THE OFFICIAL LIFETIME FANTASY BASKETBALL LEAGUE RULES AND REGULATIONS

from the desk of Commissioner Gilbert C. Ho

I. LEAGUE FEES AND AWARDS

  I.1 GENERAL FEES AND AWARDS

  Each franchise must pay the initial franchise start-up fee of $10, the annual Sportsline 
  
league management fee of $20, and the annual membership fee of $20 to participate in the 

Fantasy Basketball League (FBL).  FBL Treasurer, Brian Ong, will handle the collection of 

league fees, the engraving of the league trophy, and the distribution of cash prizes to the 

top three finishers in the league.  The purse will consist of membership fees and cash 

penalties (for exceeding the salary cap) minus postage, shipping and handling, and the money 

spent on engraving the trophy .  The league champion will have his name engraved on the FBL 

trophy and will be entrusted with the care of the trophy for the following year.  The third 

place finisher will have his membership fee reduced by $10 for the next season, and the rest 

of the purse will be divided 75% for the first place team and 25% for the second place team.  

The person in possession of the trophy is fully responsible for it.  If he loses it or 

damages it, he will have to pay for the replacement of the trophy.  

  I.2 DISCOUNTED FEES

  Both the commissioner and the treasurer will have their annual membership fee 

discounted by $10.  

  I.3 FEE DEADLINE AND PENALTY

  Owners must pay all league fees (not including salary cap penalties) prior to the start 

of the season.  If fees are not paid by the start of the season, then the delinquent team's 

roster will be suspended until payment is received; and no stats will be accumulated during 

that time.  If fees are still not paid 30 days after the start of the season, then the 

delinquent team will forfeit their next available 1st round draft pick.  

II. FRANCHISE NAMES

  Team owners are encouraged to name their teams with something creative (but

please keep the team name under 30 characters).  

III. SCORING SYSTEM

1. Points                18%
2. FG%                   14%
3. 3 PT FG%               5%
4. FT%                   11%
5. Offensive Rebounds     9%
6. Defensive Rebounds     9%
7. Assist/Turnover Ratio 12%
8. Steals                11%
9. Blocks                11%

IV. ROSTERS

  A team is not required to fill vacancies in its roster, but it cannot

exceed the 12 man active roster limit at any time.  Each roster has the 

following 12 positions:  2 centers, 4 forwards, 4 guards, and 2 C/F/G spots 

that can be used for any type of player.  Prior to the start of each new 

season, teams must trim their active roster down to 12 players (either by 

waiving players or legitimately placing them on the IL).  Please note that a 

team is not required to carry one of each kind of guard or forward.  A team 

can fill all its guard positions with point guards, if desired.  

  Starting with the 1999-2000 season, a 13th roster will be made available 

for player development.  See VIII.4.  

V. POSITION ELIGIBILITY

  ESPN.COM (http://www.espn.go.com) will be FBL's official site for determining

position eligibility.  Players can qualify for new positions during the season, 

and position eligibility will be recorded on the salary page.  

VI. SALARY CAP

  Each team is allotted $50,000,000 to spend annually.  There are only two

scenarios when a team can exceed the salary cap:  1) in order to sign their

own free agent and 2) to sign a player to a 10-day contract due to an injury.  

However, teams exceeding the salary cap will not go unpunished.  For every

$250,000 that a team goes over the salary cap, a $2.50 penalty is assessed, and

that amount goes towards the prize fund.  Please also note that any remaining

money under the cap is wasted and cannot be carried over to the next year. 

  For the initial season, salaries will be assigned to the 12 players drafted

in the following format:  

  # contracts          Minimum Salary              Length of contract
       2                 $7 million                    2-7 years
       3                 $5 million                    2-5 years
       3                 $3 million                    1-3 years
       4                 $1 million                      1 year

  Once someone is signed, the money for the contract is considered spent even if the player 

is released after one game.  However, under two special circumstances where a player cannot 

continue his career with his team, the team can get a small percentage of its money back.  

1) If a player dies while under contract (Reggie Lewis) the owner will still pay 20% of the 

player's salary for the term of the contract.  2) If a player retires for any reason  (age, 

injury, lack of skills) the owner owes 100% of the contract in the year following the 

retirement and 50% of the contract for the following year.  After two years of retirement, 

the player's contract will be considered void.  

