OFFICIAL RULE BOOK
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Code of Conduct
2. Creation
3. Earning TPE
4. How to Update
5. The Draft and Awards
6. Bank Accounts
7. Salary Cap and Contracts
8. Player Transactions
9. Bots
10. Ownership
Changelog
1. CODE OF CONDUCT
1.1 - Forum Conduct
While participating on Discord, users will respect other users and abide by the following code of conduct.
Users will all abide by the same code. If a user violates the code, they are subject to receiving the punishment that the BOD decides upon.
The USFA is a clean start for any user that registers.
Personal Attacks will not be tolerated in the USFA. Any type of attack on a user based on anything outside of simulation leagues, as well as outside of what a user has shared on Discord. The BOD can also rule attacks as personal depending on the attack.
Discussions and arguments on Discord will not become extended in any shape or form. If a discussion doesn't benefit the league and becomes aggressive, then the BOD has the right to punish the users participating or egging on the conversation. This includes but is not limited to political and ethical lifestyle arguments.
Racial, homophobic, and otherwise any prejudiced slurs will not be tolerated and immediately falls under the Personal Conduct Policy.
1.2 - Cheating and Accusing
Cheating and accusations of such will not be tolerated. If you think someone is cheating in any way shape or form, contact an Admin.
Plagiarizing Point Tasks is considered cheating, all forms of media should be original.
Cheating on updates. Cheating involves knowingly updating incorrectly or updating a player that is not your own.
Cheating can also include owning, registering, or maintaining a second account.
Tampering in league activity is also cheating. If you contact a player outside of your team in regards to Free Agency, Team Strategies, Plans for Trades, etc. you are subject to punishment.
Public Accusations of cheating are also considered a break of conduct policy.
1.3 - Suspension and Punishment Guidelines
The USFA Commissioners and Admin's reserve the rights to enforce punishments based on the above policies, as well as any action made by a user that the admins or Commissioners deem as detrimental to the league. Punishments can be the following, as well as anything that the admin team deems as reasonable.
Game Suspensions
Posting Suspensions
Salary Penalties
Discord Bans
Anything the Admin team deems reasonable
Users who are banned will have their players retired at the end of the current season.
1.4 - Additional Notes
The league is for fun, no action regarding a user should aim to take away the fun from any of the other members of the league.
The USFA is an internet only league, meaning that while everything is for fun, taking things said on the forums too seriously can do injustice to keeping things fun.
Continuing previous arguments and fights from the past or other current leagues into the USFA can be punishable.
Respect all users in the league and be wary of the age difference between yourself and other users. We can range in age from 13-55+ and need to keep conversations friendly to all ages.
We are not lawyers, so there may be small loopholes at times when rules are announced. We reserve the right to interpret the spirit of the rule rather than the word of the rule in order to achieve the best outcome. If you feel there is a loophole, please let us know so we can clean it up!
The leagues official discord channels and servers are an extension of this website. Anything you say or do on those servers and channels can be held against you concerning the leagues rule book.
2. CREATION
2.1 - Player Creation
New players can either be a "Basic Player" which is the equivalent of your first create or a filler. Players must go through the player creation process in the Discord. Most players will be basic players. In the ECFL you may purchase the Elite Upgrade, however upon turning pro the Elite Upgrade becomes obsolete.
All players except for new users will start in college. Please see the ECFL rulebook regarding all collegiate rules for players.
2.1.1 - Creating a Basic Player
We advise all new members to view our in-depth guideline to creating new players in the Create A Player section.
You may not have more than 2 USFA players at any given time. Fillers do not count against this number as they are league controlled.
If you create 2 players, you must make one an offensive player and one a defensive player.
Kickers and punters are considered to be the same position and are classified as an offensive player.
You may only have one player in the ECFL at a time
First time user players have 400 TPE to start with.
Upon creation, your player will be inserted into either the USFA entry draft or USFA FA depending on the time of season as defined by section 2.1.2.
Follow the creation guide to learn about creating, positions, position eligibility, restrictions and more...
2.1.2 - Creating Mid-Season
If you are a brand new user to both the USFA and the ECFL you are eligible to make a player at any time in the USFA. Creating a player on or after week 8 a created player will be entered into next seasons draft. Any creation before week 8 of a season will result in the player entering Free Agency as a undrafted free agent.
2.2 Filler Creation
As a measure to fill the USFA with members and players, but not overtake the positions from brand new members, we allow users to create "Filler" players.
You may only have a Filler if you have an offensive and defensive player in the USFA.
Fillers may not update at all and are stuck at the TPE amount that they are drafted with, up to a max of 400.
Fillers are determined after the USFA playoffs and before the USFA draft instead of in the ECFL.
2.2.1 - Fillers Declaring For the Draft
Players must follow the ECFL rules regarding draft eligibility for the USFA.
Once a Filler has entered the draft they lose ownership of that player and you can create a new player.
2.3 - Player Regression and Retirement
Players in the USFA regress at different times. This is due to not all positions having the same amount of ratings required to update in order to be successful. Positions that are deemed skill positions regress faster than defensive and less skilled offensive positions to help incentivize players to pick positions other than skill positions.
2.3.1 - Player Regression
Regression only applies to players in the USFA.
