• A partial prepayment is required to trade your own first-round future-year picks. (2-17-26)
• A partial prepayment is required to enable trading your own future-year picks on MyFantasyLeague, unless you have been in the league three years or more. (2-17-26)
• You can no longer move a player to I/R before or during the draft. (2-21-26)
• Potential point adjustments for zero-scoring positions during the toilet bowl are half the normal amount. (2-21-26)
• In speed drafts (where the timer begins at 4 or 3 hours per pick), the draft penalty doesn't kick in until you have missed two picks, then four picks. Your first and third missed pick do not change your timer. (5/13/26)
• Active roster violations for bestball leagues will be enforced differently than I/R violations. No active roster violations will ever be permitted after 3pm ET on Sunday. (6/21/26)

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• Offensive scoring:
  • Passing touchdown: 4 points
  • Rushing or receiving touchdown: 6 points
  • Thrown interception: -1 point
  • Offensive fumble lost: -1 point
  • Reception: 1 point (PPR leagues only) and 1.5 points for a tight end (TE Premium leagues only)
  • Passing first down: .25 points (PPFD leagues only)
  • Rushing/Receiving first down: 1 point (PPFD leagues only)
  • Rushing or receiving yard gained: .1 points (1 point for 10 yards)
  • Passing yard gained: .05 points (1 point for 20 yards)
  • Passing, rushing or receiving 2-point conversion: 2 points
  • Punt or kickoff return touchdown: 6 points
  • Extra point kicked: 1 point
  • Field goal kicked: 3 points plus .1 points per yard over 39
• Defense/Special Teams scoring:
  • Defensive or Special Teams touchdown: 6 points
  • Turnover (interception or fumble recovery): 2 points
  • Sack: 1 point
  • Safety: 2 points
  • Blocked punt or kick: 1 point
  • Each point scored by the opposing team: -.3 points
  • Defense begins each game with 10 points, and goes downward as often as upward in points
• See Scoring Rules below for IDP league scoring
• Six roster plans are available for regular-season leagues:
  • Standard: 1QB, 2RB, 3WR, 1TE, 1flex, 1PK, 1DE, 8bench
  • Flex: 1QB, 1RB, 2WR, 1TE, 2flex, 1PK, 1DE, 9bench
  • Deep: 2QB, 2RB, 3WR, 2flex, 2TE, 2PK, 2DE, 11bench.
  • Super-flex: 1QB, 1RB, 2WR, 1TE, 2flex, 1super, 1PK, 1DE, 8bench (a "super" roster spot may hold QB/RB/WR/TE)
  • Skinny: 1QB, 2RB, 3WR, 1TE, 2flex, 7bench.
  • Super-skinny: 1QB, 2RB, 3WR, 1TE, 1flex, 1super, 9bench.
  • Skinny-and-Deep: 2QB, 2RB, 3WR, 2TE, 2Flex, 11bench.
  • Ultra: 1QB, 2RB, 3WR, 1TE, 2flex, 1super, 1PK, 1DE, 10bench.
  • All teams that allow roster management have four Injured Reserve spots.
  • Multi-year leagues may have additional roster space plus an additional two Injured Reserve spots.
• Drafts may be live serpentine, email serpentine, live auction, or email auction.
• All waivers are by blind bidding, $500 season balance, with free agency each week of the regular season after waivers are processed.
• Unless specifically excluded, trades are allowed in all leagues except Draftmaster, Contender, Guillotine and Playoff leagues.
• Playoffs are from weeks 15-17. In typical leagues, six teams advance to the playoffs: The first two by divisional standing, The next two by regular season points scored, and last two by win-loss record.
• The prize return is HUGE.

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Fantasy Football is a game of skill. You will join a league with other owners, form a team of real-life players, and use your knowledge of football and the NFL to earn fantasy points and win weekly games against your opponents throughout the NFL season. The real-life performance of the NFL players that you choose to start each week will determine your weekly game score. The most successful teams at the end of the season will be awarded prize money.

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Here is the weekly schedule for all leagues who participate in these activities (all times central):

1. Tuesday morning: Standings are updated and leagues are open for trading and to accept blind bids.
2. Tuesday midnight: Advance lineups, if any (as set on your lineups page for future weeks) are swapped into the starting lineup.
3. Tuesday midnight: Rosters may be adjusted automatically by DataForce to prevent incomplete lineups. (You may disable this from your Owner->Setup page.)
4. Wednesday 10pm EST: Blind bidding is closed and players are awarded.
5. Wednesday 10:30pm EST: Free Agency begins.
6. Saturday 10pm EST: trading is closed.
7. As each NFL game begins: Players for that game are locked. They may not be moved in or out of lineups and may not be picked up from free agency.
8. As the final game begins Monday night: All remaining players (including free agents) are locked.
9. Stats are audited after the final game of the week and become final about two hours after the final game completes. Changes to stats by the NFL after that time will not be reflected in DataForce scoring.

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DataForce categorizes contestants who have reached "expert" status according to various state laws, so that beginners can be warned when entering contests with experts. You can note the expert symbol in the lobby when selecting leagues to join, and again on your standings page for leagues you are currently competing in. Experts are denoted by the symbol of a crown.

Expert designations differ from state to state, and the state you live in determines which opponents will appear to you as experts. For a description of expert qualifications in each state, please see the Expert Levels page.

Many of DataForce's leagues are hosted on MyFantasyLeague.com. These games require certain exceptions to the following rules, as the software does not make provision for all of the DataForce rule set. Please be aware of these rule changes when playing on MyFantasyLeague:

1. Email auctions on MyFantasyLeague software are considerably different from DataForce email auctions. On MFL, the deadline for auction bids extends each time a bid is placed, so one player may remain on auction for several days, and many players can be bid on simultaneously. Money management becomes a critical part of the strategy.
2. In DataForce-run leagues, if someone picks up a free agent and drops him in the same week, he is available for pick up by another team. MyFantasyLeague software does not accommodate this. However, if you discover such a player and wish to pick him up, our rules DO allow this, so just contact us and we will make him available as a free agent.
3. In DataForce-run leagues, traded players are locked on the team until the trade is reviewed by the commissioner. This is not possible in MyFantasyLeague-run games.
4. MyFantasyLeague does not allow trading of auction dollars.
5. MyFantasyLeague unlocks players for free agency as soon as waivers are processed, rather than exactly at 9:30PM central time. This may be anytime after the 9:00PM waiver deadline, but usually happens within a few minutes.
6. While the rules for trade review remain the same, the process of requesting is a little more cumbersome on MyFantasyLeague. Trade reviews are requested by going to the DataForce software and requesting a review there, on the Team Management hub.
7. On DataForce (except for dynasty, legacy and guillotine leagues), players that are dropped after week 13 become permanently locked and out of play. This is not possible on MyFantasyLeague, so all dropped players remain in play.
8. There are no limits enforced on the number of trades on MyFantasyLeague, nor limits on the number of trade reviews you may request.
9. MyFantasyLeague does not enforce I/R violations except when setting lineups. That means you can perform adds/drops while in violation of I.R. rules, but cannot change your lineup.
10. MyFantasyLeague playoffs cannot be reseeded in week 16 the way DataForce leagues are. Brackets for these leagues will remain static throughout the playoffs.
11. There is no missed-pick penalty for email drafts at MyFantasyLeague.

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As soon as your league is filled, you'll be assigned a random draft position, whether you are in a draft or auction league. For example, if you are in a 12-team league, you will pick (or select a player for auction) somewhere between 1st and 12th. If you are in an auction league, your "draft position" indicates the order in which you nominate the next player to go up for bid.

League owners take turns drafting or buying real-life NFL players with play money for their fantasy team to begin each season. No player may reside on more than one team.

The draft concludes for each team when the number of players on their team reaches the roster maximum, or when all available draft picks for a team (as seen on the Draft->DraftResults page) have been used, whichever comes first. The draft concludes when all teams meet this requirement.

Occasionally, because of trades made during the draft, a team may end the draft with fewer players than the roster limit. When this happens, the team will want to later add additional players through waivers or free agency.

You are not required to fill each position of your starting lineup during the draft, and that there are no position limits. You could, for example, draft several quarterbacks and no kickers. Of course, you'll want to make sure you can field a complete lineup before the season starts.

Drafts and auctions may be facilitated by either MyFantasyLeague.com or by DataForce Fantasy Football, at DataForce's discretion. There will be differences between the two sites, and software may differ from year to year. Plan to familiarize yourself with the draft software before your draft begins.

After the draft concludes, all remaining players go on waivers and remain there until either the season begins or they are picked up by a team. Players dropped during the preseason also go on waivers, and as such are not immediately available for picking up. More about waivers and free agency below.

The fantasy season begins with the first NFL game for the year.

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Live drafts are generally serpentine drafts (A free agent/rookie draft is the only exception). In odd rounds, the draft order is reversed. For example, if you pick 1st in round 1, then you'll pick first in rounds 3, 5, 7 and so on. You'll pick last in even rounds: 2, 4, 6, 8 etc.

The draft will take place in a shared internet Draft Room. League owners are required to have a reliable internet connection.

You will have 75 seconds to make each pick. If the clock expires before you pick, your selection will be made from the top of your pre-draft selection list. If your pre-draft selection list is empty, your selection is made from your custom ranking, and if you've prepared no rankings, your selection is made from our list, which is ordered by Average Draft Position. Therefore, it is imperative that you keep a few pre-draft selections queued up in case of problems. (Note that the software may not necessarily draft the very top player on either list, since it does try to filling your starting lineup of skill players first, and also makes sure you don't get too many players at the same position.)

Except for MyFantasyLeague live drafts, you are not required to draft a legal roster. That means you do not need to fill each of your starting positions before the draft concludes.

DataForce will monitor every live draft to ensure that it runs smoothly. In the interest of fair play, we may occasionally interrupt a draft to answer questions, to help new owners, and to recover from technical difficulties on the part of the software or any owner. We may even undo or correct draft picks to resolve problems and errors. The commissioner's goal is a friendly draft where all parties receive the picks they wish.

There will be no trading during a live draft.

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Email drafts are identical in format to live drafts. All email drafts for start-up leagues are serpentine drafts. In odd rounds, the draft order is reversed. For example, if you pick 1st in round 1, then you'll pick first in rounds 3, 5, 7 and so on. You'll pick last in even rounds: 2, 4, 6, 8 etc.

League owners are required to have an internet connection in order to make draft picks. The draft timer is eight hours, and it is paused between the hours of 12am to 6am Central Time. If you do not make a selection before your time expires, the pick will be made for you from your custom ranking, and if no rankings were prepared, the pick will be made from our list, which is ordered by Average Draft Position. (Note that the software may not necessarily draft the very top player on either list, since it does try to fill your starting lineup with skill players first, and also makes sure you don't get too many players at the same position.)

Ten days before the season, an accelerated period begins in order to make sure the draft finishes before the season starts. The draft timer goes to six hours per pick, and offering trades to a team on the clock is disallowed. (Note: when drafting playoff leagues at the end of the season, the timer begins at six hours per pick rather than eight.)

