Mayonnaise Football League

Mayonnaise Football League Established 1990

THE RULEBOOK

LEAGUE OVERVIEW

The Mayonnaise Football League (MFL) consists of a group of individuals who form 8 to 12 teams by drafting the exclusive rights to the weekly performances of NFL players. Each individual performance is scored and summed for an MFL team total. Teams are divided into two divisions, play each other head to head based off a predetermined schedule, and, at the end of the regular season, the two best teams in each division meet in a division championship game. The resulting division champions meet in The Mayonnaise Bowl to determine the overall league champion.

ONLINE LEAGUE: The MFL will use a statistics service and a computer program to perform league scoring. However, the league encourages MFL owners to verify their own score using other sources. Any discrepancies will be addressed immediately and decided by the commissioner.

Currently, the software and statistics vendor to the MFL is: MyFantasyLeague.com

THE COMMISSIONER: A commissioner (or commissioners) manages league affairs, administers the draft, settles disputes, arbitrates trades, and tabulates and publishes weekly game results. It shall be a commissioner’s responsibility to interpret and apply the rules set forth herein. It shall be the right of the ownership to question a commissioner concerning any or all activity and receive interpretation of the rules for justification. Any commissioner action can be appealed and overturned by a majority vote of the overall ownership (usually resulting in a rules change; see the RULES REVISIONS below).

THE DRAFT

DRAFT DATE: The Mayonnaise Football League draft night typically shall be at 7 pm ET on the Tuesday before the first NFL game of the season (which is typically on a Thursday). Special circumstances will be respected should the owners agree to modify the date for any given season.

DRAFT ORDER: The MFL draft order is determined via the following method:

PROTECTING PLAYERS: The MFL is a keeper league as each team may retain up to two players from the previous season's roster for the upcoming season's team. Players protected shall be selected in lieu of a draft pick in rounds 1 and 2. Owners shall notify the commissioner of their protected players no later than 1 hour prior to the start of the draft. All remaining players on an owner's roster will be returned to the draft pool no later than 45 minutes prior to the start of the draft.

LEAGUE EXPANSION/TEAM TRANSFER: If the league has added teams, the new owners will be randomly inserted into the existing draft order. These teams will then pick in rounds 1 & 2 unless trades have occurred giving the expansion team a player to protect. Teams may transfer ownership between seasons. The new owner(s) shall retain draft position, draft pick trades, and roster rights as if this ownership change did not occur.

THE OWNERSHIP BYLAW: No single person or partnership may own all, or part of, more than one MFL Franchise. Any interest in an existing MFL franchise, however small, precludes ownership, however small, in any other MFL franchise.

ROSTER REQUIREMENTS: Each team shall consist of 2 quarterbacks (QB), 3 running backs (RB), 3 wide receivers (WR), 2 tight ends (TE), 2 kickers (K), 2 defensive/specialty teams (DT), and 2 head coaches (HC). These positions can be drafted in any order, but the number of players at each position shall not vary unless noted elsewhere in these rules. For example, rosters as a result of trades, or rosters prior to the draft, are not subject to ROSTER REQUIREMENTS.

DRAFT SYSTEM: Owners must draft using the online draft section on MyFantasyLeague.com. Should the owner be unable to log into the draft in-person, this system can then be set by the owner prior to the draft to automatically pick from the owners cheatsheet without interaction from another player or the commissioner. This automated draft option can be turned off during the draft should the owner be able to join the draft in progress. Another owner can make selections for an absent owner if he/she is able to log into the site under the absent owner's account.

THE POSITION BYLAW: If a player changes his NFL position during the season, that player's position will also change in the MFL. NFL team websites, available through nfl.com, shall be the final authority on a player's position.

TRADES AND WAIVERS

WAIVER SYSTEM: Rosters may be changed by dropping players and adding an available replacement (not currently on an MFL roster) at the same position. At no time shall a waivers be allowed if such use results in an active roster position imbalance. Each franchise may use waivers an unlimited number of times per season and there are no fees for the use of the waiver system. Players may be freely acquired through the use of the waiver system until that player's game begins in the respective week or until 1 pm ET Sunday, whichever comes first. Such players are locked and become subject to the THE COMMISSIONER BYLAW shown below. Note that any reference to a player being locked, here or elsewhere in these rules, only applies to a player being acquired. Players may be dropped any time the waiver system is active.

