Top Shelf Football League
UPDATED MAY 2024
1.0 LEAGUE STRUCTURE
The TSFL is a 28 team H2H league using the most current NFL data provided by DK SSports. The league will begin play in August each year and play one game per week over a 20 week scheduled season.
The league week will begin on Monday at 8AM EST and end on Sunday at 10PM EST each week.
TSFL Playoff format will comprise additional weeks for teams involved and will mirror current NFL playoff formats.
The TSF will use a salary cap, currently $121,000,000
The TSFL will hold an annual rookie draft of newly drafted NFL rookies, to be held in reserve on their drafted franchise until such time as they receive a rating by DK Sports.
All league games must be played head-to-head. Simming games or playing vs a computer coach is strictly prohibited.
2.0 TEAM ROSTERS
Each team will carry the following roster components
a) 52 active players
b) 5 practice squad players
c) Up to 3 Injured Reserve players (optional)
d) Drafted rookies (will be added to active roster the following season)
3.0 PLAYER DEFINITIONS
ACTIVE PLAYER any of the 52 players assigned to your team that are permanently owned by the franchise until traded or released by the GM
PRACTICE SQUAD any player claimed by their franchise as part of the active roster for the current season. These players must be from their own franchise, unowned by other teams, and will be returned to the FREE AGENT list at the conclusion of the season. These players will have a salary of ONE dollar.
FREE AGENT any unowned player who is rated and included in the data file provided by DK Sports
UNRATED PLAYER any currently owned player who is not included in the data file provided by DK Sports.
INJURED RESERVE any player (to a maximum of 3) currently on your roster on cut-down day who has a durability rating of 3 or below. UNRATED PLAYERS may be included. The minimum salary for a player on INJURED RESERVE is 350K.
4.0 TEAM ROSTER REQUIREMENTS
All teams must fill the following positions on their team rosters. All requirements must be satisfied by the 52 player ACTIVE ROSTER. Each player may only count toward one roster position for the purpose of meeting these requirements.
Players moved to INJURED RESERVE or members of the PRACTICE SQUAD will not count toward any of these requirements
QB 3 required, but a team may carry only two QBs if one has a durability rating of 10. No team may carry more than 3 QBs. Each team must carry a minimum of 350 pass attempts from all active sources and may not exceed 800 attempts. No team may carry more than one QB with more than 400 pass attempts for the season
RB 3 required. Each team must carry a minimum of 225 rush attempts from all sources but not exceed 600 rush attempts.
TE/HB 3 required
WR 5 required. Each team must carry a minimum of 175 receptions but not more than 550 receptions from any/all sources.
OFFENSIVE LINE Each team must carry at least 8 OL with a minimum of 2 C, 3G, and 3T
DEFENSIVE FRONT 7 (DL+LB) Each team must carry a minimum of 13 players distributed as follows:
OLB 4 required
DE 4 required
DT 2 required*
ILB 2 required*
*DT+ILB 5 required total
DEFENSIVE BACKS (CB+S) 8 players required with a minimum of 5 CBs and 3 S
PUNTER/KICKER Each team may carry only one primary P or K with a durability of 10. If you have a P or K with a durability below 10, you must add another to cover a minimum if 17 games at each position. Any player applied to P or K must have that position as his primary NFL position.
SPECIAL TEAMS Each team is required to carry a Long Snapper and a Holder with 10 durability, or enough players to cover 17 games.
SPECIAL TEAMS FATIGUE
Any kicker with 20+ field goal attempts, punter 50+ punt attempts. KR or PR with 10+ returns will be immune from season fatigue. Fair catches do not count as a return for PR.
On the first day of the new league year, every team must be under $121,000,000
5.0 TEAM SALARY CAP
Each team will have an in-season salary cap of $121,000,000 to included the 52 man ACTIVE ROSTER plus any players on INJURED RESERVE
Once rosters are cut to 45 players at the beginning of the Free Agent draft, the salary cap will be $118,000,000 which will increase to $121,000,000 at the conclusion of the annual Free Agent draft.