You will receive an email and/or text message when it is your turn to pick. You will also receive an email confirming any automated pick, whether pre-draft or due to the timer expiring. You may optionally set your preferences on your Owner->Setup page so that you receive email notifications of picks made by other teams as well, and you may set your preferences to notify you one hour before your turn expires to prevent missed picks.

Pre-draft picks are allowed in email drafts, but they are handled differently than live drafts. Pre-draft picks in email drafts are not for the purpose of selecting a player when your timer expires but rather to draft a player immediately when your turn comes. In the interest of expediency, pre-draft picks are highly recommended and much appreciated.

Draft timer guidelines: All owners are expected to cooperate in facilitating a timely draft. Please draft when your turn arrives, taking no longer than necessary for research. The 8-hour or 6-hour deadline is meant to accommodate situations where an owner must be away from their computer for an extended period, and is not meant to be abused. No team should average more than three hours per pick, and you should generally aim to make most of your picks within an hour. Trading of picks and players is allowed during an email draft, but repeatedly offering trades when it is your turn is discouraged, as this causes delays.

DataForce reserves the right to place any team on autodraft (where the pick is made for you automatically when your turn comes) or set a shorter time limit for your team if you appear to be purposefully slowing down the draft, or have timed out multiple times. Our software will automatically place teams on autodraft that miss two picks in a row, or three overall. If you find your team placed on autodraft, you can remove the setting on the draft page.

If you find these guidelines restrictive, you may want to consider Banked Hours drafts (see below).

Speed drafts: DataForce also offers fast email drafts, with a 4-hour timer instead of an 8-hour timer. (Playoff leagues begin with a 3-hour rather than 6-hour timer.)

Draft penalty: For DataForce drafts only (not MyFantasyLeague) - If an owner times out after the first round, a penalty is applied. Each missed pick will decrease the future draft timer for that owner one hour, up to a maximum of half the original league timer. For example, if the draft timer for other contestants is 8 hours, your penalties will never decrease the timer below 4 hours, even if you miss more than 4 picks throughout the draft.

In speed drafts (where the timer begins at 4 or 3 hours per pick), the draft penalty doesn't kick in until you have missed two picks, then four picks. Your first and third missed pick do not change your timer.

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"Banked Hours" provides a variation on the standard email draft, where you can save time for future picks by drafting quickly. The deadline to make your pick varies depending on how many hours you have remaining in your bank. You begin the draft with 10 hours in your bank, and that goes up or down from pick to pick.

Each time you make a pick, the time spent is deducted from your bank, and two hours added back. Your next deadline will be:

• The number of minutes remaining in your bank
• Not to exceed 8 hours (nobody ever gets more than 8 hours, even if you have more time than that in your bank)
• Not less than 1 hour (even if you have fewer than 60 minutes in your bank)

As with regular email drafts, the timer is turned off from midnight to 6am central time each night.

In banked hours drafts, you are not discouraged from taking time on your turn to negotiate trades. Use your time however you wish! If a trade is made of the current pick (by the team who is on the clock), the time spent before the trade is accepted is taken from the original owner and given to the new owner. The clock is not reset, so when the pick is used, the total time spent will be deducted from the team drafting a player, so the net result is that the time spent on the pick is shared between the two owners.

All of the "draft timer guidelines" of regular email drafts can be ignored with Banked Hours drafts. By design, nobody will be able to average much more than a couple hours per pick in these drafts, but when you do need extra time to make a selection, reasonable use of the hours bank will make the time available.

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In live auctions, owners take turns nominating players to be bid on. This selection order is not serpentine. If you pick first in round 1, you will pick first in every round.

The auction will take place in a shared internet Auction Room. League owners are required to have a reliable internet connection.

When your turn comes, you will have 20 seconds to nominate a player for bidding. If the clock expires before you pick, your selection will be made from the top of your pre-draft selection list. If your pre-draft selection list is empty, your selection is made from your custom ranking, and if no ranking has been prepared, your selection is made from our list, which is ordered by Average Draft Position.

The bidding timer then begins at 15 seconds. Once it gets below 8 seconds, each additional bid will increase the timer back to 8 seconds. The auction ends when the timer reaches zero.

Each owner receives $200 in bidding money before the auction begins. As each player is put up for bid, owners may bid as they wish in $1 increments. However, you must be able to fill your roster, so the auction software will prevent you from overbidding. Your available money for bidding must leave at least $1 for each empty roster spot. The Auction Room will show each owner's available maximum bid.

Except for MyFantasyLeague live auctions, you are not required to draft a legal roster. That means you do not need to fill each of your starting positions before the auction concludes.

Once your roster is filled, both starting and bench players, you may not bid on further players. The auction is over for you.

DataForce will monitor every live auction to ensure that it runs smoothly. In the interest of fair play, we may occasionally interrupt an auction to answer questions, to help new owners, and to recover from technical difficulties on the part of the software or any owner. We may even undo or correct auction picks and bidding winners to resolve problems and errors. The commissioner's goal is a friendly auction where all parties are able to bid as they wish for each player.

There will be no trading during a live auction.

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Live auctions are intense, fast-moving online events. You should have a fast internet connection, adequate memory available, and an easy-to-use pointing device. Tablets and smart phones are not recommended.

Because auctions are fast-paced, internet lag can cause frustrations, and we cannot be responsible for missed nominations or bids due to lag or to a malfunction on your end. We may back up an auction in the event of a clear user error (such as an accidental bid of way too much) and for clear software malfunctions on our end, but we will not back up so that you may place a bid that was missed due to internet lag.

Enter online auctions aware of the risk. If your auction timer doesn't appear to fully start over after an opponent's bid or nomination, you are almost certainly experiencing lag. You may decrease the effect by turning off drag/drop and by refreshing your page on a periodic basis to update the player queue.

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If your email auction is hosted by DataForce Fantasy Football it will be considerably different from those hosted by MyFantasyLeague.com! This section describes the rules for a DataForce auction. If you are placed in a MyFantasyLeague.com auction, please skip to the next section.

DataForce email auctions are meant to emulate live auctions, with the exception that several players are open for bidding simultaneously. In a DataForce auction, exactly 12 players will be nominated for bidding each day, in one hour intervals, so in a 12-team league each owner nominates one player every day. Nominations begin at 10am Central Time (due by 11am) and continue through the day with the final nomination due by 10pm Central Time.

Each player auction lasts 24 hours. An auction that begins with a nomination between 11am and noon will end at noon the following day. This means that you will be bidding on 12 players at a time.

You do not have to be online to make your scheduled nomination. Just as you can use a pre-draft list in an email draft, you can use a pre-nomination list in an auction, so that the software will nominate your player for you when the time comes. If no player is on your list when it is your turn to nominate, then the software will nominate a player for you, selecting the best player available according to your custom ranking. If you've prepared no rankings, the player will be selected according to Average Draft Position. A nomination carries with it an assumed opening bid of $1, and you may not decrease your bid to less than $1 on a player you nominate.

As mentioned, each player remains in the bidding for exactly 24 hours after the nomination deadline. The first 23 hours are for you to enter sealed maximum bids. Anytime during this 23-hour period, you may set your maximum bid for the player. This maximum may be raised or lowered as often as you want and there is no limit to how much you can bid. (Don't bother bidding more money than you have available, though, that won't do any good.) Leave the bid at zero if you are not interested in the player. You really only need to check in once a day to set your bids for the auctions ending in the next 24 hours.

The fun begins in the 24th hour of each auction. During the final hour the sealed bids become a live auction and you can see which owner is winning. The software will bid for you, ebay-style, up to your maximum bid. Of course, you may change your maximum at any time during the live bidding as well. However--and this is very important--you do not have to be present for the final hour of the auction! In fact, you'll usually find it better to set your maximum bid for each player as soon as possible, and then not touch that bid again. The reason for this relates to how tie bids are handled.

If two players bid the same amount for a player, then the owner who bids first will be awarded the bid. It may seem obvious, but you must bid more than the prior owner in order to move ahead in the auction. Suppose your opponent, "Fred," sets a maximum of $20 for a player, and is the current high bidder at $14. You don't know what his maximum bid is--it's hidden from you--so you increase your maximum to $16. What will happen is that the software will increase Fred's bid to $16, matching yours, and he'll remain the high bidder on the auction. Until you actually increase your bid to more than Fred's $20 maximum, you cannot become the high bidder.

Consider now what happens if Fred changes his bid, because this can get confusing. He has set a $20 maximum, and owns the high bid at $16, because he placed his bid before you and your $16 maximum. If Fred raises or lowers his maximum, he changes the time on his bid, so that your bid comes chronologically ahead of his. Thus he cannot remain the high bidder at only $16, so the software will increase his bid to $17. He is effectively bidding against himself, by changing his bid. He cannot lower his bid to less than $17, because that would allow him to slip out of the auction.

At the conclusion of the final (live) bidding hour, the player is awarded to the highest bidder and the next nominated player moves up into the live bidding window.

When your roster is full, the auction ends for you. For the rest of the teams, the software will continue requiring the same 12 nominations per day, so some owners will make multiple nominations in the same day.

Given there are no delays, your auction will last about one day for each spot on your roster. For a normal 18-player roster with 12 owners, the auction will end sometime on the 19th day after it starts.

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If your auction is hosted at MyFantasyLeague it will operate differently than a DataForce auction. You will still have $200 to spend on players, the minimum opening bid is still $1, and bidding is still in increments of $1. It's still proxy bidding, meaning that you may place your sealed maximum bid and the software will bid for you, up to your maximum. You are still bidding on multiple players simultaneously. But there the similarities end.

You are expected to nominate exactly two players per day. The game-day begins and ends at midnight central time. This rule cannot be not enforced by the software, but will be enforced by the commissioner if a violation is reported. MFL auctions are self-regulated, so if there's no complaint, there's no violation. Your two nominations may be at any time during the day, so long as you nominate exactly two players each day.

Dropping players in the middle of an email auction is against the rules. In past years you were allowed to drop a player you did not want and bid on a new player. This is no longer legal, even though the software permits it. Again, MFL auctions are self-regulated, so if you notice an owner dropping players during an auction, please notify us and we will restore the player to his or her roster.

Each player auction has a 24-hour clock. You may bid on multiple players simultaneously. Each time the high bidder on a player changes, the 24-hour clock resets for that player. Note that merely increasing your maximum bid, if you are already the high bidder, does not restart the clock.

You must fill your roster during the auction, so as you bid, you must preserve at least $1 for each remaining roster spot. You may not place a bid on a player if it might result in overspending your budget. This limit will be enforced by the software. In other words, the sum of your active bids, plus money already spent on players, plus $1 set aside to fill each remaining roster spot, can never exceed $200. Therefore, you must choose which players to bid on and allocate your money appropriately, so that your bids are at all times legal.

The auction ends when all rosters are full.

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Occasionally, an email draft may extend beyond or a live draft may be held after the first Wednesday night game of the season. You'll notice that when you draft a player whose team has already played, that that player always lands on your bench as you draft him. He never takes a spot in your starting lineup.

