Clarification 10/11/2007 Players can be picked up until their game starts for that week.
Clarification 10/11/2007 Player-On-Hold timing rule.
Added 08/21/2007 Added Trade Time rules for trades during the draft.
Updated 11/10/2006 Updated the stats challenge deadline to include standings.
Updated 05/01/2005 after the draft, free agency is FCFS.
Added Off-Season Trading 05/01/2005.
Updated 09/15/2004 Dropped players for 2004, go on 24 hour hold.
Updated 04/09/2004 Added a section on keeper league trading.
Archived Rule History (bottom of page)

League Type
Cost
Prizes
Draft
Starting Lineups
Starting Lineup Deadline
Scoring System
NFL Stats
Trades
Draft In-Progress Trade Rules
Keeper League Trading
Off Season Trading
Transaction Deadline
Tie-Breakers
Schedule
Waivers
Playoffs
Regular Season Schedule Details

AntSport's Leagues can be either a normal Head-To-Head League or our own style, Head-To-Head Victory Point League. AntSports does not offer Total Point leagues.

• Normal Head-To-Head Leagues: The traditional leagues. Win/Loss records determine the teams that make it to the playoffs.

• Head-To-Head Victory Point Leagues: AntSports is proud to introduce our own style of league. I believe that Head-to-Head Victory Point Leagues combined with AntSports scoring system provides the most balanced, competitive, and FAIR leagues available anywhere on the Internet.

  Read more about this new style of league.

Cost:

Trophy League Re-Draft teams cost $12.95, until July 5th. After that the price goes up to $14.95.

$100 Money League Re-Draft teams cost $100.
$250 Money League Re-Draft teams cost $250.
$500 Money League Re-Draft teams cost $500.

Trophy League Keeper teams cost $12.95 plus a $5.00 deposit. Prices on Trophy League Keeper teams also go up to $14.95 on July 5th.

$100 Money League Keeper teams cost $100 + $25 refundable deposit.
$250 Money League Keeper teams cost $250 + $50 deposit for next year.
$500 Money League Keeper teams cost $500 + $100 deposit for next year.

Those are the only fees. There are no other fees. Transactions are free and unlimited.

Prizes:

Trophy Leagues Prizes:

• 1st Place gets an Engraved 16" Trophy and free entry next year.
• 2nd Place gets free entry into next years league.
• Consolation Bowl Winner - I'm still trying to find a creative prize. Email me if you have a good low cost idea.

• Click here for $50 - 12 Team Money League Prizes
  
  
• Click here for $50 - 10 Team Money League Prizes
  
  
• Click here for $100 - 12 Team Money League Prizes
  
  
• Click here for $100 - 10 Team Money League Prizes
  
  
• Click here for $250 - 12 Team Money League Prizes
  
  
• Click here for $250 - 10 Team Money League Prizes
  
  
• Click here for $500 - 12 Team Money League Prizes
  
  
• Click here for $500 - 10 Team Money League Prizes
  
  
• Click here for $1000 - 12 Team Money League Prizes
  
  
• Click here for $1000 - 10 Team Money League Prizes
  

Draft:

Re-Draft Leagues draft completely over each year.

Re-Draft League's draft position will be determined randomly.

Re-Draft leagues draft 16 players/defensive teams.

Keeper Leagues draft 18 players/defensive teams.

Keeper League's draft position will be based on the previous years playoff bracket finish. Read more about the Keeper league draft position in the Keeper League Detail Rule page. (Note, if the keeper league is brand new, draft position will be random, since there is no history to use).

You can draft any combination of players or teams. After the draft is complete, free agency is FCFS.

The draft will be conducted "Snakeback" fashion. Example, 1 through 10 for round one and all odd rounds, and 10 through 1 for round two and all even rounds. For example, if you draw draft position 10, you will get picks 10 and 11. If you draw draft position 1, you get picks 1 and 20.

