Basic Concept
This will be a progressive league that instead of moving chronologically through history, it will move chronologically through each drafted player’s career. As each player reaches retirement, there will be a two season blacklist before that player can come back into the league. Example, if you draft Barry Sanders, after he retires following his 10
th season, he would be blacklisted during seasons 11 and 12 and therefore would be eligible to be drafted again in the season 13 draft.
Cut Players
Players that are cut, if drafted by another owner, must be used in the next season in line. Example, assume you drafted a player was a rookie in 1980 and then you cut him following his 1985 season…. if a new owner drafts that player, he must be used in his 1986 season. If instead, that player went undrafted, he will be deemed to have retired and therefore will enter the two season blacklist period. After the blacklist period, he will be eligible to be drafted again as a rookie in his 1980 season.
Rookie Season
For our purposes, a player’s rookie season is considered the first WIS season in the database. If a player was a real life rookie in 1975, but doesn’t have a WIS season until 1977, then in our league he is a rookie in 1977.
Team Units
As far as units go, we’ll consider a franchise/decade to be a package deal. Example, for your defense, you might decide to draft the 1980’s Chicago Bears. If so, you will start with the 1980 Chicago Bears and finish with the 1989 Chicago Bears. Other decades of the Chicago Bears defense would be eligible to be drafted by other owners.
Teams will always be required to start with the first season of that decade (1960, 1970, 1980, etc.). When they reach the last season of that decade (1969, 1979, 1989, etc.), that unit will be “retired” and will go through the same two season blacklist as individual players. Owners may cut their unit before the decade is complete, but if someone picks up that unit, they must pick up where the previous owner left off. If undrafted, then that unit will be retired and will have to go through the two year blacklisted period before it could be redrafted.
First Year Rookie Exception
Due to the possibility of depth/fatigue issues in our first season, each team can name six players from their initial roster who can start later than their rookie season (fast-tracking). This must be individual players and not team units. These designated players can be started in season 2 or 3 of their WIS career.
Example, if you draft Joe Montana, his rookie season is 1979 where he was a $325K rookie. In this example, you could decide to start him in either his 1980 or 1981 season. On your initial roster posted in the league roster thread, you must declare him as a fast-track player (FTP) and which season will be your starting season (example, QB: Joe Montana-FTP 1981).
After the initial season, all players thereafter must be started with their rookie season. Regarding players who were originally fast-tracked, when they retire and ultimately come back into the league, they cannot be fast-tracked again.
Draft Order
Initial draft order will be determined at random and will snake back and forth. Future drafts will be determined by regular season W/L record and playoff success. All non-playoff teams will be ranked by regular season winning percentage. All playoff teams will be ranked by playoff finish, with regular season winning percentage separating teams knocked out in the same round. The following tiebreakers will be used to settle any ties:
- Head to head results (skip if 3+ team tie)
- Points Scored (fewest goes first)
- Points Allowed (most goes first)
- Yards from Scrimmage (fewest goes first)
- Yards from Scrimmage Allowed (most goes first)
- Coin Flip
Draft Lottery and Win Floor
The four worst teams by W/L record plus any ties will be entered into an equally weighted lottery pool. To qualify, a team must have at least two wins (win floor). First year owners are excluded from the win floor requirement. Teams in the draft lottery will pick at the front of the first round and all other teams will be aligned accordingly. The second round and all other rounds thereafter will be worst to first draft order subject to the tie-breakers when applicable.
Other Rules
- Salary cap - $200 million
- Waiver wire is not allowed
- No clones within the league (including players who were position players who also kicked/punted)
- Off-Season trades are allowed including draft picks (next draft only)
- League alignment random in season one and stay the same thereafter, except that we will randomly realign every ten seasons (realign on season 11, 21, 31, etc.).
Optional Rule – Free Agency
If we adopt this rule, then each off-season, two players from each team will be randomly chosen to become free agents. If so, they will be removed from each team’s roster and thrown into the draft pool. If drafted, they would have to be used in the next season in line. If not drafted, they would “retire” and enter the two season blacklist period. The team that lost the free agent would be allowed to redraft that player if available.
Each season, teams would be allowed to place a franchise tag on two players who would then be exempt from this possibly becoming a free agent. A simple majority vote will determine whether we implement this rule, but a 60% majority will be required to add/drop/change this rule thereafter.
Note, team units will not become free agents, only position players and K/P’s.
10/8/2020 11:18 AM (edited)