CFFL RULES

Revised 08/30/18

TEAMS / DIVISIONS

The CFFL (College Fantasy Football League) is a 12-team league.  Effective 2016, the CFFL is a one-division super-league.  This ends 19 years of two division play with the previous few years using the infamous LEGENDS and LOSERS divisions where teams were relegated to the losers division at the end of the season and the four playoff spots were allocated by league status with three teams going to the Legends and one going to the Losers.

SCHEDULE

Teams will play an 11 game schedule, typically from early September through mid-November, and play every team once.  

Effective 2014, the “CFFL week” will run from Tuesday to Monday.  In prior years, it was Wednesday to Tuesday.

“Week 0” games typically do not count towards the CFFL season but this is decided on a year-to-year basis based on the number of games being played in week 0.

KEEPERS

Teams are allowed to protect a minimum of 0 players and a maximum of 7 players each season. For each player that a team protects, they will lose a draft pick beginning with the first round. So if a team protects 4 players, they will lose their 1st-4th round picks and will make their first selection of the draft in the 5th round.

DRAFT

The CFFL conducts an annual e-mail draft that typically starts in early August and ends 1-2 days before the start of the season. 

Draft order is based on the inverse order of the prior year standings. The two Fantasy Bowl teams from the prior season will draft 11th (runner-up) and 12th (champion) respectively. Teams that finished with identical records will reverse order in odd/even rounds. Draft tie-breakers are determined using Points Against from the previous season. The team with the highest points against gets the higher draft pick. 

Clarification on rounds 1-7: The draft order "starts" with round 8 which is the first round in which every team drafts.  The reverse order starts in round 9.  For rounds 1-7, the draft follows the even-numbered rounds (i.e., round 8).

Only FBS players are eligible for the draft.  Players from FCS, DII, DIII, NAIA, JCs, High Schools, and Prep Schools are not eligible for the draft.  Transfer players who have officially signed with a new school are eligible.  Players on FCS teams transitioning to FBS are not eligible – they become eligible once their school becomes official FBS members.

No player can be drafted once their team has started an actual game. This removes “Week 0” players from the draft once their “Week 0” games start.

Trading of draft picks is not allowed during the course of the draft.

Specific year draft instructions (times between picks, etc) are emailed prior to the start of the draft.

ROSTERS

Teams carry a 20-man roster.

Eligible players include QB, RB, WR, TE, and PK.

“Slash players” are eligible at the position listed on the roster of that schools official athletic website.  If that website lists a position other than QB, RB, or WR and/or the player has undergone a complete positional transformation, the Commish will determine position eligibility based on actual/projected stats and touches.  Players who switch positions during the season and the schools official athletic website is slow to update will be reviewed for position eligibility by the commish

There are no reserve lists or disabled lists in the CFFL. 

STARTING LINEUPS

Teams must start 2 QB, 3 RB, 3 WR/TE, 1 PK.

Players in a game that starts before 12 NOON ET on Saturday must be declared as starting prior to the start of their respective game.  This includes any games scheduled for Tuesday (#AlwaysSUNny), Wednesday (#MACtion), Thursday (#MustSeeTD), Friday (#WildWildMountainWest), or early Saturday (#ShamrockSeries).   It is not assumed that a player in a Wednesday game is starting because they were in your lineup last week.  Players must be declared as starting on a week-to-week basis.

Final lineups, including all players starting, are due by 12 NOON ET on Saturday. 

Teams are asked to send their lineups to all owners of the league so everyone knows what the lineups are.

If a team fails to send in a lineup, the lineup from the previous week will be used. 

SCORING

TD Pass = 4 pts

TD Run = 6 pts

TD Rec = 6 pts

10 yds rush = 1 pt

10 yds rec = 1 pt

25 yds pass = 1 pt

FG = 3 pts

XP = 1 pt

Note: Effective 2015, due to a change in the ESPN boxscores (separation of the scoring summary and actual box score), two-point conversions are no longer part of the CFFL scoring system.

