In 2008-09, we're going to run 12-team basketball leagues and for the first time award an overall grand prize. We've run a few individual leagues under our rules the last three years, but didn't build in an overall prize pool in the past. Still, Jeff Dobies was our overall champion in 2007-08 and Chris Fargis was our overall champion in 2008-09.
Past entry fees were $600 and this year we are going to increase that to $650, with the $50 going towards one overall grand prize of $2,500. League prizes remain the same as last year and we'll increase the overall prize structure (maybe adding 2nd and 3rd place prizes while increasing the overall) according to our prize payout if we get more than five leagues. Last year we had five leagues of 12 teams each or 60 teams.
The NBA season starts on Tuesday, Oct. 28th, so we'll host these online drafts on Thursday, Oct. 23rd and Saturday, Oct. 25th. If anyone wants one more date to draft, we could do them on Sunday, Oct. 26th. We'll again use CBS Sportsline.com as our league commissioner site as we have yet to find a back-end support system that can handle the overall standings for our contest. With that in mind, we'll seek help from some of our players to run the overall standings once a week through Excel and post them in our League Forum.
We may also provide NFBBC Satellite Leagues at $150 and $250 for anyone that is interested, paying the top three finishers in each league. Those drafts will be run on Tuesday, Oct. 21, Wednesday, Oct. 23 and Saturday, Oct. 26. Stay tuned for more details.
Below are the rules for the 2008-09 season. Please direct all responses, comments and signups to this NFBBC Forum or to me at [email protected] as this will be our area of communication. We do not have a dedicated site for basketball at this point, so this is where it's at!
Thanks all and good luck.Section I: Official Rules and Regulations of the
National Fantasy Basketball Championship
1. Overview: The National Fantasy Basketball Championship (NFBBC) will consist of at least 5 leagues, each comprised of 12 teams/managers. The NFBBC regular season will extend from the first game of the NBA regular season (Tuesday, Oct. 28) through the final game of the regular season. Teams will compete for accumulative stats in 8 categories, with each category weighted equally. First place in each category will be worth 12 points, second place 11 points down to 1 point for last place in each category. Categories include: Total Points, Total Rebounds, Blocked Shots, Steals, Assists, Field Goal Percentage, Free Throw Percentage and Three-Pointers Made. The team at the end of the year with the most cumulative points in each league wins the league title. Teams will also have their cumulative stats positioned in an overall Rotisserie setup league, with the top finisher overall winning the grand prize.
2. Draft: All NFBBC leagues will hold their drafts online at Mock Draft Central.com. Leagues will be formed after the midnight, Monday, Oct. 20th signup deadline has passed, with all of the teams being picked randomly out of a bin. Leagues and draft spots will be announced online on Tuesday, Oct. 24th at the latest. There is no position requirement necessary for your reserve roster and you can change your starting lineup at the start of each week.
If an NFBBC participant does not show up on time for the draft, the computer will auto-pick players based on the site’s pre-ranked list. Should that owner not show up at all, the computer would make all of the picks irregardless of position requirements. A legal lineup would need to be submitted prior to Week 1.
3. Roster Requirements: Maximum of 16 players at all times.
4. Starting Lineup Requirements:
Starting lineups will consist of:
4 Guards
4 Forwards
2 Centers
2 Flex Spots
The NFBBC will provide a position eligibility list prior to the draft and work with the stat service being used beforehand to make sure everyone knows where Tim Duncan qualifies at and other swing players. Some players definitely can have dual eligibility.
If no Week One lineup is submitted, the NFBBC will determine your starting lineup based on the order of your draft picks. After Week One, if no starting lineup is submitted, your starting lineup will be that of the previous week.
A. League Management Web Address: You can access your league via the Internet by going to http://www.sportsline.com. You will need an ID and a password to access the game site. Contact [email protected] or [email protected] if you are signed up for the contest and don’t have an ID and password.
B. Lineup Submission: All lineups may be submitted on the league web site and are due by 1:00 pm ET on Monday.
5. Scoring: The National Fantasy Basketball Championship will use an 8-category Rotisserie scoring setup. Cumulative totals will be used for the following categories:
Points
Rebounds (total)
Blocks
Steals
Three Pointers Made
Assists
Field Goal Percentage
Free Throw Percentage
6. Position Eligibility: The NFBBC will determine each player’s position eligibility before Draft Day.
7. Free Agents: Any player who is not on a team roster within your league is considered a free agent for that league and is eligible to be acquired via the FAAB (Free Agent Acquisition Bidding) period.
