SFL Roster Guidelines

SFL Roster
Guidelines

ROSTERS
TRANSACTIONS
LINEUPS

TRANSACTIONS

REGULAR SEASON (SITE IS OFF)	REGULAR SEASON (SITE IS ON)
From Sunday at 1PM ET to re-opening on Tuesday (during games), roster transactions can be made in the following ways: In-Person Request to Commissioner Phone Request to Commissioner Answering Machine Request to Commissioner E-Mail Request to Commissioner iMessage Text (from an iPhone only) to Commissioner Note: Whatever move is made first wins.	From Tuesday until Sunday at 1PM ET, roster transactions can be made in the following ways: Directly on the NFL.com web site (preferred) Phone Request to Commissioner Answering Machine Request Answering Machine Request to Commissioner E-Mail Request to Commissioner iMessage Text (from an iPhone only) to Commissioner Note: Whatever move is made first wins (even if not on NFL.com). This means we would delete a move made on NFL.com if necessary..
OFFSEASON	POSTSEASON
From the end of the playoffs and not during drafts, the following apply: In-Person Request to Commissioner Phone Request to Commissioner Answering Machine Request to Commissioner E-Mail Request to Commissioner iMessage Text (from an iPhone only) to Commissioner During drafts, rules apply as noted on the appropriate draft web sites.	In the playoffs (starting at 1PM kickoff of the Quarterfinal games), see below for "Playoff Lineups and Rosters" rules.. Transactions are made in the same methods above as during the regular season.

INJURED RESERVE (+)
BACKGROUND	IN PLACE SINCE 1994 (with modifications, including a major, temporary policy in 2010 to streamline the rule--made permanent in 2011 league-wide vote) In 1993, several key season-ending injuries took place in the SFL. Star players such as Dan Marino, Randall Cunningham, andTerry Allen all were knocked out for the season with severe injuries. The following year, owners adopted a rule that allowed for one Injured Reserve roster spot off the 12-man roster to deal with catastrophic injury situations that would hamper their ability to maintain a competitive roster while still allowing for retaining key long-term players. In 2004, this rule was amended to include players that retired due to the Ricky Williams retirement, but the change was made to apply to not allow adverse benefit for this specific situation. Finally, in 2007, the rule was further amended to also account for an increasing amount of player suspensions given new authority self-granted by the NFL Commissioner at the time. In 2010, a temporary rule was agreed to by owners replacing previous language in total. In 2011, owners voted to make this rule permanent in limiting the time it applied, the reasons for eligibility, and allowing for a new method of brining IR playes back onto the active roster during the regular season.
ELIGIBILITY	One Injured Reserve roster spot is available per owner's organization. The roster spot lasts for the course of a League year and a player's placement and removal from this roster spot is carefully regulated as discussed below. Only an injured player can be placed on Injured Reserve once suffering a documented injury while ON a roster of the impacted owner. Additionally, the player must have suffered an injury that is significant in nature which produces a documented account of the injury possibly making the player miss a minimum of four weeks. Previously a retired player (2004-2009) or a suspended player (2007-2009) could also be used in this roster spot. This is no longer the case.
TIMING	TIMEFRAME DURING YEAR WHEN PLAYER CAN BE ASSIGNED TO IR: IR Position opens = Kickoff of First NFL Preseason game of season IR Position closes = Kickoff of NFL's Super Bowl from the season ON & OFF INJURED RESERVE: Injured players can be placed on and taken off an IR spot back onto the active roster during the same season. In addition, a player on IR may be traded to another owner or simply waived from the spot. This can be done whether a player is "healed" or not. If "healed," a decision MUST be made, however. Owners must choose whether to place the "healed" player back on their roster or leave them on the IR spot for the rest of the season during the week that follows their first game back on the field. The player can be added back to the roster before this time...this is just the deadline for a decision. If left on IR, they follow the old rules (stuck on that spot for the rest of the year, but if waived, become eligible for signing by other owners outside of your organization) and would have to be waived by the second owner, without any collusion, to free up the spot for use again. This incentive is meant to use the spot for more major injuries as they happen. If reclaimed off of IR back onto the roster, the IR spot can be used again during the season as often as necessary. If a player is injured and does not finish their first game back after injury while on IR, they may remain on IR until the next game they play in. For the playoffs, a player must come off the IR spot in order to be used and must be on the 12-man roster before the start of the playoffs. As always, any players still on IR at the end of the season approaching the Super Bowl of that season, must be resigned to a team's roster by kickoff of that game or will be released.

