This year I have decided to put together a football league, which will require a considerable commitment on each owner’s behalf. Instead of the standard draft, I have decided instead to hold a player auction. This will allow every owner equal opportunity to any NFL player, however to do so may be costly. There will be a $500 salary cap per team, at no point in time is a team allowed to exceed the cap. Teams will also have the option to sign players to an additional one or two year contract for their auction value.

Each owner will be required to pay a $50 league entry fee, due on the day of the auction. Every subsequent transaction after the auction will be an additional $1. If you place a player on the DL and pick up a free agent it’s $1, if you cut someone to move a player from your DL back to your active roster it’s $1, if you make a trade it’s $1 per team involved in the trade, etc. etc. etc.

**WARNING** I would recommend not maxing out your entire salary cap on draft day. It may become very difficult to clear cap room as the season progresses (see the Signing Period section) and if you had to cut a player or place a player on the DL you will need cap room already available as means to sign a Free Agent. Your only other option would be to trade one of your players for a player with a lower salary level, but the team you are trading with must have enough cap room to take on your player.

Starting line-ups will be due by 12:00 pm on Sunday morning (the deadline will be adjusted for Thursday and Saturday games). You can either call in your line-up to me at home at (508) 966 3388 or you can send me an e-mail at tlpa2998@aol.com (I would prefer an e-mail so I have something concrete to fall back on).

For weeks when there are games prior to Sunday, each team must submit the players they wish to start prior to that game. If I am not informed in advance, that player will not be included in your starting line-up (even if you default to your prior weeks line-up). The reason I am invoking this rule is as follows: The In-Laws started Amani Toomer as one of their wide receivers in week 10. The Giants play the following Thursday night and I have not heard one way or the other if The In-Laws want to start Toomer for week 11. That night Toomer goes out and has 159 yards receiving with 3 touchdowns. The In-Laws will be pissed they didn't start Toomer, but they realize that if they don't submit a line-up for this week at all they would default to last weeks line-up and get Toomer's numbers for this week. WRONG, this rule now prevents that from happening. Even if it is your only player at a particular position, if you do not tell me you are gonna start him you do not get his points.

The "Tie Breaker Player" resides on your bench for the week, his stats are only used if the end result of a weekly game is a tie. Each teams "Tie Breaker Player's" total points will be calculated for the week and whichever teams player collected more points for the week ultimately wins the game. In case both players amass the same amount of points the game will end in a tie.

Be sure to watch the bye-weeks, with the addition of the Cleveland Browns this year there are 31 NFL teams. Every week there is a team that is off, just make sure you do not try and start someone whose team has a bye week. If you do you will get some real nice goose eggs for him that week, and you will get ridiculed by most, if not all, other team owners.

Teams will be placed in random order, and each team owner will act as auctioneer according to this team order. Team Owner #1 will announce the first player up for bid. The minimum bid is $5 and bidding will increase in increments of $1. (1) Bidding does not have to start at $5. If you are throwing Terrell Davis out there you can start the bidding at $50 if you so desire. (2) The bids do not have to go up in $1 increments either. If I started Terrell off at $50 someone else could go $70. The auctioneer, the person who placed the player up for bid, will announce going once, going twice, sold to whomever for $$$. Once the first player has been bought Team Owner #2 will place the next player up for auction. This will continue through Team Owner #12 and then Team Owner #1 will begin the next round. The auction will continue until every team has all 20 roster spots full. Keep in mind that the salary cap is $500 and every player has a minimum value of $5 so if you still have four free roster spots you have to have at least $20 available under the salary cap. I will provide a sheet for use on the day of the auction which shows the minimum salary space needed to fill out your roster.

A player will have to clear waivers before being picked up by the team who last cut him. Meaning, the other nine teams get an opportunity to pick up the player you cut from your team before you can pick him up. You will be allowed to submit a request the following week to re-sign a player and if no one else tries to pick him up he will be yours again. However if one other team attempts to pick the player up they will obtain him outright, and if multiple teams try to pick him up they will bid amongst themselves for his rights, you will not be included.

Once Tuesday September 28^th comes, rosters will freeze and you will be required to sign all your players to a contract. Anyone you purchased during the auction is automatically signed for this year at their auction value, any Free Agent pickups are signed for this year at their pick-up value. You have the option to sign any player for an additional one or two years at their auction or pick-up value, for either the 2000 season or the 2000 and 2001 seasons. If you do pick up a Free Agent after October 1^st that player is only signed for this current season, after this year he becomes a Free Agent again. Each team will have until Friday October 1^st to forward me their roster with each player’s salary value and the length of player contracts. After October 1^st if you choose to cut a player his entire salary will be counted towards your salary cap for the following weekends games. If that player does not get picked up the following week his entire salary continues to count against your salary cap. All other owners will have the option to pick him up the following week. The pick up process will be the same as the first three weeks, if one team puts in for a player that team gets him, if multiple teams put in for him, he goes to the highest bidder. However, the player's entire original salary must be paid for this season. The new owner will pay the amount he picked him up for and the original owner must pay the remainder. For example, I bought Drew Bledsoe during the original auction for $50. I cut him in Week 5, for whatever reason. His $50 salary counts against me during Week 5. During Week 6, Schnides and Shea both put in to pick him up. Schnides ends up winning Bledsoes rights for $37. The $37 will count against Schnides salary cap and the remaining $13 will count against mine for the remainder of this season.

If a player suffers a career ending injury, retires or is cut from the NFL only half or his salary will count against your cap this year. In case of fractional salaries the value will be rounded down, for example if you had Jerry Rice at $15 and he retired he would count against your cap for $7 for this year. If you had the player signed to an extended contract his contract value will be reduced to 30% of his original contract for any subsequent years. So if you had Rice signed through the 2001 season and he retired this year, $7 would count towards your cap this year and $5 would count towards your cap for the 2000 and 2001 seasons.

The trading deadline will be November 17, at this time trading will cease and no more pick ups or cuts will be allowed.

Best of Luck to all team owners in the inaugural season of Li'l C's Fantasy Football League (hopefully Li'l C will one day have his own team in this league that was created using his nickname).