that: every player signed to your franchise counts toward the 20, regardless of whether he sits on the active roster, the practice squad (taxi squad), or injured reserve.
• Rosters can include any combination of the following positions: QB, RB, WR, TE, PK, DEF.
• RotoWire is the official depth chart of the league. If RotoWire lists a player's position differently than MFL, the owner chooses which of the two positions the player carries — MFL's or RotoWire's — and the commissioner will make that change before the upcoming week's kickoff.
• A player listed at one position by MFL and a different position by RotoWire is eligible at both positions for the entire season. The owner may switch him back and forth between those two positions as often as they want during the season; each switch is requested from the commissioner and takes effect before the upcoming week's kickoff. Only the positions those two sources list are available — if MFL and RotoWire agree on a player's position, there is nothing to choose and that position stands.
• Teams can place up to 3 rookies on the Practice Squad at a rate of 50% of their base salary against the cap.
• Only rookies are eligible for the practice squad. Any player considered a rookie by MFL will be eligible for the practice squad. (The NFL defines a rookie as any player without an accrued NFL season.)
• During the offseason (as defined on the league calendar), teams may have fewer than 20 players on their roster.
• All teams must have 20 players under contract by the end of the Off-Season Free Agency Period. Practice squad (taxi squad) and injured reserve players count toward this 20, same as during the season.
• At the start of each season, all players who were on the IR or Practice Squad at the end of the previous year must be moved to the active roster. Teams have until February 15th to comply with this requirement.

Injured Reserve

• Each franchise can have an unlimited number of IR spots.
• IR players' salaries count 100% against the cap.
• Only players on the official IR list are eligible, with no exceptions.
• IR players can only be activated if they are removed from the MFL's IR list.
• IR players can be traded or released.

Starting Rosters

• QB: 1
• RB: 1-4
• WR: 1-4
• TE: 1-4
• PK: 1
• Def: 1

Lineup Submission

• Lineups are due at "game time" of the player involved.
• Teams that fail to submit a starting lineup, the previous week's lineup will be used.
• Teams must submit a valid lineup each week. A valid lineup consists of no players on a bye or listed as out on the NFL injury report, if another option exists on your bench.
• Teams that fail to submit a valid lineup for two consecutive weeks will be considered abandoned.

Salary Caps & Contracts

• Franchises have a $45 million salary cap that cannot be exceeded.
• Contracts are between 1-5 years and cannot be traded.
• Contracts transfer with the player if traded.
• Players without a contract cannot be traded.
• Rookies are assigned a 5-year contract unless adjusted before the third Sunday in August.
• Teams must have enough cap space for drafted rookies. If not, the player must be signed and then released with a 50% cap hit (based on a one-year contract).
• Free agents receive a default 1-year contract. Longer contracts must be submitted within:
  • 24 hours during the season
  • 48 hours in the offseason
• Contracts expire on February 15th, reducing by one year. Players with zero years become free agents unless tagged.
• Contracts cannot be renegotiated. However, if a player is released and re-signed through free agency, a new contract length may be assigned.

Rookie Salaries

• League minimum salary: $425,000.
• All players under contract receive a 10% salary increase on February 15th.
• Rookie salaries follow a slotted system.

Trades

• Trades must be submitted via the league website and require Commissioner approval.
• The Commissioner has final authority to approve or reject trades.
• If a trade involves the Commissioner's team, an independent owner will review it.
• Approved trades will be posted on the league website in the transaction report.
• All trades must comply with roster limits and salary cap rules before approval.
• Trading is permitted from the end of Week 17 until the Friday before Week 11 of the next season.
• After February 15th, tagged players cannot be traded until officially signed.
• Teams may trade future draft picks, but only one year in advance.
• Acquiring a draft pick requires a non-refundable $25 deposit.

Player Tags

Each team may apply one Franchise tag to any player whose contract has expired:

Bidding & Matching Rules

• Message Board: Place all tags and bids on the league message board.
• Tagging Period: February 1 – February 14 8:45pm PT.
• Bidding Period: February 15 – February 28 8:45pm PT (or 29th on leap years).
• Matching Period: The original team has until March 7th to match the highest offer.
• Bid Ranking: Teams can increase a bid by adding years or salary or both.
• Tags: All tags start out as 1 year contracts.
• Compensation: Owners may bid on more than one player provided they have draft picks to compensate.

