About this document

This is the living, breathing bylaws document of the UK Dynasty league. Revision history from December 2016 onwards can be found on GitHub. The original version of this document (with revision history from the start of the league) can be found on Google Docs.

All bylaws are an explanation or extension of the rules set on MyFantasyLeague. This document doesn’t outline all aspects of the scoring system, or describe how processes on the host websites work. However, any change in rules within the league hosts will be subject to league disussion/vote, as would any rule within the Bylaws.

1. TEAM SETUP

1.1 Roster size

Rosters are a maximum of 30 players (25 players + 5 taxi squad players during the season), with 9 starters. Starting lineups consist of 1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 TE, and 2 RB/WR/TE flex spots.

During the season, 3 IR spots are available.

During the off-season, the roster limit will increase to 30. Teams must get their roster down to the in-season limit of 25 and assign their taxi squad players by the Sunday before week 1 at 6pm. If a franchise is over this limit when the deadline passes, players will be forcefully dropped to comply, in last-in-first-out order.

There are 3 spots open for Injured Reserve (IR) on each roster.

1.2 Retired players

If a player retires, they no longer take up a roster spot of the owning team. However, should they un-retire and rejoin the NFL, they will return to the roster of the team they were on at the point of retirement.

If the roster is full, the owner can either release the player immediately, or take a maximum of 7 days from the day of unretirement to free up a roster spot for the un-retired player, otherwise they will be returned to the pool of free agents.

A record of retired players is kept on Google Sheets.

1.3 Taxi squads

5 spots are available in addition to normal rosters for taxi squad players. These players can’t be used in your starting lineup.

To designate a player to the taxi squad, they must be demoted to the taxi squad on MyFantasyLeague prior to the designation deadline, the Sunday before Week 1 of the season.

Players cannot be added to taxi squads during the season.

Only rookies can be added to your taxi squad, and they can remain there until the end of their 2nd season in the NFL. If a player is promoted during their 1st season, they therefore cannot be designated to the taxi squad for their 2nd year.

Rookies acquired during the Free Agent Auction are taxi-squad eligible.

Players can be promoted to the active roster at any time. Once a player is on a team’s active roster, they cannot be demoted back to the taxi squad, and that taxi squad spot cannot be used for the rest of the season.

Taxi squad players can be traded, but must be placed on the active roster of the receiving team.

Should an owner include a taxi squad player in their starting lineup illegally, they will forfeit all points scored by that player in that gameweek, and be forced to promote the player from their taxi squad before the start of the next gameweek.

1.3.1 Claiming players

Players on taxi squads can be claimed by other teams. To make a claim on a player, a message must be sent to the UK Dynasty Taxi Squads chat on GroupMe, clearly stating the player that they wish to claim.

Claims can only be made between Tuesday at 10.00am and Wednesday at 11.59pm during the regular season, prior to the trade deadline.

The player must be placed on the active roster of the receiving team.

The owning team will have 72 hours from the time of the claim to choose between the following options:

  • promote the player to their active roster
  • allow the player to be claimed and receive compensation in the form of a draft pick based on where they were drafted in our rookie draft

If a player is traded during the 72 hour window, the any claims are void.

If more than one team makes a claim on the same player on the same day, priority goes to the first owner to make a claim.

Compensation:

Round drafted Compensation
1st 1st and 2nd
2nd 1st
3rd 2nd
4th 3rd
Undrafted 4th

If a team doesn’t have the pick required to compensate, they can offer a pick from a higher round. Only picks for the next rookie draft are valid compensation - future picks don’t count. Therefore, teams must have at least one available pick in the next rookie draft to make a claim for a player.

If the team claiming the player has multiple picks available in that round, then it’s up to that team to decide which pick to give up as compensation.

2. SCHEDULE AND DIVISIONS

From the 2019 season onwards, there are three divisions of four teams: North, Midlands and South, with teams assigned to their division by the geographical position of their town/city.

Franchises’ assigned divisions may change during the off-season at the Commissioner’s discretion, to account for geographical balancing if a franchise’s ownership changes.

2.1 Regular season

The regular season takes place during weeks 1 to 13 of the NFL season. Teams will play the 3 other teams in their division twice, and 7 of the other 8 teams once.

2.2 Playoffs

The playoffs run between weeks 14 and 16 of the NFL season. The teams that qualify for the playoffs, and their seeding, will be as follows:

  1. Division winner with best record
  2. Division winner with 2nd best record
  3. Division winner with 3rd best record
  4. Team with next best record
  5. Team with 2nd best record
  6. Team with highest regular season Points For total

The two division winners with the best records (Team 1 and Team 2) will receive a bye through the first week of the playoffs.

Week 14 (Wildcard Weekend)

Wildcard Matchup 1: Team 3 vs. Team 6
Wildcard Matchup 2: Team 4 vs. Team 5

Week 15 (Semi-Final Weekend)

Team 1 vs. Wildcard Matchup Winner with lowest seed
Team 2 vs. Wildcard Matchup Winner with highest seed

Week 16 (Britannia Bowl)

Semi-Final Winner 1 vs. Semi-Final Winner 2

3. ROOKIE DRAFT

A 4-round rookie draft (slow email style) will be held each year starting on the second Saturday in May, using the draft facility on MyFantasyLeague.com. Each team will have 1 draft pick for each round. Picks are tradeable. A 10 hour pick clock will be in use, with the clock paused between the hours of 10pm and 6am.