QB, RB and WR will start regression after their 7th season in the USFA.
All Defensive players will start regression after their 8th season in the USFA.
FB, TE and Kickers will start regression after their 9th season in the USFA.
The following rules apply;
Each season you stay active into regression will see all your TPE drop by the specified percentage.
Regression will always round up to the nearest whole number.
Regression does apply to banked TPE.
The percentage loss on your TPE per season of regression are as follows;
1 Season into Regression: 10%
2 Seasons into Regression: 15%
3 Seasons into Regression: 20%
4 Seasons into Regression: 25%
5 Seasons into Regression: 30%
6 Seasons into Regression: 35%
7 Seasons into Regression: 45%
2.3.2 - Retiring Players
Retirements must be posted in the Retirements section of the forum.
Players may be automatically retired if they reach the end of the allowed time per position.
Auto retirement will come 3 to 5 seasons after your first season of regression.
Auto retirement by position.
QB: 12
RB: 12
WR: 12
TE: 14
FB: 14
K: 14
SS: 14
FS: 14
CB: 14
LB: 14
Players who are not signed to a team for 3 full seasons will be auto retired
You can retire your player at any time.
If you retire during a season, your player will finish the current season on their team.
If you retire during the offseason (typically defined as the three update weeks after the championship game but before week 1), you have the option to play out one final season with the player or retire immediately.
Once you retire your player you may no longer earn any TPE for them or add anymore TPE to them.
You may retract your retirement announcement of a player once per career with no penalty. A second retirement announcement is final.
If you want to retract a retirement announcement it must be done within 1 week of your original retirement post. After 1 week, the retirement is official.
Any inactive player who falls below 400 APE due to regression will be automatically retired.
2.4 - Three Players
At any one time, a user may only have three players active. Two in the USFA and one in the ECFL.
2.5 - Playing Out of Position
In some cases, your player may play a different position than originally created. In order to simulate an athletic curve and keep things more realistic, the following restrictions are in place for playing another position:
You must remain on the same side of the ball (i.e. offense stays offense, defense stays defense).
You must fit within the base height and weight restrictions for the position as listed in the Player Creation Guide (this would be the between weight numbers, not the MAX).
See the creation guide in the discord for a complete list of out of position eligibility
All players must be listed at the position they are playing in the game for accurate stat keeping.
3. EARNING TPE
3.1 Subscriptions
Players may purchase a seasonal or monthly subscription from the league. This subscription will pay the user TPE weekly based on their players age and position. You can purchase a subscription in the subscription channel on the forums. The scale of how much TPE will be earned can be found in section 3.1.2.
3.1.2 
3.1.3 Players who have purchased fight against time will receive the same amount of TPE per week, as the season that the player would have been automatically retired.
3.1.4 Subscriptions cover up to two players in the USFA. You may not donate any part of your weekly TPE to another user.
3.2 Job Pay
3.2.1 If you choose not to pay a monthly or seasonal subscription, you may still earn weekly TPE for completing league jobs such as but not limited to;
- Media Team
- Historian
- Updater
- Commentator/Simmer
- Other jobs will be handled on a case by case basis
Even if you are subscribed to the league, you may still earn job pay. All job pay is capped at a max of 50 points per week.
3.2.2 If you go the Job Pay route, you will earn TPE each week provided you have completed your task for that specific week. If you have then you will receive TPE per week as designated in section 3.1.2. If you have not completed you league task for a specific week, you will not receive any TPE for that week.
3.2.3 One job will provide TPE for up to 2 players, these players must both be registered to the same user and may not be gifted to another user.
4. HOW TO UPDATE
4.1 - Updating Your Player
You update by opening your team specific update sheet, place how much you want to increase an attribute by in the yellow bar and follow sheet instructions if applicable. Team owners may spend the TPE of IA players during the offseason period if the player can be proven to be deemed inactive by the league.
4.2 - Update Scale
Attributes become more expensive to increase as they get higher.
You must use the below scale at all times:
66-70 1 point
71-75 3 points
76-79 6 points
80-83 10 points
84-87 12 points
88-91 15 points
92-95 20 points
96-99 30 points
Examples:
Increasing an attribute from 65 to 66 falls in the 66-70 bracket, and will cost 1 TPE.
Increasing an attribute from 71 to 72 falls in the 71-75 bracket, and will cost 3 TPE.
Increasing an attribute from 65to 75 will cost 20 TPE despite only increasing the attribute by 10.
66 to 70 costs 1 TPE per, totaling 5 TPE.
71 to 75 cost 3 TPE per, totaling 15 TPE.
Partial updates to an attribute are not allowed, meaning that decimal points are not counted. You are not required to apply your TPE at the time it is earned (this is referred to as Banked TPE).
4.3 - Update Deadline
The USFA operates on a Monday to Sunday week
Updates are processed at 11:59pm PST each Sunday.
Any updates after this time will be pushed to next week and will not be reflected in the game file for any of the games that week.
4.4 - Updating Multiple Players
See section 3 Earning TPE
5. THE DRAFT AND AWARDS
5.1 - Committing to the USFA Draft
ECFL Players should review the ECFL rulebook for eligibility requirements.