Tag Compensation: The compensation for losing a tagged player will be the original draft picks from the bidder. If the original picks are not owned, the highest available picks in the bidder's inventory at the start of the tagging period (Feb 1st 12:00am PT) will be used. When placing the bid, the bidder must state the draft picks given up, and those picks become protected and non-tradeable until after the tag matching deadline has passed.

If the bidder does not have the required round pick, then the next highest pick in their inventory above the required round will be used (e.g., a 1st round pick if a 2nd round pick is required).

Compensatory draft picks: 1.17, 2.17,2.18 can be used as compensation, but are considered one round lower. (i.e, 1.17 can be used in place of a 2nd round pick.)

Example Scenarios

• Franchise Tag Example 1:
  • Team Alpha owns two 1st round picks 1.05, 1.12 (original pick) and two 2nd round picks 2.12 (original pick), 2.13 and bids on two Franchise Players.
  • First bid: Uses original 1st and 2nd round pick.
  • Second bid: Uses highest remaining 1st and 2nd round pick from their inventory.
• Franchise Tag Example 2:
  • Team Bravo owns three 1st round picks 1.05, 1.12 (original pick), and 1.15 and no 2nd round picks.
  • Team Bravo: Uses original 1st and 1.15.
• Multiple Franchise Tag Example:
  • Team Hotel owns three 1st round picks 1.05, 1.12 (original pick), and 1.15 and 3 2nd round picks 2.05, 2.12 and 2.15.
  • Team Hotel places a Franchise Tag bid on Team India's Player D at 12:00pm.
  • Team Hotel places a Franchise Tag bid on Team Juliet's Player E at 12:05pm.
  • Team Hotel must state they are using this year's original 1st and 2nd round pick as compensation for Team India's Player D and this year's best remaining 1st round pick 1.05 and best remaining 2nd round pick 2.05 as compensation for Team Juliet's Player E.

Veteran Extensions

• From now until February 15, 2028, each team may extend one veteran player per season.
• The total contract length after extension may not exceed 6 years.
• Extension values will follow the same formula used in Rookie Extensions (see Rookie Extensions section).
• Only one player per team per season may be extended under this rule.
• Rookies on 4-year contracts are not eligible for this type of extension.
• To be eligible, a player must have at least 2 years remaining on their contract at the time of extension.
• This rule applies to all players equally. A separate vote will determine how it applies to players from the current year's rookie draft.

Rookie Extensions

• Rookie Extensions allow teams to add 2 additional years to a rookie contract.
• Eligibility:
  • Only rookie contracts that you originally drafted are eligible.
  • Players acquired via trade may also be extended, but only if the extension is applied by February 14 at 8:45pm PT in the same league year they were acquired.
  • Extensions may be applied as early as Year 1, but no later than the start of Year 4.
• Contract Terms:
  • The extension adds two years to the existing contract.
  • Extension salary = average of the top 5 salaries at the player's position.
  • This average is multiplied by 2 (for two years), then divided by the number of remaining years on the contract plus 2.
  • The result is added to the player's existing annual salary, and that new total increases by 10% per year.
• Salary Formula Example:
  • Player has 2 years remaining on their contract.
  • Top 5 positional salary average = $8,500,000
  • Extension value = $8.5M × 2 = $17,000,000
  • Total contract years (2 remaining + 2 extension) = 4
  • 17,000,000 ÷ 4 = $4,250,000
  • This amount is added to each year, then increased annually by 10%:
    • Year 1: $4,250,000
    • Year 2: $4,675,000
    • Year 3: $5,142,500
    • Year 4: $5,656,750
  • Link to our calculator
• Mutual Exclusivity:
  • You may not apply both a Rookie Extension and a 5th-Year Team Option to the same player.
• Trade Implications:
  • Teams acquiring a rookie via trade may extend the player, but must do so before February 14 at 8:45pm PT.
  • After that deadline, rookie contracts acquired via trade become ineligible for extension.
  • Players acquired via draft-day trades (any trade involving rookies while the draft is still going on) remain fully eligible for extension.

First-Round Team Option

• All 1st-round draft picks are signed to a 4-year rookie contract with a 5th-year team option.
• Team Option Terms:
  • The 5th-year salary is based on the average of the top 10 salaries at the player's position.
  • This team option provides one additional contract year, bringing the maximum length to 5 years.
• Decision Deadline:
  • The team option must be exercised before the player's 4th year begins.
  • If the option is not declared by that time, the player will enter their final year under the rookie contract and become a free agent afterward unless franchise tagged.
• Mutual Exclusivity:
  • You may not use both a rookie extension and the 5th-year team option on the same player.