The draft will use my AntSports webbased draft software (a web version of an email draft, same as my mock drafts.). The "pre-draft" feature makes the draft run smoothly. The draft will take anywhere from 4-10 days to complete. I believe this draft method works better than "live" drafts because it's very hard to have 10-12 people from all across the world get together at the same time. I was in a CBS Sportsline live draft in 2000 and of the 12 people, 1 didn't show up, and 2 lost their internet connection during the draft. I don't like list based and computer drafting methods.

I expect that at a minimum during the draft, every team owner must check the draft status once in the morning and once in the evening. Getting thur the first round always takes time. Once the first round is complete, things get better.

All drafts will have a 12 hour timer. If a team times out after 12 hours, I will call their phone number listed on their user profile page. If there is no phone number, I will pick for them. If their answering machine picks up, I will leave a message and give them another 4 hours to pick.

I do not want to make selections for anyone as I believe you have paid for your teams, you should draft your own team.

To enter your phone number, go to your user page and find the Edit Profile button. If you want to put in more than 1 phone number, add your second phone number to your address section.

If you are away from the internet for a long period of time during the draft, please feel free to call my toll free number and ask for your draft's status. I will help you make a pick if needed.

If you have special needs, email or call AntSports right away.

Starting Lineup:

AntSports supports 4 different starting lineups.
See the specific league for the lineup used.

Normal =	1 QB 2 RB 2 WR 1 TE 1 PK 1 DT
Normal = (Not TE Req)	1 QB 2 RB 3 WR/TE 1 PK 1 DT
Flex =	1 QB 1-2 RB 2-3 WR 1 TE 1 PK 1 DT
Flex = (Not TE Req)	1 QB 1-2 RB 3-4 WR/TE 1 PK 1 DT

Starting Lineup Deadline:

AntSports supports lineups where players can be submitted right up until game time. Generally, lineups should be submitted by Friday at lunchtime. This allows your opponent to see who they are playing against. Remember, you can always change your starting lineup right up until game time. Just don't try to cut it too close, noteveryone's clocks are the same.

If a team's lineup is not submitted, AntSports software will automaticly submit a lineup for them. AntSports also reserves the right to submit lineups for abandoned teams. 11/28/01

If a team's lineup is submitted short players, in interest in fairness (mistakes on lineups do happen), the lineup can be corrected by contacting AntSports as soon as the mistake is discovered. The missing player(s) will be based on the previous weeks lineup. If that is not conclusive, the team gets the lowest scoring player on from their bench. If a normal starting player was on Bye the week before, it's up to AntSports as commish to decide who the replacement player will be. AntSports will examine several pevious weeks and make a ruling. If it's not obvious to AntSports, then once again, the lowest bench player from that team will be started. Once the next weeks games have started, previous weeks mistakes will not be corrected. If a franchise is short a player and no bench player is available, then the franchise gets a zero for that position. If you notice that your team is missing a position and the games for that week are still going on, you can call AntSports and ask for a waiver move for any available player who's game has not started yet. That player can then be inserted into the starting lineup, since his games has not started.

AntSports believes that every teams needs to earn the "Win". We don't believe that teams should get free wins because of human error or abbonanded teams.

If there is a major where timing is criticial, you must call AntSports toll free phone number and either talk to me right away or leave a message. Messages are timestamped by my machine. Email is not good enough since the time on email messages can be changed by the sender and is therefore not valid.

If you submit an incorrect player say R.Williams IND when you wanted to submit R.Williams MIA, you are out of luck as it would be too easy to cheat and submit the incorrect one on purpose.