VII. STANDINGS

  Teams are ranked according to their production in each category.  The last place team is 
  
awarded 10 points multiplied by the percentage that the category is worth.  The second to 

last place team is awarded 20 points multiplied by the percentage that the category is 

worth.  And so on.  For example, in a ten-team league where steals are worth 10%, the 

second place team would get 90 points x 10% (or 9 points).  In the event of a tie in a 

category, the points will be split evenly between the tied teams.  For example, if three 

teams are tied for first in steals in the same league described above, then each team would 

get 9 points or (100 points + 90 points + 80 points)/(3 teams) x 10%.  

VIII. THE COLLEGE DRAFT

  VIII.1 THE LOTTERY

  We will hold a lottery to determine the college draft order.  The lottery consists 

of 6 balls that will represent the three worst teams in the league:  3 balls for 

the worst team, 2 balls for the second worst team, and 1 ball for the third worst 

team.  

  VIII.2 DRAFT ORDER AND SCHEDULE

  The draft will take place after the NBA draft, and it will consist of two rounds.  

The first round begins with the three lottery picks and is followed by the reverse 

order of finish.  The second round will be the reverse order of finish regardless 

of lottery position. 

  The draft will begin two weeks after the start of the NBA draft.  There will be one pick 
  
per day, starting at noon.  Failure to make a selection within the alotted time will result 

in the pick being skipped.  

  VIII.3 SALARY STRUCTURE 

  College players will be signed to contracts no longer than 4 years and will 

follow this pay scale:

Lottery picks (1-3)   $3.0  million
4-6                   $2.0  million
7-9                   $1.5  million
10-12                 $1.0  million
13-24                 $0.5 to 1.0  million

  Team owners do not have to sign their draft picks until they are signed by an NBA team.  
  
If the player is signed by an NBA team mid-season, he is not FBL eligible until the 

following season.  All other undrafted and unsigned college players become free agents.  

  VIII.4 DEVELOPMENTAL ROSTER SPOT

  Each team has one inactive roster spot, used for the development of young players.  

Only draft picks can be placed in this spot.  The player can remain in the developmental 

roster spot for the entire duration of his contract, but his salary will count against 

the salary cap.  Developmental players cannot be transferred to the developmental roster 

spot of antoher team.  Once that player is activated, he cannot return to the 

developmental roster spot.  

IX. FREE AGENTS

  IX.1 DEFINITION

  All unsigned players are considered free agents, but only those that are on 

active NBA rosters can be claimed by a team.  Also, injured players are not 

available for pick up.  

  IX.2 FREE AGENT SIGNINGS DURING THE SEASON

  During the season, players can only be signed for the remainder of the year.  

Teams have 24 hours to top a bid sent out to the alias, or else the signing will 

be approved.  

  IX.3 FREE AGENT SIGNINGS DURING THE OFFSEASON

  During the offseason, multi-year contracts can be offered.  There will be an 

open bidding free-for-all with the winner being the one who can offer the best 

contract in terms of present value ($1 million is worth more now than it is 

5 years from now).  Owners will spend one day on a weekend bidding for free agents.  

We will take advantage of Yahoo!'s chat rooms.  Owners must bid within their cap 

restraints.  All bids must top the previous bid by atleast $250,000 or by one year; 

owners cannot match the previous bid (not even if it is to sign their own free 

agent).  A 7 year contract is the maximum in terms of length, but the following 

minimums must also be attained:  

Length of contract     Mimimum Annual Salary
1 year                      $  250,000
2 years                     $  500,000
3 years                     $  750,000
4 years                     $1,000,000
5 years                     $1,500,000
6 years                     $2,000,000
7 years                     $3,000,000

  Team owners will be randomly called upon to initiate the bidding on a free agent.  

If the team owner declines to initiate the bidding, then that team owner will be done 

for the day.  Only one free agent will be bid upon at one time, so we will go around 

the room (in a predetermined order) and give team owners a chance to increase the bid 

or drop out of the bidding for that particular free agent.  Team owners will not be 

allowed to waive a player on the day of the draft in order to re-sign that player on 

the same day.

  IX.4 RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS

  A player, who is under contract when the season ends, is considered a restricted 

free agent if the length of the contract was atleast a full year in length.   

Owners can only exceed the salary cap when re-signing their own restricted free 

agents, but in doing so, the owner must pay $2.50 towards the prize fund for every 

$250,000 over the cap.  Penalties for exceeding the cap (including multiyear 

contracts) must be paid in full prior to the start of the season.  The team owner 

also has the right to exceed the cap by the entire sum of the salary.  

X. THE INJURED LIST

  X.1 QUALIFICATIONS

  If a player is injured, suspended, misses a game due to family emergencies,

etc., he can be placed on the Injured List and a free agent can be signed to

take his place.  (DNP-Coach's Decision does not qualify a player for the injured 

list.)  Players placed on the IL must miss a minimum of 5 games.  Players can 

be placed on the IL retroactive to the day that the first game was missed.  

