AntSports keeper leagues rules are designed to keep the draft exciting
and reward the teams that can draft well and develop young talent.
Draft day for many keeper leagues is boring; not so in an AntSports keeper
league. The players that are drafted in the top 3 rounds from last year are always returned
to the draft pool.
Roster size : 18 players. No injured reserved.
There are no roster restrictions except that you must draft enough
players at each position to field a starting lineup on opening day.
With a roster size of 18, it is expected that 1 or 2 young players will be included
on each team's roster during the season to develop into keepers.
Each team can keep from 0 to 3 players. The first year, it's possibly
that because of poor drafting or poor team management, a team may not have any
players they wish to keep.
Any players drafted in rounds 1 - 3 of the previous year cannot be keepers.
Players can be kept a maximum of 3 times. For example,
you can draft a player in 2001, and then keep them for the next 3 years:
2002, 2003, 2004. In 2005, this player must go back into the draft pool of players.
For each player you keep, you must give up a draft pick 2 rounds
higher than the player's draft position the year before.
If you keep an undrafted players (UDP) from the previous year, you must give up your 12th
round pick.
Players that were drafted and then cut still maintain their draft status (01/10/2002)
and keeper years remaining (06/06/10).
Example 1 : You draft Thomas Jones RB Arizona in round 9 in 2001. He
becomes the starter and you decide he's one of your keepers. In 2002, you
must give up your 7th round draft pick (he becomes effectively your 7th round pick)
to keep him. In 2003, he becomes your 5th round choice, and if you keep him for a third year,
you must give up your 3rd round pick in 2004.
Example 2 : You draft S. Morris, WR KCC in round 5 in 2001. You decide
to keep him. In 2002, he becomes your 3rd round draft pick (you give
up a 3rd rounder). In 2003, because his draft status was round 3 in the
previous year, he is no longer eligible for keeper status and is returned
to the draft pool.
If you do not have a draft pick for the correct round to give up to
keep a player, you must give up the next higher draft pick. This can happened
if you trade away a draft pick during pre-season or have 2 keepers that have
the same draft status from the previous year.
Example 1 : You decide to keep your draft pick in round 14 from the previous year
and you also want to keep an UnDrafted Player (UDP). Both require that you give up your 12th
round draft pick. Since you only have one 12th round selection, to keep both players,
you must give up picks for rounds 11 and 12.
Example 2 : You want to keep a player you drafted in the 5th round last
year. You also traded away your 3rd round pick during pre-season. To keep
last year's 5th round pick, you must give up your 3rd round pick this year.
Since you have no 3rd round selection, to keep this player, you must give
up your 2nd pick.
When the draft is complete, the draft position the player ends up at
will determine next year's draft position status.
For Example : You have 2 undrafted players (UDPs) you want to keep. Based on the rule
above, you will have to give up a 12th and an 11th round pick to keep each.
If the draft completes with your 2nd keeper being your 11th round draft pick,
and you decide to keep that same player next year, you will have to give up a
9th round pick to keep that player the following year.
Moral : Put your best keeper free agent in the 12th round slot or trade for an extra selection in that round.
Non-Returning Teams AntSports will resell keeper league teams
to the general public for teams that do not return. Then new owner will
get the old teams current roster of players and their current draft
position. After the Set Keeper Deadline, AntSports will improve abandoned teams
by adding keepers that were not wanted by the other teams. (06/06/10)
If no new owner can be found and the league and the league
is willing to play with less than the full amount of teams, the rosters
of the non-returning teams will be returned to the draft pool. Every
team that drafted after the non-returing team will move forward in
the draft order.
Important Dates :
NFL Week (-6) : Returning Owners payment deadline.
Owners from the previous year must pay for the new season. This gives AntSports
two weeks to find replacement owners.
NFL Week (-2.3) : Declare Keeper Deadline
Keepers can be declared at anytime. Three (3) days before the draft is the
Declare Keeper Deadline. At that time, your keepers will be placed into their correction
draft position and will be considered DRAFTED. Your draft pick for that spot is
consumed (used).
After the keepers have been processed, you can trade
non-used draft picks, or your keeper players, but the
players draft position cannot be changed.
NFL Week (-2) : Draft Day. Keepers are finalized and the draft begins.
The Draft will be about 2 weeks before the season starts.
The draft always starts on a Monday. The draft usually takes from 4 to 10 days. You
can trade players and/or draft picks throughout the draft.
Draft Complete. After the draft is complete, free agency will be FCFS.
NFL Opening Day : Hooray, the NFL season begins.
NFL Week 1 - Season Begins
NFL Week 11 : Trading deadline is kickoff NFL Week 11.
After the 1st kickoff on NFL Week 11, no more trades are allowed.
NFL Week 18 : Roster Freeze.
On the kickoff of the first playoff game, AntSports will lock all rosters.
Rosters will not be activate again until NFL Week -4. This gives everyone
2 weeks to decide on their final roster and make any free agent request
that may be needed.
Trading :
You may trade players and/or draft picks before the draft is complete.
During the regular season, draft picks may NOT be traded.
This rule is to avoid the problem where a teams trades away many their future
selections and then does not return to the league the next year.
All trades must be approved by the commish.
Off Season trading is allowed. Trade will not auto-approve and teams have 5 days to protest a trade.
Trade will be examined by AntSports each Monday.
Weekly Trading Deadline : 24 hours before kickoff each week.
This means that for most weeks, if you want to trade and start your new
players, you must have your trade request to the commish by Saturday 10 a.m. Pacific time. This gives both owners time to submit new lineups for
the current week. If no players involved have a Thursday or Saturday game,
then the deadline to have the trade request submitted to the commish is
the same. If any of the players are involved in Thursday or Saturday games,
the deadline is 24 hours before the earliest kickoff of any player in the
trade.
Keeper Status follows the traded player.
When trading players, the players draft status (position) and keeper
status (years he can be kept) is traded with the player.
Example :In 2000, you drafted MIN QB Culpepper in the 7th round.
His keeper status is as follows :
Year Draft Position Keeper Status
---- --------------- ------------------------
2000 7th round pick - Initial year drafted.
2001 5th round pick - 1st keeper year.
2002 3th round pick - 2nd keeper year.
2003 Cannot be kept, picks in round 1-3 are always returned.
Since his draft and keeper status follows him to whatever team he is
traded to, he can only be kept for the 2001 and
the 2002 season. 2003, he must go back into the draft because
his draft position, which rises 2 rounds each year got too high.
If this team could have drafted him in the 8th round, Culpepper
could have been kept the full max of 3 years.
Draft Position Determination :
Keeper Leagues will use the previous year's finish to determine
draft position. Note, I have not chosen the normal method where
the last last place team gets first pick. Instead I have chosen a
system that hopefully will make teams want to win at the end of the
year instead of trying to lose.
I've set it up so
the best teams get the last spots (normal so far),
and the winner of the Consolation Bowl gets
the number one pick. The better your teams does
in the Consolation Bowl, the better your
draft pick will be next year. Hopefully this will
provide some interest in the games for the non-
playoff teams.
New keeper league rules must be approved by the commish and then
pass a majority vote of owners. If the leagues has 10 teams,
then 6 teams must approve the new rule. If it's a 12 team league,
then 7 teams must approve for the new rule to take effect.
The commish decides when to implement new rules.
Most new rules will not go into effect until the offseason.