Scoring System:

AntSports supports the following scoring systems:

P1 =	Performance 1 Scoring 1 pt / 25 yards Rush/Rec TD=6 , 1 pt / 50 yards Passing TD=4
P2 =	Performance 2 Scoring 1 pt / 25 yards Rush/Rec TD=6 , 1 pt / 50 yards Passing TD=3 INT=-1
HP =	High Performance Scoring 1 pt / 10 yards Rush/Rec TD=6 , 1 pt / 20 yards Passing TD=4 INT=-1 1 pt / Reception, Decimal Scoring

NFL Stats:

The NFL reviews every NFL game and may change the final game stats. If the stats are officially changed before the next week's games starts (Sat or Sun games), the changed stats will be used to calulate the final weeks points. Once the next weeks NFL games start (Sat or Sun games), the results of the previous week are final and cannot be changed or challenged. (Added 12/12/01). Results are final applies to stats and standings. (Added 11/10/06).

Trades: (see also Off Season Trading)

No trades are allowed after Sunday kickoff NFL Week 11.
(Last chance to accept a trade is actually 24 hours before the Week 11 deadline due to the weekly trading deadline below.)

There is a weekly trade deadline of 24 hours before Sunday's (or Sat) kickoff. This gives both parties time to update their starting lineups after the trade completes. If there is a Thursday or Friday night game, as long as the players do not play in those games, then the above weekly trade deadline stands. Otherwise it's 24 hours before the include players games. The weekly trade deadline will be enforced automatily by the website.

Trades with the intent of "loaning a player" and then trading the player(s) back are not allowed.

Trades Timing:

Mistakes do happen when teams are trying to do trades. At AntSports, we believe that the right thing should be done, not the letter of the law. If we followed only the letter of the law, one of the 2 parties of the trade may be unhappy. So, while a trade is waiting to be approved or just after a trade is approved, if you realize that you made a mistake in the trade, AntSports will reverse the trade. Trades are not final, unless both parties are happy with the trade. Common mistakes are clicking on the wrong player, or draft picks. Clicking the accept instead of reject button.

Starting for 2004, the trade process became more automated. When both parties have agreed upon a trade, the trade proposal is announced to the entire league. League members can contest the trade with a valid reason. Trades that are not contested will be automatically approved after 18 hours. Protested trades will be resolved by AntSports. Once both parties agree to the trade, it stands unless someone protests or a player becomes injured (read below).

Draft In-Progress Trade Rules :New!!! (08/21/07)
These rules are only for drafts that are currently active. Before the draft and after the draft, the timer for auto trade approval will remain at 18 hours.

• Trades where 1 team trades out of the 1st round will remain the current 18 timer. A trade that's simular to a 1,4 for 2,3 usually gets approved, almost anything else gets rejected.
  
• Trades with Less than 3% gain
  New Timer = 15 minutes
  
• Trades >= 3%
  New Timer = 2 hours (if during the day 9am to 11pm EST)
  New Timer = 8 hours (if during the night)
  
• Trades >= 10% trading down, or >= 5% trading up
  Remain at the current timer of 18 hours. Note generally these trades will be rejected.

If the trade has been approved (by the commish or auto-approved) and then a player gets injured, you are stuck with the trade. If a player is injured while waiting approval, or during the auto-approval 18 hour window, the trade is invalid.

Why the above rule? Because, someone can have a trade offer out to someone for days. For example : Say Team A proposes the following trade :

Team A  Moss, Portis for Team B  Harrison, Holmes.

Say Team A put the offer out on Tuesday. Team B decides to think about it. On Fridays practice, Holmes gets injured and Team B finds out about it because they live in Kansas City. If they quickly accept the trade before the injury goes public a few hours later, then Team A is getting an injured player when they were expecting a healthy one. So, to keep things fair, players being traded must maintain their current injury status (healthy, hobbling or whatever) for the duration of the trade. If things change, before the 18 hour auto approval process, then the trade is invalid.

If a franchise has multiple trade offers accepted for the same player(s), the franchise owner can choose which trade they want to accept. Franchise owners can just use the Protest function on the trade they do not want to accept and I will reject that trade. If neither trade is protested, the first trade offer accepted will take precedence.

