EST. 2019THE COURTESY FLUSH
Constitution
We the people of The Courtesy Flush, in order to form a more perfect league, establish justice, ensure competitive spirit, promote general fairness, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our brothers and sisters, do ordain and establish these Bylaws for The Courtesy Flush Fantasy Football League.
Glossary
- CFL
- the abbreviation for the Courtesy Flush League.
- Manager
- a user in our league that has control of a team.
- Team
- refers to any of the teams that comprise our league.
- Group Chat
- the Courtesy Flush group chat on Facebook Messenger that is maintained by the Commissioner.
- CFL Championship
- temporary name for the championship game between the two finalists in our league.
- Inactive
- or inactivity, determined by team owners failing to roster a full starting lineup, benching injured players, or general neglect of their team for more than two weeks.
- Regular Season
- the period of time between the first NFL game and the resolution of the CFL Championship.
- Offseason
- the period of time between the resolution of the CFL Championship and the day that the first NFL game is played in a given year.
- Opening Day
- the first day of the NFL regular season.
- Week
- defined by a period of time that is exactly one week i.e., 7pm Tuesday to 7pm the following Tuesday unless referring to head-to-games.
- Day
- is defined in the same & includes weekends and holidays.
All times of day applied are using Eastern Standard Time (EST).
Formation and Duration of Bylaws
These bylaws for the Courtesy Flush Fantasy Football League (CFL) serve as league guidelines. Each team owner is entitled to the benefits of and bound by all the terms and provisions of these bylaws and they shall remain in effect indefinitely and are amendable only by the Commissioner. These guidelines are designed with fair play and sportsmanship in mind.
Office of the Commissioner
Establishment of Commissioner
The Office of the Commissioner is not electable and is an indefinite role.
Upon resignation or other voluntary permanent departure of the Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioner immediately assumes office unless the Commissioner has formally designated an alternative successor in writing before the vacancy. Upon the death or permanent incapacity of the current Commissioner, the Designated Successor shall instead immediately assume office, if willing and able. Subsequent Commissioners may establish or change their own written succession designations; this special designation does not automatically carry forward.
If no successor under the applicable succession designation is willing and able to serve, the Competition Committee shall unanimously appoint an eligible Manager who is not a member of the Committee. Committee members may not elect themselves.
Establishment of Deputy Commissioner
The Deputy Commissioner is nominated and selected by the Commissioner.
The Deputy Commissioner is only removable by resignation or dismissal.
The Deputy Commissioner yields no autonomous power and serves exclusively as an advisor and designated successor to the Commissioner.
The Deputy Commissioner is also a member of the Competition Committee.
Powers and Duties of the Commissioner
The functions of the Commissioner shall include:
To serve as the Chief Administrative and Dispute Resolution Officer of the CFL.
To select and enforce scoring, rostering, scheduling, and all other league settings.
To investigate, either upon complaint or at the Commissioner’s discretion, any act or transaction, alleged or suspected, to not be in the best interests of fantasy football, with the authority to compel Managers to respond to such requests as may be necessary to resolve the issue, and upon consideration or upon a refusal or failure to comply with such requests, to impose such penalties as are hereinafter described.
To review and approve keeper selections and transactions between Teams in respect of competitive balance, freedom from collusion or other restricted practices, and for the best interests of fantasy football.
To determine, after investigation, what preventative, remedial, or punitive action is appropriate in the circumstances of the above and to take such action against Teams, Managers or other individuals, as the case may be.
To appoint such persons to assist in the execution of the duties of the Commissioner as may be necessary at the Commissioner’s sole discretion.
To appoint a Deputy Commissioner to assist in the execution of the duties of the Commissioner as may be necessary at the Commissioner’s discretion.
To appoint Managers to the Competition Committee.
To record all amendments to these Bylaws.
Procedure to Review and/or Vacate Commissioner Decision(s)
Any formal action of the Commissioner regardless of whether or not it is specifically designated as “reviewable”, may be overturned by a majority vote from the Competition Committee.
Teams directly involved in the challenged transaction and/or act are deemed Relevant Parties and may lobby the Competition Committee to put the Commissioner’s decision to a vote.