5.1.1 Determining Draft Location
The USFA entry draft and United bowl will be determined by a lottery draw in which every eligible team will have an equal chance to host the event.
Once a team has been selected to host an event they will be ineligible to host that event again for a period of 4 seasons. After a period of no less than 4 seasons the team will be readded to the lottery pool for the event.
A team may host both the United Bowl and the USFA Entry Draft in the same season, after which they would be ineligible to host either event for the period of 4 seasons.
5.2 - USFA Draft Order
The USFA draft order is determined by regular season seeding and playoffs.
7th - 10th place will be placed into a weighted lottery system with the following weights
12th: 33%
11th: 23%
10th: 18%
9th: 12%
8th: 9%
7th: 5%
The remaining picks (6th - 12th) will be distributed to teams based on when they are eliminated from playoff contention and where they finished in the regular season standings.
5.3 - Draft Order Tiebreakers
In the event that two teams have the same record, the following tiebreakers will be used to determine seeding:
Conference Record
Head to Head
Point Differential
Strength of Schedule
Coin Flip
5.4 - Trading Draft Picks
USFA GM's may trade draft picks up to 3 seasons ahead of the current season. These picks can only be traded based on round, not on selection. Draft picks may be traded at any time during the season, including during the draft. (Example: During Season 2, teams may trade picks for S2, S3, S4 and S5)
All trades must be approved by the league commissioner or other admin member involved with the league.
Trades may include conditional picks
Terms of the conditions must be clearly defined within the trade.
Commissioners may veto a trade if conditionals are not clearly defined.
5.5 - Owner Players Being Drafted
An owner must use their first available first round pick to select their owner player. If an owner does not have a first round pick, the owner's player must either sit one full season in Free Agency or be retired. In the case that an owner has multiple owner players going into the same draft, they must have an adequate amount of first round picks in order to select both players.
Owner's may not under any circumstance choose to not take their own player if they have the available resources to do so. Once an owner player is declared the owner is required to take their player and may not retire, unless they do not have adequate resources to pick their owner player(s) at the time of declaration.
If an owner's player(s) has declared for the draft and the owner has the available resources at the time of declaration, the owner must maintain the adequate amount of resources to draft that/those player(s) and the player(s) may not be retired.
All owner players must go through the draft.
GM players are not allowed to be traded to another team outside of their own under any circumstance.
5.6 - Awards
Players must play a minimum 10 games of the season in a single position to be eligible for a positional award. Awards are voted on every offseason by the board of representatives.
5.6.1 - Hall of fame
After a player retires they must wait 2 full seasons starting the season after they retired in, e.g. a player retires in season 10 they must wait until the conclusion of season 12, to be eligible for the Hall of Fame.
Players will be evaluated by the number of championships won, records set, awards won and overall career prestige/length. Players must spend at least 6 seasons in the league to be eligible for consideration.
The admin team will identify a number of potential candidates each season and add them to the pool of potential Hall of Fame players. To be inducted into the Hall of Fame players will be voted in by the board of representatives and the admin team in a combined vote.
Coaches are also eligible for the Hall of Fame and will fall under the same eligibility rules as the players.
5.6.2 - Hall of fame voting
Players are eligible for the Hall of Fame for a maximum of 5 seasons, any players not inducted into the Hall after the 5 season eligibility period will no longer be eligible for the Hall of Fame.
Each year, except for the first, three players or coaches will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. There will be 1 offensive player, 1 defensive player and 1 veteran/coach inducted every season except for the first season.
In the first season, only one offensive player and one defensive player will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
6. BANK ACCOUNTS
A player's bank account is just that: money in a player's bank from contracts or other bonuses. Money can be used to make purchases in the player store. The following rules are for player bank accounts.
USFA Bank Accounts are kept up to date from season to season.
Money cannot be transferred from one player's account to another, even if the same user is the "owner" of both accounts.
Money does not carry over to future players.
When a player retires, his account closes.
7. SALARY CAP AND CONTRACTS
7.1 - Salary Cap
At the end of each season, the salary cap for the next year will be calculated by determining the minimum cost to retain all currently signed players, plus mid-tier bots. This amount is increased by 10% and then rounded up to the nearest million.
S12 Salary Cap: 82M
Exceeding the salary cap will result in a penalty the following season of 150% of the amount for minor overages. If determined by the BoD and Admins to be excessive, additional actions may be considered.
7.2 - Contract Structure
Salary Minimums
There will be no maximum salary for players
Salaries must be in increments of 250k
List of the minimum salaries per APE (Applied Points Earned)
Rookie Max Contract 3 seasons (Regardless of APE)
Min: 750k
After Rookie Contract mins
100 - 199 APE: 750k
200 - 299 APE: 1 Million
300 - 399 APE: 1.5 Million
400 - 499 APE: 2.25 Million
500 - 599 APE: 3 Million
600 - 699 APE: 4.25 Million
700 - 799 APE: 5.25 Million
800 - 899 APE: 5.75 Million
900 - 999 APE: 6.25 Million
1000 - 1099 APE: 6.75 Million
1100 - 1199 APE: 7.25 Million
1200 - 1299 APE: 7.75 Million
1300 - 1399 APE: 8.25 Million
1400 - 1499 APE: 8.75 Million
1500 - 1599 APE: 9.25 Million
1600+ APE: 10 Million
7.2.1 Contract Clauses
Players may request no trade clauses as a part of their contract
Players with a NTC must be protected against expansion drafts if applicable
Players with a NTC can not be traded until the end of the contract
Players may request bonuses if certain requirements are met
Bonus clauses available are as follows
Winning an individual award
Winning a Championship
Specific stat requirement
All bonuses must be paid with the remaining salary cap
If a team fails to pay a player bonus on the season it was agreed upon, the team will suffer a cap hit equal to the amount of the bonus promised the next season.
