Keeper of the Sacred Scrolls GAONFL The GAONFL Rules, 2015 Ed. September 2015 THE GAONFL RULES RULE 1 -- TEAM FEES The annual fee for each team is $50. Fees are payable on draft night. RULE 2 -- ROSTERS GAONFL rosters will consist of not more than 23 players. a. Any professional football player may be drafted as long as he is a quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, or kicker. b. A defensive player or kick returner (with no other offensive or defensive position) may be drafted. The team drafting such a player must specify his offensive position when drafting him. RULE 3 -- LINEUPS A team lineup for any given week will consist of seven players: one quarterback, one or two running backs, three or four receivers (including tight ends), and one kicker. Players may only be used in the position(s) listed in the official NFL rosters as they appear at http://www.nfl.com/rosters. a. A player who actually plays a position not listed at http://www.nfl.com/rosters may be allowed to play that position. The Commissioner is responsible for determining additional positions for individual players. b. However, if a player is listed at multiple positions including quarterback or kicker, the player may be used only as a quarterback or kicker in any week in which the Commissioner determines that he will be an NFL team s primary player at that position. RULE 4 -- CONFERENCES There will be 3 conferences of 4 teams each (see rule 7(e) for conference designation procedures). RULE 5 -- SCHEDULE Each GAONFL team will play 14 regular season games, one in each of the first 14 NFL regular season weeks. a. A team will play each team in its conference twice, and each of the 8 non-conference teams once. b. The master schedule used to translate conference assignments into the GAONFL 1
regular season schedule is incorporated into this rule by reference. c. The last three weeks of the NFL regular season are reserved for the GAONFL playoffs, as described in Rule 10. d. If one or more weeks of NFL games are canceled, the Commissioner, after polling the other owners, will adjust the GAONFL schedule as appropriate. RULE 6 -- SCORING GAONFL teams will receive points when a player scores in any of the following ways: a. 6 points for any touchdown. A passing touchdown counts 6 points for the passer and 6 points for the receiver. b. 3 points for a field goal. c. 1 point for an extra point scored on a kick. d. 2 points for an extra point run, pass, or pass reception, or a safety. e. Only points scored in NFL regular season games count in GAONFL game scores. RULE 7 -- DRAFT PROCEDURES The subsections of this rule will deal with procedures for the drafting of players for teams: a. Prior to the draft, each team will draw for the order in which it will select its draft position. In the order drawn, each team can select any available position in the first round. The first-round order will be used in all odd-numbered rounds. The reverse order (starting with the 12th position) will be used in the even-numbered rounds. b. Once the draft order has been determined, owners may swap draft positions for the whole draft. A five-minute period will be set aside immediately following the selection of draft positions to allow owners to swap positions. c. Two minutes will be allowed for each pick in Rounds 1-14, and one minute for each pick in Rounds 15-23. 1. Allowable time not spent on one round of the draft is not transferrable to other rounds. 2. You do not have to pick in any round if you do not want to. 3. A franchise may send a substitute to do the selections. 4. If an owner does not select a player within the time limit during any round 2
(except the last round), the owner may select two players in a future round. 5. If an owner fails to make up a missed selection by the end of the draft, the owner's roster size is reduced by one player. d. If a GAONFL team drafts a player who has been released or placed on an NFL Injured Reserve or Physically Unable to Perform list, that player may be replaced under the following conditions: 1. The replacement player is on an active NFL roster, but was not selected in the GAONFL draft. 2. Requests for replacement players will be accepted by the Commissioner on a first-come, first-served basis. All such replacements must be made no later than the first week's lineup deadline, except that if the first week's lineup deadline falls earlier than Friday at 9:00 due to a Thursday night game, replacements that do not involve teams that played in the Thursday night game may be made until Friday at 9:00. e. Teams will be assigned to conferences by luck of the draw on draft night, before the draft begins. RULE 8 -- LINEUP DEADLINES Lineups for each week's games, including playoff games, are due to the Operations Guy, or his designee (see Rule 8(f)) not later than 9:00 P.M. on the days shown below. First NFL Game Sunday Saturday Thursday Night Thanksgiving Day Any other weeknight Any other day/time Lineup Deadline Saturday Friday Wednesday Wednesday Day prior to the game To be determined by the Operations Guy a. If a week s normal lineup deadline falls on a Federal holiday (ex., Veterans Day), the lineup deadline will be the previous Federal workday. b. Once the lineup deadline has passed, teams may not change their lineups, except as provided in Rule 8(c). A team that submits its lineup early can change it, as long as the change occurs before the lineup deadline. c. If the week's lineup deadline is before Saturday, owners may change their lineups after the week's deadline. Changes must be made by 9:00 P.M. Saturday. No player may 3