The decision of the Commissioner may be overturned only upon a majority vote from the Competition Committee.
If such a majority is not achieved, the decision of the Commissioner stands.
If such a majority is achieved, the decision of the Commissioner is vacated.
For further clarity, this shall not preclude further action as determined by the Commissioner with advice from the Competition Committee upon the same challenged transaction and/or act.
Interpretive Note
For example, the Commissioner may decide pursuant to Article IV, Section 5(f) that Team X is suspended permanently from the Courtesy Flush League due to abusive behaviour that is not in the spirit of fantasy football. That decision is posted on the Boards at 5:00 PM EST on a Tuesday. Team X petitions the Competition Committee for reconsideration, pursuant to Article II, Section 8(a) before the deadline at 5:00 PM EST the following Tuesday and a vote is therefore held. The majority of the Competition Committee votes that the decision should be vacated. There is therefore, at this point, no longer any decision of the Commissioner in respect of the challenged abusive acts. The Commissioner, under advisement from the Competition Committee, then decides pursuant to Article IV, Section 5(g) that the abusive Team shall be penalized in waiver order instead. This decision will be final.
Competition Committee
Establishment of Competition Committee
Competition Committee members are nominated and selected by the Commissioner.
Competition Committee members are only removable by resignation or dismissal.
The Competition Committee shall consist of three (3) members, including the Deputy Commissioner.
Powers and Duties of the Competition Committee
The functions of the Competition Committee shall include:
Serving as a general advisory role to the Commissioner.
Assisting in the review of trades.
Upholding or reversing some Commissioner decisions and/or actions.
This Committee possesses no power to unseat the Commissioner or to reverse changes made in the best interests of the league.
Providing clarification to the league on rules that may be unclear or unforeseen.
Reviewing and voting upon new rule propositions by team managers and adjudicating rules and settings instituted by the Commissioner.
Offenses & Penalties
Nature of Offenses
This article outlines prohibited activities, the possible penalties that accompany them, as well as arbitration and appeals.
This is not an all-inclusive list and the Commissioner maintains the authority to make assessments on activities at his discretion.
Commencement of Disciplinary Proceedings
The Commissioner, on his own initiative or following the receipt of a complaint, whether anonymous or public may, after determining the validity of a complaint, announce that a Team or its Manager has committed an offense and the penalty for that offense.
The Commissioner is authorized to investigate alleged offenses if he deems it necessary to do so, and Managers are required to assist in such investigations by providing truthful statements to the Commissioner if requested to do so.
The Competition Committee is within its right to recommend an investigation or punitive action against another Manager but does not have the authority to initiate the same.
Offenses
Anyone commits an offense who engages in any of the following:
Bribery: Provides another party with value other than in-game value in exchange for in-game value.
Collusion: Agrees with another party to limit open competition in the game by deceiving, misleading or defrauding others in order for a party, who may or may not be aware of the collusion, to obtain an unfair market advantage.
Non-Competitive Behaviour: Demonstrates an intention not to compete that goes beyond mere negligence.
Under extreme circumstances, a recurring refusal to engage in reasonable transactions may be considered non-competitive behaviour.
Nuisance: Repeatedly complains about the operation of the Courtesy Flush League to the extent that it amounts to harassment of the Commissioner, the Competition Committee, or markedly decreases the enjoyment of others.
General Anti-Avoidance Provision (GAAP): Engages in conduct not otherwise prohibited by these Bylaws but is generally acknowledged to be inappropriate.
Prescribed Penalties
In the case of conduct deemed to not to be in the best interests of the league, the Commissioner may initiate punitive or disciplinary actions against Teams or Managers that may include any one or more of the following:
A formal warning;
A reversal, amendment to, or denial of a challenged transaction;
A forfeit of certain day, week or other specified period of competition;
Reduction in total points earned in a game;
A forfeiture of a specified draft pick;
Suspension or removal of a Team or a Manager from the Courtesy Flush League;
A reduction in waiver claim priority; or
Such other actions as the Commissioner may deem appropriate.
Decisions of the Commissioner that include penalties to Teams must be posted formally on the Boards or in Chat.