Bonus money does not count towards a players contract salary
7.2.2 Rookie Contracts
A rookie contract is a contract signed by a newly drafted player.
These contracts do not follow the standard contract rules in the fact that a player on a rookie contract does not follow the minimum contract requirements. A player on a rookie deal may be signed for up to 3 seasons with a minimum of 750k per season. During these up to 3 seasons regardless of the players TPE level their minimum salary will be 750k.
A rookie contract of 2 or fewer seasons will result in the player being on a Restricted Free Agent status, RFA's at the completion of their contract will follow the RFA guidelines dictated in section 9.1. A rookie with a contract of 3 seasons will not be eligible for the RFA tag.
Players can lose their RFA tag early while still maintaining a rookie contract deal. If a player with an RFA tag is traded or released by a team, the player who would normally be restricted in Free Agency would now become a UFA and have the freedom to choose to go where they wish. Another way to lose the RFA tag is to complete your Rookie Contract and then resign with any team. Once the Rookie Contract is complete, players must be signed to a regular contract following the standard rules.
7.3 - Contract Re-Negotiations/Extensions
Upon a contract being finalized, barring option years the only adjustable portion of the contract is an increase in the annual dollar amount of the contract. There can be no decreases in the term or the dollar value of the contract once a value is decided upon unless a player is on a minimum value contract and is entering regression. Any increase to the annual dollar amount must be agreed upon publicly in the team’s contract thread or a signing thread in the transactions sub-forum. An extension to a current contract can only be officially confirmed during the last year of the current contract. Extensions must be agreed upon by both the team and the player publicly. General Managers will only be able to offer “inactives” a maximum one-year extension, and it must come during the re-signing period in which their contract expires. This offer must be for an equal or higher value as the current contract, unless the player was on a minimum contract and their new minimum value is reduced due to regression.
Furthermore, if a player were to regain “active” status after the re-signing period but before the conclusion of the off-season weeks, that player has the right to nullify the deal and become a Free Agent. This keeps the power in the hands of the player if they choose to come back. Please note that in order to regain active status, the player must submit an update.
7.3.1 Contract Length
Contracts are a maximum of 3 seasons. The dollar value of a contract will not increase during the duration of an agreed upon contract. Extensions may be given to players in the final year of their current contract and paid at the TPE bracket that they would currently fall in.
7.4 - Contract Options
Options can come in the form of Player Options, Team Options or Mutual Options. A contract may only have one option year, and it must be in the final year of the deal.
A Player Option is where the player choses to "pickup" his option on the year it's marked if he wants to resign with the team or hit free agency.
If a player does not publicly announce his desire to opt-out on a player option, it is deemed that the player wishes to remain on the team for the coming season.
A Team Option is where the team holds that same power, instead of the player. A Mutual Option is where either of the two sides holds the rights to terminate the contract in the year the option is marked.
Any option must be agreed upon before the end of the resign period or the player will hit the free agent market. For an inactive player with a Player Option the team may pick up or decline the option for them.
Rookie contracts are ineligible for option years.
7.5 - Clauses
There are two types of clauses that can be included in contracts: No Trade Clause & No Movement Clause.
A No Trade Clause means a player can not be traded. Players with a NTC must waive it in order to be traded. A No Movement Clause means a player can not be moved in any way. Players with NMC must waive it in order to be traded or waived (released). If a player goes inactive whilst on a contract with a NTC the inactive's clause may be waived at the commissioners' discretion.
7.6 - Trading Contracts
When trading contracts, the player's contract gets traded 100% over to the new team. After the trade deadline (The end of Week 7), teams are not allowed to trade players or picks. Any player that signs with a new team may not be traded back to their previous team until after the conclusion of the first season at their new team.
7.7 - Salary Arbitration
Salary Arbitration is a tool available to players to settle contract disputes involving contract length and salary. There are certain rules and restrictions to applying for salary arbitration.
A team may take a player to arbitration only during the offseason in which they are drafted. If a team is unable to reach a contract agreement with a draftee, they can take that player to arbitration at any point from the time of the draft to the start of the regular season by submitting a DM to the commissioner. A salary arbitration ruling will always be two seasons in contract length. Salary will be determined based on TPE and activity. A team may walk away from a ruling, however, a player may not. If a team walks away from a ruling for a draftee, however, they will become an unrestricted free agent. A salary arbitration deal may not be re-worked in any way during the first season of the contract. During the second season, a team is able to give a raise on the contract if they wish, and an extension can be negotiated.