BYE WEEKS (B)

BACKGROUND

IN PLACE SINCE 1990

The rule was put in place to allow owners the ability to field more competitive lineups. During weeks of the regular season when not all NFL teams play, bye week roster spots are available to every owner to sign extra players beyond the normal 12-man roster.

ASSIGNING A PLAYER

A player of any of the five positions can be assigned to this roster spot.

The Bye week roster spots are available a week in advance (at that week's time of kickoff) of a scheduled Bye week on the NFL regular season schedule.

The Bye week spots are elminated or reduced when the following week no longer supports or decreases NFL teams with a bye for 2-team owners and the stated time below for 1-team owners (and if occupied, the players in them are also automatically waived) at the time the spots expire:

# OF NFL TEAMS WITH BYES FOR WEEK	# OF BYE SPOTS AVAILABLE FOR 2-TEAM OWNERS	# OF BYE SPOTS AVAILABLE FOR 1-TEAM OWNERS
0-1	None	None
2-3	One	One
4-5	Two	Two*
6+	Three	Two

* - altered from one in 2002

REMOVING A PLAYER

Owners are free to remove players from these roster spots at any time. However, the Bye week spots are elminated or reduced when the following week no longer supports the required number of NFL teams on scheduled byes. Players on these spots (as designated for any first, second, third spot in order) are waived accordingly at the time of kickoff when byes are no longer supported.

ROOKIE SELECTIONS (R)
BACKGROUND	IN PLACE SINCE 1990 Players drafted by a team in the SFL College Draft ONLY are placed in a special roster spot that does not count as one of the regular 12 roster spots on a team.
ASSIGNING A PLAYER	An owner can have as many rookie roster spots as players they select during the draft. Owners have the time period from the day they make their selection to the "time of kickoff" of 1PM EDT on Opening Day (Sunday of Week One) of that same year to place that player on their 12-man roster. Note that these roster spots are not transferrable. Only drafted rookies are eligible for this roster spot. Once a player is removed from the roster spot in one of the manners listed below, they are not eligible to ever be placed in this spot again unless they re-enter the NFL Draft and are not on a roster.
REMOVING A PLAYER	A player can (or will) either be removed by (a) simply releasing the player from the roster spot, (b) trading the player to another owner out of the roster spot, or (c) failing to sign the player to the 12-man roster prior to the deadline to do so above.

TRADES
REGULAR SEASON	Trades can be made between owners at any point during the regular season up until the Trading Deadline. The League trading deadline is defined as the "time of kickoff" on the Sunday of the final week of the SFL regular season in the given year.
POSTSEASON	No trades between owners are allowed during the postseason.
OFFSEASON	Trades can be made between owners at any point during the offseason. Trades may begin following the official end of the last NFL game of the regular season (or by Commissioner's announced time and date). It is an owner's responsbility to verify which of these two options will dictate resumption of this activity.
METHODS	Roster transactions can be made in the following ways to the Commissioner: In-Person Request Phone Request Answering Machine Request E-Mail Request*

REGULAR SEASON LINEUPS
INITIAL LINEUPS	Lineups are due at two times for each week of games. The first time, "initial" lineups are due by end of the day of the Wednesday leading up to that week. In the case in which no Thursday or Saturday game takes place, lineups are due by 8PM ET on the Thursday leading up to that week. This requirement exists in order to allow for reasonably accurate lineups to be published for all owners to print and read as a part of "SFL Gameday." When this initial deadline is not met, any players from the preceding week's lineup on a bye week for the upcoming week will be left in the starting lineup for that week without the chance to replace them.
FINAL LINEUPS	Final lineups are due by the exact listed time of the first game of the week with the exception noted for changes involving weeks that begin on Thursday where players who do not play on Thursday may be exchanged in lineups freely.
LINEUP CHANGES	Changes can be made to lineups up until 1PM Eastern of any week of play. However, changes cannot impact players who have previously played in a game that week (i.e. Thursday, Saturday games).

