Currently in force: 2026 Season (Season 6)

Status: adopted by the commissioner 2026-08-09, ratified at the league meeting of Thursday, August 13, 2026, and promoted to this document on 2026-08-29. The draft calendar in Draft → Key times was revised 2026-08-12 — the draft is Tuesday, September 1, 2026, and keeper designations were due Saturday, August 29.

What this document is. The rules of The League, in force. Every question raised against the 2025 constitution was answered and written here as a rule rather than as a proposal; the league voted on the short list of further changes on August 13 and the results are folded in. Nothing in this document is pending, with the one exception the amendment log names below.

One item is noted and not yet ratified. Article I § 4 was rewritten and § 5 added on 2026-08-22, after the meeting, so the league has not voted on that text. It is recorded as unratified in the Amendment log and it is the only such row. Everything else here carries a vote or is a correction to the practice the league confirmed.

Where the rules came from. Forty-four defects in the 2025 document — contradictions, dates that didn't exist, practices nobody had voted on, and questions it never answered — were catalogued and ruled on individually. A year-over-year account of what moved and why is in the league's rule-changes summary for 2026. This document is the rules themselves, without the argument.

The 2025 constitution — Season 5, operative until 2026-08-29 — is preserved in the league archive. The Amendment log at the end of this document is the record of what has changed since.

Officer contact details, the Discord invite, and dues payment handles are in the commissioner's contact sheet, kept out of this document so that personal numbers can't reach a public page.

Article I — Amendments, votes, and quorum

1. Thresholds. Measured against the full twelve-team league, not against ballots cast. Turnout does not lower the bar.

2. Quorum. At least 9 of 12 GMs must cast a ballot for a vote to count. A GM who abstains has cast a ballot: abstentions count toward quorum and toward neither side of the threshold. Where a threshold is expressed as a share of votes rather than a fixed count, abstentions are excluded from that calculation — a majority means a majority of the ballots cast for or against. On an expulsion vote the subject is excluded from both the threshold and the quorum, which becomes 9 of 11.

3. Proposal deadline. Amendments must be submitted to the LC and posted to Discord at least 7 days before the offseason rules event. Items raised on the call may be discussed but are voted the following year, unless all twelve GMs agree to take them up on the spot.

This deadline first binds at the 2027 event. Article I does not exist until it is adopted, so it cannot govern the notice given for its own adoption — and the 2026 meeting was moved inside seven days after this text was written.

4. Effective date. There are three windows, and every amendment falls in exactly one of them.

Nothing applies backwards. An amendment never undoes something already done under the rule it replaces — a keeper designation submitted, a trade completed, a waiver claim processed, a pick made. And an amendment that would change a deadline already past takes effect the following season instead, whichever window it was ratified in. The league does not get to re-price keepers after designations are in, or resize rosters after the draft has run.

5. Correcting the record is not an amendment. Where this document states as fact something the league demonstrably does not do — a roster setting, a date, a number the platform has always had otherwise — the LC corrects the text to what the league actually plays, and posts the correction to Discord with the evidence for it. That is a clerical act and takes effect immediately. It is not a rule change and carries no threshold, because nothing about how the league plays has changed.

Two limits, and they are what keep this from being a commissioner's back door:

• It only runs toward practice. The LC may make the document match what the league does. The LC may never make the league do what the document says by calling it a correction.
• Any GM may challenge a correction within 7 days of it being posted. A challenge converts it into an ordinary amendment at whatever threshold its subject carries, and the league votes. The corrected text stands in the meantime, because the alternative is playing under a rule everyone knows is not the rule.

Written 2026-08-22, out of the roster-composition correction: both constitutions said a 14-man roster and a 5-man bench while the league had been playing 15 and 6 since 2022. That is a defect in the record, not a rule anybody voted for, and the document should not have needed a ballot to say what the league was already doing.

6. The LC's vote. The LC votes as one of twelve. There is no tiebreaking vote and no commissioner veto over a ratified amendment. The LC's separate in-season authorities — trade-veto override, penalty rulings, dispute resolution — are defined where they appear and are not expanded by this article.

7. Order of business. Items that govern another item are taken first. The order at the offseason event is: awards → Article I → the rules vote → the draft lottery. A lottery run before the standings and lottery rules are ratified is a lottery anyone can challenge. Keeper designations are not part of this evening — they fall on their own deadline, sixteen days later.

