Rules, Settings, and Salary Cap Explanations.

Settings
12 min quarters with 20 sec acc clock
All-pro
***If anyone wants changes, I'd be willing to take a vote on any of the changes. Unfortunately there are no sliders for online franchise, so we have to stick with all-pro or all-madden.
We are looking to get 120-140 plays/game. If the scores are higher, it is because of how you play or the difficulty. I'd rather get the realistic amount of plays rather than low scoring games with a lower amount of snaps. With the 15 sec acc clock, it allows more flexibility in how you play. You can run hurry if you want, take more time to make changes at line, chew clock, or whatever you want to do. With 25 seconds you have no time to make changes at the line, so I believe this would work the best.

Rules
I am not going to make any rules on how to play. All of you should be mature enough on how to play football. If you want to go for it on 4th down in your territory, that is fine. More than likely, you will hurt yourself in the long run if you are taking that many chances. That being said here are just a few rules on gameplay:
1. No quitting or disconnecting on purpose
2. No glitching; save replays if a user exploits a glitch.
3. If you are going to be out of town for a period of time, let me know and we can work around best we can. Granted, you will miss a few games, but there is nothing we can do about that.
4.As for disconnections, we are going to leave it up to the users playing. However, if it is a CPU game, you will be required to replay the game. This rule may change later on, because I am not exactly sure on how the simming works.
5. I will not tolerate inactive users, period. If you miss 2 games back to back you will be removed. Try to contact me via xbox, email, facebook, aim, anyway possible if something happens where you cannot play. If you are an inactive user for no reason, I will not invite you back to any type of future leagues. Sorry.
6.Onside kicks will only be allowed if you are down 28 or more in the first 3 quarters or in the last 2 minutes of the 4th quarter. If you are down 21 or more in the 4th quarter, you can onside kick any time.

Salary Cap and Free Agent Rules

Keep your team organized and accurate at all times
trades, signings, releases, cap changes must be updated within 24 hours

Each Transaction must be listed in the Transaction section
(If you can not do this due to internet problems, etc, etc, ask for help from an admin)

Free Agent Schedule
Week 6- Trade Deadline
Week 12- Deadline to sign free agents for playoff rosters, baring any injuries.
Two Days after the Super Bowl is played- Free Agency Opens at Midnight (eastern time)


THE SALARY CAP RULES

Salary Cap and Free Agency Rules


This salary cap is a basic version of the salary cap. There really is a type of salary cap, its just not important to be stated. Basically salary cap space = points. Teams just have allotted points. More points means more ability to sign players. I've also made it to where $1 million = 1 point as close as possible. This is long, but not complex. If you guys read it all its fairly simple and won't be that hard to grasp.


Initial Team Points
This is the initial point distribution for each team. I combined each team's realistic cap status (for instance, in real life Tampa Bay has about $37 million in cap space- the most in the NFL) and how well rated each team is to come up with the totals. I set the maximum amount at 30 and the minimum at 10. After determining a fair and realistic number I just rounded each number to the nearest 5 Its realistic and fair. It also keeps the already great teams from having too many points to start off the season, but doesn't give the weaker teams a terribly huge advantage in free agency.


Tampa Bay Buccaneers- 30 points

Kansas City Chiefs- 30 points

San Francisco 49ers 30 points

Green Bay Packers 25 points

Denver Broncos 25 points

Cleveland Browns 25 points

St. Louis Rams 25 points

Detroit Lions 25 points

Philadelphia Eagles 20 points

Atlanta Falcons 20 points

Chicago Bears 20 points

Minnesota Vikings 20 points

Cincinnati Bengals 20 points

Jacksonville Jaguars 20 points

Oakland Raiders 15 points

New York Jets 15 points

Tennessee Titans 15 points

Buffalo Bills 15 points

Miami Dolphins 15 points

Houston Texans 15 points

Seattle Seahawks 15 points

Dallas Cowboys 10 points

San Diego Chargers 10 points

Washington Redskins 10 points

Arizona Cardinals 10 points

Indianapolis Colts 10 points

New England Patriots 10 points

Carolina Panthers 10 points

Pittsburgh Steelers 10 points

New Orleans Saints 10 points

New York Giants 10 points

Baltimore Ravens 10 points


Player Value Chart
So here's how we know what each player is worth. Its pretty accurate and parrells the NFL in real life. This was probably the toughest part. I did a good deal of research so I just didn't pull the numbers out my head. Like I said $1 million pretty much totals to be 1 point. In this system Manning, Asomugha, and Haynesworth are all the highest paid.

