of the Churchman Fantasy Football League, in order to form a more perfect League, establish justice, insure fairness, promote a general code of ethics, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our friends, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Churchman Fantasy Football League.
I. Governing Body
A. The league will be governed by the League Commissioner. The league is commissioned by league founder Jonathan Sherrard.
B. During the season, the League Commissioner will be responsible to efficiently run the day-to-day operations of the Churchman Fantasy Football League and will be required to interpret the appropriate course of action based on the terms outlined in the CFFL Constitution and by ESPN.
(ESPN: The League Manager has the power to rule on all aspects of ESPN’s Fantasy Football game, including but not limited to: League business, player trades, infractions of these rules and disputes among franchise owners. The League Manager will investigate all overall winners for collusion before awarding overall prizes and it has the right to disqualify owners or remove them from the leaderboard if deemed necessary. The decisions of the League Manager shall be final and irreversible. The League Manager has the right to make any necessary changes to the game and rules as the season progresses. Any changes will be properly noted on the front page of the game.)
II. Franchise Members
A. There will be 12 Franchise Owners for each season, no more, no less. Each owner is allowed to own/co-own and manage only one franchise in any given season and is allowed to have up to 1 co-owner in their franchise.
B. All interested members from the previous season have the right to retain their franchise as long as they have not been banned by the Commissioner. As league spots become available, it is at the ultimate discretion of the League Commissioner to allow for new Franchise Owners, however suggestions for new Franchise Owners from current members is ALWAYS appreciated and welcomed.
III. League Set-up
A. League Fees
1. The League Entry Fee will be the decided upon annually prior to the reactivation of the league and will be set by the Commissioner.
2. League Entry Fees will be due 2 weeks prior to the annual Fantasy Draft. If the Franchise Owner is unable to pay their entry fee they will be given a warning and must pay fees prior to the Draft in order secure their entry into the league.
3. Failure to pay league fees will result in league suspension and a replacement Franchise Owner will take over in your place.
B. Each Franchise will have a pre-determined number of roster spots itemized here the League Settings Page
C. Scoring will be decided by the Commissioner prior to draft day and itemized on the League Settings Page. Scoring settings CANNOT be changed or altered in any way once Week 1 of the regular season has begun.
D. The Churchman League consists of two (2) six team divisions (the Soul Winners South Division and the Kingdom Builders North Division). These divisions are randomly pre-determined prior to the annual re-activation of the league and will be pre-determined from year to year. Franchise Owners cannot be re-assigned to a different division once Week 1 of the regular season has begun.
IV. Draft
A. Draft Process
1. The Churchman League draft will consist of a traditional “snake” draft (a draft where the positions flip flop every round) and the draft order will be randomly pre-determined 1 hour prior to the start of the draft (regulated by ESPN.com)
2. A Franchise Owner reserves the right to participate in the draft live or allow for the CPU (auto draft) to make their picks for them. Draft positioning CANNOT be traded or transferred in any way.
3. During the draft, each Franchise owner must fill their roster with the min/max numbers of players/positions as determined by the League Settings.
4. At the end of each season, all players are re-input into the draft pool to be reselected at random by any Franchise Owner in the following year’s draft. The Churchman League does not recognize Keepers at this time.
V. Post Draft
A. Free Agents and Acquisitions
1. Free Agent acquisitions (add/drop players) may commence immediately upon the completion of the draft based upon the League Settings.
2. There are no limits to the number of Free Agent acquisitions (add/drops) that any individual Franchisee can make throughout the entire season (including the Playoffs).
3. Waiver orders are reset at the conclusion of each week and is based upon the inverse order of the League Standings.
VI. Trades
A. Trades cannot begin until the conclusion of Week 1 of the season and can commence in any quantity until the trading deadline as outlined in the League Settings.
B. Each franchise owner has the right to oppose any trade if they believe it to be unfair. Any trade will ultimately be upheld or declined by a majority league vote. (Excluding the Commissioner’s vote) 6 votes will be needed to uphold or decline a trade. If the trade review period (24 hours) passes without the 6 votes needed to veto or uphold the trade, then the ultimate determination to uphold/decline the trade will be determined by the League Commissioner.