8. Adopting this article. Article I is taken first, requires the quorum of 9, and passes on a majority of the ballots cast for or against.

9. The bootstrap. The 2025 constitution states no amendment threshold at all — that absence is the defect Article I exists to fix, and it means no pre-existing rule governs its adoption. The league therefore adopts it by the plainest available standard, under § 8 above, and everything after it runs under the article itself. Once adopted, Article I can only be changed at 8 of 12 — a bar that can be lowered by a simple majority isn't a bar. Anyone who wants to contest the bootstrap should do it before the vote, not after a result they dislike.

League officers

League Commissioner (LC): Evan

League Co-Commissioner (LCC): Justin

Discord is the communication platform for TL. League business — trades, claims, disputes, votes — is not official until it is posted there.

General Managers

TL consists of 12 General Managers. For the 2026 season:

This document uses first names only. Surnames, ESPN account names and contact details are kept in the commissioner's private records, which are not published — the constitution is the document most likely to end up somewhere public, so it carries no more of anyone's name than the league actually uses.

"Seasons" counts seasons holding a seat, including the current one. The 2022 championship was won by Tim (House of Pain), who left the league after the 2024 season. Seventeen people have held one of the twelve seats across six seasons; the full seat history is in the league records, sourced from ESPN's own season history.

Replacing an owner

When a GM leaves the league, the departing team carries forward intact: roster, keeper eligibility and keeper clocks, draft picks — including picks already traded away or acquired — and FAB balance all transfer to the incoming GM exactly as they stood. Nothing is reset, released, or redistributed.

The LC selects the replacement. The LC is expected to consult the league but is not bound by a vote. A replacement GM assumes every obligation of the seat, including dues, from the season they take it over.

Dues

TL league dues are $250 per team, a total pot of $3,000.

Dues must be paid in full before the draft begins — that is, by 7:00 PM ET on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. Payment handles are in the commissioner's message; payment channels are logistics and can change without a vote. Dues levels change by a money vote under Article I, not by informal consensus.

Unpaid dues

An unpaid balance accrues 10% interest per month, compounding. The first accrual falls on the first day of the month after dues are due — for 2026, October 1, 2026 — and every accrual after that falls on the first of the month. Interest is charged on the full outstanding balance, including previously accrued interest.

Accrual stops when the balance reaches $500. The accrual that would carry it past $500 is truncated so the balance lands exactly there.

Worked example — a GM who does not pay until January 1, 2027:

That is $250 × 1.10⁴ = $366.03 — four accruals and $116.03 in interest on a $250 debt, four months after the draft. The number is meant to be unpleasant. Pay at the draft.

While a balance is outstanding, that GM may not trade future-year draft picks, and any prize money won is paid net of the outstanding balance. The interest goes to The League Bank; the principal backfills the pot it was owed to.

A balance still outstanding at the following season's keeper deadline forfeits the seat. Capped interest is not a subscription — at some point not paying has to mean not playing, and that is the point.

If dues go uncollected, the shortfall comes out of The League Bank's $150 allocation first and the champion's prize after that. No other payout is reduced. Whenever that principal is eventually collected it repays whoever covered it, in reverse order of who covered it — the champion of that season first, then the Bank. Last to lose it, first to get it back. A late payment doesn't become somebody else's windfall.

Payout structure and awards

Total pot: $3,000 (12 × $250).

(12 × $250 = $3,000 in. $1,900 + $700 + $250 + $150 = $3,000 out. Balanced — assuming twelve teams pay. If any don't, see Unpaid dues.)

There is no regular-season points-leader prize and no separate worst-record prize. The Toilet Bowl Trophy is awarded on worst regular-season record; where two teams tie on record, the lower Points For takes it.

The perpetual trophies and their name plates are not funded by this table — every dollar of the pot is allocated. Engraving has always been paid by the LC personally. Funding it is the obvious first use of The League Bank whenever the league decides to open one.

The League Bank

New in 2026. The League Bank is the league's standing fund. Money that has nowhere else to go goes here, and it stays here.

What goes in:

• Up to $150 per season off the top of the pot — "up to," because the Bank is the first thing reduced if dues go uncollected.
• All interest collected on unpaid dues.
• All penalty fines, including the abandonment fine under Roster abandonment, and interest on unpaid fines.
• The 25% withheld from a caretaker manager whose autodrafted team wins the championship.
• Any unclaimed or forfeited money — a prize nobody collects, a payout reduced under any rule in this document, anything the payout table does not already allocate.
• Donations. Any GM may contribute at any time, in any amount. Donations are voluntary, carry no advantage of any kind, and are acknowledged publicly on Discord unless the donor asks otherwise. The more the league puts in, the better the league gets.