Every player released must sit out 24 hrs, thereby cycling the player through the waiver system. Note that 24 hrs is rounded up. A player released at 1:01 pm ET will not be processed until the top of the next hour the following day, namely 2:00 pm ET +1d. Therefore, players will be effectively locked for 24‑24:59 hrs depending upon their release time.

In order to prevent an owner from gaining a competitive advantage through locking a player by picking him up and immediately releasing him, any player acquired and released within the same week may have his 24 hr waiver lock overridden by the commissioner through a manual waiver request from any owner asking to pick up the identified player (using email or any other timestamped method of communication). Such requests will be processed on a first‑come, first‑served basis.

The waiver system is active immediately following the draft through the week 16 waiver deadline. Teams may not use waivers during the off season.

THE COMMISSIONER BYLAW: Week 1 waivers shall be processed on a first‑come, first‑served basis. Beginning week 2, waivers submitted between the close of the previous week's waiver requests through 11:59 pm ET Wednesday will be compiled and processed between 12 am ET and 1 am ET Thursday. Waivers will be processed in rounds, similar to the draft. The team waiver order is determined by reverse order of standings. The team with the worst record (using tiebreakers) gets first pick during all rounds of waiver processing. In this manner, if two owners desire the same player in the same waiver round, the owner with the worse record is awarded the player. The waiver system re‑opens Thursday after automatic processing where waivers are processed immediately on a first‑come, first‑served basis.

INJURED RESERVE: Players that have officially been placed on injured reserve by their NFL team may be placed on injured reserve in the MFL. Players put on injured reserve may be replaced by another player of the same position through the use of the waiver system. Any player placed on injured reserve is considered on the roster of the MFL team, however, that player is ineligible until promoted to the active roster. Note that the injured reserve system is considered a waiver and all appropriate waiver system rules.

TRADE SYSTEM: Franchises may also trade players (and/or draft picks) between teams. Trades must be fair and equitable and cannot have an agreed upon and intended purpose of strengthening one team at the expense of the other. Trades do not have to respect ROSTER REQUIREMENTS. Trades resulting in a roster position imbalance must then comply with the ROSTER IMBALANCE section below. Any trade clause regarding a future season may have some or all of the future season portion(s) invalidated if teams involved do not return in said future season (for trades involving draft picks or future exchanges of players).

Draft picks may be traded between owners and are considered when evaluating a fair and equitable trade. Any exchange of draft picks must result in each team retaining 16 draft picks in every draft. Note that draft pick trades are supported for the current and the following season only. Draft pick exchanges between owners for seasons beyond the following become a gentlemen's agreement between the owners and are not enforceable through the commissioner.

ROSTER IMBALANCE: Any team that has a roster position imbalance as a result of a trade or any other reason must have that balance restored by the next waiver deadline (through the use of waivers or trades). If a team does not comply with roster requirements at the next waiver deadline, the commissioner will remove the last player(s) added to the active roster in the out of balance position(s) until the roster requirement is met. Note that a roster position imbalance prior to the draft will not be subject to this rule. The draft mechanism itself will remove this imbalance.

TRADE TIME TRIGGERS: Trades possessing a time trigger (e.g. players are traded back after one week) are subject to the league rules applicable at the time of the trigger.

TRADE DEADLINE: No trades are allowed during the last five weeks of the season (specifically, following the week 11 waiver deadline). Trades may resume after The Mayonnaise Bowl.

STARTING LINE-UPS

LINE-UP REQUIREMENTS: Only players on a team's starting line up will contribute to the team's point total. Starting line ups shall consist of 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DT, and 1 HC. Owner's are required to submit their lineups each week. The decision to include a player in the starting lineup must be made prior to the start of each individual player's NFL game.

MFL SCORING

SCORING SYSTEM: MFL scoring is based on actual performances of each drafted player using the chart below. Note that touchdowns (TD) have bonus scoring for longer yardage on the TD play. All performance yardage scoring is based on the players' totals at the end of the NFL game.

Click here to see the MFL SCORING CHART

MFL SCHEDULING

SCHEDULE SYSTEM: The MFL is divided into two divisions of equal numbers (see SCHEDULING BYLAW below). Each team will play each team in it's own division at least twice during the season with the remaining games played against teams in the opposite division. The MFL season consists of sixteen weeks. Fourteen weeks are the MFL regular season and the final two weeks are the MFL playoffs.