Arbitrators and Juries
The Commissioner is specifically empowered under Article II, Section 7(f) to appoint a neutral arbitrator or a jury if he deems it necessary and must do so if he is an Interested Party in an alleged offense. The decision to appoint an arbitrator or jury is not reviewable.
A jury vote is not binding but is advisory only.
Jury votes may not be secret.
There is no minimum quorum or representation requirement for a non-binding jury vote.
Interpretive Note
While the Commissioner is the dispute resolution officer of the Courtesy Flush League, in extremely rare cases the Commissioner may decide to appoint others to resolve disputes. This is particularly – and perhaps exclusively – useful where the Commissioner is charged with, or the victim of, an offense, or where the nature of the offense is subjective. For example, the Commissioner may appoint a neutral third party arbitrator to determine what penalty, if any, a Manager should suffer for attempting to collude with him or may appoint a small jury to determine whether or not someone’s ‘trash talk’ is offensive enough to count as abusive. Jury votes are not permitted to be secret so that the Commissioner cannot be accused of misrepresenting the results. Neither are jury votes binding, as the Commissioner may reasonably determine that there was enough concern demonstrated in a vote to give rise to an offense, or may determine that it is unnecessary or undesirable for every Manager to weigh in.
Teams and Managers
Establishment of Teams and Managers
The Managers of each Team are established as follows (in no particular order):
Brandon – The Hurts Locker
Alisha – Beauty & the Blitz
Mikey – Better Call Hall
Kyle – Sorry Miss Jaxon
Dan – The Thunderballs
Joe – Average Joes
Conner – Amon Drugs
Jake – Livin La Vita Vea
Elias – Cookin Ws
Tyrus – Void Walkers
Heather – Renegade & Confused
Tylor – Outta Respect For JD5
All interested Managers have a right to retain their Team for unlimited consecutive seasons, as long as they are in good standing with the league.
Should a Manager be removed or remove themselves, replacement members can be nominated for selection by the Commissioner.
Voting in the Offseason or Regular Season
Each Offseason, Managers may be required to cast votes in the amendment of these Bylaws for such matters that include but are not limited to:
The creation or reduction of expansion Teams;
Revisions to the League Settings
Revisions to Draft regulations;
Referenda or opinion polls as required by the Commissioner for their own guidance;
All of which shall require a simple majority vote. Such polls will remain open for a minimum of three (3) days after the creation of the poll. Upon expiration of the voting window all votes will be counted and a ruling will be submitted by the Commissioner.
Withdrawal of Managers / Teams
Managers may withdraw from the league at any time and the Teams will persist until replacement owners are found and appointed during the Offseason.
New Managers will have the opportunity to rename a Team from which all Managers have withdrawn.
New Managers will have the opportunity to retain any keeper eligible players on the Team from which all Managers have withdrawn.
Team Ownership
It is the CFL’s position that Managers do not retain any ownership of their respective Teams. Participation in this league is a privilege, not a right, therefore said participation can be voided at any time.
League Fees
The annual entry fee for participation in The Courtesy Flush Fantasy Football League is hereby established at Ten Dollars ($10.00 USD) per team. League dues shall be paid via Cash App prior to the commencement of the regular season. Any proposed increase to the annual league dues must be submitted for a league vote and approved prior to the commencement of the applicable fantasy season. No increase in league dues shall take effect during an active season. Unless otherwise approved by league vote, any increase in league dues shall be allocated to the League's playoff prize pool and bonus/Squid Game prize pools on an alternating basis. The allocation of league dues is as follows:
- League Championship Win: $40
- Runner-up: $10
- Squid Game: $25
- Weekly Bonuses: $45 ($3/wk)
Failure to submit league dues will result in suspension or removal from the league.
Manager Responsibilities
Managers must field a complete team at all times.
Managers may not permit players on the NFL’s Injured Reserve to be in their starting lineup for more than two (2) weeks from the time of his designation to the Injured Reserve.
Failure to abide by these responsibilities will subject the Manager to penalties at the Commissioner’s discretion.