The Bank is dormant. It accumulates and it is not spent. Nothing in this document authorizes a withdrawal, an investment, or a disbursement from it.

What the Bank is for and what unlocks it are deliberately left open. That is not an oversight — the league is building a balance first and deciding what it's for second. Answering it is a money vote under Article I whenever the league moves to activate the Bank.

Custody is not left open, because the money is real from draft night. The LC holds the balance and reports it at every offseason event. That is custody, not authority: the LC cannot spend it, invest it, or lend it, and if the LC leaves the league the balance transfers to the LCC before the seat changes hands. Appendix 1.4 is a standing reminder of what happens when twelve people's money sits somewhere with no written procedure.

"Unclaimed or forfeited money" never means a reduction this document already directs somewhere else. Four of those exist and none of them is the Bank's: the Investment Fund's stop-loss against the championship prize (Appendix 1.4); the shortfall from uncollected dues; the principal portion of a prize paid net of what a GM owes, which backfills the pot; and anything in the Survivor Series pot, which is never the Bank's under any circumstance.

The 2021–2023 TL Investment Fund is a separate, dormant scheme with its own history and its own unresolved questions; it is preserved at Appendix 1.4 and is not part of the Bank.

Roster composition

Roster size: 15 · Total starters: 9 · Total bench: 6 · Injured reserve: 2

Corrected 2026-08-22. This section read 14 · 9 · 5 · 2 in both the 2025 and 2026 documents. The league has not played that since 2021. What it actually played — the ESPN settings and the draft boards agree — is a 6-man bench and a 15-man roster in 2022, 2023 and 2025, with 2024 the only recent season at five. The August 13 ballot asked the league to "confirm or amend what we're running now" and the league confirmed it; what we were running was six, so the number in this table was the error and it is fixed here. Anyone who wants the bench actually reduced can raise it as an amendment at 7 of 12.

The draft is one round per roster spot, so the 2026 draft is 15 rounds.

\The TL roster includes two starting Flex positions and no Kicker.*

Injured reserve

If ESPN allows it, the league allows it. A player may occupy an IR slot if and only if ESPN's platform permits that player to be placed there. In practice that includes players designated IR and players designated O (Out).

The LC will not hear arguments that a particular player "shouldn't be allowed in IR." The platform is the rule. There is nothing to litigate.

Two consequences GMs should know before they complain about them, both ESPN behavior rather than league penalty:

• If ESPN rules a player ineligible for the IR slot, the roster is locked out of waiver and free-agent moves until the slot is cleared.
• Once that player's NFL team has played its game for the week, the player cannot be moved, and the lockout persists for the rest of that week. The LC cannot reverse this.

Activating a player from IR onto a full roster requires a corresponding drop, made by the GM.

Scoring

TL is scored using fractional fantasy points. Every passing, receiving, and rushing yard matters. The live ESPN league settings remain authoritative if they and this table ever disagree.

Passing

Receiving

Rushing

Miscellaneous

Team Defense / Special Teams

No kicker scoring is defined, consistent with 0 kicker starters.

Regular season schedule

TL's schedule is generated randomly after the draft. The regular season is NFL weeks 1–14.

2026 NFL Week 1 opens Wednesday, September 9 with the main slate Sunday, September 13. Week 14 concludes Monday, December 14, 2026.

Standing warning for anything automated: the 2026 kickoff game is on a Wednesday, not a Thursday. Weekly lock times are computed as the earliest kickoff in that week's slate. Nothing about the NFL calendar is ever hardcoded.

The League Average game

Ratified at the league meeting, August 13, 2026; effective 2026. Every week of the regular season, each team plays two games: its head-to-head matchup, and a game against the rest of the league.

The second game is scored against the league median — with twelve teams, the midpoint of the 6th- and 7th-highest scores that week. Score in the top six and you are credited a win; score in the bottom six, a loss. The result counts in the standings exactly as a head-to-head result does.

Fourteen weeks, two results a week: the regular season is now 28 games, and a team's record reads accordingly — a perfect season is 28-0.

ESPN computes and posts the median game natively; there is nothing for the LC to score by hand. The ballot item was named "League Average," and that is the league's name for it; the implementation is ESPN's league-median game, which is the playable version of the idea — beat the middle of the league, get a win.