8. Free Agent Acquisitions: The free agent system will be a “blind bidding” process for each individual league. Each team will start with 1,000 free agent “dollars” for the season, and will be permitted to bid for free agents on a weekly basis. We will show the runner-up bids for each team, but no team will be informed of any other team’s free agent bids. The team with the highest bid on any given player will be awarded that player. The amount of the winning bid will be deducted from the winning team’s free agent dollars. For each winning bid, the winning team must drop a player to make roster room for the free agent acquisition. If a team’s free agent dollars goes to zero, that team will no longer be allowed to bid for the rest of the season. No bid will be accepted that is larger than a team's free agent dollars. All bids must be in increments of dollars (no cents).
9. Bidding Time Frame: The bidding process starts on Tuesday, Oct. 28 and ends after the Sunday, April 12th bids are entered. Bids will be accepted on the league web site from Monday at 3 p.m. ET until Sunday at 7 p.m. ET in each of these weeks. If you are submitting by phone, you must submit your bids by 5 p.m. ET on Friday. Rosters will be updated by 7 p.m. ET on Sunday with the results of all successful bids and starting lineups for the upcoming week must be finalized by 1 p.m. ET on Monday.
10. Conditional Bids: Conditional bids can also be offered. In the event you may lose out on a player, you can place conditional bid(s) for other players during the bidding time frame. The first conditional bid will become relevant only if you lose out on the first bid. Subsequent conditional bids will become relevant only if the previous conditional bid fails. Bids do not require conditional bids. Bids may have several sequential conditional bids. Participants should note that the computer takes the highest bids and processes each bid in that order if you have multiple FAAB acquisition bids. Putting a larger bid on a conditional bid than a primary bid will result in that player being your top choice.
11. Number of Bid Limits: There is no limit to the number of bids each week in which bids are permitted.
12. Tied Bids: If there is a tie bid, the team that receives the player will be determined in order by:
1. Worst league record.
2. Lowest standing in most categories.
3. Lowest standing the previous week.
4. Lowest standing two weeks previous.
5. Lowest draft spot on Draft Day.
13. Trades between managers: To minimize the possibility of collusion, there will be no trading allowed. All drops are also subject to review by the commissioner of the NFBBC and can be revoked if the dropped player is deemed too valuable to be offered to that league’s free agent pool, thus damaging the credibility of the overall contest. All decisions by the NFBBC commissioner will be final.
14. League Structure: Each league will consist of 12 teams competing in a Rotisserie style mixed-league format for the league championship. Meanwhile, daily standings will be held for an overall champion using the same statistics. If the NFBBC finishes with 60 teams, first place in any category will be worth 60 points, second place 59, etc. all the way to one point for last place. This will occur in all 8 scoring categories. Payoffs will be for the first three teams in each league and for the top overall finisher.
15. Prize Breakdown:
National Fantasy Basketball Championship = $2,500 for overall champion.
Each (3) League Champion = $3,500
Each (3) League 2nd place finisher = $1,500
Each (3) League 3rd place finisher = $750
16. Time Limit For Draft: There will be a 90-second time limit for each owner to make his/her pick during each round of the NFBBC draft. If a participant does not make a selection in the allotted time, there will be an auto-pick by the computer. You are allowed to pre-rank your players or the computer will pick from the pre-ranked list done by the web site. All decisions by the league facilitator are final, but if there is a computer glitch or a mis-pick that is caught quickly by that owner and the facilitator, the moderator does have the right to stop the draft and correct the problem, even if it means rolling the draft back a few picks.
17. Once a participant submits valid payment, no money will be refunded to participants or co-managers unless The National Fantasy Basketball Championship is canceled. A team spot is considered filled when the entire $650 entry fee is paid. Krause Publications reserves the right to cancel any entries not comprising a full 12-team league. When a participant agrees to finish the registration form and submit payment, that participant has demonstrated his/her acceptance of the official rules and regulations for the NFBBC.
At its sole discretion, F&W Publications also reserves the right to terminate The National Fantasy Basketball Championship in its entirety if there are an insufficient number of teams by Oct. 20, 2008. In this unlikely event, F&W Publications will refund all entry fees within 48 hours of cancellation notice and/or provide a new application form with the newly stated prize figures. All pre-registered applicants would have the right to a full refund or agree to play for the newly announced prize structure. F&W Publications is not responsible for any loss or liability incurred by any participant or co-managers due to cancellation of The National Fantasy Baseball Championship, including but not limited to travel or hotel expenses, time taken off from employment, etc.
18. If the principal participant’s prize winnings exceed $600.00, The National Fantasy Basketball Championship must file a Form 1099 with the IRS at the end of this calendar year. If necessary, we will request your social security number. The Form contains the amount paid to you and you will receive a copy of the Form for tax purposes. You are responsible for paying any taxes that result from your cash prize. Please consult your income tax advisor for filing advice.