That player is then locked on your bench and cannot become a starter. However, in DataForce live drafts/auctions (and live events only), you may request immediately after the draft that a player be moved into your starting lineup, even if he has already played. The points he scored during the game will then count toward your weekly point total. This request must be made by email.

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A roster is the collection of players on your team. Some will be in starting positions, which will contribute points toward winning your games, and some will be on the bench. You can move players between the starting line-up and your bench as you wish, though no changes are allowed between the time a player's NFL game starts and the end of the final NFL game for the week. (He is locked down as soon as his game starts).

In DataForce leagues, there are no defensive players drafted. Instead, you draft teams into your Defense positions (which actually incorporates both defense and special teams). You score points on how well that team defense performs.

Draftmaster leagues allow six more players drafted to your bench. The typical draftmaster league will have not 18 players but 24 per team (deep leagues will have 32 per team).

Multi-year leagues may keep six additional players on Injured Reserve, and single-year leagues may keep four additional players on Injured Reserve. These players must be on their team's IR in the NFL, or holding out.

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A standard roster usually has 18 players, 10 of which are in the starting lineup each week:

• 1 Quarterback
• 2 Running Backs
• 3 Wide Receivers
• 1 Tight End
• 1 Flex Position, which may be a running back, wide receiver, or tight end
• 1 Place Kicker
• 1 Defense / Special Teams
• 8 Bench Players

Specific league types may amend this 18-player roster:

• Dynasty and Legacy leagues have 4 more bench spots, to make 22 players
• Keeper and Contract leagues have 2 more bench spots, to make 20 players
• Draftmaster leagues have 6 more bench spots, to make 24 players
• Guillotine leagues have 4 fewer bench spots, to make 14 players

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A flex roster presents more flexible line-up options. It has 18 players, 9 of which are in the starting lineup each week:

• 1 Quarterback
• 1 Running Back
• 2 Wide Receivers
• 1 Tight End
• 2 Flex Positions, which may be running backs, wide receivers, or tight ends
• 1 Place Kicker
• 1 Defense / Special Teams
• 9 Bench Players

Specific league types may amend this 18-player roster:

• Dynasty and Legacy leagues have 4 more bench spots, to make 22 players
• Keeper and Contract leagues have 2 more bench spots, to make 20 players
• Draftmaster leagues have 6 more bench spots, to make 24 players
• Guillotine leagues have 4 fewer bench spots, to make 14 players

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Deep rosters allow far more players on your team. Because of the limited number of legitimate starters available in the NFL, deep leagues contain only 10 teams instead of the usual 12. Deep rosters have 26 players, 15 of which are in the starting lineup each week:

• 2 Quarterbacks
• 2 Running Backs
• 3 Wide Receivers
• 2 Tight Ends
• 2 Flex Positions, which may be running backs, wide receivers, or tight ends
• 2 Place Kickers
• 2 Defenses / Special Teams
• 11 Bench Players

Specific league types may amend this 26-player roster:

• Dynasty and Legacy leagues have 4 more bench spots, to make 30 players
• Keeper and Contract leagues have 2 more bench spots, to make 28 players
• Draftmaster leagues have 6 more bench spots, to make 32 players
• Guillotine leagues have 4 fewer bench spots, to make 22 players

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A super-flex roster adds the dimension of allowing a quarterback as a flex option. It has 20 players, 10 of which are in the starting lineup each week:

• 1 Quarterback
• 1 Running Back
• 2 Wide Receivers
• 1 Tight End
• 2 Flex Positions, which may be running backs, wide receivers, or tight ends
• 1 Super-Flex Position, which may be a quarterback, running back, wide receiver, or tight end
• 1 Place Kicker
• 1 Defense / Special Teams
• 10 Bench Players

Specific league types may amend this 20-player roster:

• Dynasty and Legacy leagues have 4 more bench spots, to make 24 players
• Keeper and Contract leagues have 2 more bench spots, to make 22 players
• Draftmaster leagues have 6 more bench spots, to make 26 players
• Guillotine leagues have 4 fewer bench spots, to make 16 players

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An Ultra roster is just a bigger Superflex roster. It has 22 players, 12 of which are in the starting lineup each week:

• 1 Quarterback
• 2 Running Back
• 3 Wide Receivers
• 1 Tight End
• 2 Flex Positions, which may be running backs, wide receivers, or tight ends
• 1 Super-Flex Position, which may be a quarterback, running back, wide receiver, or tight end
• 1 Place Kicker
• 1 Defense / Special Teams
• 10 Bench Players

Specific league types may amend this 22-player roster:

• Dynasty and Legacy leagues have 4 more bench spots, to make 26 players
• Keeper and Contract leagues have 2 more bench spots, to make 24 players
• Draftmaster leagues have 6 more bench spots, to make 28 players
• Guillotine leagues have 4 fewer bench spots, to make 18 players

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A skinny league contains only "skill players": QB, RB, WR, TE. No defenses or kickers are rostered.

• 1 Quarterback
• 2 Running Backs
• 3 Wide Receivers
• 1 Tight End
• 2 Flex Positions, which may be running backs, wide receivers, or tight ends
• 7 Bench Players

DataForce also offers "Super Skinny" leagues, in which one of the two flex positions becomes a "superflex", allowing a quarterback, and "Skinny & Deep" leagues, which are just deep leagues without the kickers and defenses.

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In an Individual Defensive Player league, there is no team defense. Instead, defensive linemen, linebackers, and defensive backs are drafted individually. The roster becomes quite large, with 16 starters and 12 bench players:

• 1 Quarterback
• 2 Running Backs
• 3 Wide Receivers
• 1 Tight End
• 1 Place Kicker
• 2 Defensive Linemen
• 3 Linebackers
• 3 Defensive Backs
• 12 Bench Players

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Playoff rosters are only used during the NFL playoffs, and are a completely separate contest from regular season leagues. In these leagues, there are only 14 eligible NFL teams. This is the number of teams seeded into the NFL playoffs. Playoff rosters are "deep," allowing 2 of most positions, and thus the number of owners is limited to six per league. Playoff rosters all have exactly the same positions on each team, and every player plays every week. If an NFL player's team is eliminated from the NFL playoffs, he no longer contributes points to your score.

• 2 Quarterbacks
• 2 Running Backs
• 4 Wide Receivers
• 2 Tight Ends
• 2 Place Kicker
• 2 Defense / Special Teams
• No Bench Players

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Most multi-year leagues have additional roster spots. Keeper and Contract leagues have 2 more bench spots, and Dynasty and Legacy leagues have 4 more. (Salary cap leagues have no additional bench space.)

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Single-year leagues have a 4-person Injured Reserve available to each team. Multi-year leagues have a 6-person IR. If one of your players is placed on IR by his NFL team, he may be moved to Injured Reserve on your roster, so as to make room for additional starters and bench players. Any player with an (I) following his name is eligible for Injured Reserve.

If the NFL activates the player from IR, he must be activated on your team as well. This is enforced in different ways, depending upon your league type and hosting software:

1. DataForce Weekly Lineup Leagues: You will be unable to make roster moves, pick up free agents, or place waiver bids if you have I/R violations.
2. MyFantasyLeague Weekly Lineup Leagues: I/R violations are enforced by preventing you from changing your lineup until you have resolved all violations.
3. Bestball Leagues For Both Platforms: Since no lineup is set in bestball leagues, enforcing I/R violations is more difficult, and in fact, there is no automated way at all to enforce I/R violations on MyFantasyLeague. Instead, on Saturday AT 6pm ET you will receive an email warning of any outstanding lineup violations (including having too many active players in your lineup). If these are not corrected by 12:00pm ET Sunday morning, the commissioner will activate the offending I/R player(s) and then drop enough players from your roster to make it legal.
   
   Active roster limitations will be enforced regardless of whether you were warned on Saturday. For example, if, for any reason, you have 19 active players on an 18-man roster at noon on Sunday, the commissioner will drop a player from your roster to make it legal.
   
   The players dropped will be whoever is lowest on DataForce's rankings list among your players (it may be a defense), while being sure to keep at least enough players of each position to fill your starting lineup.
   
   It is your responsibility to review your Injured Reserve and make adjustments as necessary each week!

I/R violations are not enforced in the off-season, but all players on your Injured Reserve will be moved to the regular roster just before your annual rookie/freeagent draft, and you cannot move them back until the draft ends. Your Injured Reserve will always be empty at the curing the annual draft.

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With the exception of Tin Baby, Playoff and Draftmaster leagues, all leagues will be divided into two divisions: East and West. In Tin Baby, Playoff and Draftmaster leagues, there are no divisions, because there are no head-to-head games.

In head-to-head leagues, the regular fantasy season lasts 14 weeks, and the fantasy playoffs last 3 weeks (exception: See Contender leagues). The fantasy season ends after week 17 of the NFL season (no games count during week 18). For Draftmaster leagues, including draftmaster-format Tin Baby leagues, the season continues as normal for all 17 weeeks without a playoff season.

In 10-team head-to-head leagues, you will play the 4 teams in your division twice and the other 5 teams at least once. In 12-team leagues, you will play 3 of the 5 teams in your division twice, and the remaining 8 teams once. In 14-team leagues, you will play every other team once and one team twice.

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A player transaction by definition is any action, whether initiated directly via the website or requested by email, that could result in a change to your roster. Along with more obvious transactions this includes placing waiver bids, moving players around in your lineup, offering trades, and choosing prepicks or prenominations during the draft.

Player transactions are final when submitted. DataForce cannot reverse an action except under the following circumstances, and only if we are notified immediately:

1. The resulting transaction was caused by a software malfunction on our end, or
2. The transaction is user error, immediately reported (perhaps you accidentally clicked "accept" rather than "decline" to a trade offer), or
3. The transaction strongly suggests a misunderstanding of the rules (perhaps you bid $50 for a player during waivers in a Salary Cap league).

Do not bother requesting a reversal of any transaction merely because you changed your mind, or because you were unaware of recent news of the player. And above all, I cannot stress enough that legitimate reversal requests be submitted immediately.

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The deadline for submitting a starting lineup is the scheduled kickoff time of each player's game. After gametime arrives (even if the game doesn't start at the scheduled time), his place in your starting lineup or your bench is locked.

If no lineup is submitted, it will result in the same lineup as the prior week. Missed lineups in week 1 will be set by the commissioner based on best-play pre-game projections.

Intentionally submitting a less than optimal lineup in order to purposefully lose may result in the commissioner revising the lineup and may cause the owner to lose his rights to manage his team.

Beginning in 2016, on DataForce software only, your roster may be adjusted late Tuesday night to bench players that are out with injury or on bye. If you have available players on your bench who are active, the computer will attempt to form a valid lineup for you. This is to mitigate the negative affect of abandoned teams. Of course, it also helps detect cheating: if these non-playing players are then reinserted by you into the lineup, collusion becomes quite obvious.

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If for any reason, including malfunction of the host software, you are unable to set a starting lineup, you must send your lineup to us by email. Do not call us; we must have a dated audit trail of your lineup request, so we can only accept email changes. The email must be sent (timestamped) before the start of the game for every player listed. Under no circumstances will any owner ever be allowed to move a player into or out of the starting lineup once his game has started. You may send multiple emails, changing your lineup as necessary, but any player change requested after that player's game begins will be discarded.

