Official
Rulebook

Franchise League Football is a contract-based keeper league where each franchise manages a roster of players with varying contract statuses. Players sit under one of three main contract statuses:

• Regular multi-year contract
• Free agent (FA)
• Restricted free agent (RFA)

Salary cap. Each franchise operates under a $100M salary cap, which applies only during the pre-season auction. There is no salary cap during the regular season.

Active rosters. Each franchise may carry up to 14 players on their active roster at all times during the season.

Starting lineups. Each franchise starts one QB, two RB, two WR, one TE, one FLEX (RB/WR/TE), one K and one D/ST each week.

• Players may only start at their primary position.
• You still receive points a player scores lining up elsewhere (e.g. a TE or RB split out as a receiver, or a RB taking a direct snap).
• The point totals of five non-starting players do not count toward the franchise total.
• Official lineups live in the app — franchises have until five minutes before the start of their players' games to make changes.

Reserve roster. A maximum of two players per franchise may be on the reserve roster at any time (this includes the college farm player).

• There is no injury requirement to place a player on reserve.
• A player placed on reserve must stay there a minimum of four weeks unless released. Once released, any player — including a college farm player — is eligible to be picked up by any franchise.
• After Week 12, the four-week minimum is waived.
• During the playoffs, players may be activated from reserve, but no additional active spots are allowed. A player placed on reserve during the playoffs must remain there through the playoffs.
• NFL players may not be picked up directly onto reserve — they must first come from the active roster (though they may immediately move from active to reserve).
• Players traded from a reserve roster must go to the new franchise's reserve roster.
• College farm players are placed directly onto reserve and count toward the two-player maximum. They cannot start or accumulate points while still in college.

All contracts are initially three years, with the salary set during the pre-season auction. Heading into the third year of a contract, a franchise can:

• Drop the player.
• Retain the player at the same salary for one final year. That player becomes a free agent at the end of the year and cannot be protected the following season.
• Extend the player for additional years at a fixed price increase per year. Once the extension ends, the player becomes a free agent (a player may not receive a second extension).

By the league's keeper deadline, franchises must declare all contract extensions. Extension salary formulas:

Example. A running back won at auction for $24M starts a 3-year contract at $24M. He can be dropped anytime (a new franchise assumes the contract). In Year 3 he enters the extension zone: drop him, keep him at $24M for a final year, or extend at $2M per added year — a 5-year extension makes his salary $34M, and he can be kept at $34M for those five seasons.

College farm players activated by the keeper deadline become RFAs at the end of their initial contract, with salaries of $2M (Yr 1), $4M (Yr 2) and an RFA base of $6M (Yr 3).

Each league sets its own auction timeline — start time, nomination windows and blind-bidding periods. Reaching the keeper deadline initiates the auction in the app. The pre-season consists of RFA rounds, regular FA rounds and a College Farm Draft.

Keepers. Before the auction, franchises designate between 6 and 9 players to keep under their current contracts (including RFAs and activated college farm players), submitted via the app before the league's deadline. Each franchise must be under the cap at this time, accounting for a minimum of $2M per remaining roster spot.

Restricted free agents. Any kept player who was not under contract the previous year (picked up mid-season) is an RFA, as are college players entering their third year under contract.

• RFAs are bid on in alphabetical order by last name.
• Any franchise can acquire a player off another roster by bidding above that player's salary; the original franchise may match the winning bid.
• Bidding opens and closes at league-set times; the highest submitted bid wins and becomes the player's salary — the start of a new 3-year contract.
• The original franchise has a set window to match and retain the player; no declaration is treated as no match.
• A franchise cannot outbid its cap — it must always keep at least $2M for every remaining roster spot.
• If no one bids on an RFA, the player stays with the original franchise on a new regular contract at the minimum RFA salary for the position.

Regular auction. Franchises run a multi-round auction until every roster reaches 14 players, taking turns nominating FAs (in random order). Blind bids are placed within the allotted time; the highest bid wins and starts a new 3-year contract. Once a roster is full, that franchise can no longer nominate. Ties go to the first bid submitted, and no franchise may outbid its cap.

College player draft. After the auction, a one-round college draft is held. In Year 1 the order is random; afterward it's set by the Weeks 15–17 non-playoff tournament plus the finishing order of playoff franchises. The non-playoff tournament seeds teams by power ranking (its winner earns the first college pick); the champion picks last. A drafted college player occupies one of the two reserve spots, can be dropped, picked up (into a reserve spot only) or traded. If a player returns to college, the franchise may keep his rights but forfeits that year's pick — decided before the draft begins.

Half-PPR scoring. A franchise earns the points its starters produce for their NFL teams.

Defensive bonus. Defenses earn bonus points based on the points they hold the opposing offense to:

Special teams. All fantasy points earned by special teams are awarded to the D/ST, not to the individual player.

Supplemental draft. Held every week at a set time using a FAAB system. Each franchise gets a $100M supplemental budget for the season. In reverse power-ranking order, franchises nominate a player to auction; bidding continues until one high bidder remains, and the winning bid is subtracted from that franchise's budget.

• Players dropped during supplemental are eligible to be nominated right away. The auction ends when no franchise nominates a player.
• Afterward, all free agents are available with no impact on the supplemental budget; players dropped after the auction are available immediately.
• Supplemental runs through the playoffs, but a player picked up from the supplemental before the first playoff game is not eligible to be kept the following year.
• A winning bid has no impact on contract status or salary. A kept free agent becomes an RFA the next season; a contracted player who is picked up retains the same contract.

Free agents. Once supplemental is complete, franchises add/drop players first-come, first-served in the app. A player can only be signed to the active 14-man roster — never directly to reserve.

Trades. A trade is final once agreed by both franchises and announced to the league via the app. The trade deadline is the start of Week 12. Under the "no player rentals" rule, a traded player cannot be traded back to his former franchise for at least two weeks. Trading resumes after the fantasy playoffs conclude.

Schedule. Each franchise plays a 14-game schedule across Weeks 1–14 of the NFL season, determined randomly at the start of each season.

Starting lineup. 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 FLEX (RB/WR/TE), 1 D/ST and 1 K.

Injury replacement. If a starter is declared out mid-game, a designated bench backup replaces their points for subsequent quarters — e.g. the backup scores from Q3 onward if the starter exits at halftime.

Field. Four franchises make the playoffs — the top three by overall record plus one wild card.

Wild card. The fourth spot goes to the franchise with the highest power ranking (⅓ record, ⅓ points, ⅓ matchup, each ranked 1–12 and averaged). Tiebreakers: head-to-head, then overall record, then most points.

Seeding. The #1 seed picks the order of its three round-robin games. The decision is due by 11:59pm Tuesday of Week 15, otherwise it defaults to #1 vs #4, then #1 vs #3, then #1 vs #2.

Round robin. The four playoff franchises play three games across Weeks 15, 16 and 17. Champion and runner-up are decided by: record of the three games, then total points, then head-to-head. A 3-0 team is champion; otherwise the 2-1 team with the most points wins (ties broken head-to-head).

Record tiebreakers. For ties in record — whether for a playoff spot or seeding — the order is head-to-head, then total points for the season, then the franchise with the longer playoff drought, then a coin flip. When three or more franchises are tied, head-to-head among all tied teams is used first, then season points, then playoff drought. If any franchise is eliminated by a tiebreaker, the process restarts with those remaining.

Non-playoff franchises compete in a three-week tournament to set the draft order for the next college player draft.