C. The trade review period will be set to one (1) day (24 hours) based upon the acceptance of the trade by the included parties. No trade can only be “pushed through” in order to keep compliance with the review process.
D. A trade can only be considered “accepted” upon final submission and acceptance of the trade through the ESPN.com website. No “pre-agreed” upon trades will be considered valid until submitted and accepted by both parties through the ESPN.com system.
VII. Regular Season
A. Season Schedule
1. The season schedule will be generated automatically by ESPN.com based on the divisions, although this may be modified by the League Commissioner (PRIOR TO THE DRAFT ONLY), as the ESPN.com automatic schedule generator has proven to not always generate schedules based upon our Division criteria.
2. Each team will face their division opponents twice and three non-division opponents (decided at random) throughout the regular season. The winner of each of these matchups is the team that accumulates the most fantasy points determined by the weekly statistics of the players in each team’s lineup and the scoring settings of the league. If the regular season matchup is tied (total points), then the team with the most bench points wins. If the regular season matchup is still tied after bench points are added, then the matchup will be scored as a tie in the standings.
Note: The schedule system automatically sets an even number of home and away games for each team. (Home and Away advantages are not used for this league.)
3. All line-up changes MUST be completed prior to the beginning of each individual player’s/position’s scheduled match-up. Failure to do so will result in an empty position spot for the week and the Franchisee will be awarded 0 points for that roster position for that week. A Franchisee may choose to keep an open roster spot and not play a position player for any given week at their discretion; however the decision to do so may subject that Owner to “review” by the League to determine if any element of collusion may exist.
4. The regular season will end after the completion of week 13.
B. The Undroppable Players List
The Undroppable Players list is comprised of select elite level players who cannot be dropped to waivers at any time during the football season. ESPN introduced this feature to prevent collusion (In these cases, owners would be able to drop star players, allowing those first on the waiver wire to pick them up). During the Fantasy Football season players will be added or removed from this list by ESPN as their value fluctuates.
C. Roster Lock Times
Team owners can make moves to their weekly rosters until the scheduled kickoff time of each player’s game. This applies to moving players between active slots or between active slots and bench slots.
VIII. Playoffs
A. The Playoffs will consist of three (1), one-week match-ups. The first round will be played Week 14. The second round will be played Week 15, and the SuperBowl will be played Week 16.
B. Championship Contenders
1. The contenders to compete for the League Title will be selected from the top three (3) Franchises in each division (six total contestants). Each division leader will be determined by the best overall record (1st) in the division and will receive a first round bye. The two other wildcard teams will be determined by the second (2nd) and third (3rd) best overall record in the division. (*please note that ESPN.com’s set-up does not allow for this type of selection automatically and this generally must be manually adjusted by the League Commissioner at the beginning of the Playoffs. ESPN.com orders the Championship Match-ups based off of overall league record, and not necessarily “division” record. So it is possible to have a better overall record than the 2nd runner up in an opposing division, but still be 3rd runner up in your own division. So if you notice that it looks like you may be in the actual Championship Bracket one day and not the next…please don’t get mad.)
a. In the event of a tie, tie-breakers for overall seeding will be determined as followed
1.) Division Record
2.) Head to Head
3.) Total Points Scored
4.) Outer Divisional Record
5.) Coin Flip
C. Playoff Matchup Tiebreakers
Throw the regular season tiebreaking rules out the window, they no longer apply…it’s playoff time! Simply put, if there’s a tie (total points + bench points) in a playoff matchup the higher seeded team will advance.
IX. Awards
A. There are three (3) main awards that will be distributed to Franchise Owners following the season (at the End of the Year “Awards Ceremony”):
1. Churchman League Champion – The James E. Taylor, Sr. Memorial Trophy & Visa Gift Card
2. High Scoring Champion (Regular Season) – The “Solomon Scorer” Trophy
3. Last Place (Playoffs Consolation Games) – The “Backslider” Trophy
X. Amendments
A. All amendments proposed by Franchise Owners must be submitted prior to the draft to be considered for ratification.
B. All amendments proposed during the season will be reviewed at the end of the current season and not be made applicable to the current season.
C. All amendments to the CFFL constitution will be named according to the league member who caused or identified the problem.