Your email must either contain a full starting lineup or it must indicate each player you wish to remove from the starting lineup and each player you wish to add. Invalid roster moves or lineups cannot be processed, so please be careful.

Changes to your lineup requested by email will be processed by us after the game starts.

IMPORTANT: If you send us a starting lineup email, then every player listed in your email will override any changes you make via the software. In other words, if you tell us to start player x and later decide not to, you must send a supplemental email overriding your prior choice.

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In Bestball leagues you do not set lineups. After the week's games are over, the computer selects your optimal lineup for the week, and that is who goes into your starting lineup. You still play head-to-head, still have fantasy playoffs, and still perform all other weekly owner functions, including trades, waiver bids, and free agent pickups.

Note: DataForce also offers a Bestball variant in Tin Baby leagues, which have an interesting tweak: You may only pick up one new player per week, whether by free agency or waiver bidding. Bestball Tin Baby leagues are total-points leagues like Draftmaster leagues (see below), and have no head-to-head games.

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In Draftmaster leagues, owner involvement ends after the draft. They are bestball leagues, meaning that the software selects your most optimal lineup each week after the NFL games are played. There are no head-to-head games, no playoffs, no waivers, no free agents, no trades. Prizes are awarded based strictly on total points scored.

Because no player movement is allowed after the draft, draftmaster leagues allow many more players on your roster. You will draft six more players than other leagues of the same format. Thus, most leagues will have 24 players per team rather than 18, and deep leagues will have 32 players per team rather than 26.

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These are "last man standing" leagues, and the 17-week season is divided into two phases: [1] An accumulation phase, and [2] an elimination phase. The league lasts until all teams but one have been eliminated, when the final team standing is crowned the champion.

• 10-team leagues: 8 weeks of accumulation and 9 weeks of elimination.
• 12-team leagues: 6 weeks of accumulation and 11 weeks of elimination.
• 14-team leagues: 4 weeks of accumulation and 13 weeks of elimination.

There is no trading and no head-to-head play in guillotine leagues. Prizes are awarded the same as regular leagues, to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishes. Bonus money to 4th and 5th places.

There is one more important rule difference: Roster sizes are much smaller. While all lineup options are available for guillotine leagues, you will have four fewer bench spots. A "standard" lineup, for example, will have not 18 players but 14 players.

The Accumulation Rounds

During the first few weeks of the season, each team tries to accumulate as much blind bidding money as they can, while conserving their starting money as much as possible. Bidding money becomes increasingly valuable in the second phase of the season, because elimination rounds turn into a blind bidding frenzy as star players begin to hit the waiver wire.

In this phase, the top four scoring teams each week will receive an additional $50 in blind bidding money, and the four next-highest-scoring teams will receive an additional $25 in blind bidding money. For example, in a 12-team league, it is possible to accumulate an extra $300 in blind bidding money over the six accumulation rounds.

The Elimination Rounds

In these rounds, one team each week is eliminated from competition. The lowest-scoring team each week is removed from the league on Tuesday morning, and all players on that team are returned to the free agent pool! Think of it this way: Each week during the elimination phase, a first-round draft pick will be available for blind bidding and free agency! For this reason--and because of the limited roster sizes--guillotine leagues emphasize blind bidding prowess.

"Lowest scoring" means the team that scored the fewest points that week. Your season total is irrelevant.

By week 17, all but two teams will have been eliminated. The high scorer of those two teams in week 17 will win the league.

Note: Tiebreaks during elimination rounds are resolved by selecting the winner as the team with the latest draft position. During accumulation rounds, both teams receive the higher amount of bidding money.

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Tin baby leagues are inexpensive ($20) low-maintenance leagues designed for year-long NFL groupies who just can't wait for the fantasy draft season to begin. We begin offering these leagues as soon as the NFL playoffs are over, and continue to offer them through the off-season until early Summer.

• They are run only on DataForce software (not MyFantasyLeague)
• Email drafts only
• No head-to-head matchups (prizes awarded by total points only)
• No setting lineups
• No trading
• Little or no roster changes throughout the year

Tin babies come in two formats:

1. Draftmaster leagues, with the usual 24 players per team (for the standard lineup format; other lineups may differ)
2. Bestball leagues, with 18 players per team (for the standard lineup format), but with a twist: Only one player may be added to your team each week, whether by blind bidding or by free agency.

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Win a free Bronze-level playoff league!

"Twin" baby leagues are doubly cheap ($10) draft-practice or boredom-busting leagues.

1. There are 6 contestants, and each of the six teams contains both a blue roster and a red roster, so each contestant plays two rosters.
2. These are draftmaster, total-points-only leagues. There is no player movement or team management after the draft.
3. Your red roster will always draft in one of the top 6 spots in the league, and your blue roster will always draft somewhere in slots 7-12.
4. There are no bench spots; only starters.
5. These are typically email speed drafts (4 hours per pick), but DataForce may occasionally offer a live draft in the lobby. Such drafts will not be supervised by DataForce staff once the draft begins.
6. No regulatory fees are charged for this contest.
7. You can pay up $6 of the cost of the league with bonus money.

The $60 collection from entry fees (6 owners, $10 each, whether real money or bonus money) is returned in prizes as bonus money. The highest-scoring red team receives $30 in bonus money at the end of the year, as does the highest-scoring blue team. If you win BOTH the red and blue contests, you may exchange your $60 bonus money winnings for a free Bronze-level playoff league!

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Playoff leagues are special leagues played during the NFL playoffs. They are entirely separate from regular season leagues. Only six teams are placed in each league, and like Draftmaster leagues, owner involvement ends after the draft.

Playoff leagues last four weeks, matching the four weeks of the NFL playoff schedule. (There is one inactive week before the Superbowl.)

There are no flex positions on Playoff league rosters, and no bench positions. Every player is in your starting lineup every week. It is to your benefit to draft players from NFL teams that you believe will go deep into the playoffs, because once a player's team is eliminated from the NFL playoffs, he no longer contributes points to your team.

In an email draft for playoff leagues, the timer begins at six hours per pick rather than eight. Because of the short time available for drafting, the commissioner may need to step up the timer during the draft process if it appears to be moving too slowly.

Playoff leagues have no head-to-head contests. Prizes are awarded based strictly on total points scored.

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DataForce offers three scoring methods: PPR (point-per-reception), TE Premium (labeled TE+, it's PPR but where tight ends receive 1.5 points per reception), and PPFD (point-per-first-down). Most of the scoring rules are identical, but notice the difference in scoring between PPR, TE+ and PPFD under Offensive Scoring below.

Offensive Scoring:

• Passing touchdown: 4 points
• Rushing or receiving touchdown: 6 points
• Thrown interception: -1 point
• Offensive fumble lost: -1 point
• Reception: 1 point (PPR leagues only) and 1.5 points for a tight end (TE Premium leagues only)
• Passing first down: .25 points (PPFD leagues only)
• Rushing/Receiving first down: 1 point (PPFD leagues only)
• Rushing or receiving yard gained: .1 points (1 point for 10 yards)
• Passing yard gained: .05 points (1 point for 20 yards)
• Passing, rushing or receiving 2-point conversion: 2 points
• Punt or kickoff return touchdown: 6 points
• Extra point kicked: 1 point
• Field goal kicked: 3 points plus .1 points per yard over 39

Defensive Team Scoring (for your Defense roster spot):

• Defensive or Special Teams touchdown: 6 points
• Turnover: 2 points
• Sack: 1 point
• Safety: 2 points
• Blocked punt or kick: 1 point
• Each point scored by the opposing team: -.3 points
• Defense begins each game with 10 points, and goes downward as often as upward in points

Defensive Player Scoring (For IDP leagues only):

• Tackle: 1.5 points
• Assist: .5 points
• Sack: 4.5 points
• Forced fumble: 2 points
• Fumble recovery (from opponent): 2 points
• Interception: 6 points
• Pass defensed: 1 point
• Defensive touchdown: 6 points
• Safety: 2 points

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When you purchase a team in a DataForce league, we expect you to participate weekly in competitive team management. Please make a commitment to routine weekly tasks, including setting lineups, bettering your roster through blind bidding and free agency, and monitoring trade offers.

If we find that you have gone several weeks without active participation, we may contact you by email and verify that you wish to continue in the league as a team owner. If we do not hear from you after multiple attempts to contact you, or if you indicate that you are unable to continue as owner, we reserve the right to transfer your team to a new owner. The new owner will become responsible for management of the team, and will be eligible to win prizes.

DataForce does not transfer Tin Baby leagues, Bestball leagues, Draftmaster leagues, or any other leagues which do not require setting a weekly lineup.

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Players who are dropped from a team go on waivers and are not available to be picked up by another team until the next waiver process. All undrafted players also begin the season on waivers. The first waiver process occurs on the first Wednesday after your draft concludes, at 9pm Central Time, and they continue on a weekly basis every Wednesday throughout the season at 9pm.

During week one, on both DataForce and MyFantasyLeague, waivers will instead run Wednesday morning, the day of the first NFL game, at 11am Central Time.

There is a 24-hour hold before players become available on waivers. Thus, if a player is dropped after 9pm Central Time on Tuesday, that player will not be available for bidding on the Waivers page until the following week.

Except for dynasty, legacy and guillotine leagues, as well as leagues hosted on MyFantasyLeagues, players dropped after week 14 begins (immediately following week 13's games) do not go on waivers. They will not be available for bidding or as free agent pickups for the remainder of the year. This excludes kickers and defenses for games hosted on DataForce software.

Players are obtained from waivers by Blind Bidding. At the start of the year, each team is awarded $500 to use for bidding on waivers throughout the season. (Blind bidding money does not carry over from year to year in multi-year leagues; it starts again at $500 for each new year.) Each week, prior to the 9pm Wednesday deadline, you may submit bids for players. You may bid as much as you wish, in $1 increments, though when bids are processed the software will not allow you to overspend your annual budget.

Blind bidding on the DataForce site is simplified but sufficient. Simply create a list of the players you want, assigning a bid to each (higher bids will always be processed first), and then create a list of the players you are willing to drop, in the order you want to drop them. Unless you have empty roster spots already, you will never be awarded more players from waivers than the number of players you select to be dropped. Likewise, the waiver process will never drop more players than it needs to in order to award you the players you win.

DataForce software allows you to specify which player you wish to replace with each purchase. You can, for example, specify that you wish to drop your kicker only if you win the bid on another kicker. Other than this simple option, however, conditional bids and targeted drops are not facilitated, as most owners find such processes time consuming and more confusing than helpful.

In the event two teams bid the same amount for a player, the player is awarded to the team with the worst season record (worst-to-first) using the same tie-breakers as are used for playoff contention, except in guillotine leagues, where the tiebreak is just the opposite: the team with the BETTER season record wins all ties in guillotines. The final tiebreak is initial draft position; if all other things are equal, the team that was awarded the later draft position in the preseason draft wins the tiebreak.