PLAYOFF LINEUPS & ROSTERS
ROSTERS	MAKEUP OF ROSTERS: 12 players total 7 starters (QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, K) 12-man rosters remain intact for the duration of the playoffs with the exception of transactions described below Players left off of the 12-man roster but still within the organization cannot be accessed during the playoffs unless described below in transactions DEADLINE TO SET ROSTERS: Overall playoff roster set by Sunday "time of kickoff" of the first week of playoffs Players involved in games before the first Sunday of the playoffs (i.e. Thursday) must be established as either a starter or a backup with a specific tie-breaking rank
LINEUPS	STARTERS: 7 starters (QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, K) Set as normal during the regular season from the 12-man playoff roster BACKUPS / TIEBREAKERS: Should be set by the owner for likelihood of scoring any and as many points as possible Kicker must be the fifth and final tiebreaker Only can set order between QB, RB, WR, TE
TRANSACTIONS	ADD / DROP TRANSACTIONS: SHUTDOWN IR TRANSACTIONS (new): 3 roster moves per team while alive in the playoffs (when a team can no longer win their game, they are not alive in the playoffs) Roster moves are to sign a player not on any team in or out of the playoffs (i.e. free agent) Player from playoff roster must be released to become free agent from same position Applies to Week 15 and Week 16 Any player who is on an SFL playoff roster who is placed on Injured Reserve by their NFL teams due to no playoff run remaining for that NFL team and wanting to allow inexperienced players to get more experience is eligible Impacted players may be replaced with a "W16" roster move that does not count against the three add/drop transactions Players "signed" in these transactions are not owned going forward by ano owner, and they can only be signed from the free agent pool and their owner players not on that playoff team Players "released" in these transactions are not actually released from rosters, but are just temporarily replaced, however they must be from the same position This is done to enhance competitiveness as starting in 2016, multiple NFL teams out of playoff contention began to shut down starters to avoid injuring them and to play unproven players WEEK 16 TRANSACTIONS (formerly Week 17): In advance of Week 16, the Commissioner will determine a list of NFL teams that may rest starters and / or have no incentive to play hard given NFL playoff positioning Owners may petition for additional teams that fit this criteria if they think the list is incomplete Any player on an SFL playoff roster that is on one of these NFL teams may be replaced with a "W16" roster move that does not count against the three add/drop transactions Players "signed" in these transactions are not owned going forward by ano owner, and they can only be signed from the free agent pool and their owner players not on that playoff team Players "released" in these transactions are not actually released from rosters, but are just temporarily replaced, however they must be from the same position This is done to enhance competitiveness in the final week of the season of our teams
TWO TEAMS IN PLAYOFFS	RULES UNIQUE TO OWNERS WITH TWO TEAMS IN THE PLAYOFFS: 12 players total on each team, 24 total Same starters and backups rules apply 3 roster moves per team includes the ability to trade players between the two12-man rosters 1 roster move must exist on each team and be used to be able to complete the trade Up to 3 trades can be made based on available roster moves Week 16 roster moves can be made between both teams if both are alive in the playoffs, however if a player is signed from another team, no replacement can be made on the other team as it is not considered a trade If one team is eliminated from the playoffs, and not the other, an owner has 24 hours after the official elimination of that team to complete any trades between rosters
TIE-BREAKING PLAYERS	These players are used in the event of a tie between the two seven-man lineups. If there is a tie, the first tie-breaking player for each team will be scored against each other. If one team receives more points, these points are added to their overall total, and they are declared the winner of the game in overtime. If the tie continues, we move onto the next tie-breaking player and so forth. The difference between the two players will be applied to the tied score in regulation to achieve a final, overtime score.

DEFINITIONS
"Time of Kickoff"	Time of Kickoff was adjusted by League owners to mean a uniform, common time that all owners can identify across cities and time zones. For example, kickoff on an NFL Sunday no longer means when the initial kickoff takes place (which may be tape delayed on cable or satellite vs. over-the-air broadcast), but it now means EXACTLY 1PM Eastern Time. These uniform times will be tied specifically to the "scheduled start" of games/weeks that would be impacted by the rule.
"Beginning of the Season"	This is defined as the "Time of Kickoff" of the first NFL game scheduled in an official NFL season.
"End of the Season"	This is defined as the time the final gun sounds on the final game of the NFL regular season.
"End of the League Year"	This is the same definition as "End of the Season."
"Beginning of the Offseason"	This is defined as either (a) the time the final gun sounds on the final game of the NFL regular season or (b) a time announced after the previous event as chosen by the Commissioner.

DISCLAIMER
General Disclaimer	All other policies not here-in-to mentioned in said text are to be considered as being in agreement with the spirit of the official methods used by the National Football League. The Commissioner is granted the power and sole authority to determine the final outcome of all such matters in accordance with the preceding guidelines.