Signing Bonus
99-93: 6 point S.B.
92-84: 5 point S.B.
83-75: 4 point S.B.
74-66: 3 point S.B.
65-58: 2 point S.B.
57-50: 1 point S.B.
49-Below: Free




***Signing bonus only comes into play when releasing a player or when a team elects to re-sign a player during the season. Teams DO NOT have to pay the signing bonus when signing free agents.

Player Point Value

QBs
Elite (93-99)- 14 points
Great (86-92)- 11 points
Good (77-85)- 7 points
Average (65-76)- 4 points
Below Average (52-64)- 2 point
Poor (51-Below)- Free

RBs
Elite (90-99)- 9 points
Great (82-89)- 7 points
Good ( 75-81)- 5 points
Average (67-74)- 2 points
Below Average (56-66)- 1 point
Poor (55-Below)- Free

WRs
Elite (92-99)- 10 points
Great (84-91)- 7 points
Good (76-83)- 4 points
Average (66-75)- 3 points
Below Average (53-65)- 1 point
Poor (52-Below)- Free

OLs
Elite (94-99)- 12 points
Great (87-93)- 10 points
Good (77-86)- 6 points
Average (65-76)- 4 points
Below Average (52-64)- 2 point
Poor (51-Below)- Free

TE/FBs
Elite (89-99)- 7 points
Great (80-88)- 5 points
Good (73-79)- 3 points
Average (66-72)- 2 points
Below Average (54-65)- 1 point
Poor (53-Below)- Free

DLs
Elite (92-99)- 12 points
Great (82-91)- 9 points
Good (75-81)- 6 points
Average (66-74)- 4 points
Below Average (56-65)- 1 point
Poor (55-Below)- Free

LBs
Elite (89-99)- 10 points
Great (81-88)- 7 points
Good (74-80)- 4 points
Average (64-73)- 2 points
Below Average (55-63)- 1 point
Poor (54-Below)- Free

CBs
Elite (93-99)- 12 points
Great (84-92)- 8 points
Good (75-83)- 5 points
Average (65-74)- 2 points
Below Average (53-64)- 1 points
Poor (52-Below)- Free

Ss
Elite (90-99)- 9 points
Great (81-89)- 6 points
Good (75-80)- 4 points
Average (66-74)- 2 points
Below Average (57-65)- 1 points
Poor (56-Below)- Free

Ks/Ps
Elite (90-99)- 4 points
Great (82-89)- 3 points
Average (75-81)- 2 points
Below Average (60-74)- 1 point
Poor (59-Below)- Free

***Teams CAN offer more than what the player is worth. Teams also can offer lower than what a player is worth. These are just default player values and are to be used as guidelines. For example, if you want to make your WR the highest paid WR in the game by offering him 15 points feel free to do so.


Signing and Re-signing Players
To sign and re-sign players. Teams will be able to use their points to sign free agents to whatever amount or re-sign their own players (explained later on). Above is how many points each team has right now. These points can be used to sign free agents now, later, or to re-sign upcoming free agents. Be mindful of how you use your points and who are your upcoming free agents. The player value chart is to be used as a guideline, but players can sign to whatever amount. Its its heavily advised to follow the chart as closely as possible when signing players.

*If you do not have enough of the amount of points at the time of your bid, you may not place a bid.

Recieving Points
At the end of the season teams will recieve points based on their free agents. These points can be used to re-sign their own players or to sign other points. The total amount points is based strictly on their player point values. Below is an example...

EXAMPLE: Lets say the Titans upcoming free agents are Keith Bulluck (worth 10 points), Kyle Vanden Bosch (9 points), and LenDale White (5 points). The Titans would recieve 24 points (because 10+9+5= 24) because of these players to either re-sign them or to sign other players. That's up to the owner.

***For all 2nd time free agents coming off of their 2nd contract deals teams will recieve back what they paid for.

EXAMPLE: A team signs Edgerrin James with 10 points. When James's contract expires the team will recieve 10 points back from expiration of James's contract.


Re-Signing Players
Teams will be able to re-sign their upcoming free agents before they hit free agency. To do this, a player must be in the last year of his contract. Its simple to re-sign a player. A team must simply just pay the signing bonus amount (from the signing bonus chart, above) for whatever the player is worth.