The League Average game runs in the regular season only. Post-season rounds are head-to-head, exactly as written below.

Post-season schedule

The TL post-season is three weeks long: two rounds followed by a championship game. The top six seeds are invited.

• Round 1 (NFL week 15): 6-seed at 3-seed, 5-seed at 4-seed.
• Round 2 (NFL week 16): the 3/6 winner faces the 2-seed; the 4/5 winner faces the 1-seed.
• Championship (NFL week 17): the two round-2 winners.

NFL week 18 does not affect TL scoring.

TL scores only the games named in this section. ESPN schedules a consolation bracket for teams outside the top six; no consolation-bracket result affects any TL standing, prize, or lottery weight. The placement games below are TL games that happen to sit inside ESPN's consolation bracket — being on that screen is not what makes them count. What makes the 3rd-place game count is that it is named here.

Placement games

• 3rd-place game (week 17) — the two round-2 losers. This game counts. Its winner finishes 3rd and is paid $250; its loser finishes 4th.
• 5th-place game (week 17) — the two round-1 losers. This game is an exhibition. It has no bearing on final standings. 5th and 6th are ordered by regular-season Points For.

The asymmetry is deliberate. Third place is money, so it is settled on the field. Fifth and sixth differ only in lottery seeding, and that is settled on the season's body of work. Nobody should show up to the 5th-place game believing it decides anything.

Round-1 losers have no TL game in week 16. Whatever ESPN schedules them that week is not scored.

Standings

There is one division.

Regular-season standings are determined by regular-season record, with Points For breaking ties. A team's record includes both weekly results — the head-to-head game and the League Average game — so a full regular season is 28 games. The regular season concludes after NFL week 14. The top six teams are invited to the post-season, and seeding among teams with identical records is determined by total Points For.

Head-to-head results are not a tiebreaker at any stage. Two teams that split their season series and finish 9-5 are separated by Points For. This is a deliberate choice.

Final standings

Final standings are set at the conclusion of the championship game and establish the following season's draft lottery odds.

A team that misses the playoffs is always ranked in the bottom six.

2025 final standings of record

These set the 2026 lottery odds.

Champions and final standings for 2021–2024 are recorded in the league records.

Draft

The 2026 TL draft is fully remote. It is held Tuesday, September 1, 2026, at 7:00 PM ET, on FanDraft with Discord voice.

Key times

Picks in the upcoming draft become tradeable the moment the draft order is announced — at the conclusion of the lottery on August 13 — and stop being tradeable at noon on draft day. Until the order is announced, a pick in that draft has no identity and cannot be traded. Picks in future drafts are on a different calendar; see Trades → Trade deadline. Submit all draft trades to Discord before the deadline.

Pick timer

Each pick is on a 90-second clock, every round. FanDraft is configured to it and it is not changed mid-draft.

When the clock expires, the LC counts off roughly 20 more seconds before the auto-selection lands. After that the pick auto-selects best available and the draft moves on, and picks are not inserted later. The clock does not stop for thinking — the one thing that stops it is a lost connection, under Remote-draft failure plan below.

The LC may reverse an auto-selection if the GM announced their pick in Discord voice or text before the auto-selection landed — the count-off counts. That is the failure this rule exists for: you knew your pick and the interface didn't. It is not a licence to reopen a pick you hadn't made, and the LCC rules on any reversal involving the LC's own team.

The clock is a ceiling, not a target. The expectation for 2026: use the full ninety seconds in round 1 — first remote draft, people finding the interface, the top of the board deserves the air. From round 2 on, get it cooking.

Missed picks, no-shows, and caretaker teams

There is no autodraft if you intend to play in this league. Drafting your own team is the obligation you take on by taking a seat.

1. If you cannot attend, send a proxy. Any GM who cannot be present live or remotely must arrange a surrogate to draft for them — another GM, a friend, a spouse, anyone who will sit in the chair. Notify the LC no later than 24 hours before the draft. A proxy draft is a normal draft.

2. If you no-show — no GM, no proxy, no notice — the team autodrafts best available for the entire draft and is immediately handed to a caretaker manager appointed by the LC.