Free agents will not be included in the rookie draft.

3.1 Order of picks

Rookie draft pick order will be based on the final league and playoff standings, as follows.

Pick 1: Non-playoff team with worst record
Pick 2: Non-playoff team with 2nd worst record
Pick 3: Non-playoff team with 3rd worst record
Pick 4: Non-playoff team with 4th worst record
Pick 5: Non-playoff team with 5th worst record
Pick 6: Non-playoff team with 6th worst record
Pick 7: Wildcard Weekend loser with worst record
Pick 8: Wildcard Weekend loser with best record
Pick 9: Semi-Final loser with worst record
Pick 10: Semi-Final loser with best record
Pick 11: Britannia Bowl losers
Pick 12: Britannia Bowl winners

In the event of any tie, the following tie-breakers shall be used, in order (roughly the same as for league standings, but ignoring head-to-head record and divisional record):

  1. Overall points-for
  2. Overall points-against
  3. Coin flip

4. WAIVERS/FREE AGENTS

4.1 During the season

During the season (start of week 1 onwards), bids will be processed at 11am ET (4pm UK most of the year-round) on every day of the week except Tuesday. Waivers will lock at the end of week 17 of the regular season.

4.2 Free Agent Auction

An auction of all available free agents will take place each year, starting on July 1st, on MyFantasyLeague.

All owners will begin the auction with a $200 budget that will act as both their auction budget and their FAAB budget for the whole season. There is no minimum or maximum amount that owners must spend during the auction.

All owners can open auctions on players, with the bidding ending once no bid has been made in 18 hours - highest bid wins that player.

An explanation of the rules of the 2018 auction (still valid for future years) can be found here

4.3 During the off-season

On completion of the Free Agent Auction, bids will be processed weekly on Wednesdays at 11am ET (4pm UK most of the year-round).

5. TRADING

Trading is suspended from the Thursday before Week 14 (Week 1 of the UK Dynasty playoffs). Trading re-opens the Monday following the NFL Super Bowl. Trades must be accepted (not just proposed) by the deadline to be valid.

Trade offers are made and accepted using the facility on MyFantasyLeague. Verbal agreement of a trade in chat is not binding.

You can trade picks for the next year’s rookie draft, and the year after. E.g. During the 2019 season, you can trade 2020 and 2021 rookie draft picks.

Pick trading history prior to the 2019 permanent move from ESPN to MyFantasyLeague is on the “Future Rookie Draft Pick Trades” spreadsheet on Google Docs (http://bit.do/UKDynastyLeagueFutureRookieDraftPickTrades).

The dutiful commissioner will have the final decision on whether a trade involving future picks is truly damaging to the future of the league, but this power will only be used in extreme circumstances, when there are clear signs that an owner is underselling picks (or players) with malicious intent. It’s unlikely that any trade will ever be rejected for this reason. To be clear, trading of picks because you’re in ‘win-now mode’ doesn’t count as malicious; this commissioner ability is reserved for flagrant abuse of the league.

Trades cannot be vetoed unless the trade is an obvious attempt at collusion. Only the commissioner can veto a trade. Trades are not to be vetoed because other owners deem them unfair on one of the parties.

Temporary trades (also known as ‘loan trades’ or ‘roster sharing’) are prohibited. Examples of a temporary trade include:

  • swapping players with another franchise for one week to circumvent a bye week
  • trading a player to another franchise for three weeks to help with an injury-hit roster in return for a draft pick

Trades must be made with the intention that they are permanent.

6. ANNUAL RULE CHANGES: OWNERS’ MEETING

The league will accept suggestions for rule changes for the upcoming season/s from the culmination of the UK Dynasty Bowl (end of NFL week 16) until the new season start date (generally March 1st), each season.

Any owner can put forward a suggestion of a rule change, and a poll of all owners will be taken on rule changes that cut the commissioner’s proverbial mustard (basically anything that’s not totally crazy or league-ruining or against the ethos of the league). The majority required for a rule change to pass will be set individually for each proposal. Most of the time, it will be a simple “over 50%” majority required, but for more wide-ranging or serious changes, it may be 75% or more.

Suggested rule changes can include scoring adjustments, waiver wire rules, league calendar adjustments - anything that is set in MFL rules or the bylaws is up for debate each and every year.

7. ETHOS

The aim of UK Dynasty is to be a fun, friendly, active NFL dynasty league that’s enjoyable for everyone involved. Try to remain as active as you can, especially during the offseason: one of the best things about dynasty leagues is that they keep you entertained during the long, game-starved summer.

Owners are encouraged to take part in league chat using the league messageboard, and expected to respond to league polls and take part in discussions regarding rule changes and other league matters.

Owners must make an effort to keep their team competitive at all points of the season. “Tanking” - making a purposeful effort to lose a game with the intention of gaining a higher draft pick - is outlawed. An example of tanking is benching a probable high-scoring player in favour of a probable low-scoring player. With such a close-knit, communicative league, this is unlikely to be an issue, but any owner deemed to be tanking will be warned of the possibility of being replaced, or immediately replaced, depending on the seriousness of the offence. On deciding what is deemed tanking, the commissioner’s decision is final.

The league is free to join and there is no organised prize, but owners must show willing to engage in the league and an interest in leading their team to incredible glory or abject failure over the long-term. Non-active owners will be removed from the league and replaced if attempts to resolve the situation with the owner fail to be successful. This is necessary to keep the league enjoyable for all owners.