In addition to the foregoing, if a Manager is Inactive for a period of more than two weeks, that neglect will constitute an offense under Article IV.
League Format
Basic Settings
The Courtesy Flush League is a weekly head-to-head league hosted by Sleeper Fantasy Football, using Sleeper’s randomized scheduling.
The league comprises two divisions with a maximum of twelve teams.
There will be fifteen (15) regular season games with three (3) playoff games.
Roster Management
The positional composition of the league’s rosters shall be as follows:
1 starting Quarterback (QB);
2 starting Running Backs (RB);
2 starting Wide Receivers (WR);
1 starting Tight End (TE);
1 starting Flex (RB/WR/TE);
1 starting Team Defense/Special Teams (D/ST);
1 starting Place Kicker (K);
5 Bench (BE);
2 Injured Reserve (IR);
During the Regular Season, Team rosters shall consist at all times of 14 players unless a roster spot is emptied due to a penalty or pending transaction.
All empty roster spots must be filled within two (2) weeks of being emptied.
Position limits are not enforced until such time as the league transitions to a Dynasty or Keeper league.
It is at the Commissioner’s sole discretion to decide if a Team is unnecessarily hoarding players or specific positions that violates the integrity of the league.
Wins and Tiebreakers
Weekly Head-to-Head matchups are won by the team with the higher point total for that given week after any penalties and is subject to adjustment.
Matchups that end in a tie are recorded as a tie with the exception of Playoff and Championship games as described in Article X.
Scoring Format
Passing
Rushing
Receiving
Kicking
Punting
Defense
Miscellaneous
Waiver Wire & Free Agency
Waiver Wire Format
Waivers are the process by which owners can select from the pool of available players who are not on a team's roster in the league. Released players reside on waivers for at least 48 hours before clearing waivers. Any Manager can put a claim for that player, but must wait for the 24-hour waiver period to clear.
To help prevent the issue of "cycling" players through free agency, a player that is added and released on the same day will remain a free agent.
Waivers are available immediately upon the conclusion of the draft.
Waiver priority is initially determined by power ranking but in the following weeks, the waiver order is determined by processed claims.
Waiver order does not reset weekly and Managers may submit an infinite number of claims in any week, throughout the entirety of the season. The team which makes the most recent pickup is automatically moved to the last slot.
Example: Team A and Team B both submit a claim for Jared Goff. Team A is 5th in the Waiver order while Team B is 7th. Team A’s claim will be processed first and therefore will be awarded Jared Goff. Team A then drops to last in the Waiver order while Team B, and all other non-claiming teams, moves up one spot as a result of the adjustment.
Unclaimed players not acquired during the waiver period become free agents and may be picked up on a first-come, first-serve basis without affecting a team's waiver position.
Waivers process daily beginning at 3am EST, except for Monday and Tuesday, when waivers are not processed. Note that due to the high volume of waiver claims at certain times of the season, it may take several hours for waivers to process in Sleeper’s systems. Also, during certain weeks of the NFL season, the first game of the week is played on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, affecting the waiver process.
Trades
Authorization to Trade
Any Team may engage in any number of transactions with any number of other Teams at any time, provided that the transactions would not be contrary to the best interests of fantasy football. Proposed trades will be subject to a two-day review process by which all Managers may vote to either allow proposed trade or reject proposed trade. If 50% of Managers reject the proposed trade, the trade will be automatically voided.
50% in this context would be half of the remaining teams, minus the two trading teams. Being that our league comprises ten-teams, that would mean that four (4) Managers would need to veto a trade.
The Commissioner is authorized to evaluate all transactions, as authorized by Article II, Section 4(c)(d), upon the following terms:
The Commissioner may veto or nullify any such transactions that contravene these Bylaws or that, in his discretion, would be contrary to the best interests of fantasy football;
All such vetoes must be announced within twenty-four (24) hours of the announced transaction;
All such vetoes are reviewable decisions, pursuant to Article II, Section 8; and
The Commissioner must confirm the transaction with all parties.
Vetoes initiated by the Commissioner will display as “Vetoed by League Manager” in Recent Activity.
Forbidden Trades
“Players to be named later” are non-transferable and may not form any part of the value in a transaction.