Trade Basic Processing:

• If a trade seems fair to AntSports, it will be approved.
• If a trade is marginal, I will send an email to both parties asking to for more info about the trade. Both parties should respond, I'm most interested in the response from the team that is getting the perceived bad half of the trade. If I like the responses and they make sense, I will approve the trade.
• Sometimes I see very questionable trades. I will email both parties on these also. AntSports reserves the right to email the rest of the league with the current trade offer and give the entire league a day or two to make a better offer to the team with the perceived bad half of the deal.

Just because your team got a good deal and the other team doesn't seem to care, or they even proposed the deal doesn't mean your trade will be approved. AntSports reserves the right to either reject the trade completely or faciliate a better trade. A very lopsided trade effects the entire balance of the league, not just 2 teams. It's important to keep trades reasonable, even when trading for keeper players.

Keeper League Trading :

Near the end of the regular season, NFL weeks 9-11, many teams that have no chance at making the playoffs will try to trade for future keeper prospects. There are two items worth mentioning :

1. Draft position next year is determined on how well teams do in the Consolation Bowl (not how bad), so teams trading away good player should realize that their draft position will suffer if they gut their team. The #1 draft pick goes to the Consolation Bowl winner.
2. Trading studs for keeper prospects is allowed and considered part of the game. If you are sitting in 1st place, you might consider trying to trade with a non-playoff teams giving up some keepers to improve your starters. Remember, if you don't make a trade, the teams that are just behind you will make a trade. Some of the trades may sound unfair, for example Randy Moss for Anquan Bolden, but to a non-playoff team, getting a WR like Bolden who can be kept for a very low draft pick next year is well worth giving up Moss who cannot be kept. These type of trades do happen and if you want to win, you need to be aware of it. If this seems unfair to you, then you should consider a No-Trade league or a redraft league.

Off Season Trading :

Off Season Trading will be allowed starting in 2005. The offseason start when league signups begin, usually March. The Off Season will end August 1st. During the off season, trades will NOT auto approve and will be processed once per week on Mondays. Since not everyone is paying attention to fantasy football during the offseason, the time period for teams to protest a trade will be 5 days instead of 18 hours. Unprotested trades that have completed the 5 day time period still need to be approved by AntSports. If AntSports feels the trade is unfair or has question, AntSports will email you.

Transaction Deadline:

This year, there will be no transaction deadline. This means you can pickup free agents even during the playoffs. I have this rule in my private league and it works fine. By the playoffs, there are few if any free agents that actually make a difference. Preventing free agent pickups causes teams to submit subpar lineups on at times. Note, if teams dump starting level players (happens in keeper leagues often), those players are not allowed as free agent pickups. Call AntSports when this happens and I will remove those players from the pool of free agents.

Tie-Breakers:

Tie Breakers can be voted on by each league. Most leagues use the following:

Tie Breakers will only be used in the post-season. During the regular season, ties will be allowed.

During the post-season, 1 non-starting player can be submitted to break the tie. If still a tie after the submitted Tie-Breaker player, the tie will be broken by the Highest Scoring Player Method. It works as follows: The team with the Highest Scoring Player (HSP) gets the win. If the Highest scoring player on both teams scored the same, then next highest is used, and so on until the tie is broken.

If your league does not use a Tie-Breaker player (HP Scoring Leagues don't really need a tie-breaker player), then the Highest Scoring Player method will be used to break the tie. (12/15/2001)

If the game is still a tie after HSP, then for H2H leagues, the team with the best regular season record will win, or for VP scoring leagues, the most regular season VP will win. If it's still a tie, then total points in the regular season, then finally a coin flip. If any of these tie-breakers in this paragraph get used ever, I'll be amazed. (12/15/2001)

Schedule:

10 Teams:

A 10 team, 2 divisions league will play everyone in division twice, and everyone in the other division once for a total of 13 regular season games. The schedule works out so that in weeks 1-5, and 9-13, you play mostly in-division games. Then in weeks 6-8 all teams play non-division games.