7.8 – Holdouts
Holdouts will be monitored by the commissioner to ensure that both parties are working towards a productive conclusion. A player may end their holdout at any time. A player with a signed contract that elects to holdout will not have their contract count against the salary cap. The team holding the player’s rights has the ability to trade their rights to another team if they cannot reach a new contract. If the player is a draftee, the team that has drafted their rights has the ability to take them to salary arbitration. Any player who elects to hold out will not be eligible to play in the USFA until they have signed an USFA contract.
7.9 – Team Finance Submissions
Team finances must be complete and error free before the first game of the season. Failure to meet this deadline will result in the following penalties in the next season, if not resolved by the first sim of the season.
Strike 1: Failure to meet the predetermined finance deadline will result in up to 10% of a teams cap space being docked in the following season.
Strike 2: Failure to meet the 2nd deadline as determined by the admins and BoG after strike 1, will result in an additional 10% of a teams cap space to be docked in the following season as well as draft pick confiscation as deemed appropriate by the admins and BoG.
Strike 3: Failure to submit accurate team finances by a teams week 2 matchup will result in the termination of that owner.
Penalties may be waived or reduced or increased at an admins discretion.
8. PLAYER TRANSACTIONS
8.1 - Free Agency
Players who do not come to an agreement with their previous team at the end of their contract will enter FA.
Teams, including the player's original team, may send their best offer to the player at this time.
Players entering FA after their rookie contract of 2 or fewer seasons, will be considered Restricted Free Agents (RFA).
RFA’s may still receive offers from all teams.
Teams who are not the player's original team must send an offer sheet to the original team. Offer sheet listed below
100 - 399 TPE: No Compensation
400 - 499 TPE: 7th round pick (Current Draft)
500 - 599 TPE: 6th round pick (Current Draft)
600 - 699 TPE: 5th round pick (Current Draft)
700 - 799 TPE: 3rd round pick (Current Draft)
800 - 999 TPE: 2nd Round pick (Current Draft)
1000 - 1099 TPE: 1st round pick (Current Draft)
1100 - 1199 TPE: 1st round pick (Current Draft) 4th round pick (Current Draft)
1200 - 1299 TPE: 1st round pick (Current Draft) 3rd round pick (Current Draft)
1300 - 1499 TPE: 1st round pick (Current Draft) 2nd round pick (Current Draft)
1500 - 1599 TPE: 1st round pick (Current Draft) 1st round pick (Next Draft)
1600+ TPE: 1st round pick (Current Draft) 1st round pick (Next Draft or sooner) 2nd round pick (Current Draft)
Upon the completion of their first non rookie contract or being traded from the team that drafted them a player is no longer a RFA.
Should a player who is a RFA not be able to reach a deal before week 3 of the season, they will be suspended from playing out the remainder of that season. The league commissioner will oversee any RFA’s that have not been settled by the start of the season.
Teams hold the draft rights of rookies who hold out on their rookie contract.
Hold outs must be resolved before the season begins or the player will not be eligible to play for the first two in game weeks of the season
If a hold out goes past this point, the player will not be eligible to play for the remainder of that season and will enter FA as an RFA. See rule 7.8 for more info on holdouts.
8.1.2 - Undrafted Free Agents
Undrafted Free Agents are not bound to any team due to not being drafted and therefor are not able to be signed to a RFA type deal. All contracts made with Undrafted FA's will end in UFA status regardless of the amount of years signed while still counting as a rookie contract.
8.2 - Contract Extensions
Players and Teams can sign contract extensions at any point during the season up until the end of the day league rollover is processed. This is known as the extension deadline. The remaining contract extension rules are as follows.
All contract offers must be publicly posted in the thread.
One-season contract extensions to inactive players are valid as long as the team offers the player a contract extension, the player doesn't decline it before the end of the resign period, and that player hasn't updated in 21 days
Inactive contract extensions will be for the same amount as the previous contract. If the player was on a minimum contract and has entered regression, that minimum can be reduced to their new minimum.
Players are only eligible for a contract extension if they are in the final season of their current contract. The max amount of seasons they can be extended for is 2 seasons. Players salary for their extension must meet their new current minimum.
After league rollover is complete, any player who hasn't been extended who's deal is set to expire is eligible for a new 3 season deal up until the day of the Draft. After which point they become a Free Agent. Information on new contracts can be found in Section 7 of the rulebook. Since league rollover marks the start of the next season, players who's contract will expire in the new season are now eligible for a max 2 season contract extension.
8.3 – Buying Out A Player
If a player is bought-out by a team, they cannot be re-signed by the same team within the same season. If this happens in the off-season then that player cannot be re-signed until the next off-season. Buyouts are a team option player release that voids the original contract. These are posted in the player release area and an Admin should be informed by team officials leading up to the buyout.
A buyout will retain 50% of the contracts seasonal dollar amount, rounded up to the nearest 500k, as dead money on the teams finances. The player is immediately available as a Free Agent.
8.4 - Player Trades
A team may decide to agree to terms in which players are traded for other players or draft picks. The rules for Player Trades are as follows:
All trades will be reviewed by the commissioner before they are processed. If a trade is found to be excessively detrimental to a franchise, intentionally compromising to the integrity of the league, or in violation of any other trading rule found in this section, it can and will be vetoed by the commissioners.
After the trade deadline has passed, no trades are allowed to be made until the end of playoffs
The trade deadline is marked as the end of Week 7. Both parties must accept the trade before it is processed. However, any trades not finalized by Midnight on the last day of Week 7 will not be accepted.