This means that if a player misses a couple of games due to an injury before the 

team owner notices, the player does not have to miss an additional five games 

after the transaction is made.  This, however, does not mean that you will get 

the replacement player's stats retroactive nor will the replacement player's 

10-day contract be retroactive.  

  X.2 PROCEDURE

  If you would like to sign the replacement player for the rest of the year, 

then you would have to bid for him.  But if you only wish to sign him to a 10-day

contract, then the following procedure must be followed.  Season contracts have 

priority over 10-day contracts.  For 10-day contracts, priority will be first-come

first-serve, with the exception that injuries have priority over regular 10-day 

contracts.  If a team wishes to sign the free agent, the team owner must notify all 

the other teams in the league with an email message to the entire league.  Please 

date and time-stamp all requests, for the free agent signing will not be approved until 

24+ hours after the request was made.  If a wish list is provided, the first listed valid 

request will be processed.  The 10-day contracts will each be for $25,000 and will 

automatically renew unless something is put out on the transaction wire.  But a player can 

only be signed to a maximum of five 10-day contracts within the same season.    

  X.3 ACTIVATION

  When a player is eligible to be activated from the IL, he is not automatically activated.  

It is the responsibility of the team owner to reactivate healthy players.  If a team owner 

decides not to activate a healthy player, then that player becomes a conditional free 

agent.  Other teams may attempt to sign him, but the original team owner will then have one

week to either reactivate him or waive him.  A player is considered healthy, if he is 

eligible to be activated from the Il and if he does not miss a game during the one week 

waiting period.  If the conditional free agent signs with a new team, his original team will 

not be reimbursed for the money lost; the player will be considered waived and re-signed.  

XI. TRADES

  All trades must be approved by the commissioner.  This will prevent lopsided trades that 
  
benefit only one team.  If the trade forces a team over the salary cap, then the salary 

difference must be within 10% + $250,000.  In addition, all players must pass a physical 

before the trade will be approved.  A trade can be nullified if any players involved in the 

trade misses his next game due to injury.  This means that injured players may not be traded.  

Also, teams cannot trade for players to be named later.  

  The trade deadline is the 17th Thursday of the season, which is one week after 
  
the NBA trade deadline.  At that time, no more trades nor free agent signings 

will be allowed.  But teams can continue to sign players to 10-day contracts due 

to injuries.  

XII. TRANSACTIONS

  Transactions will officially be carried out at 9:00AM PST on a daily basis.  

XIII. EXPANSION

  XIII.1 AWARDING NEW TEAMS

  New teams will be awarded through a blind auction.  Potential owners will send 

their expansion bids to the FBL Treasurer.  At the deadline, the bids will be revealed, 

and the two highest bids will be awarded teams.  In the event of a tie, the earlier bid 

will win.  The expansion fees will be distributed evenly among the existing team owners.  

  XIII.2 EXPANSION TEAM RULES

  Expansion teams will be limited to a salary cap of $35 million in their initial year.  

The cap will increase by $5 million each year after that until the cap reaches $50 million.  

The expansion teams will receive the #4 and #5 picks in the college draft in their initial 

year, and they will not be eligible to receive the #1 pick until their 4th year.  After 

the expansion teams are awarded, there will be a college draft, an expansion draft, and a 

free agent draft.  

  XIII.3 EXPANSION DRAFT

  Each existing team must select two players from their team to be exposed to the 

expansion draft.  Players that missed more than 75% of the previous NBA season or are 

expected to miss more than 50% of the upcoming NBA season are not allowed to be exposed to 

the expansion draft.  Final review of the players selected for the expansion draft will be 

made by the commissioner.  Players to be exposed to the draft will be due one week before 

the scheduled date of the expansion draft.  

  The two expansion teams will take turns selecting players from the expansion pool.  

First pick will be awarded to the expansion team that had the higher expansion fee.  Each 

expansion team must fulfill one of the following rules before they are allowed to stop 

drafting.  

  a)select 6 players
  or
  b)select X amount of players which have a combined salary of $20 million
	
When one of the two players exposed by an existing team is selected, the other player is 

automatically protected from selection until at least one player is selected from each of 

the existing teams.  At that point, the protected players will again be availiable for 

selection.  

XIV. AMENDMENTS

  XIV.1 CHANGING THE RULES

  These rules can only be amended if 66 2/3% of the league approves the change.  

  XIV.2 CHANGES
  
  Log file of rule changes