The MyFantasyLeague.com schedule system offers a packaged schedule that follows the method above. However, this system is based on the fixed internal franchise number resulting in an identical schedule every season. To avoid this result, MyFantasyLeague.com offers the ability to substitute one team for another throughout the whole schedule (similar to a search and replace). The commissioner will use this feature to establish the first game of the upcoming season to match the previous season's first playoff week (including the home team). This adds a strong element of randomness to the weekly schedule from season to season.

COMMISSIONER'S SCHEDULING DISCRETION: If, in the opinion of the commissioner, the randomly generated inter‑division schedule is imbalanced based off the previous season's finish, the commissioner shall have the right to alter the randomly generated schedule with the following substitutions in the appropriate weeks (typically wk 4, wk 5, wk 9, and wk 10):

SCHEDULING BYLAW: If the upcoming MFL season has an odd number of teams, in the division with the odd number of teams, the commissioner shall replace all instances of BYE in the resulting generated MyFantasyLeague.com schedule, with AVERAGE. Teams playing AVERAGE on their schedule will be competing against the average score of all teams in the league for that week. Results of this game will impact the win‑loss record of the MFL team, their win‑loss record of the division, and the subsequent implications to division standings and waiver order.

MFL PLAYOFFS

CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES: At the end of the fourteen week regular season, the first and second place teams in each division will meet in a Division Championship Game. The winners of each of these games will meet in The Mayonnaise Bowl (MFL Championship game). The losers will meet in a consolation game to determine third and fourth place.

POST-SEASON TOURNAMENTS: The remaining teams which do not make the playoffs will participate in other post-season tournaments. The second best two teams from each division will meet in the Mayonnaise Invitational Tournament (MIT). If the MFL has ten teams, the remaining two teams will play in a two game match for last place. Each game in this two game match will count against final win/loss record but last place will be awarded to the team with the lowest two game total score. If the league contains twelve teams, the last two teams from each division will meet in the Salad Dressing Tourney.

PRIZES: All prize money and final season standings are based off the results of these tournaments (not the regular season records).

TIES: There will be no ties in post-season play. Winners of games which in a tie score will be determined using the tiebreakers listed below.

TIEBREAKERS

The MFL will employ the following tiebreakers for THE COMMISSIONER BYLAW (waiver order), regular season standings, post-season play, and final league standings:

  1. Overall Winning Pct
  2. Head-to-Head Record
  3. Divisional Winning Pct
  4. Total Points Scored
  5. Reverse Order Of Opponents Total Points Scored
  6. Power Rank
  7. Last Week's Point Total
  8. Coin flip

Note that when three or more teams are tied, these tiebreakers are employed until one of the teams is eliminated from the tie. The remaining teams begin the tiebreaker process over again until another team is eliminated.

LEAGUE FEES

Each franchise costs $100 due prior to the season's draft. This fee covers the cost of services, prizes, and any other league expenses. The remaining money is divided as shown in "Awards". All waiver fees collected contribute to the prize money fund. The MFL will employ a third party to administer league fees www.leaguesafe.com.

AWARDS

MFL entry fees will be distributed as prizes following this schedule:

RULE REVISIONS

REVISION PROTOCOL: The commissioner shall be responsible for presenting revision suggestions to the ownership and calling for a vote on these proposals. MFL rules may be changed only by a majority vote of the franchises in good standing within the Mayonnaise Football League at the time of the rule change vote. For example, a 12 team league will require 7 yes votes for passage.

COMMISSIONER PROXY: The commissioner will have the authority to declare a proposal as unanimously passed by Commissioner Proxy if and only if the following conditions have been met:

1. There have been zero explicit "no" votes against the proposal.

2. A comment period has passed allowing ample time for all owners to become aware of the proposal and be given opportunity to discuss and vote upon the issues in question. The comment period shall be no less than one week during the MFL season, defined as draft day through The Mayonnaise Bowl, and shall be no less than 30 days during the offseason.

COMMISSIONER'S NOTE: These rules have evolved due to everyone's input. Please do not hesitate to comment on any of the rules or propose changes you feel will enhance the enjoyment of the game.

Revision date August 24, 2019 (scheduling and roster imbalance clarification; several language edits).