In the preseason, tiebreaks are instead determined by the date and time the bids were placed. The team to bid first is awarded the player in the event of a tie. Making a change to any one bid in your waiver list changes the date on all of your bids for the week.

Once your team has been eliminated from the playoffs, except in multi-year leagues, your remaining bid money will be taken away so that you can no longer participate in blind bidding. Toilet bowl contests are not considered "playoffs" for this rule. You can, however, continue to pick up free agents as needed--see below.

Note: For leagues hosted on MyFantasyLeague.com, conditional bidding has been enabled and blind bidding becomes more complex. Please study MFL's operating instructions here carefully.

Special Waiver Rules for Salary Cap Leagues

If you are playing in a salary cap league, remember that the amount you bid becomes the player's salary once he lands on your roster. You are not only bidding against your opponents, you are indicating the salary you are willing to pay the player.

Since there exists a $200 salary cap in these leagues, the software will not award you a player during the waiver process unless you drop enough players, with high enough salaries, to make room under the cap for your new player(s). It will, however, award as many players as possible, even if this means dropping more players than are added. Select your adds and drops carefully with this in mind during the blind bidding process.

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Free agents are players that anyone can pick up and put on their team. After waivers are processed at 9:30 CST each week, the unchosen players become free agents. Players who are dropped from teams during the week go on waivers, and do not become free agents until after the next Wednesday's waiver process. (The exception is players who are picked up and dropped in the same week; they go directly to free agency, except in salary cap leagues. This rule is to prevent churning, the tactic of picking up and then dropping multiple players simply to keep other teams from obtaining them.) The point of the waivers process is to allow each team an equal chance to obtain unowned players.

One exception to these rules is during the preseason. There will be no free agents until after the final waivers period of the preseason.

The second exception is after week 13. Except for dynasty, legacy and guillotine leagues, and any contest hosted on MyFantasyLeague, players dropped from teams once week 13 ends will not go on waivers or free agency. They will not be available for bidding or for pickup for the remainder of the year. (This does not include kickers and defenses; these positions will remain available for pickup.)

Free agents are available for pick up on a first-come-first-served basis. However, you cannot have more than the maximum number of players allowed on your team, so free agent pickups usually must be accompanied by a player drop.

Note: A player cannot be dropped and immediately be put to bid via waivers. On MyFantasyLeague, each player must spend 24 hours before being eligible for waiver bidding. On DataForce, the software will prevent you from dropping a player within 6 hours of the waiver bidding deadline (you don't need to drop a player, really; just include him as an extra drop on your Waivers page if you are wanting to bid on a player.

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Players that are dropped from your team, whether through waivers or free agency, are locked on the waiver list and may not be picked up by another team until the following week's blind bidding. Exception: Any player that was picked up by you as a free agent, and then dropped in the same week, will not be locked, except in salary cap leagues. This is to prevent free agent churning in order to lock players from other teams.

There are, therefore, three situations in which players become locked in place on waivers, on your bench, or in your starting lineup:

1. Dropped players, as described here, are locked until the following week's waivers are processed.
2. Traded players are locked until the trade is reviewed by the commissioner (see below).
3. As each NFL game begins, all players in that game are locked until the final NFL game of the week is played. Note that players are locked at the scheduled time for games to begin, not necessarily as the kickoff occurs. Free agents and players on bye are locked at the beginning of the Monday night game.

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Trading between owners is an important part of the Fantasy Football experience, and unless excluded by your league rules, trading is allowed in all leagues except Tin Baby, Draftmaster, Playoff, Guillotine and Contender leagues. You may trade players, auction money (for auction leagues), blind bidding money, and draft picks (for draft leagues). In multi-year leagues, you may even trade draft picks in future years!

Trading auction money while an email auction is ongoing is restricted as of 2022; you cannot trade just auction money for bid money. One or more players must also be involved in the trade.

Trades may be proposed by any owner to any other, and may be revoked at any time. Trade offers received from any owner may be accepted or declined.

All owners in the league are notified by email of each trade as it is accepted. It is your responsibility to review each trade in your league to make sure it is valid (doesn't appear to be collusion between the traders). If you suspect collusion in any trade, please see the Trade Review process below.

When using DataForce game software, players received in trade are locked on your team until the trade is approved by the commissioner. You cannot drop or trade locked players. Note that trading of draft picks, while each trade is reviewed by the commissioner, does not slow down the draft. Only in the most egregious circumstances will the commissioner back up a draft to prevent collusion. Nevertheless, it is considered poor taste to trade for a pick and then immediately use the pick, giving your opponents no time to request a review. A 20-minute wait before using the new pick is appropriate.

In order to minimize the possibility of collusion, in all leagues except Super-trader leagues, the number of trades you may make with the same team is limited to five trades accepted before the draft begins, and five trades accepted after the draft begins (for a potential total of ten trades with the same team). You will not be able to offer or accept trades with that team once this limit is reached.

The trade window closes between Saturday 9pm CST and Monday at midnight of the regular season. Players who play earlier in the week may not be traded after their game starts until the following Tuesday. For example, players who play on Thursday night cannot be traded Thursday night (after the start of the game), Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday.

In the interest of expediency, during the accelerated period of any email draft (which begins 10 days before the season begins) trading is discouraged when it is your turn to draft. Even before the accereration period begins, it is considered poor taste to repeatedly hold up the draft while trying to shop your pick. Please be considerate of others, helping the drafts run smoothly.

The trade deadline is week 11 of the NFL season. No trades may be offered or accepted after this week has completed, until the fantasy season is over.

Trades are scrutinized more closely by the commissioner as the season progresses. As the trade deadline nears, trades made by teams in single-year leagues that have little or no path to make the playoffs will seldom be allowed if they appear to favor the team with the better win/loss record. The same may be true for multi-year leagues if a team way behind in the standings does not receive significant future-years' value in players or picks. In such cases, the commissioner may choose not to wait for a trade review to be requested, but will instead consult a trusted trade calculator and then simply overturn the trade immediately with an explanation, and commissioner decisions are final.

In multi-year leagues, once the NFL playoffs finish, trading will open up again. Off-season trading is allowed for you as soon as you renew your team for the upcoming year. You may renew your team shortly after the NFL playoffs finish, and DataForce opens up the next fantasy year.

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DataForce leagues offer four different levels of trading: Full, limited, super trader and none.

• Full Trading: Intended for experienced owners, these leagues can feature aggressive trading tactics, particularly in dynasty leagues. Find a good trade calculator before joining.
• Limited Trading: Rules prevent the more complex and confusing trades, and drafts generally run smoother. Nobody is likely to run away with the league by taking advantage of a newbie here.
• No Trading: Generally reserved for high-money leagues or contender leagues, but you may request that any new league be a no-trading league. Just use the Request-a-league button at the bottom of the lobby.
• Super Trader: These leagues are intended for experienced members who prefer a very active trading atmosphere. There are no limits on trading, and the commissioner is generally more lax in monitoring trades. Please do not join these leagues unless you enjoy heavy trading.

These levels have different meanings depending on whether the league is one-year league or a multi-year league. In general, more trading is expected in multi-year leagues, so more trading options are allowed, even under limited-trading rules.

Note that in multi-year leagues, the limited-trading option prevents trading future-year picks until the initial (first-year) draft is complete. However, in all future years, draft picks may be traded before and during the draft.

The following chart lays out which types of trades are allowed:

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Trades are processed immediately upon acceptance, but may be subject to reversal if they appear to break the fairplay rules. There is a 24-hour trade review period after each trade.

All accepted trades are looked at by the commissioner. There are no exceptions. However, the commissioner will usually only consider overturning a trade if someone else in the league requests a review. If you suspect collusion in a trade, you may request a review by clicking on the provided link in the trade notification email. (Trade reviews of leagues hosted on MyFantasyLeague are requested in a different manner--please see the next section.) This will put the trade up for review and a vote. You have twelve (12) hours after a trade is accepted to request a review, and the sooner you make your request, the more time will remain in the 24-hour review period for voting results to be collected. You are allowed five review requests per year, and trades which are overturned during the review process do not count against your limit of five. Your identity as the requester will remain anonymous.

Remember, it is not your job to block stupid trades. It is your job to recognize potential collusion, or to call attention to trades that are extremely imbalanced. Pay special attention to trades that do not seem to offer benefits to both sides.

The traders are also welcome to request reviews their own trade, but only in the event that offering or accepting the trade was accidental. It does happen, and the commissioner is sympathetic, but do be sure to accompany your request with a convincing explanation of what happened.

If a review is requested, several emails are sent out:

• The trading partners are notified that their trade is under review.
• All other members of the league are requested to provide their input on the trade with a simple yes or no vote. When voting "no," you're asked which side is favored.
• A random jury of ten peers from similar leagues are also emailed, requesting their vote as well.

The voting process lasts up to 24 hours after the trade is accepted. The commissioner will make a decision on the trade review as soon as he feels enough votes have been collected (close votes will naturally take longer to officiate). As you vote, remember again that it's not your job to determine whether the trade is fair. Nobody bothers to offer or accept trades that they think won't better their team. Your job in voting is to determine if it is so imbalanced that it reeks of collusion, or threatens the integrity of the league.

You may also reply to the notification email explaining your voting decision. The original traders are encouraged to reply to the review request notification as well, giving their arguments for why they each accepted the trade.

The commissioner will then make a decision shortly after the 24-hour review period expires, or sooner if vote trending becomes clear ahead of time or if Sunday games are about to begin. The commissioner reserves the right to veto any trade for any reason, but the decision to veto usually means all of the following requirements are met:

• Are there at least three votes against the trade within the league (including the requester)?
• Do the "no" votes exceed the "yes" votes within the league, and do they agree that the same side wins the trade?
• Do the "no" votes exceed the "yes" votes from the impartial trade jury, and do they agree that the same side wins the trade?
• The commissioner may also review various trade calculators to evaluate the trade, particularly if referenced by a reviewer or trader to justify their vote or decision to make the trade.

If the trade is overturned, players, picks and money are restored to their original teams immediately. If not, the traded players are unlocked so they can be dropped or traded to other teams.

DataForce allows trading during the draft, and this feature requires a little more cooperation from owners. DataForce does not hold up a draft for potential review of trades that involve upcoming picks, and it's possible that the draft may need to be backed up if a trade is overturned. For that reason, we will try to approve balanced trades that involve upcoming picks quickly, without waiting for the usual 12-hour review period to finish.

Nevertheless, it is considered in poor taste to trade for a pick and then immediately use the pick, as this leaves no time for requesting a review or for commissioner review. Backing up the draft to accommodate a reversed trade is seldom appreciated. A 30-minute wait after trading for the pick is appropriate, and if a review of your trade is requested, it is appropriate to wait until the review is resolved ... or at least to contact the commissioner regarding the status of the reivew. If your pick comes due while your trade is under review, and you select a player, it may be reversed by the commissioner once the trade review is resolved.

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We know that it's fun to join leagues with family and friends, competing against each other. We don't discourage this. At the same time, we observe recommended privacy guidelines, never posting customers’ last names, addresses or email addresses. Relationships between team owners are therefore difficult for other league members to discern.