At no time after the start of the new league year will teams be allowed to exceed the salary cap.
6.0 ROOKIE DRAFT
The TSFL rookie draft will be 5 rounds and ordered according to current NFL seeding rules and tiebreakers. No roster adjustments of any kind will be required prior to the rookie draft. Drafted rookies will not have any salary until rated by DK Sports.
League trading period ONE will end within the 48 hours prior to the start of the rookie draft, then resume after the draft is completed. Rookie picks may not be traded during the rookie draft.
7.0 FREE AGENT DRAFT
The TSFL Free Agent draft will consist of 7 mandatory rounds. The draft will include all TSFL free agent players as defined in section 3.0. After the FA draft, there will be a 72 hour period where teams can add/delete players from their roster on a first come/first serve basis.
At the beginning of the new league year, each team will be required to cut their ACTIVE roster to under $121 Million, plus any option INJURED RESERVE players.
The Free Agent draft order will be determined by the team salary for highest paid 45 players at the issuance of the new league file.
8.0 TRADING in TSFL
There will be two trading periods during the TSFL season
TRADING PERIOD ONE will occur after the new league file is issued and will last for 3-4 weeks until 1 week before the start of the FA draft. During this time you must:
a) You must remain under salary cap of $121,000,000, with you needing to be below $118,000,000 at the start of the FA draft
b) You must get below the max limits of attempts for skill position players prior to the FA draft
c) You must get into compliance with league requirements for roster position players
d) You must maintain an ACTIVE roster of 45 players, and cut down to 45 at the time of the FA draft
e) You may not trade players on INJURED RESERVE, not add or remove players from that list.
f) Rookie picks for this year may be traded
TRADING PERIOD TWO will begin approximately 24 hours after the rookie draft and will end after Thursday of Week 4.
a) You must remain under salary cap of $121,000,000
b) You may be under league requirements for skill player attempts
c) You may be under league requirements for roster position players
d) You must maintain an ACTIVE roster of 52 players
e) You may not trade players on INJURED RESERVE, not add or remove players from that list.
f) Rookies from the recently completed rookie draft may be traded
g) Rookie picks for the following off season may be traded
WHAT MAY NOT BE TRADED
1. Free agent draft picks
2. Practice squad players
3. Rookie picks beyond the next TSFL rookie draft
4. Supplemental rookie picks acquired through league rewards
6. Players on Injured reserve
HOW TO CONDUCT A TRADE
1. When a trade is agreed, it must be posted in the appropriate Slack channel
2. The non-posting trade partner must CONFIRM the trade as posted as a reply in thread
3. Once posted and confirmed, the league will PROCESS the trade to make the trade official
9.0 PLAYING YOUR TSFL GAMES
It is the responsibility of the HOME coach to make initial contact and to assure the weeks game is scheduled in a timely manner.
A game must be schedule, confirmed, and posted as scheduled NLT Thursday at 10PM EST to the appropriate Slack channel. If the game is not scheduled by that time either coach must alert the league and request a substitute coach be assigned.
Any substitute coach must be assigned by the league.
Simulating games or playing vs the computer is strictly forbidden.
Once a game is completed, the XBX file for that game must be posted to the Slack channel within one hour of game completion.
All games must be reported NLT 10PM on Sunday
10.0 GAME PLAY is TSFL
All uninjured players on the 57-man game-day roster must be active. No players may be marked Inactive for any game except for players on INJURED RESERVE
Players may not be played out of position if there is an available player at that position. The exception is for players rated LB-S who may play either ILB or OLB as well as safety.
Submitting a computer coach is not required, but is a wise move to assist with quick substitutions during game play.
Sportsmanship is required. It is the responsibility of each coach to make an attempt to win every game. If any coach feels this etiquette was breached, notify the commissioner and the game files will be reviewed.
11.0 TSFL PENALTIES and REWARDS
Each coach will be allowed to have two games per year subbed by another league coach without fine not acknowledging reason. Requesting a sub coach for your team by 10PM on Monday will be an excused absence and will not count toward these two games.