Caretaker terms:

• The caretaker manages the team for the full 2026 season — lineups, waivers, trades, everything. They are a GM in all respects except the one below.
• If the caretaker's autodrafted team wins the championship, the caretaker receives 75% of the championship prize — $1,425 of $1,900. An autodrafted roster is not a fully earned one and the payout says so. The withheld 25% goes to The League Bank.
• 2nd- and 3rd-place payouts to a caretaker team are paid in full.
• The 75% reduction applies only to a team that was autodrafted. A caretaker who inherits a team its original GM drafted — an abandonment or expulsion mid-season — is paid in full.
• A caretaker owes no dues for the season they are caretaking. That obligation stays with the GM who left it, and it follows them under Unpaid dues. A caretaker who claims the seat permanently owes dues from the following season.

Rights to the seat for the following season, in order:

1. The caretaker manager has first right to claim the team permanently.
2. The GM who forfeited has second right, and only if the caretaker declines.
3. If neither continues, the LC selects a replacement.

Whoever takes the seat takes it intact — roster, keepers, picks, FAB.

Remote-draft failure plan

If FanDraft goes down, the draft pauses. The LC posts in Discord voice and #general, and the draft resumes from the last completed pick once the platform is back. Picks made during a partial outage are honored if the LC can verify them.

If a GM loses connection, the clock pauses. Say so in Discord by any means that reaches the LC or LCC. A pause runs up to 5 minutes, and a GM gets two of them across the whole draft. Past that, the GM drafts by proxy through the LC or LCC — send picks or a queue by any channel that reaches them, and the officer enters them while the clock runs normally.

If the LC is the one who drops, the LCC runs the draft.

Nobody negotiates a fallback at 9:15 PM while eleven people wait. This is the fallback.

Draft order lottery

For every season after the inaugural one, draft order is determined by lottery. A team's number of balls equals its final standing position — 12th place gets 12 balls, 6th place gets 6, the champion gets 1. 78 balls total.

Teams are drawn one at a time without replacement; a team's balls leave the bucket when it is drawn. The order teams come out is the draft order, and the draft then runs standard snake.

Procedure. The bucket is simulated online, live on the draft lottery Discord call, on screen share, with all twelve GMs invited. The simulation is run five times. The first four runs are demonstrations and are discarded. The fifth run is the official draft order. The LC runs it; the result is posted to #general immediately, and pick trading opens.

Odds of receiving each draft slot, by final standing. Rows are the previous season's finish, columns are draft slot, values are percentages computed exactly and then rounded to one decimal. Every row and every column sums to 100 before rounding; a printed row may read 99.9 or 100.1.

First-pick odds are exactly balls ÷ 78.

The lottery is flat on purpose. Last place holds a 15.4% shot at the first pick — better than anyone else, and still an 84.6% chance of not getting it. Finishing 12th instead of 7th moves an expected draft slot from 5.82 to 4.43: 1.4 spots for an entire lost season. The champion has a 51.7% chance of picking last.

Keepers

TL is a 1-player keeper league. Each GM may keep up to 1 player from the previous year's roster. Keeping nobody is allowed.

History. Seasons 1–5 (2021–2025) allowed two keepers per team. The league voted during the 2025 season to reduce the limit to one, and 2026 is the first season played under the single-keeper rule. Everything below is written for one keeper; where a rule only existed to manage a second keeper, it is retired and noted where it stood.

To keep a player, a GM gives up the draft pick two rounds prior to where that player was originally drafted. Each subsequent year the cost moves up two more rounds.

A player's keeper cost follows his draft slot for the whole season, regardless of what happens to him after draft night. Drafted in the 5th, dropped in October, claimed off waivers by another team — he is still a round-5 player, and keeping him still costs a 3rd. Dropping and re-adding a player never resets him to waiver valuation, whoever re-adds him. Only a player who was never on that season's draft board is valued as a waiver pickup.

Where the ladder stops

A keeper's cost can be a 1st or a 2nd round pick. Spending a 1st on a keeper is allowed and always has been. What is not allowed is trading a 1st or 2nd — a different rule, in a different section, and the one people confuse this with.

A player stops being keepable when the escalation runs off the top of the board: when the next cost would be above the 1st round, there is no pick to give and the player returns to the draft pool. A player drafted in round 1 or round 2 is therefore never keepable at all — his first cost would already be off the board.

That is the only way a player stops being keepable. A GM who has traded away the pick a keeper would cost does not lose the keeper — the price climbs instead; see Who pays a keeper's cost below.

The first keepable draft slot is round 3.

What every draft slot is worth

The last two rows are the same ladder, and that is the point: a free agent is valued at a 15th, so he is priced exactly as though he had been drafted in the last round. The two rows are listed separately because people look for the round they drafted a man in, and "round 15" needs to be findable.