12 Teams:

A 12 team, 3 divisions league will play everyone in division twice, and everyone in the other divisions (except 1 random team) once for a total of 13 regular season games. The schedule works out so that in weeks 1-3, and 11-13, you play only in-division games. Then in weeks 4-10 all teams play non-division games.

See Regular Season Schedule below for more details.

Waivers:

AntSports offers three different waiver systems (For Examples Click Here) :

• First-Come-First-Served (FCFS) leagues free agents go to whoever has the best internet access. These leagues reward owners that stay on top of the NFL as it happens each day. Not recommended for people who are away from their TV and internet connection on game days.

• Worst-to-First (WtoF) league's waivers are processed worst-to-first on Tuesday Night, Midnight Pacific. The worst team gets first choice of one player. If you want to pick up more than one player, your next player will be picked up in round 2. After Tuesday Midnight, waivers will be first-come-first-served. Players can be picked up until their game has started for that week. Players cut will be added to the Player-On-Hold list.  

• Blind Bidding (BBid) league's waivers are processed on Tuesday Night, Midnight Pacific. At the beginning of the season, all teams are given $100 in Bidding Bucks (not real money). To pick up a player off waivers, you must put in a bid. The team that has the highest bid for that player will get him. Since this is a blind bidding process, no one knows what the others are bidding. Once all the bids are processed, waivers will be first-come-first-served. Players can be picked up until their game has started for that week. The FCFS waivers do not cost any bidding bucks. Other rules are as follows :
  • Bid minimum is $0.
  • If you win the bid at $33, and the next highest bid was $21, you still pay $33 for your player.
  • If there is a tie bid, the player is awarded to the team with the worst record. 2nd tie-breaker is lowest total points, then random.
  • The website will allow you to enter a player to drop and then a list of players to bid on.
  • You are allowed to enter multiple lists of players for each roster positions you would like to fill. (like predrafting).
  • Your top players bid at each position can exceed your total bidding bucks available. The computer will limit your second (or 3rd...) player's bid to the max bidding bucks available if your bids exceeded your available funds.
  • Bidding bucks are tradable, but do not carry of to the next year.
  • Players cut will be added to the Player-On-Hold list.

  The Blind Bidding method is the fairest waiver system I have found.

• Players-On-Hold When a player is cut by a team, that player is placed on 24 hour hold. During the 24 hold period, any team may place a WtoF or Blind Bid waiver request for him. At the end of 24 hours, the computer examines all waiver requests for that player and awards to the team with the winning bid. If no one claims him, after the 24 hours is complete, he is added to the waiver pool and is available for immediate pickup.

  Added 10/11/2007 -> Often, franchises are forced to cut players they may want to keep. To give all teams, including the franchise that just cut a player, a chance to pickup the player, AntSports has added the following new rule (note, I have been enforcing this rule in the past, it was just never written down). If a player is cut after Sat 1pm EST, that player will go into the waiver wire pool for all to request in the next weeks waiver processing. Example: You have a WR that has potential and you do not really want to cut him. But, you are short a PK this week because your PK has a bye. If you wait until after Sat 1pm EST, you can cut your project WR, get a PK. Then on Tues, you can put in a waiver request and try to get your project WR back.

Playoffs:

The top 6 teams will go to the playoffs; the others will play in the Consolation Bowl.

For 12 Team leagues :

• The 3 Division winners are granted a playoff spot.
  
• The next 3 best teams go to the playoffs.

For 10 Team leagues :

• The 2 Division winners are granted a playoff spot.
  
• The next 4 best teams go to the playoffs.

The top 2 teams will have a bye (not necessarily the division winners).

Ties for determining playoff position will be broken by total points only.
Using total points is simple and leaves no room for argument. Other methods, including using Head-to-Head matchups, leave too much gray area in the rules.

Our championship is held on NFL week 16 (second to last NFL week). This is nice because some good teams don't play their players much on the last week.