be inserted into a lineup, or removed from a lineup, if his NFL team has already played during the week. This rule does not apply to Thanksgiving week. d. If a team does not submit a lineup by the Week 1 deadline, it forfeits its Week 1 game, and each subsequent game until the team submits a lineup. e. If a team does not submit a revised lineup by a week s deadline, its previous week s lineup carries over to the new week, except in the situation described in Rule 8(d). f. The Operations Guy is responsible for taking lineups each week, including playoff weeks. Lineups will be submitted each week to the Operations Guy by Internet (bigsprings1@verizon.net) or by phone (home: 703-365-9934, work: 202-244-5298). Answering machines will take messages anytime day or night at the same numbers. When the Operations Guy cannot perform his duties in a given week, he is responsible for assuring that someone takes lineups and submits them for posting on the GAONFL Web site. RULE 9 -- TRADING a. GAONFL teams may trade players before the lineup deadline of the regular season's 9th week. After the lineup deadline for Week 8, a team must have at least three wins to make a trade. b. Trades must be even. c. A trade takes effect when both teams have reported it to the Commissioner. RULE 10 -- PLAYOFFS The three regular season conference champions and the three wild card teams (see Rule 12) will participate in the playoffs. a. The first-round matchups, in NFL Week 15, will be: 1. The conference champion with the worst record plays the wild card team with the worst record. 2. The other two wild card teams play each other. 3. The conference champions with the two best records have byes. b. The semifinal matchups, in NFL Week 16, will be: 1. The conference champion with the best record plays the first-round winner with the worst record. 2. The conference champion with the second-best record plays the other first-round winner. 4
c. The two semifinal winners will meet in the Super Bowl in NFL Week 17. d. Ties among playoff teams' records, for purposes of determining the playoff schedule, will be broken using the wild card tiebreakers (Rule 12). RULE 11 -- CONFERENCE STANDINGS AND TIEBREAKERS Conference standings will be determined according to regular season win-loss record. Any ties will be broken as follows: 1. win-loss record in head-to-head games 2. points scored in head-to-head games 3. win-loss record in all conference games 4. points scored in all conference games 5. total regular season points scored 6. coin flip RULE 12 -- WILD CARD TEAMS AND TIEBREAKERS After the conference champions have been determined, the three remaining teams with the best regular season records, regardless of conference, will be the wild cards. The following tiebreakers will be used, if needed, to determine the wild cards: 1. win-loss record in head-to-head games 2. average point differential in head-to-head games 3. average points scored in head-to-head games 4. total regular season points scored 5. coin flip RULE 13 -- GAME TIEBREAKERS Ties will not be broken during the regular season. The following procedures apply to tiebreaking in playoff games: a. Each team, after listing its starting lineup, lists its non-starters in order of preference for tie-breaking purposes. Each pair of ranked tiebreakers will be compared in order, until one team wins. The final score for each team in a tied playoff game will be the total of the starting lineup plus all tiebreakers actually used. b. A team s tiebreakers from one playoff game can carry over to its next playoff game, in the same way that starting lineups carry over if not changed. c. If a team fails to submit tiebreakers for its first playoff game, its opponent s tiebreakers will be used until one scores, ending the game. This procedure will continue in subsequent playoff games until the team that failed to submit tiebreakers submits them. d. If one team submits a partial tiebreaker list, or both teams submit partial lists, the tiebreakers will be run in normal order until the game is decided, or both teams run out 5
of tiebreakers. If one team runs out of tiebreakers, the opponent s remaining tiebreakers (if any) will be used. e. If the tiebreaking procedures under this rule fail to decide a game, the game will be decided by a coin flip. The winner of the coin flip will receive 3 points. RULE 14 -- POWERS OF THE COMMISSIONER The league Commissioner will rule on any other actions that are not covered under the GAONFL rules. RULE 15 -- DISTRIBUTION OF WINNINGS The annual fees will be distributed as follows: Share No. of Shares Amount Per Share Total Conference Champion 3 75 225 Wild Card 3 50 150 Super Bowl Winner 1 125 125 Super Bowl Loser 1 50 50 Scoring Champion 1 50 50 Most Points Allowed 1 Interest Interest Total 6 $600 + Interest RULE 16 -- AMENDMENTS TO THE RULES Proposed amendments to the GAONFL rules will be considered at an annual league meeting held at least one week before the draft. a. Proposed amendments must be submitted in writing to the Commissioner at least one week before the annual rules meeting. b. No proposed amendment may be approved unless the owners of a majority of GAONFL teams are present, either in person or by proxy, at the rules meeting, and the amendment is approved by a majority of the teams present (including proxies). c. Any team whose owner(s) cannot attend the rules meeting may give a proxy to another team's owner. An owner can only have one other owner's proxy at a rules meeting. Proxies must be in writing, and be announced before any votes on amendments are taken. d. Owners may put any conditions desired on the use of proxies by another owner (such as instructions on how to vote on a specific proposal). e. When an amendment is being discussed at the rules meeting, amendments to the amendment may be proposed by any owner.
RULE 17 -- FILLING VACANT FRANCHISES When a franchise is vacant, the Commissioner will offer the franchise to a new owner. The new ownership must then be approved by a majority of the remaining franchises. 7