Note: Team options are only available for players selected in the 1st round of the rookie draft from 2026 onward.

Compensatory Picks

• If a team chooses not to extend a drafted player and the player signs with another team in free agency, the original team may receive a 3rd-round compensatory pick.
• Eligibility Criteria:
  • The player must have been originally drafted by the team.
  • The player must sign via auction before May 1 at 8:45pm PT.
  • No compensatory pick will be awarded for signings that occur after this deadline.
• Compensatory Pick Rules:
  • Only one compensatory pick is awarded per player.
  • Each owner is responsible for tracking and posting eligible compensatory picks before the rookie draft begins.
  • Compensatory picks are awarded at the end of the 3rd round (e.g., 3.17, 3.18).
• Compensatory Pick Order:
  • The order of compensatory picks will follow the base draft order for that season.
  • If multiple teams are awarded more than one compensatory pick, all teams will first receive their first compensatory pick in base draft order.
  • The process will then repeat to award all second compensatory picks in the same order, and so on, until all compensatory picks have been distributed.

Note: Compensatory picks are only available for players drafted in the 2026 draft and beyond. Signings that occur outside of the official free agency auction process are not eligible.

Free Agent Bidding

• FA bidding starts on the 3rd Thursday in March (15th–21st) and ends the Wednesday before the NFL season opener.
• No new auctions after the 3rd Sunday in August (or three weeks before the first Sunday game, whichever is later) at 8:45 PM PT.
• Two blind bid periods occur between the 3rd Sunday in August and the start of the NFL season.
• FA bidding follows an eBay-style auction format.
• Starting bid: $425,000 | Minimum bid increase: $25,000.
• To bid, teams must:
  • Have at least $425,000 in cap space.
  • Increase bids by at least $25,000.
  • Have an open roster spot.
• After 36 hours without a new bid, the highest bidder wins.
• FA signings receive a default 1-year contract. Longer contracts must be submittedwithin 48 hours via transaction comments or the league message board.

Rookie Draft

• The 3-round rookie draft occurs theSunday after the NFL Draft.
• Only rookies in the MFL database are eligible.
• Each pick has a 12-hour timer, paused from 12 AM to 4 AM PT.
• Draft order follows the reverse order of the prior season's record, with ties broken by All-Play record.
• First two rounds are mandatory; teams must select a player.
• Third-round picks are optional (owners may pass).
• Players from the NFL Supplemental Draft and international rookies enter free agency.
• Toilet Bowl Challenge awards compensatory picks: 1.17, 2.17, 2.18.

In-Season Free Agent Blind Bidding Process

• The In-Season FA period runs from Week 1 through Week 17.
• Free agents are acquired through:
  • Blind Bidding: Sunday 10 PM PT – Wednesday 7 PM PT.
  • First-Come, First-Served (FCFS): Wednesday 7 PM PT – Sunday 10 AM PT.
• FCFS Rules:
  • Salary = $425,000 minimum.
  • Longer contracts must be declared within 24 hours or before the player's game starts.
  • Players are locked once their game begins.
  • Dropped players are locked until Sunday at 10:15 AM PT and must first go through a bid period.
• Blind Bidding Budget: Equals remaining salary cap space.
• All FA signings default to 1-year contracts unless extended within 24 hours via transaction comments or the league message board.
• Players dropped after Week 14 (Sunday 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT):
  • Can only be signed for one year.
  • Cannot be tagged.
  • Becomes free agents at season's end.

Waiving Players

Waiving Retired Players

• Retired players may be waived with a 50% salary cap penalty for the current season but incur no future penalties.
• A player must officially file for retirement to qualify as retired.
• If a player is waived and later officially retires without being rostered by another team, any remaining cap penalties can be removed.
• Players who pass away are automatically considered retired as of their date of passing.

Schedule

• Each franchise will play an 18 game schedule.
• Division Opponents twice and the rest of the league once.
• Whenever possible, division games and doubleheaders will avoid bye weeks and ideally played weeks 1-4, 12-14.
• (Effective with the 2027 schedule.) When a division game cannot avoid a bye week, it is placed on the lightest bye week available — ideally one with only two NFL teams out. This outranks the three-week rematch target; where the two conflict, the lighter bye week wins.
• (Effective with the 2027 schedule.) Division games will be spread across the season, with each franchise playing roughly half of its division games after the midpoint. This ranks just below keeping division games off bye weeks; where the two conflict, a division race that runs all season wins.
• (Effective with the 2027 schedule.) The final week of the regular season will be a doubleheader whenever the calendar allows. This yields to the rule that no doubleheader may fall on a bye week.
• Doubleheaders will be split between the start and the end of the season, and every franchise will get at least one doubleheader after Week 8.