Example: a GM drafts a receiver in round 9 of 2026. In 2027 the GM keeps him for a 7th-round pick, in 2028 for a 5th, in 2029 for a 3rd, in 2030 for a 1st. In 2031 there is nothing left to give and he returns to the draft pool.

There is no exception, buyout, or extension. Keepers get expensive and then they're gone — that is the design.

Waiver-wire pickups

Players acquired from waivers or free agency — meaning players who were never on that season's draft board — are valued as a 15th round pick, so keeping one costs a 13th round pick. A drafted player who passes through waivers keeps his draft-slot valuation; see the cost rule at the top of this section.

The draft is 15 rounds, one per roster spot, so a 15th-round pick is a real pick: it exists, it can be traded, and it is what a free-agent pickup is valued at. Should the roster ever shrink, see Traded picks when the draft changes length under Trades.

Retired with the second keeper: under the two-keeper rule, a GM keeping two waiver players gave up a 12th and a 13th and said which keeper was attached to which pick. With one keeper there is no second waiver keeper to price, so that machinery is gone. A player already riding the 12th's ladder from a pre-2026 designation keeps riding it — 12 → 10 → 8 → 6 → 4 → 2.

Who pays a keeper's cost

The team that holds the player at the keeper lock pays the cost, out of its own original draft picks. If you acquire a keeper by trade, you surrender the pick — the team that designated him does not.

Only your own picks pay for keepers. The pick a keeper consumes is the one that started the season as yours in that round. A pick acquired by trade is a draft asset, not keeper currency — it can never be spent on a keeper cost, no matter what round it sits in.

If you traded your pick away, the price goes up — it does not go away. When a GM no longer holds his own pick in the cost round, the cost moves one round earlier, and keeps moving one round earlier until it lands on a round where he still holds his own pick. Example: your keeper costs a 10th and your own 10th went out in a trade — you pay your own 9th. This always terminates in a payable pick, because 1st- and 2nd-round picks cannot be traded, so every GM always holds his own 1st and 2nd.

The LC computes each team's costs — escalations included — and publishes them before designations are due, and re-checks every traded keeper at the lock, since the acquiring team's picks, not the designating team's, are what the cost comes out of.

Replaced in 2026: the previous rule rejected any designation not backed by the required pick and voided any trade that left the acquiring team unable to pay. Neither happens now. No designation is rejected and no trade is voided over a missing pick — the price simply climbs to the GM's next own pick up the board.

Traded keepers

Players who are traded keep their keeper status based on original draft position and how long they have been kept. Example: a running back is drafted in round 9 by Team A in 2026 and kept by Team A in 2027 for a 7th-round pick. Team A trades him to Team B during 2027. For 2028, Team B may keep him by giving up their 5th-round pick, for 2029 a 3rd, and for 2030 a 1st. After that he returns to the pool regardless of who holds him.

Keeper deadline and the offseason event

The 2026 keeper designation deadline is Saturday, August 29, 2026, at 7:00 PM ET. Designations go to the LC by then and are posted to Discord.

By that point the rules for the season have been ratified and the draft order is known — the offseason event ran sixteen days earlier — so nobody designates a keeper without knowing the rule they're designating under or the pick it will cost them.

The offseason rules event is held Thursday, August 13, 2026, 7:00 PM ET, on Google Meet — a one-time exception so no GM is onboarding to a new platform on the night of the vote. Discord is the league's platform from the draft onward. The order of business is:

1. Previous season award winners and the champion are recognized.
2. Article I, then the rules vote.
3. The draft lottery — five simulations, the fifth official — after which the draft order is announced and pick trading opens.

Amending a designation

Once submitted, a designation may be changed for one reason: the designated keeper is injured. A replacement may be selected at no penalty, any time up to the lock. "Injured" means the player is designated IR on ESPN at the keeper lock — not questionable, not doubtful, not a rumour. It is a bright line so nobody has to argue it, and it is measured at the lock so the test and the deadline are the same moment.

There is no "the rules changed" amendment, because they can't — the vote is more than two weeks before designations are due.

At 6:00 PM ET on September 1, 2026 — one hour prior to the draft — keepers lock and cannot be adjusted for any reason.

Trading keepers

After designations are in, GMs may trade keepers for other keepers, for players, or for draft picks, until the draft-pick trade deadline at noon on September 1.