PLAYOFFS

Starting in 2016, the top four teams in the regular season standings will make the playoffs.  

Tie breakers are determined as follows – Head-to-Head competition, Total Points Scored, Total Points Against (most points against wins tie-breaker).  If teams are still somehow tied, either a coin flip or the first team to get a six-pack of Bell’s Oberon to the Commish wins the tie-breaker.

Seeding for the playoffs is based on total points scored and the semifinals are a 1v4 and 2v3 format.

The CFFL playoffs take place during weeks 12 and 13 of the college football season.   Lineups for week 12 can only include players who have games scheduled for week 12.  If you have a player on a bye week in week 12, I hope you planned ahead accordingly.  Lineups for week 13 can include players from weeks 13-15.  If a player is off (bye week) the week of the CFFL championship game, the team may choose to use the next scheduled game for that player.  For example, if Teen Wolfert has a bye week on November 19 (week 13), his CFFL team could choose to use his game on November 26 (week 14) for the CFFL championship game.  If a player completed his season in week 12 and does not play in weeks 13-15, I hope you planned accordingly.

In addition to the normal starting lineups, teams will rank their reserves 1-9 for tie-breaker purposes. In the case of a tie, the tie-breaker will be which reserve scores the highest, starting with reserve 1. If reserve 1 is tied, it moves to reserve 2, and then so on, until a winner is decided.  If neither team submits a reserve list, the tie-breaker is determined by total starting lineup QB points, then total starting lineup RB points, then total starting lineup WR points, then total starting lineup PK points.  If the teams are still tied, the playoffs are canceled and the Austin Power is declared league champion.

So the CFFL championship games is not played over a 6-week period, Bowl games and BCS games are not eligible for use in the CFFL playoffs.

TRADES

Trades are allowed through week 9.   Trading will then resume after the bowl games. Trades involving future considerations, players to be named later, money, and RoTel products are not allowed. Trades do not have to be of the 2-for-2 or 3-for-3 variety, but any team that finds itself over the 20 man roster limit will have to immediately cut players to get down to the 20 man limit. 

Trading of future draft picks are allowed during the season. Trading of picks during the draft is not allowed.  Only picks 8-20 can be traded.   Picks 1-7 are reserved for roster protection spots.  If a "return" pick is not specified in a trade, the "last pick" will be used as default.

FREE AGENTS

Free Agent pickups will be allowed from week 2 through week 9.   You can acquire up to TWO players per week.  Free Agents pickups are due on Wednesday by 12:30 PM ET and will be assigned priority based on the reverse order of the standings (tie-breakers would be total points scored) or, rather, the worst team in the league has first crack at any free-agent pickups.

Only FBS players are eligible to be picked up..  Players from FCS, DII, DIII, NAIA, JCs, High Schools, and Prep Schools are not eligible for the draft.  Transfer players who have officially signed with a new school are eligible.  Players on FCS teams transitioning to FBS are not eligible – they become eligible once their school becomes official FBS members.

POSTING OF RESULTS AND OTHER INFO

Teams are responsible for maintaining a set of rosters for their own use. The Commish will make all efforts to compile weekly transaction and roster postings but cannot guarantee these will be made. Results and Standings will usually be posted on the CFFL Website sometime between Sunday morning and Tuesday afternoon. 

REVISIONS

08/30/18 – Removed “Week 0” players from draft once their games have started. Clarified lineup submissions and declaring players as starters. Clarified player eligibility for Draft and Free Agents.

08/30/16 – Changed the league setup to one division of 12 teams.  Updated the playoffs to reflect top 4 teams from one division.  Moved the tiebreaker section into the playoff section.  Clarified eligible players, “slash” players, and added rules regarding transfers.

01/03/16 – Changed the schedule to Tuesday to Monday.  Removed two-point conversions from the scoring system.

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