Each team must publicly accept the trade in a group DM with the commissioner.
The only parties that are allowed to post a trade or accept one are the Owner or GM. GM's will need to be granted rights to trade on behalf of the team by the owner in the owners section as well as to the BOG.
Once a trade has been accepted by all parties, it cannot be reversed unless it's blocked by the commissioners
If a new owner is taking over a team and their player is on another team but has announced intent to retire at the end of the season, the player is not required to be traded to the owners new team.
Future considerations of any kind are not allowed to be dealt. If any move is made in the future to undermine this rule, the trade can be overruled at the BOG's discretion.
Draft picks may only be able to be traded three years in advance during the regular season (before the trade deadline). During the off-season, draft picks of that off-season's draft and the three consequent drafts can be traded.
Pick swaps and protections are allowed. Conditionals can be allowed as long as all dependencies/contingencies are clearly defined.
8.5.1 GM Player Trades
Players owned by a owner may only be active for the same team as the owner. Owners may not trade their own players away to another team or sign with another team other than their own in Free Agency.
New owners must trade for their players and may not go to Free Agency. If a new owner is in the final year of their contract and hasn't signed any type of extension they may go to Free Agency if they become an owner after the trade deadline.
8.6 Positional Limits
Teams may have an unlimited number of inactive players on their team provided that they fit within the salary cap. Teams may only have the following amount of active users on their team
1 QB
2 RBs
3 WRs
1 TE
1 K/P
3 DL and 4 LB's or 4 DL and 3 LBs
3 CB's
1 FS
1 SS
Failure to adhere to these active player positional limits may result in, but not limited to; salary cap penalties, forfeiture of draft picks, dock of pay, and termination.
An active player is defined by a player who has an active subscription to the league. All other players regardless of activity levels in the community are, for the purpose of this rule exclusively, considered inactive.
9. BOTS
9.1 - What Are Bots
A BOT is a computer player at a position that human players are ineligible to play, like OL or sometimes K/P. It is necessary for us to have BOT players at these positions, as not regulating them properly can have dire consequences, an unbalanced game and league-wide issues.
These are not to be confused with computer backups at human playable positions like QB, RB, FB, WR, TE, LB and DB. These computer players are used only as backups to fill the 40-man roster required by the game.
9.2 - Bot Kickers
Since Kicker is not a popular position, teams may opt to purchase a Bot Kicker to fill a roster spot. In the USFA, they will count towards your salary cap. All their stats will be 50 with the exception of Kick Distance, Kick Accuracy, and Awareness, which will vary based upon the amount of money spent. If a team opts to not have a kicker on their roster, they will receive a bot with 50s across the board. A team can purchase a kicker at any point.
9.2.1 USFA Bot Kicker Attributes
$2M Salary: Distance/Accuracy: 70, Awareness 60
$3M Salary: Distance/Accuracy: 80, Awareness 70
$5M Salary: Distance/Accuracy: 90, Awareness 80
9.3 Bot Lines
Bot Lines are available for purchase as an entire lineman group. If no purchase is notated on the teams finance sheet at the time they are due, they will receive the free, basic balanced lineman bots. This can not be changed up or down midseason based on the cap space available to the team and their needs.
9.3.1 OL
OL bots: USFA teams may sign 5 OL bots for the following total price. These bots may only play at OL.
Refer to the image below to help you choose which OL Bots you want for your team:
9.3.2 Costs:
COPPER - FREE
BRONZE - $2,500,000
SILVER - $4,000,000
GOLD - $5,500,000
PLATINUM - $7,000,000
Be sure to select both a Specialty (Pass, Run or Balanced) AND a Level (Copper, Bronze, etc.) when choosing your OL Bots.
If a Specialty is selected without a level, you will be defaulted to a Copper level in that specific Specialty.
If a Level is selected without a Specialty, you will be assigned an OL that matches that level but will be selected randomly for its specialty. Once a OL set is purchased, there will be no switching mid season
10. Ownership
Ownership of a team is a serious responsibility that individuals need to be aware of before applying. The following section outlines what is expected from team owners each season.
10.1 Owner Fees
New owners must pay an ownership fee of 30 US dollars. Dual ownership groups must pay a total of 40 US dollars to be an owner. These fee's are collected a single time as a purchase of a lease on the teams branding.
10.2 Requirements
Owners are tasked with managing their team in the following ways.
Player Contracts - See section 7 and 8 for more info on player contracts. Players who are found to be playing without a contract will be removed from the team and prohibited from resigning with their original team for a total of one season.
Team Finances - See section 7.9 team owners will need to keep track of all players under contract with their team and maintain salary cap compliance. Owners must use the official league finance sheet to do their team finances, other forms are not allowed.
Team Strategies - Each team is given a team strategy sheet. We require that you keep this up to date after transactions. If a player is found to not be on your team for whatever reason, but is in your team strategy sheet, he will be replaced with a bot player.
Activity - Owners should keep their players engaged in the league as well as maintain at least a moderate level of activity within the league. If an owner is deemed to be inactive the league reserves the right to terminate your ownership.