However, DataForce is committed to providing fair games, putting all contestants on equal footing, and this means mitigating the inherent advantage of friends and family being able to more easily balance their teams through trade, even if those trades appear innocuous. The appearance of fairness and proper collusion oversight is also important, so that state regulations are met and all customers feel comfortable playing on our platform. If you suspect your league members may have an undisclosed relationship, please feel free to tell us! We will immediately inquire and research.

We record the following relationships:

1. Direct family members (like spouses, parents, siblings)
2. Cohabitants (roommates)
3. Shared devices (any two members who use the same computer or mobile device or IP address)
4. Workmates (sharing the same daily workspace)

If you join a league with other team owners in any of the above relationships, it is your responsibility to disclose this to us before the league begins. Please don't wait until we find out some other way. DataForce does monitor your location and IP address with its collusion-detection software. DataForce reserves the right to ask about relationships and record those relationships within our software.

Again, we encourage friends and family to play together! However we ask you to make a choice:

1. You may opt out of trading with each other, in which case we disable trading between your two teams, or
2. You may disclose your relationship to the league (by telling us at [email protected] so that it can be posted under Trades->Relationships on the League Management hub). Assuming we do not receive complaints or concerns from other league members that cannot be resolved, trading will be enabled.

Please note: DataForce monitors trades in MyFantasyLeague contests, but cannot examine relationships as easily, as we have no control over the names and email addresses recorded there, nor can we observe geolocation or IP addresses. We have no automated method of evaluating the fairness of MFL trades, and cannot enforce trading limits (number of trades per year between any two teams) on MyFantasyLeague contests, so our rules allow unlimited trading on that platform. We will, however, list known relationships on the DataForce website, under Trades->Relationships. Please restrict your entries to the DataForce platform if this deficiency concerns you.

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If your league is hosted on MyFantasyLeague, then there is a different procedure for reqesting a trade review. You must go to the
Trades->ReviewMFLtrade page on DataForce in order to request a review. There, you must fill in the details of the trade and click the REQUEST A REVIEW button. You may cut-and-paste the details of the trade from your notification email, but be sure to provide the details carefully, because as soon as you make the request, emails will be sent to league members and to peers to ask for votes.

You are still subject to the 12 hour deadline after trade acceptance, but the software is unable to enforce this limit. It does not know when the trade was actually accepted on MyFantasyLeague. Therefore, the commissioner may overrule the review request if it comes in too late.

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A few of our leagues do not have a playoff schedule at all. These leagues have no divisions and no playoff qualifications. The team that scores the most fantasy points over the year wins first place; the second-highest score wins second place, etc.

Tin Baby, Draftmaster, and Playoff leagues are examples of total-points leagues.

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With the exception of Guillotine and total-points leagues, all leagues will have a fantasy playoff season. The prize winners will be determined by their playoff success.

Contender leagues have a special playoff format as described below, but follow the same rules for qualification and tie breakers. For other leagues, the regular season ends after NFL week 14 and the playoff season runs for 3 weeks, from week 15 to 17.

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Six teams in each league qualify for the playoffs, and two of the six teams will receive a bye for the first playoff week. The qualifying teams are awarded playoff berths as such:

1. The highest ranked division winner (according to win-loss record) is seeded #1 and will receive a first-round playoff bye
2. The winner of the other division is seeded #2 and will receive a first-round playoff bye
3. The remaining team who scored the most points during the season is awarded a playoff spot
4. The remaining team who scored the next most points during the season is awarded a playoff spot
5. The remaining team with the highest win-loss record is awarded a playoff spot
6. The remaining team with the next highest win-loss record is awarded a playoff spot

Thus, the top four teams in the standings (with at least one in each division) are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, and the top two scoring teams are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.

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Six teams in each league qualify for the playoffs, but there are no divisions in these leagues. The six teams scoring the most victory points over the 14-week season make the playoffs, seeded #1 through #6 according to standings, and the two teams with the most victory points get byes in the first round of the playoffs.

"Victory point" leagues at DataForce are actually a combination of head-to-head and all-play for 14 rounds, and then the normal 3-week playoffs. Each week, you play one opponent head-to-head, and all opponents in the league to see if you can score in the top 3rd or at least middle 3rd of the league.* If you score in the top 3rd, you get two victory points; score in the middle 3rd and you get one victory point; and if you win your head-to-head game you get two more victory points. Each week, you'll get between 0 and 4 victory points. Your standings page is ranked entirely on victory points earned.

* In a 10-team league, the top 3rd is 1-3, middle is 4-7, bottom is 8-10. In a 114-team league, the top 3rd is 1-5, middle is 6-9, bottom is 10-14.

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All ties for playoff berths are decided by the following tie breakers:

1. Most points scored
2. Win-loss record
3. Most points against
4. Initial draft position. If tie break is still necessary, the team who was awarded the later draft position in the preseason draft will get the nod.

Tie breakers in playoff games are decided by the highest scoring bench player, then the next highest scoring bench player, and so on until the tie is broken.

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In round 1, the team with the worst record always plays the team with the best record. Playoff qualifications for the six playoff teams did not change; only the first-round matchup.

The fantasy playoffs last three weeks, as follows:

• Seed #1 and #2 (division winners) receive byes.
• Game 1: The best record over weeks 1-14 plays the worst record.
• Game 2: The two remaining teams play.

• The losers of week 1 games are moved to the Toilet Bowl.
• Game 1: Seed #1 (division winner 1) plays the lowest remaining seed.
• Game 2: Seed #2 (division winner 2) plays the final team in the semifinals.

• Game 1: The two winners of week 2 play each other in the Super Bowl.
• Game 2: The two losers of week 2 play each other for 3rd place.

In normal leagues, these are weeks 15-17 of the NFL season, but in contender leagues, the league playoff is week 13 of the NFL season, and there is no second or third league playoff week. Then the final brackets for contender playoffs are constructed (of sixteen teams from four leagues), and these brackets remain rigid over the course of weeks 14-17.

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All teams which are not in playoff games may participate in the Toilet Bowl. In addition, teams which lose in the first round of the playoffs are automatically moved to the Toilet Bowl, and points they scored in the first week of playoffs count toward winning the Toilet Bowl.

Toilet bowl contenders do not play face-to-face. Rather, the fantasy points scored for the three weeks of the playoff period are summed to determine first and second place.

Toilet Bowl winners do not win real money. They receive only DataForce Bonus Money, which may be applied toward the commissioner fee of future leagues. Bonus money expires and will be removed from your account if you do not join any leagues for two years in a row.

The Toilet Bowl also affects your draft position in the following year for Dynasty, Legacy and Keeper leagues. The better your team performs, the better your draft position. See the Potential Points calculation for more information.

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A contender league is a special contest in which 4 leagues of 12 teams (48 owners total) compete together for overall prizes. It works like this:

1. As soon as we have four similar contender leagues paid for and drafted, they will be put into quads. Each quad contains four leagues. It does not matter how each league was originally drafted, whether email, live, or auction.
2. You may only have one team per league, but you can actually have multiple teams in the same quad. You could in fact have four teams in the same quad; one from each league. It's the luck of the draw; DataForce will not try to form quads of your choosing, but will simply group each four contender leagues together as they finish drafting.
3. Each team plays every other team in their own league during the first 11 weeks of the season.
4. On week 12, an all-play occurs, where all teams compete against all teams. The six highest-scoring teams receive a "win" and the other six teams receive a loss.
5. Each league now enters the playoffs on its own. As usual, six teams receive seeds #1 through #6 for the league playoffs. League playoffs last only one week (week 13), and are just like the first week of normal playoffs. Seeds #1 and #2 receive byes, seed #3 plays #6, seed #4 plays seed #5.
6. Now the four leagues of each quad join for the final four weeks of the season. Playoff winners and byes advance into the Contender Bowl, and losing teams join the Toilet Bowl. There will thus be 16 teams in the Contender Bowl and 32 teams in the Toilet Bowl.
7. All teams in the Contender Bowl now play head-to-head elimination rounds for weeks 14-17 (four weeks) and compete for top prizes. (Exception: if a contender contest is formed of less than four leagues, so there are not enough playoff teams for head-to-head games, playoff winners are determined by total points over the four week period.) Teams are seeded 1 through 16 based on total points scored from week 1 through week 12.
8. Toilet Bowl winners play for total points for weeks 14-17 to receive Toilet Bowl prizes.

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As the season begins, what happens to any leftover contender leagues that cannot form a final quad? The answer is, they make smaller groups. For example, if there are only three contender leagues when it's time to stop drafting, they'll form a final 36-team "quad". The prize payout will naturally be less, but we'll throw in a little something extra to make up for it.

We understand that you join contenders wanting to play in 48-team quads. So, to cover the disappointment of playing in a smaller format, we will contribute $96 in bonus money to your unfilled quad as additional prizes. It doesn't matter how many leagues are in your miniature quad; you'll still get nearly $100 bonus money added into the prize fund. Helluva deal.

Here are the modified prize payouts for contenders of all sizes. All prizes are presented in percentages of prize money collected, plus bonus money (Prize money is your entry fee less any regulatory and commissioner fees retained).

Unfilled quads will use the Leaderboard playoff ranking rather than head-to-head playoffs, since there will not be 16 playoff teams.

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Any type of league (except Playoff leagues) may be drafted initially as a multi-year league. This means that the league remains intact from year to year. At the time you purchase your entry into a multi-year league, you must pay a partially-refundable deposit. The deposit will be equal to the entry fee, and ensures that the league will have every opportunity of continuing from year to year.

In multi-year leagues, you decide which players to keep after the year is over, and which to discard. A new draft (called a "rookie/freeagent draft") will take place each year to replenish your roster, as described below.

Each year, owners who wish to remain in the league must renew their team by paying a new-year entry fee. If the renewal is not paid before the assigned deadline, the team goes up for auction to the highest bidder.

Please be aware that multi-year leagues often contain heavy trading, and trades in these leagues are difficult to evaluate for fairness, because of the many options available. DataForce will typically be more lenient than usual in approving trades, though if it is clear that one team is strongly favored, then for the continued good of the league, it may be overturned regardless of attempted collusion. If you are not a fan of trading, many multi-year leagues will not be to your liking. Be sure to join only a non-trading league.

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• Keeper leagues: You are allowed to keep a maximum of five players from last season's roster.
• Dynasty leagues: You may keep as many players from last season's roster as you wish, after emptying your injured reserve.
• Contract & Salary Cap leagues: Please see the special rules in the next two sections.

Between early June and early August of each year, an annual rookie/freeagent draft will be held to replenish your team. The draft will consist of enough rounds to fill each team's roster.

In the off-season, no I.R. or roster violations will be enforced. You may keep players on I.R. that aren't really on their team's Injured Reserve, and you may exceed roster limitations as caused by trading with other teams.

However, as the annual draft approaches, you must pare down your roster by the keeper selection deadline. This is to make your rosters legal (including activating players from I.R.) and to make room for drafting new players. Be sure to drop enough players to make room on your roster for the number of players you wish to draft.

