In order to remove confusion about off-season events in the SCUFFLE Immersion, league brass have engineered a brilliant off-season schedule. This schedule will be consistent from year to year, so owners will always know what to expect.
June 1st – Payments due
Every year the payments for the league software will be due by June 1st. Owners will go to the LeagueSafe site to pay league dues. The dues cover the cost of the league software. Paying by June 1st saves us $20. Depending on how you pay online, there is a small convenience fee. I had to pay $0.18 over the $6 fee. It’s worth it for me. No money will be collected offline. All dues must be paid online.
The LeagueSafe site has instituted a new penalty for late payments – $10. They keep that fee…it doesn’t go towards our balance. That sucks. So pay on time. Go now, while you’re thinking about it.
June 1st – League Year Begins
June 1st will mark the beginning of the new league year. Here are some things that need to be accomplished before the start of the new league year:
Applying the Franchise Tag
If your player is out of contract, and you want to prevent him from hitting free agency, then you must tag him. Remember, you can tag one offensive and one defensive player.
Restructuring of Contracts
If you plan on restructuring a player’s contract, then it must happen before June 1st. Remember, a player must have at least one year left on his deal (players with expiring contracts are ineligible.) You must extend him for at least two more seasons.
Player Cuts
If you want to cut a player and have the cap penalty apply to the current season, then you must do so before June 1st. After June 1st the cap penalties will be applied towards the next season, just as they are during the fantasy season.
6 Weeks Prior To NFL Kickoff – Restricted Free Agency (beginning in 2014)
The exact details of this will have to be worked out before next season, but we envision it going down thusly:
- Owners sign tender sheets for the players that they want to keep (1-year, 2-year, or 3-year tenders)
- Tendered players are posted, and other owners are given a chance to make bids on those players (either through an auction or perhaps a blind bidding mechanism.)
- Owners are given an opportunity to match the offers on their players, or they can opt to let them go, receiving compensation in the upcoming draft.
4 Weeks Prior to NFL Kickoff (August 10th-11th this year) – Unrestricted Free Agent Auction
We can poll the owners to see which date and time work best that weekend. Owners will bid on non-rookie free agents until everybody is done.
2 Weeks Prior to NFL Kickoff (August 24th-25th this year) – Draft
Owners will participate in a 5-round draft. Rookies and unsigned free agents will be available to draft. The draft will likely take less than an hour. Getting all owners to be present is less important for the draft, because owners can set up draft boards and have the computer pick for them based on their preferences.
Some discussion could be had prior to the draft about how we can facilitate in-draft trades. It’s kind of hard to do as it stands now with the draft timer set at 1 minute.
A blind-bidding window will be opened at the conclusion of the draft. Owners can make bids on any unsigned players.
1 Week and 1 Day Prior to NFL Kickoff (August 30th) – Signing Day
Owners must have made decisions on how many years to give their FA acquisitions, and which draft picks they intend to sign to contracts. Contract decisions for blind bidding are to be made in the comments window, per usual.
1 Week Prior to NFL Kickoff (August 31st) – Blind Bidding Window Closes
Free agents are awarded to the highest bidders, with those bids becoming the salaries.
Kickoff Week (August 31st – September 5th) – First Come First Serve Waivers
After the blind bidding window closes, then owners will have a chance to round out their rosters through FCFS waivers, which will be available until kickoff of the Thursday night game.
Then it’s regular season time, boys!
© 2013, Josh Hammond. All rights reserved.
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