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League Rules
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HFL Rules and Regulations
HFL (Historic Football League) is a multiplayer football league, which uses the
Front Office Football 2007 software and the Front Office Football Historical Project
rosters (http://www.prodeportes.com/fof2004/historical/index.html) to recreate the NFL experience from the 1970?s to the present
day. We use real players from the last 30+ years and the original team names. The
league was founded in July, 2004.
1. The Commissioner Council
The league is run by a Council who are responsible for managing league development,
website/forum design, voting on rules disputes, and helping the league Commissioner
in weekly activities.
The Council may expand membership, as needed.
In matters of league settings, the Council will first survey league members during
the yearly Owners Meetings, for a clear majority, and vote as needed.
A current rule can only be overturned by league membership with a 75% majority vote.
This is to avoid yearly flip flopping and maintain some league consistency.
The Commissioner Council has the final say in all matters pertaining to the league.
2. League Information
Roster files provided by the Front Office Football Historical Project (http://www.cflfb.com/FOF/fof.htm)
are used. These files contain the real players from the NFL since 1970.
The official home page is http://www.hfl-football.net/. The league files and information can be found there.
The official chat client is AIM. GM's should make an account to enable owner communication.
In addition, a
HFL chat room
is available and will be used during the HFL drafts or for live sims.
Settings
League ID: HFL00000
Preference draft was used
X-factor was used
Injuries were set at 125%
Inflation was set to 7%, updated manually after each TV contract
Personality profiles and team chemistry were used
Schedule
Stage files are due by the following times and should be submitted to the commish.
Late files may be accepted if the sim has not been run yet, but there is no guarantee
for any files sent after the deadline
From week 1 of the regular season:
Sunday - Game day exports due by midnight EST
Tuesday - Game day exports due by midnight EST
Thursday - Game day file exports due by midnight EST
Review the Schedule forum for schedule updates. The schedule may be accelerated
at various times during the season and offseason.
3. Inactivity
During the Pre and Regular Seasons
All GM's are required to submit a game day export. If a GM knows they are going
to be away or inactive for a scheduled game, they are required to notify someone
in the Commissioner Council.
During the Offseason
Each GM is required to maintain a preference list during the draft. If your time
slot elapses, and your preference list was not used, the commish will draft a player for
you. The commish does NOT have access to your preference list, so all choices will be made
at his discretion. If a GM misses two selections, they will lose all time slot privilages.
Owner Rollcall
At the end of each regular season, a Owner Rollcall will be held. Owners are required
to confirm their interest in the rollcall thread by the scheduled deadline or forfeit
their team.
4. Owner Votes
All 32 owners must participate in league discussions, including votes. In order
for a new rule to pass, there will need
to be a 51% majority. To overturn a current
rule there will need to be a 75% majority. Owners may abstain from the voting, but
must still make their intentions known by selecting the Abstain option.
In addition to voting, an owner must post their choice in the poll thread or PM
the commish with their vote. This is to confirm participation.
5. Team Names
When possible, team names will be set to their historic equivalent and can not be
changed by the GM. The following changes were made prior to the start of the league.
The Jets were moved to NY
The Rams were moved to LA
The Cardinals were moved to St Louis
The Titans were renamed the Oilers
The Colts were moved to Baltimore
The Oilers were moved to Houston
The Oilers were moved to the AFC North
The Ravens were moved to the AFC South
This creates two teams (and a new rivalry) in both Houston and Baltimore, the latter
of which has both teams in the same division.
6. Contract Negotiations
a) When making a contract offer, GM's may not double or exceed double a player's
base salary from one year to the next, except from the first year of the contract
to the second. This is to avoid extreme back loading of contracts.
This applies to all contracts, whether it is a renegotiation or an offer to a free
agent.
"Cap Out" contracts are exempt from this rule.
b) Contract renegotiations must be at least 80% of the player's asking price (per
year). This does not apply to offers made to free agents.
Example 1: Player X asks for a 3 year, $3 mil contract ($1 mil per year average).
Thus, the minimum 3 year contract you can attempt to negotiate down to is 3 year,
$2.4 mil (3 years x 1 mil/year avg x 80%).