Three days before the draft, the players you choose to discard will be dropped from your team. An email will notify each owner of all dropped players. If you fail to select keepers in a keeper, contract, or salary cap league league, the commissioner will make selections for you. In a dynasty or legacy league, all players on your team will be retained (the commissioner may use his judgment to drop excess players if necessary). This may mean that you won't participate in the draft, because you cannot drop players after the keeper selection deadline, including during the draft. You must have room on your team in order to draft new players.

All unowned players are available for drafting. This is not just a rookie draft.

The draft order will be determined as follows: The eight teams playing in the previous year's Toilet Bowl will draft in reverse order to their potential points (see below) scored during the season. This is determined by summing the possible points each week for the most optimal lineup you could have set. Potential points for weeks 1-14 (the regular season) are added to the total, while potential points for weeks 15-17 (the toilet bowl) are subtracted from the total. The final four teams in the playoffs will draft last, in reverse order to their playoff finish. Thus, the Super Bowl winner will always draft last.

Rookie/freeagent drafts are not serpentine! The team with the #1 pick will pick first in each round.

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In 12-team multi-year leagues, the bottom 8 teams are seeded for the draft in each year based on how they perform the year before. (Bottom 6 for 10-team leagues and bottom 8 for 14-team leagues.) Performance is based on potential points for the 14 weeks of the regular season, where the lower your score, the earlier your draft position in the rookie/freeagent draft. Then, the Toilet Bowl weeks (15-17) adjust that calculation downward, as described below.

The potential points calculation is an effort to fairly determine how many points a team is capable of scoring each week. Using potential points rather than actual wins and losses discourages teams from tanking games in an effort to gain an advantageous draft position in the following year.

It's important to understand that potential points has no bearing whatsoever on winning or losing games. This calculation is used only for determining the pick order in the following year's draft.

Potential points are calculated by selecting the optimal lineup for each week's game, including players on Injured Reserve, with one very important exception: If you score zero potential points at any position, your total for the week will be increased:

• QB: If all quarterbacks on your team score zero (such that this position has a zero potential score), your potential points is increased by 20.
• RB: If you score zero, your potential points is increased by 15.
• WR: If you score zero, your potential points is increased by 15.
• TE: If you score zero, your potential points is increased by 10.
• PK: If you score zero, your potential points is increased by 10.
• DE: If you score zero, your potential points is increased by 10.
• Flex: If you score zero, your potential points is increased by 15.
• Super-flex: If you score zero, your potential points is increased by 20.

Therefore, there is little or no advantage to rostering an ineffective lineup. For example, it will backfire if you roster no quarterback, or only quarterbacks on bye, or only quarterbacks that are expected to play very little, since you won't get a zero at that position; you'll get a 20.

Toilet Bowl Calculations

During the toilet bowl, weeks 15-17, potential points are subtracted from the total rather than adding to the total. It is to your advantage to score as many potential points as possible during the toilet bowl, so as to get a better draft position.

During these weeks, the adjustments described above are only half, rounded up. For example, if you have no scoring running backs during a toilet bowl week, you will not get an additional 15 potential points for scoring zero at the RB position, you'll get only 8.

Individual Defensive Player leagues

A potential points calculation is not available on DataForce for IDP leagues. This is because we do not store individual defensive players in our database, so we cannot perform our own calculation.

Instead, we rely upon MyFantasyLeague's Potential Points calculation, which does not include any player increases for zero-scoring positions, and which does not include players on Injured Reserve. To determine each team's Potential Points on MyFantasyLeague, go to Scores->PowerRank and locate the PP column, and display through week 14. (There is no toilet bowl for IDP leagues, so the calculation ends after week 14.)

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Keeper leagues allow two additional bench players. A typical league will have not 18 but 20 players on each roster. Keeper leagues also allow four players on injured reserve.

Keeper leagues allow you to keep up to five players from from last year's roster. During the rookie/freeagent draft, you'll draft only as many players as necessary to fill your roster after selecting which players you want to retain from last year.

Keeper league rules at DataForce are very simple. You do not have to slot your keepers into early draft spots to hold them from year to year. Just keep your five best players each year.

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Dynasty leagues allow four additional bench players. A typical league will have not 18 but 22 players on each roster. Dynasty leagues also allow four players on injured reserve.

Dynasty leagues allow you to keep as many players as you wish from last year's roster. During the rookie/freeagent draft, you draft only as many players as necessary to fill your roster after selecting which players you want to retain from last year.

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Salary Cap leagues allow no additional bench players, but do allow a four-player injured reserve.

Every player in a salary cap league has a salary. The year begins with an email or live auction, which sets the initial salary for each rostered player. You are required at all times to keep the sum of the salaries on your roster at or under $200.

Player salaries can change with each of the following activities:

1. All unrostered players begin the year with a salary of $1.
2. When purchased at the annual auction, that price sets the salary. If you pay $15 for a player, his salary becomes $15.
3. When purchased during waivers, the winning bid sets the salary. If you win a player in blind bidding for $8, his salary becomes $8.
4. When dropped, the salary reverts to $1. If you pick up a player from free agency (as opposed to bidding on him during waiver processing), his salary will be only $1.
5. Players on IR count toward your salary cap, but at half rate, rounded up. A player with a $15 salary will count as $8 toward your cap if you place him on IR.
6. In the offseason, all rostered player salaries increase by $5 plus 10%, rounded to the nearest dollar. For example, if you own a player with a $17 salary, his salary will escalate to (17 + 5) = 22 X 1.10 = $24 in the offseason.

The $200 cap is a hard cap. You cannot acquire players by auction, waivers, or free agency if it causes you to exceed $200 for your team. You may offer or accept a trade which causes you to exceed the salary cap (just as a trade can temporarily allow more rostered players than the limit), but you will be required to quickly bring your roster within the $200 cap.

A note about trading: Be careful when trading after keepers are selected! You may think of the keeper selection process as "paying the salaries" of the players you retain. If you then trade a player, after selecting him as a keeper but before the auctio ends, you do not automatically get the auction money back that you spent to retain him! It is common practice, when trading players after keepers are selected but before the auction ends, to ask for the player's salary in auction money as part of the trade deal.

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Ready for the ultimate head coaching challenge? Try our signature format: a DataForce contract league. In these leagues, your players carry contracts from year to year. But read the instructions to the very end to avoid any surprises.

Contract leagues allow two additional bench players. A typical league will have not 18 but 20 players on each roster. Contract leagues also allow four players on injured reserve.

All contract leagues begin with an email or live auction. As with regular auctions, you have $200 to bid on your players. The prices you pay for your players are then recorded as salaries, which may be considered potential contracts, enabling you to retain your players from year to year.

During the off-season, you have a choice to make for each player on your team who is not yet under contract. Do you want to offer him a contract and retain him for future years? If so, the contract will be the amount you initially bid for him, subject to a minimum cost. The contract term can be from 1 to 5 additional years, and the minimum is determined by this chart:

It's important to grasp the difference between a player's salary and his contract. There is both a salary cap and a contract cap in contract leagues. His contract is an obligation to keep paying a given salary over the course of up to five years in the future. His salary is at first set by how much was bid for him in the off-season auction, subject to a minimum of $4. If later put on contract, the salary becomes the contract amount. Every player has a salary, and contrary to a salary cap league, in a contract league, player salaries never change during the year, even if they are dropped from their teams and become free agents. They change only in the offseason, when the annual auction occurs.

If a player is traded, the contract term and amount follow the player to the new team. So does his salary--see below for a discussion of the salary cap. If a player is dropped, his contract for future years is negated, but his salary remains the same and follows to the new team if he is picked up.

If it helps, think of the keeper selection process, which occurs three days before the annual auction, as the date when salaries are paid. Be careful making trades after keepers are selected, through the date the auction ends! You have already paid the salaries for that year, so if you retain a player on contract, and then trade him, you do not get reimbursed for the auction money spent! It is common practice, when trading players after keepers are selected but before the auction ends, to ask for the player's contract amount in auction money as part of the trade deal.

Players that began the year as a free agent may also be placed on contract in the off-season. Unlike a salary cap league, the contract is not the amount of your waiver bid. The contract amount in this case is the minimum determined by the length of contract, according to the chart above.

The decision to retain players is always made just before the annual auction. The amount you then have available for the auction is $200 minus the cost of your contracts. You cannot retain a player on contract in the off-season if it would cause you to exceed the $200 annual limit.

Contracts are binding. There are only three ways that a contracted player may be removed from your team:

• When each player's contract expires, he is automatically dropped from your team. You may, of course, bid to own him again.
• If you drop a contracted player at any time before his contract expires, whether during the season or the off-season, you pay a one-time penalty. 75% of his salary, rounded down, will be deducted from your auction money in the next auction. For example, if you drop a player that you have under contract for $11, you'll have $8 less in the next auction. The player's contract is then voided, and he goes on waivers for owners to bid on in the next waiver period, as an uncontracted player. His salary will remain the same, if picked up from waivers; however, he will automatically become a free agent in the off-season for the annual auction; he cannot be retained.
• If a contracted player retires or is released from his NFL team, you may waive the player without penalty, but only during weeks 1 through 17 of the NFL season. There are no penalty-free drops in the off-season. Week 1 begins on the Tuesday before the first game, and week 17 ends on Monday night following the final week 17 game.
  
  Players with no team affiliation in the NFL will show a status of Free Agent in the DataForce database. Only these players may be dropped without penalty. If for any reason our player database is not up-to-date (sometimes it continues to show a released player on his old team until the data provider updates his status), you may drop him and immediately request by email that we reverse the penalty. Be sure to drop him before he finds a new team, or his contract will become valid again.

Contracts may be bought and sold. Just as you can trade future-year draft picks in other multi-year leagues, you can trade future-year auction money in contract leagues. You might, therefore, sell a player under contract to another team ... or even pay that team a price to take a contracted player off your hands! But be careful not to trade away money that you need to retain the players you want to keep!

It is possible through mismanagement that you reach the offseason with contract obligations that exceed the amount of auction money you have available. You must be able to pay all your contracts, so you must either decrease your obligations by trading or dropping contracted players, or increase your available auction money by trading. Since dropping a contracted player costs auction money, it helps little in meeting contract demands, so you'll desperately want to make trades. If no solution can be found, the commissioner reserves the right to step in with a reasonable compromise to rescue a team from total disaster.

To prevent teams from overstocking expensive players for a one-year blitz, each team is also subject to a $240 salary cap (it's less than it sounds, but more than enough). Each player's contract becomes his salary, and the salary of each uncontracted player is his potential contract--in other words, what it would cost to retain him for another year (his bid price or $4, whichever is greater). You cannot exceed this $240 salary cap as you make trades, waivers, or free agent pickups. However, you may carry an incomplete roster in order to meet this limitation. Players on IR do not count against your salary cap.

The annual auction will take place each year by early August. The exact starting date is determined by an owner vote.