With the exception of roster requirements, there are no restrictions with respect to the number of players that may form part of a transaction.
Trade Guidelines
All trades involving draft pick exchanges must be equal in the number of picks. No Manager may receive or give more picks than the Manager they are trading with.
Trade Deadline
The deadline for making trades is Wednesday at 11:59pm during Week 13 of the NFL Regular Season.
Collusive Trades
Collusion occurs when one team makes moves to benefit another team, without trying to improve its own position. One-sided trades are an obvious example of this. Another example is when a player drop is made so another team can pick up that player.
Trade Vetoing
The Commissioner reserves the right to disable trade vetoes for the league and assume the responsibility to manually review each trade to protect the integrity of the trading process from veto abuse.
Acceptable reasons to veto a trade:
Belief of collusion;
Concern of Non-Competitive Behavior;
Cheating;
Egregious trade fleecing.
Reasons that aren’t acceptable to veto a trade:
Dislike of either party;
Upcoming matchups;
Just because.
Effects of Contravention
Transactions that would violate the roster requirements, or that contravene this Article, are null and void. For further certainty, even if a transaction involves multiple parties, a single infraction of a single roster requirement by any of the parties by virtue of that transaction nullifies the entire transaction for all parties.
The Draft
Commencement
The Draft date and time will be posted on the Courtesy Flush League social media pages, the website, the Group Chat, and will also be visible on the Sleeper league page as well as communicated to each owner via email.
The commencement date of the Courtesy Flush Draft shall be set by the Commissioner no later than two (2) weeks prior to the start of the NFL regular season to take place no later than one (1) day before Opening Kickoff, and with no less than seven (7) days notice to the Teams.
In future seasons, draft order may be determined by events, challenges, or other avenues as agreed upon by the entire league.
Draft Format
In a Snake Draft, the pick order is reversed each round.
Each team manager takes turns drafting unique players via a back-and-forth, round-by-round draft order (i.e., Round One 1-12, Round Two 12-1, Round Three 1-12, Round Four 12-1, etc.) until all roster slots are full. Put another way, the team manager who picks first in Round One, will pick last in Round Two, then first in Round Three and last in Round Four, and so on.
Each Manager will draft once per round and have three minutes on-the-clock for their pick.
Managers who are absent for the draft will be placed in the auto-draft queue.
If you cannot make the draft, you will be held responsible to find someone who can draft for you. You must notify the Commissioner three days in advance of the Draft on who will be responsible for your draft picks.
The results of an auto-draft, no matter how inconvenient, will not be altered.
Each team must draft a full roster as described in Article VI Section 4.
Draft Day Trades
All trades during the league draft must be written down and recorded. After the draft is completed all trades will be processed.
Playoffs
Timing
The playoffs begin on Week 16 of the NFL regular season.
There are three (3) rounds of playoffs.
Each playoff round shall be one (1) week long.
Participation
The six (6) Teams with the highest winning percentage at the conclusion of the Regular Season will qualify for the playoffs.
The two (2) Teams with the highest winning percentage will be granted a bye in the first round of the playoffs.
The six (6) Teams with the lowest win percentage will participate in a two-week Consolation Bracket where the two finalists compete in the Sacko Bowl.
Tiebreakers
In the event that any Teams should be tied in win percentage, the tie-breaker shall be the Head-to-Head Record (H2H) during the regular season. In the event of an additional tie in H2H, the Total Points For accumulated during the regular season will be used to award the tiebreaker between the two teams.
Awards
The Courtesy Flush League Championship trophy will be shipped or otherwise delivered to the league champion, after which the champion may retain possession of the championship until the following season’s playoffs commences.
The Sacko Bowl Championship trophy will be shipped or otherwise delivered to the loser of the Sacko Bowl along with a league-mandated Sacko Punishment.
League Management
Commissioner
Brandon Benner
Deputy Commissioner
Mikey Nicolino
Competition Committee
The Competition Committee consists of three (3) members, including the Deputy Commissioner:
- Mikey Nicolino — Deputy Commissioner
- Kyle Pandel
- Alisha Benner