Example 2: Player Z wants a 5 year, $3 mil contract (.6 million/year avg). You only
want to offer a 2 year contract. The lowest you can offer is 2 years x .6 million/year
x 80% = 2 years, 960k
c) If an owner chooses to sign a free agent to a 1-year contract, that player may
NOT be franchised the following year. Illegal exports will be ignored during the
franchise tag phase.
d) GM's should strive to always offer reasonable contracts. Abuse of AI tendencies
and bugs will not be tolerated.
Any contract or contract offer can be subject to review by the Commissioner Council.
If a contract has been determined to have exceeded established 'sportsmanlike' limitations
(the determination of 'sportsmanlike' to be made by the Commissioner Council), then
the offending owner may be required to renegotiate said contract or release the
player altogether. The owner could also be subject to additional penalties, up to
and including expulsion from the league.
7. Rookie Signings
Rookies not signed by the end of the season can not be franchised the following
season. Penalties may include loss of the player or future draft picks.
8. Trades
Both team GMs must post their agreement of the trade terms in the Pending/Completed
Trades forum for the offer to become officially pending. All trades must be approved
by the Commissioner Council, and notification of a trade completion will be posted.
The trade deadline is the midweek prior to week 5.
9. Salary Cap
If a team is over the salary cap at the end of training camp, then its GM must immediately
release players to get back under the cap. Failure to do so will result in the loss
of a 3rd round pick in the next draft and the Commissioner Council deciding which
players must be cut.
10. Roster Size Limit
No team may have more than 70 players under contract on their roster at any time
without approval by the Commissioner Council (in the case of extreme injuries, for
example). Teams found in violation of this rule will be forced to cut players and
may lose a 3rd round draft pick at the Commissioner Council's discretion.
11. Postseason Signings
Once the postseason begins, and for the duration of the playoffs, any team that
is not in the playoffs is prohibited from signing new free agents. Teams that are
in the playoffs can sign new free agents, as the 53-man roster allows, but can't
sign any players released by other teams during this period. Signings are restricted
to those players who were in the free agent pool at the end of the regular season.
Teams found in violation of this rule will be forced to cut the player and may face
further penalties at the Commissioner Council's discretion.
12. Injury Settlement
During the offseason, an owner may request that the commissioner manually cut a
player who has suffered a career ending injury. That player must be listed as having
an expected return date longer than 19 weeks prior to the start of regular season.
The owner will still be responsible for the normal cap hit resulting from the release
of this player.
13. Position Changes
To ensure that players are not downgraded maliciously prior to a release, the following
rules pertain to position changes.
As long as a position switch is not made with the explicit intent of significantly
lowering the player's skill set/ratings, in the Commissioner Council's judgement,
it will be allowed.
Any position change must be posted in the appropriate forum for review by the Commissioner
Council.
In the case of a position change that is deemed unacceptable, the teams export will
not be used. If an owner continually exports unacceptable position changes, the
Commissioner Council may decide on a punishment they deem acceptable on a case by
case basis.
14. Draft Schedule
The Amateur Draft will be run using the Conscriptor draft utility.
The draft start date will be listed in the
Schedule,
and time slots will be updated on a daily basis in the forum.
See the HFL draft page for more details on rules, draft procedures and relevant
links.
15. Staff Hiring
For the Staff Hiring Stage 1, a rule exist to allow players to
re-sign their current head coach and/or coordinators. No other
teams may bid on a head coach during the first stage, although
a coordinator can be promoted to head coach with another team.
Exports with non-promoting offers to other team's coordinators
or offers to head coaches with other teams will not be imported.
16. Play To Win The Game
GM's are not allowed to throw seasons for any reason, including obtaining a better
draft position. The GM must attempt to win each game, utilizing their roster and
game plan to the best advantage. If the Commissioner Council determines that a GM
is not attempting to win each game, that GM will be subject to loss of their team.
Exceptions may be made for GM's benching an underperforming starter or who wish
to give a select number of players development time, at the Commissioner Council's
discretion. It is the GM's responsiblity to notify the Comminssioner Council as
to their intentions when seeking either exception.
17. Game Function Abuse
The Commissioner Council reserves the right to instantly ban any player it deems
is blatantly misusing the game functions to gain an unfair advantage over the league.
Credit to the eNFL and IHOF, whose league rules served as a model for this.
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