Important note: Contract leagues are complex and require careful management to avoid digging yourself into a money pit. For this reason, a limited term of 10 years is placed on these leagues, after which they are over, and a double deposit is required to ensure owner participation and to increase the value of teams (and thus the likelihood of resale) if they become orphans. This deposit is really a prepayment of years 9 and 10, so no entry fee will be charged during the final two years of the 10-year league term.

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A legacy league is just a dynasty league with the twist. It follows the rules of a dynasty league, with four differences:

1. Half of the prize fund each year is put into a purse. There will still be a first, second and third place winner each year, but they will receive only half the normal prize money. Bonus money each year will be paid in full to toilet bowl winners.
2. Your initial deposit also goes directly into the prize purse. The reason for a deposit is the same as for other dynasty leagues: It adds value to the team to make orphan sales more enticing.
3. The first team to win two superbowls (they do not need to be consecutive) takes the purse, along with the normal 1st-place prize that year. The league then ends.
4. Trading of future-year picks is only allowed one year is advance, unless the league is a Supertrader league.

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Multi-year leagues allow trading future-year draft picks. However, to prevent a team owner from tanking his team's future in order to win the current year, saddling the league with a worthless team, limits are placed on allowable trades.

1. Dynasty leagues and Supertrader Legacy league may trade draft picks in the first five rounds of the next two years. (Limited trading leagues allow trading only one year in advance.)
2. Keeper leagues may trade trade picks in the first fifteen rounds of the following year only.
3. Legacy leagues agues may trade trade picks in the first five rounds, but but for the following year only, unless it is a Supertrader league. (Legacy Supertrader leagues can trade two years out.)
4. Contract leagues allow you to trade players already on contract, which may extend as far as five future years, and also allow you to trade auction money for the next year.
5. Salary Cap leagues do not allow trading of cap money, but allow trading players. The salary of a player automatically follows to the new owner.

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Don't trade away your own future first-round pick (or your future second-round pick in a keeper league) unless you plan to continue in the league after this year!

If you offer or accept a trade that includes your own future-year first-round pick, you will be warned in a pop-up window of a required pre-payment. This can be either next year's first-round pick or the following year's, but it relates only to your own pick, not another team's.

These pop-up warnings are available on DataForce-hosted leagues only. See below for the specifics of MyFantasyLeague contests.

Usually, the required prepayment is 1/2 the base entry fee. For example, a Copper league prepayment would be $25, a Bronze league prepayment would be $50, and so on.

Additionally, if you trade away your first-round pick two years in advance, the prepayment will be doubled, as you'll be expected to renew the next two years.

The prepayment will be automatically deducted from your DataForce account when your trade is approved by the commissioner, and you'll receive an email notification of the transaction when it happens. You can then either deposit the balance owed (if this results in a negative balance on your account) or contact us immediately requesting a reversal of the trade, so that no charge is applied.

Leagues hosted on MyFantasyLeague.com are treated in an identical way, except you will not receive a pop-up warning at the time you offer or accept the trade.

NOTE: For keeper leagues, trading your 1st- or 2nd-round pick requires prepayment.

MyFantasyLeague contests

If your league is hosted on MyFantasyLeague rather than DataForce, the needed prepayment will work a little differently. In February, when MFL allows rolling over the old-year league to a new-year league (usually shortly after the Superbowl), we disable trading of future-year picks for all teams except those who have been in the league for 3 years or more. At that point, you can trade FOR future-year picks, but cannot trade AWAY future-year picks.

If you want to enable trading of future-year picks for your MFL team, you can do so at Keepers->PrepayNextYear. You will need to make a prepayment of 1/2 next year's entry fee as you do this. If, by the end of the year, you have not traded away any of your own first-round future-year picks (trading FOR future-year picks is fine) and decide you don't want to renew, just drop us an email requesting that we refund your prepayment, and we'll be happy to do so!

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When an owner leaves the league, his or her team goes up for sale on the marketplace. The owner can set the initial sale price to anything he or she wishes. Anyone not already in the league may buy the team, in lieu of paying a deposit. However, the purchaser must also pay the usual entry fee for the upcoming year.

If the team doesn't sell by the renewal deadline, DataForce will put it up for auction. If it receives no bids in the auction, any proceeds from its sale no longer go to the prior owner. It'll be assigned a new buy-it-now price by DataForce, often just $1, and put up for sale on the marketplace again. DataForce will continue marking down the price until it does sell, often taking a hefty loss on the sale by marking the prize down below $0.

DataForce does not make money on the sale of unwanted teams, so long as they sell before or during the annual orphan auction. Any money which is received by DataForce for such a team is passed to the prior-year owner as a partial refund of their deposit. For example, if you purchase a team in a new multi-year league for $100, you pay also a $100 deposit. If you then leave the league, your team goes up for sale. Suppose it nets a price of only $40 on the marketplace. You will receive that $40 back on your original deposit.

Teams which cannot interest any buyers may be run by a shill (see below) assigned by DataForce, and shills will not be eligible for playoffs or prizes. Be warned that the shill will be working hard to improve the team so that a new owner will want to buy it in the following year.

If a league has unwanted teams at the time of its rookie/freeagent draft, and no replacement owners or shills can be found, DataForce reserves the right to disband the league and return owner deposits and new-year entry fees. When a league folds, owner deposits are returned to active members only. If you drop your team, you forfeit any deposit in the event the league folds.

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On rare occasions, and under special circumstances, DataForce may assign a shill to manage a team. The shill becomes the owner of the team, paying no entry fee, and may keep or sell the team after the year is over. If you are interested in playing as a shill, please contact us, and please be prepared to take any team assigned to you. DataForce will select shills based entirely upon the trust level we have gained from watching you play on our site.

DataForce will not use more than one shill per league without approval of all members. All owners who have joined the league will be notified by email when a shill will be used to fill a team, so you will have plenty of time to leave the league if the idea of playing with multiple shills doesn't appeal to you.

There are two events that may lead to a shill being assigned:

• If an unwanted orphan in a multi-year league cannot be sold, it will be run by a shill.
• If an owner is suspended or deactivated midseason due to non-payment or violation of the Fair Play guidelines, then a shill may be assigned to that team.

Shills are subject to very strict rules:

• Teams under the direction of a shill will be clearly marked by the team name.
• Shills may not qualify for the fantasy playoffs or otherwise win regular prizes (see below).
• A majority vote of the other owners in the league may at any time remove the shill's ability to trade players with other teams.
• A majority vote of the other owners in the league may at any time remove the shill's ability to participate in blind bidding for waivers.
• Shills are expected to submit a competitive line-up each week, and will be under close scrutiny of the commissioner.

When a shill is assigned to a league in the preseason, then the prize allotment for the league decreases. League prizes are adjusted downward accordingly. For example, if a 12-team league plays with a shill, then all regular prizes (not Bonus Money) will be decreased by 1/12th.

What do I get if I become a shill?

1. You get to keep the team after the year ends, to sell or renew.
2. You can win toilet bowl bonus money.
3. You will get a $24 bonus-money thank-you gift at end-of-year if you submit a competitive lineup each week (no players in your lineup who are out or on bye).
4. Shills cannot qualify for the playoffs, but if you would have made the playoffs were it a non-shill team, we'll pay you $50 in prize money.

Contact DataForce if you are interested in becoming a shill.

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Sometimes multi-year leagues are moved to DataForce from another provider. When this happens, existing owners are grandfathered and are not required to repay deposits. Therefore, the teams in a grandfathered league do not have the inherent value that other multi-year league teams have, as they are not backed by a deposit. If the league is later disbanded, no deposits will be refunded to league owners. (Exception: When orphan teams are bought at auction in the year a new grandfathered league is acquired by DataForce, the money paid becomes a deposit on the team, because there is no prior owner to pay.)

In all other respects, grandfathered leagues operate just like regular multi-year leagues. When an owner leaves the league, his or her team is auctioned off as usual, and the money is given to him or her. Note that this highly favors owners who are grandfathered in, at the expense of purchasing owners, so you cannot expect the auction of a team in a grandfathered league to draw as much money as it would in a regular league.

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Winners of each league are determined by the above rules. You may view prize winners on the League->Playoffs page for any league that has a fantasy playoff. For draftmaster leagues, and any other league formats with no playoff brackets, all prizes will be paid to the top-scoring teams as shown on the League->Standings page. In this case, bonus money will be paid out in additional place prizes rather than in a toilet bowl. For example, a 12-team league with no playoffs would pay bonus money to the 4th and 5th place finishers.

To see the prize amounts awarded for each league, head over to the Prizes page.

Prize winners will be notified by email, and posted on the playoff page of the league website.

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DataForce prize monies are held in a trust fund during the season at Fidelity.com, as detailed on our Safeguard page. On the Wednesday (or at latest by Thursday) following the final game of the season, all prize winnings will be available to claim on your My Accounts page. Claimed winnings are immediately deposited in your DataForce account, and may be withdrawn at any time or used for additional contests.

Bonus Money winnings may not be withdrawn. You may only use bonus money to pay the commissioner fee when joining DataForce leagues.

DataForce, LLC does not withhold taxes for American citizens. Taxes associated with the receipt of any prize is the sole responsiblity of the winner. However, we may be required to withhold 30% for foreign citizens depending upon earnings (annual winnings minus entry fees for those contests).

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Owners in leagues Copper and above could win a prize in our weekly bad beat giveaway. A "bad beat" occurs when your bench outscores your starting lineup, and you lose your game.

Unless no teams qualify, DataForce will give away a total of fourteen bad beat prizes during weeks 1-14 (one winner each week of the regular season). The top bad beat score across all leagues each week receives $24 in bonus money.

Your team is eligible for the bad beat prize if:

1. Your league resides on DataForce (not another hosting site like MyFantasyLeague).
2. You played an opponent head-to-head and lost your game this week.
3. You actively participated in managing your team this week. (The "last visit" column of your Standings page must change.)
4. You started a competitive lineup (see below).
5. Your bench outperforms your starters. For example, if your starters scored 100 points, and you could have scored 105 points by using only players on your bench, you qualify with a "bad beat" score of 105 - 100 = 5.
6. If DataForce estimates that you may have tried to lose your game, you are disqualified.

Rostering only one kicker will not hurt your chances. Unless you have a kicker on your bench that outscores your starter, the starter's points will contribute to your bad beat score. (This is not true of any other position; only kickers.)

Always start your best lineup; don't try to game it! Your lineup will be disqualified from the bad beat contest if anyone on your bench was projected to score three or more points over anyone in your starting lineup that they could replace. "Projected points" may be from any reasonable projection source of our choosing. For example, if starter X is projected to get 10 points, and bench player Y is projected to get 13 points, and player Y could have been substituted for player X, you are disqualified from the bad beat giveaway because 13 exceeds 10 by 3 or more points.

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Bonus money is awarded by DataForce as low-end prizes (such as to Toilet Bowl winners) and for sign-up and referral incentives. It can be used during the purchase of leagues to decrease the cost by offsetting the commissioner fees. That is, up to $12 dollars of your league cost ($6 when buying Tin Babies) will automatically come from any bonus money you have available. It cannot be withdrawn from your account.

Bonus money expires and will be removed from your account if you do not join any leagues for two years in a row.

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