NFL week 17 is a fun week. Pick any fantasy players you like, whoever scores the most wins. Bragging rights only.

There will also be a playoff challenge. Details to be added later.

10 Team Playoff Bracket
12 Team Playoff Bracket

Regular Season Schedule:

10 Team League Schedule (12 Team TBD)

Two (A,B) Divisions

10 Teams - 2 Divisions

Division 1 Teams:  A1, A2, A3, A4, A5
Division 2 Teams:  B1, B2, B3, B4, B5
                                                       Number of
                                                    Non-Division
                                                           Games
------- Beginning of In-Division Play --------------------------


Week 01: A3 vs A1, A2 vs A5, A4 vs B5, B3 vs B1, B2 vs B4     1


Week 02: A1 vs A2, A3 vs A4, A5 vs B1, B3 vs B2, B4 vs B5     1


Week 03: A1 vs A5, A4 vs A2, A3 vs B3, B4 vs B1, B2 vs B5     1


Week 04: A1 vs A4, B4 vs A2, A5 vs A3, B1 vs B2, B3 vs B5     1


Week 05: B2 vs A1, A2 vs A3, A4 vs A5, B5 vs B1, B3 vs B4     1


------- Played Everyone in your Division Once -----------------




------- Beginning of Non-Division Play -------------------------


Week 06: B1 vs A1, A2 vs B3, B5 vs A3, A4 vs B2, A5 vs B4     5


Week 07: A1 vs B4, B5 vs A2, A3 vs B2, B1 vs A4, B3 vs A5     5


Week 08: A1 vs B3, A2 vs B2, A3 vs B1, A4 vs B4, A5 vs B5     5



------- Beginning of Second Round of In-Division Play ---------



Week 09: A2 vs A1, A3 vs A5, B3 vs A4, B1 vs B4, B5 vs B2     1


Week 10: A1 vs B5, A5 vs A2, A4 vs A3, B1 vs B3, B4 vs B2     1


Week 11: A5 vs A1, A2 vs A4, B4 vs A3, B2 vs B1, B5 vs B3     1


Week 12: A4 vs A1, A3 vs A2, B2 vs A5, B1 vs B5, B4 vs B3     1


Week 13: A1 vs A3, A2 vs B1, A5 vs A4, B2 vs B3, B5 vs B4     1

A team's division is determined by draft order. All teams that draw odd number rounds go in the "A" division. Even number goes in "B" division.

Draft Order
----------------
  A1 =  1
  A2 =  3
  A3 =  5
  A4 =  7
  A5 =  9

  B1 =  2
  B2 =  4
  B3 =  6
  B4 =  8
  B5 = 10

Table of Contents

Updated 10/25/2003 Added a rule for adding new players to the database.
Updated 10/24/2003 Add basic info how trades are handled.
Updated 10/20/2003 Mistakes on submitting lineups.
Updated 09/20/2003 Trading to loan players is not allowed.
Updated 08/19/2003 Clarify - No free agency until after week 1 is complete.
Updated 08/09/2003 Trade clarification an mistakes.
Updated 08/06/2003 Waivers : Dropped players rule being changed.
Updated 06/04/2003 Updated Prize Money for 2003.
Updated 05/21/2003 Moved the trading deadline to week 11 (from week 12).
Updated 09/05/2002 Clarified the playoffs for 10 and 12 team leagues.
Updated 08/18/2002 Changed Draft Timer Rule
Updated 06/05/2002 Added Draft Position info.
Updated 05/26/2002 Added Blind Bidding to the waivers section.
Updated 01/05/2002 Added links for 12 and 10 team money league prizes.
Updated 12/15/2001 Updated the Tie-Breaker Section.
Updated 12/12/2001 Added section on NFL Stats.
Updated 11/28/2001 Added clarification for teams with no starting lineup.
Updated 03/20/2001 Added Money League to the general rules.
Updated 11/20/2000 Added Tiebreaker Clarification.

Table of Contents