Basic Problem Solving Skills - Team owners must posses a basic understanding of how to solve issues. Basic math and reading skills are required.
Communication - Team owners are expected to communicate any potential long leaves of absence or issues at their earliest possible convenience. Failure to communicate things such as extended times away from the league may lead to you being deemed inactive and your ownership terminated.
Availability - The league has only a single event that we require at least one team staff member to attend currently. That event is the draft, which is done live on Twitch every offseason. If for some reason you are unable to make the draft please designate another staff member to be there for you and/or submit a draft list for the league.
10.3 PAYMENT
Ownership fees allow for the owner who paid them to collect a flat percentage of their teams profits before any other payments are made to other staff such as media members or admins. All team owners will earn a flat 3% of the profit made by their team.
Additionally owners will earn non-monetary prizes for their positioning at the end of every season. The prizes are as follows.
United Bowl Winner: 2 championship rings
United Bowl Runner Up: Team Jersey
Playoff Teams: 275 TPE
Non Playoff Teams: Nothing
These prizes may be distributed by the team owner however they see fit.
It is important to note that the league still maintains full ownership of all logo's and branding at all times. The team owner is essentially a lease holder.
10.4 Rebranding/Expansion
If a new owner takes over a team, after a period of 1 season they will be allowed to rebrand their team. The cost of rebranding their team is currently $150 USD. The price includes a new logo, a season of ownership fees, and the labor required to get the new brand into the league. This is also the price for any new expansion team.
For example, a new owner takes over a team at the start of season 10. That new owner would be able to allowed to apply for a rebrand in season 11. That new rebrand would not make it into the league until the start of season 12.
Owners must submit a relocation thread to the Board of Representatives and have their relocation bid passed by a majority vote.
10.5 Legacy Team Tags
Teams that are within their first 10 seasons of existence are eligible to be rebranded by new ownership as outlined in section 10.4. If a team is 10 seasons or older, they are considered a legacy team and may no longer be rebranded with one exception.
Should a team owner take over a team in their 9th season of existence, the 1 season waiting period required by section 10.4 would cause the team to become a legacy team. In this specific case, the legacy team tag will be delayed for 1 season to allow the new owner the opportunity to rebrand if they desired to.
After a team has become a designated legacy team, owners of those teams will be first in line for future expansion teams.
CHANGELOG
1. Reposted the entire rulebook due to theme change of light to dark mode. Font was not showing on dark mode. Edited certain posts to fix numbering issues. (08JUL21 1047 MST) - Caboose
2. Changed Bot Kicker Attributes: 3M Scholarship went down from 70 to 65 and a 3M Salary went down from 85 to 80. (07AUG21 1830 MST) - Caboose
3. Posted changes to Earning TPE structure. Removed Welfare, Added sim attendance provision. Clarified Auto 12. (09AUG21 1633 MST) - Caboose
4. Added provisions 11.4 and 11.5 - 11.5.2 to the rulebook. (09AUG21 1643 MST) - Caboose
5. Changed trade deadline to week 8 [Sep 22, 2021, 8:26AM CST) - Donno
6. Fixed language regarding filler creation in section 2.2 (24OCT21 1937 MST)
7. Updated CSFA Scholarship Rules to reflect new roster restrictions in section 11.3.2 - CSFA Scholarships (30DEC21 1848 MST) - Caboose
8. Added section 8.2.2 Rookie Contracts to better clarify the rules regarding rookie contracts (02JAN22 1512 MST) - Caboose
9. Added section 10.3 Bot Lines (26FEB22 1111 MST) - Caboose
10. Edited section 6.5 to account for new GM player rule and added section 6.5.1 and 9.5.1 (26FEB22 1118 MST) - Caboose
11. Edited section 8.1 to account for new salary cap structure and added section 8.9 (26FEB22 1126 MST) - Caboose
12. Edited section 11.2 to account for new recruitment system in the CSFA (26FEB22 1130 MST) - Caboose
13. Edited sections 2.1.3 and 2.1.4 reducing carryover to 7%, clarifying carryover rules and adjusting improved carryover rate/price. (03JUL22 1550 MST) Caboose
14. Edited section 8.2 salary scale (03JUL22 1612 MST) Caboose
15: Made multiple edits to clarify rules and remove obsolete rules across multiple sections (19NOV22 1455 MST)
16: Made Edits to the new OL Bot system implemented to the USFA. Section 10.3.1 OL (12/12/2022 @ 3:56PM EST) -Stacks
17: FULL RULEBOOK OVERHAUL
- Made multiple punctuation edits in section 1
- Section 2: Removed 49 day update absence make up, removed Recruitment bonuses. Removed all language involving the CSFA in 2.1.1, clarified new rules regarding new user creation in 2.1.1, removed all language involving the CSFA and redshirting in 2.1.2, clarified rules in regards to new user creation in 2.1.2, removed all language pertaining to the CSFA in 2.1.3, made small change in language on what qualifies a re-create players, changed language and carryover TPE caps, Removed first generation player bonus from 2.1.4, removed all redundant and contradictory language, added stipulations for S6 and earlier players regarding the improved carryover purchase in 2.1.4, Removed the title of 2.2.1 and merged it with 2.2, removed all language pertaining to the CSFA, added distinction on when a player is deemed a filler in section 2.2, removed seasonal TPE scale for fillers in the CSFA, Changed the reasoning for the positional regression start years in section 2.3.1, delayed the regression start year by 1 year for all positions, Increased all regression rates by 5%, added one season to all positions before auto retirement, removed obsolete rules in 2.3.2 regarding re-creation, increased time to retract a retirement by 6 days, increased the amount of APE before an IA gets auto retired, changed language in 2.4, added formal rule regarding positional awards in section 2.5, changed wording regarding out of position player labeling.