The following negative instances will incur penalty points
Standing up a coach for a scheduled game without cause 2 points
b) Failure to report a game within 1 hour of game completion 1 point
c) Failure to contact or respond to game scheduling in a timely manner 1 point
d) Requiring or using and unscheduled substitute coach beyond the 2 allowed 1 point per game
e) Unsportsmanlike conduct Commissioners discretion
The following positive actions will be awarded bonus points
a) Acting as a league assigned substitute coach 1 point
b) Completing an entire season without incurring any penalty points 3 points
c) League assistance by request 1 point
d) Recruiting a new coach to the league who stays in TSFL for 1 calendar year and does not incur any penalty points 3 points
REDEEMING REWARD POINTS
1. Reward points will be first used to offset any accrued penalty points
2. Supplemental rookie draft pick after round 5 2 points per pick
3. Supplemental rookie draft pick after round 4 3 points per pick
4. Supplemental rookie draft pick after round 3 4 points per pick
You may mix and match reward points in any combination. Reward points do not carry over to the following season.
THE COST OF PENALTY POINTS
1. Up to 3 points league warning. These points carry over to the following season
2. 4 points loss of worst owned rookie draft pick
3. 5 points loss of next to worst owned rookie draft pick
4. 6 points loss of two worst owned rookie draft picks
5. More than 6 points league expulsion
REWARD OR PENALTY POINTS ARE APPLIED TO THE COACH AND NOT TO THE TEAM.
12.0 TSFL LEAGUE CALENDAR (2024)
NEW LEAGUE YEAR BEGINS ON MAY 1ST OF EACH YEAR
LATE FEBRUARY Release of annual prediction ratings file
LATE APRIL expected release of new game by DKS
MAY 2 (approx..) Within 48 hours after new game release, new TSFL file will be released to league members. Free Agent draft order will be established from this initial file, with the salaries of the top 45 players being used to determine the order, with lowest salary drafting 1st and going up from there. At this time, all teams will need to be below $121 M prior to the initiation of trading. All teams must confirm their rosters prior to trading, with rosters assumed to be confirmed if not having done so by midnight 5/3 (NOTE: You will not be able to alter your roster after that time).
MAY 25
All teams at this point will need to cut down to 45 players, with the max salary being $118 M (in order to facilitate signing 7 players and not going over the cap), and every team must be below max attempts at the skill positions, and must be under the max player limits on their roster (ie, only 1 K/P with a durability of 10 on your roster, etc). Trading is frozen at this time a week prior to the draft, in order to load Stratdraft with the players for the draft.
JUNE 1
The free agent draft will begin in Stratdraft; teams will be responsible for monitoring their own salary cap, with teams going over the cap being penalized a draft pick and losing that player. We will be going over Stratdraft here in the next couple of weeks, but it allows you to set a board ahead of time so your timeslot isnt missed. Each team will make 7 selections over 7 days, which should fill their team to 52 players
JUNE 9
Upon the completion of the Free Agent draft, a new league file will be issued; at that point, we will have a 72 hour window for teams get their rosters finalized with a first come/first served add and drop. By the time this add/drop phase is done, every team should be in compliance with roster rules.
JUNE 12
At this point, every team will then select 5 players from their corresponding NFL teams to make up their taxi squad. These players will not be retained the following season, so the emphasis should be filling any holes you have on your team. These players will NOT count towards the salary cap, nor will they be counted towards max attempts (ie, you can add a 4th QB, or go over RB attempts if the taxi squad player is available).
JUNE 15
Rookie draft will commence on Stratdraft, with only drafted rookies being eligible for selection; these rookies will be the one selected in the most recent NFL draft (the one just completed in April) and will be added to your active roster in 2025.
JUNE 23
Trading will reopen
AUGUST 18
Week one TSFL league file released
AUGUST 19
Opening Day, 2024
SEPTEMBER 12
Trading period 2 closes.
League week 15 will begin 25th. League week 16 will begin on December 6th. This allows two weeks to complete week 15 games during the Thanksgiving holiday. Also, Weeks 19 and 20 will be scheduled and will be byes for the Christmas break
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