A keeper may be traded for a draft pick straight up. No reciprocal pick is required and no player has to come back the other way. This is the one exception to the player-for-player requirement under Trades, and it applies only in the pre-draft keeper window.

No team may finish the trade window holding more selections than it has roster spots to fill. Roster spots means the 15-man roster; IR does not count. A keeper consumes both a pick and a spot, so the two sides move together. If a team is over after the keeper lock, its latest picks are forfeited until it fits. This is checked at the lock, not at noon, because keeper counts can still move in between.

Waivers

TL uses a Free Agent Budget (FAB) system. Every team begins the season with $100 (not real money) to acquire players for the entire season.

The weekly cycle

$0 bids are allowed. The tiebreaker for identical bids is inverse order of standings — the lower-standing team wins the player.

Dropped players

A player dropped during the week is subject to a 24-hour lock, and is released at approximately 4:00 AM ET after the lock expires — not at the moment the 24 hours elapse.

Example: a player is dropped at 8:00 PM on Wednesday. The lock expires at 8:00 PM Thursday. He is released at approximately 4:00 AM on Friday. If that release falls on the Wednesday waiver run, the highest outstanding bid acquires him; otherwise he is released as a free agent, first-come, first-served.

Players who play before the lock expires: if a dropped player appears in a game before his 24-hour lock has run out, he is not available until claims open the following Tuesday and cannot be added until waivers run that Wednesday.

Waiver cycling

Prohibited. Per ESPN guidelines:

To help prevent the issue of "cycling" players through free agency, a player that is added and released within 24 hours will remain a free agent. Intentional cycling of players through waivers is a serious offense and may result in a team being banned in Fantasy Football.

Locks at the end of the season

A team's waiver claims, free-agent adds, and drops lock as soon as it has no remaining game that can affect its final standing.

Moves made after a team's lock are reversed, and the GM is shamed.

Waivers are locked between seasons. No offseason acquisitions. Players on waivers at season's end stay there and enter the next draft pool.

Trades

TL allows trades during the season and offseason. Trades may include players (keepers included), draft picks, and FAB dollars.

Playoff contention requirement. To make an in-season trade, a team must be in playoff contention. A team is out of contention when it is mathematically eliminated. The LC declares elimination and posts it to Discord the day after the week that causes it; until it is posted, a team is in contention. Once eliminated, it cannot trade until the conclusion of the post-season. Its roster is not otherwise frozen — waiver and free-agent activity continues until the waiver lock above bites.

If a team still has a greater than 0% chance of making the playoffs, all moves are allowed. If a team is close but not quite at 0%, it would be wise to make final trade proposals and plan for next year.

Player-for-player requirement. When a trade includes a player, both teams must send at least one player. A player cannot be traded for a draft pick straight up, regardless of value gap. The one exception is a keeper traded in the pre-draft window, under Trading keepers. Example: Team A trades their RB1 to Team B for Team B's 2027 3rd-round pick; Team B must also include a player, most likely a low-value one.

Draft pick trading limits:

• A GM cannot trade a 1st or 2nd round pick.
• A GM may trade away at most one pick in the first five rounds of any single draft — the upcoming one and the following year's alike.
• No multi-year deals — a GM may only trade a pick for the next season.

Future dues requirement. A GM who trades a future-year draft pick must also pay league dues for the season those picks belong to. Dues paid ahead are held by the LC alongside The League Bank, kept separate from it, and released into that season's pot when it opens. Any trade involving future-year picks is rejected if dues are unpaid. Calculated on current-year dues, with no assumption of future increases. An outstanding balance blocks future-pick trades outright.

FAB trades are processed manually by the commissioner. Any trade involving FAB must be posted to Discord and sent directly to the LC.

Trade deadline

The 2026 trade deadline for players is Wednesday, November 25, 2026, at 12:00 PM ET — the Wednesday between NFL weeks 11 and 12, the day before Thanksgiving.

After the deadline, players are untradeable until keepers are disclosed for the 2027 season. FAB dollars and picks in future drafts remain tradeable through the end of the season for teams still eligible, and through the offseason until the following August's draft-pick trade deadline — subject to the limits above. Picks in the upcoming draft cannot be traded until the lottery announces the order.

Trade vetoes

A trade is vetoed if 6 of the 10 uninvolved teams vote to veto within 24 hours. That is a 60% super-majority. The two teams in the trade are presumed to approve and do not vote.