- Section 3: Increased capped TPE amount back to 12, increased auto pay for admins to 12, increased job pay from 2 to 3, removed obsolete point tasks.
- Section 4: Significantly changed wording of 4.1, Changed TPE update scale, Edited wording in section 4.3 and 4.4.
- Section 5: No changes
- Section 6: Added condition to section 6.5 regarding owner players declaring for the draft.
- Section 7: Removed language pertaining to the CSFA, Removed line regarding store closure during rollover
- Section 8: Removed example from section 8.1, Changed minimums on contracts and increased amount of tiers in section 8.2, Added provision for players drafted S6 or earlier, changed minor wording in section 8.3 regarding the IA resigning period, Changed wording in section 8.4 regarding option agreements being agreed upon during the resign period instead of any time before FA, Removed NMC's from being able to be waived for an IA player in section 8.5, Trade deadline pushed back to Week 7 from Week 8,
- Section 9: Cleaned up punctuation throughout the section, Changed preseason to season in section 9.1 when talking about player deadline for signing a contract, Changed RFA FA signing compensation amounts, Removed stipulation that would suspend players for 2 weeks if they had not signed a contract by the start of the season, Clarified that UDFA's are still signed to rookie contracts in section 9.1.2, changed terminology in section 9.2 regarding the resign period, Removed Section 9.3 Player Releases and changed numbering of following sections to account for this, Clarified buyout rules in the new section 9.3, changed trade review from BoG to Commissioner, Trade Deadline changed from Start of Week 8 to End of Week 7, cleared up contradictions regarding draft picks in section 9.4.
- Section 10: Removed section 10.2.1 CSFA K BOTS and changed subsequent sections numbers, Clarified language in section 10.3 regarding OL bots, Removed section 10.3.2 DL Bots
- Section 11: Completely removed
(16JAN23, 0217 MST) - Caboose
18: Added a conditional rule in section 9.5.1 in regards to when a new owner takes ownership of a team, fleshed out strike system and made minor changes to wording in section 8.9 for team finance submissions. (16JAN23, 1850 PST) - Caboose
19: Added Conference Record as a tiebreaker in section 6.3 (22JAN23, 1353 MST) - Caboose
20. RULEBOOK OVERHAUL
Section 1: Changed wording in section 1.3 regarding the BOD, changed it to Admin Team
Section 2: Changed creation deadline for players to enter as a Free Agent to week 8.
Section 3: Rewrote the entire section
Section 4: Changed TPE Scale and Examples, rerouted section 4.4 to Section 3
Section 5: Submitted to Board of Gov's to remove section entirely
Section 8: Updated salary cap to 67.5M for S8
(15JUL23, 1727 MST) - Caboose
21: Removed section 5: Training Camp and reordered subsequent numbers (07AUG23, 0957 MST)
22: Removed a conflicting rule that grandfathered players drafted from S6 or earlier into the new salary tier system due to overall confusion on how it worked. (16AUG23, 2027 MST) - Caboose
23: Added section 10: Ownership, updated section 5.2 Draft Lottery to new 12 team model (05SEP23, 1342 MST) - Caboose
24: Added section 8.6 Positional limits for active players (07JAN24, 1139 MST)
25: Edited section 5.5 to include the phrase "All owner players must go through the draft" (07JAN24, 1139 MST)
26: Edited section 7.4 Contract Options to include Rookie Contract stipulations (07JAN24, 1142 MST)
27: Edited section 8.1 to new RFA compensation scale (07JAN24, 1147 MST)
28: Edited section 4.1 to allow team owners to spend IA players TPE during the offseason (07JAN24, 1150 MST)
29: Changed section 7.2 from a TPE scale to an APE scale (07JAN24, 1152 MST)
30: Added section 5.1.1 Determining Draft Locations (07JAN24, 1158 MST)
31: Edited sections 10.1 and 10.3. Section 10.1 now states that owner fees are a one time collection for new owners. Removed the payments based on percentages in section 10.3 in lieu of a flat rate of pay per month. Also increased royalty payments from 20% to 25%. (07JAN24, 1206 MST)
32: Edited sections 10.3 and 10.4 and added section 10.5. 10.3 was changed to make the league compliant with local state laws, 10.4 and 10.5 now reflect recent changes in how the league handles relocations. (26MAR24, 0947 MST)
33. Edited section 8.2 to include new contract extension rules and properly explain the process of a contract extension. Edited section 8.6 increasing the CB positional limit from 2 to 3. Added sections 5.6, 5.6.1 and 5.6.2 (19MAY24, 1353 MST)
34. Removed sections 2.1.3 and 2.1.4 regarding re-creates and carry over TPE. (08DEC24, 1811 MST) - Caboose
USFA 