EXAMPLE: If Keith Bulluck were an upcoming free agent the Titans could either elect to re-sign him or allow him to hit free agency. If they want to keep him from going into free agency, it would cost the Titans 6 points. Once they pay this Keith Bulluck would be officially re-signed.

End of Season Free Agency Points
To help out weaker teams and to help sign draft picks each team will recieve free points at the end of each season. Below is how point distribution is determined...

Bottom 16 Teams: Recieve 10 free agent points.
Top 16 Teams: Recieve 5 free agent points.

***This is in ADDITION to the points teams get to resign their top free agent....


Signing Draft Picks
Each owner will be responsible for signing their 1st and 2nd round picks. The system for signing draft picks is slotted. This will be the scale for signing picks:

1st Round Picks (1-5): 10 points
1st Round Picks (6-12): 8 points
1st Round Picks (13-20): 6 points
1st Round Picks (21-26): 4 points
1st Round Picks (27-32): 2 points
2nd Round Picks (All): 1 point

Rookies will also be on a different contract system:

1st Round Picks: Five Year Contract
2nd Round Picks: Four Year Contract
3rd-7th Round Picks: Three Year Contract (Not guaranteed unless on roster after week one).


Contract Length
For Contract length. I just have a simple system for determing newly signed players contract lengths.

Players Rated ...

99-95: Six Year Contract
94-85: Five Year Contract
84-76: Four Year Contract
75-68: Three Year Contract
67-56: Two Year Contract
55-Below: One Year Contract

Veteran Players (30 years old and above)
99-90: Four Year Contract
89-80: Three Year Contract
79-70: Two Year Contract
69-Below: One Year Contract


Releasing Players
When a player is released the team must pay their signing bonus cost from the chart above. This will be called "point hits".

- After a release, the team must pay the signing bonus (from the signing bonus chart) for whatever a player is worth. In other words teams will recieve the difference between a player's value (from the player value chart) and the signing bonus. This will keep teams from signing and releasing players uncontrollably.

EXAMPLE: Lets say the Titans want to release Kerry Collins. Collins is rated a 79, so his player value would be 7 points. Then the Titans would go look at how much he's worth on the "Signing Bonus" chart. Collins is worth 5 points. The Titans would recieve 2 points from releasing Collins since 7-5= 2.

*** If a team signs a player below his worth and then later on decides to release that player, this rule still applies.

***A team cannot re-sign a player they released for a full year.

***Mind the roster minimum when releasing players.


Retired Players
Once a player retires he doesn't count against your points. His contract is wiped clean from your books.


Recording New Deals
For all new free agent deals the amount of points he signed for will be recorded in each team's thread in order to keep track of all deals and points.

****We will not be readjusting the cap space in trades, so we are just keeping track from everyone's initial cap room. So everyone be sure to update their cap space when signing or releasing players.
Link to Player's Expiring Contracts (Every Player of Every Team): http://www.walterfootball.com/freeagentscontracts.php

Since we cannot officially trade draft picks. I figured up a way to do so. It should be pretty simple. We would just follow the same outline of our current system, instead you could add a draft pick or multiple picks. Keep in mind you have to take on those contracts and when you sign your draft picks. So basically, if you wanted to trade away a player in their contract year (I'll use Pennington for me) to a team in desperate need of a QB for some draft picks (lets see 3rd and 4th round pick) you would take on Pennington's contract (so you'd be responsible for giving him a new contract at the end of the year or letting him become a free agent) and the other user would get your draft picks. You would have to choose for them, since it doesn't allow us to officially trade draft picks. Then once you drafted them to your team, you would not sign them and allow them to become free agents. Then the team that has the rights to those players would sign them to whatever contract. In this case, 3rd and 4th round picks are only worth like 1 point and 1 year.

If anyone rejects to this idea, let me know.

I'd also like to mention that trading against the CPU is not allowed at the moment, since there is no trade logic.

I decided to add in readjustments after trades. In most cases, teams will even out, so there will be no adjusting. However, in some cases there maybe the need to readjust.
You simply just take the player(s)' value and take the difference in the player(s)' value in which you are trading for. For example, if someone wants to trade a 99 WR worth 10 points for a CB rated 77 overall worth 5 points, then that would be a difference of 5 points. The team trading the WR gets 5 additional points, and the other team loses 5 points. But like I said, most times the difference will be marginal.