Scoring Errors

• The league's web site provider (My Fantasy League) will be the system of record for NFL stats.
• We automatically accept the MFL/Elias stat updates that are done Thursday mornings
• Once the automatic updates are done on Thursday, all scores are final.

Game Tiebreakers

Regular season games

If a regular season game ends in a tie it will remain as a tie.

Playoff games

The higher seed will advance.

Standings Tiebreakers

Note: These are the tiebreakers we'll use to determine, playoff seedings or any other situation not explicitly defined elsewhere. To view the draft order tiebreakers please view the Rookie draft section

Division Tiebreakers

1. Head-to-head
2. Division Record
3. All Play Record
4. Total points scored
5. Power Rank
6. Victory Points
7. Most Points Allowed
8. Coin Flip

Wild Card Tiebreakers

1. All Play Record
2. Total points scored
3. Power Rank
4. Victory Points
5. Most Points Allowed
6. Coin Flip

Ties are always broken within a division first.

• Once a Wild-Card team is identified, the process repeats for the next Wild-Card spot, removing lower-ranked teams before reapplying the tiebreakers.
• If three or more teams from the same division are involved, the original seeding remains unchanged for all subsequent applications.

This is the same format that we'll use to seed all of the postseason playoffs. Once one seed has been determined the procedure is repeated to seed the second team and so on...

Playoff Structure

The entire league will be seeded 1-16 in reverse order of their regular season standings. The tiebreakers referenced above will be used to break any and all ties. The entire league will be broken up into 3 groups:

League Championships

• The 4 division winners and 3 wildcard teams will make the playoffs.
• The four division champions are seeded 1 through 4 based on their regular season won-lost-tied record.
• Three wild card qualifiers (those non-division champions with the conference's best winning percentages), are seeded 5, 6 and 7.
• The division winner with the best regular season record will be seeded #1 and receive a first round bye.

Play-in Game

• The 8th seed will play the 9th seed.
• The winner will play the highest seeded team to lose in the first round of the League Championships
• The loser will play the loser of the 12th seed vs the 13 seed in the Toilet Bowl Challenge.

Toilet Bowl Challenge

• The remaining 7 seeds will face off in the Toilet Bowl Challenge
• The 16th seed will receive a first round bye
• Unlike the League Championships the Toilet Bowl Challenge is not reseeded after each round.

Playoff Schedule

Week 15

• Seed 2 vs. Seed 7
• Seed 3 vs. Seed 6
• Seed 4 vs. Seed 5
• Seed 8 vs. Seed 9
• Seed 10 vs. Seed 15
• Seed 11 vs. Seed 14
• Seed 12 vs. Seed 13

Week 16

• Seed 1 vs. lowest seed winner
• 2nd highest seed winner vs. highest seed winner
• See Playoff Brackets for the remaining loser's bracket and/or Toilet Bowl games.

Week 17 Championship Week

• Semi Final winners will play for the League Championship.
• Semi Final losers will play for 3rd and 4th place.

Payouts

• Total Net Prize Money will be approximately = $712
• Weekly High Score $3 x 14 weeks Total $42
• League Champion $300
• 2nd Place $150
• 3rd Place $100
• 4th Place $50
• 5th Place $45
• 6th Place $25

Replacement Owners

• If a team leaves the league, a new owner will be selected and will take over the team as is at that time, including rosters, keepers, draft picks, etc. All finances of the team will remain (thus no refunds to any owner leaving early). The Commish maintains a waiting list and will use this to find replacement owners. An owner may not sell or otherwise change the ownership of his/her team without Commish approval. If an owner wishes to leave, the team becomes property of the league and the Commish will find a new owner.

Rule Changes

• Any vote taken by the league to change the rules requires a 75% vote to pass (12 out of 16).
• Any vote taken by the league to change the rules between Feb. 15th and Week 17 requires a 100% vote to take effect immediately.
• If a vote taken between Feb. 15th and Week 17 receives 75% or more but less than 100% it will take effect the following season.
• Abstentions will be considered "Yes" votes.
• All poll votes will be final 5 days after they begin.
• Any unforeseen rule situation not specifically covered in the constitution will be determined by the league commish.

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