The LC may override a veto, provided the LC is not a party to the trade. If the LC is a party, the override belongs to the LCC. If both officers are parties, there is no override and the veto stands.

TL defines a competitive veto as a vote against a trade merely because it makes a team stronger. That is not grounds. GMs have the right to make decisions for their own team regardless of public opinion. The only reason to veto a trade is blatant player-dumping or collusion that damages the competitiveness of TL.

Discord declaration

When two teams approve a trade on ESPN, they must post it to #general in this format. An undeclared trade may be delayed so every team gets time to vote — some trade details cannot be shown on ESPN.

\\\\\Trade alert\\\\\**

Trade must be voted on by tomorrow, [insert date], at [insert time] Eastern. Trade is as follows:

Team A gives / Team B receives: [full details — players, draft picks, FAB]

Team B gives / Team A receives: [full details — players, draft picks, FAB]

Voting is in ESPN under League > Recent Activity

@everyone

Traded picks when the draft changes length

A traded pick in a round the next draft no longer has converts to the last round that draft does have. When the deal moved more than one pick that would collide onto the same round, the picks move down together as a block so they stay distinct — a 14th and a 15th owed under a 15-round draft become a 13th and a 14th under a 14-round one. The trade stands as struck; only the round numbers move, and nobody's pick count changes.

This rule does not apply to the 2026 draft. It was written on August 22, 2026 to handle three 2025-season trades struck in 15th-round picks, on the belief that the 2026 draft would be 14 rounds. The roster correction later the same day settled the draft at 15 rounds, so those three picks are real and are placed in round 15 exactly as agreed. The rule is kept because the next time the draft shortens, the league should not have to invent an answer under deadline.

Competitive integrity

Player dumping

TL does not tolerate player dumping. If the LC determines a GM is dumping players of value or accepting lopsided trades out of indifference, the LC may reverse the trades, dock draft selections, or propose expulsion. The LC cannot expel anyone alone — expulsion is a league vote under Article I, and that is true everywhere in this document.

Rentals, mirror-trades, trade-backs

TL does not tolerate rentals, mirror-trades, or trade-backs. GMs cannot borrow a player for a week and trade him back. The second leg of such a trade is vetoed by the LC. Identical reciprocal trades are not processed.

Tanking

Tanking is deliberately reducing your own team's chance of winning a game you are scheduled to play, in order to improve draft lottery position.

It is judged on the roster, not on Discord talk. The LC looks at objective signals:

• Starting a player listed Out, on IR, or on a bye while a healthy, active alternative sits on your bench.
• Leaving a starting slot empty.
• Dropping a productive starter with no replacement added.
• A pattern of the above across consecutive weeks, particularly after elimination.

These are not tanking: a lineup call that didn't work, a streaming decision that backfired, benching a star on a hunch, holding an injured player you believe will return, or building for keeper value. Being bad is not tanking. Losing on purpose is.

Tanking is penalized under the escalating list in Appendix 1.1 § 6 at the LC's discretion, proportionate to what was done — up to and including expulsion, which is always a league vote.

Where the same conduct is both tanking and roster abandonment, both apply and the penalties stack. They are different offences: abandonment is about a lineup nobody set, and it does not care why; tanking is about intent, and it does. The same empty slot can be careless and it can be deliberate, and the league is entitled to answer both. The LC must say which finding is which when imposing a penalty.

Note also that the lottery is flat enough that a thrown season buys about 1.4 draft slots. Tanking in TL is a bad investment as well as a violation.

Roster abandonment

An abandoned week is a week in which a GM leaves an empty starting slot, or a player on a bye or on IR in a starting slot, when an eligible alternative was available on their roster.

It is judged at the moment the slot can no longer be filled — when every eligible replacement's game has kicked off and the lineup can no longer be corrected.

A GM with nobody eligible on the bench has not abandoned anything — unless the bench is short because they are carrying fewer players than the roster allows. Emptying your roster is not a defence; it is the same offence by another route.

Abandoned weeks accumulate across the season. They do not have to be consecutive, and the count does not reset:

The ladder runs only in weeks where the team has a TL game that affects its final standing — so it stops at week 14 for a non-playoff team, and the 5th-place exhibition is not a week you can be fined over.

An unpaid fine accrues on the same terms as unpaid dues — 10% per month, compounding — with the first accrual on the September 1 after it fell due, and the $500 cap applies to each debt separately. Fines and the interest on them go to The League Bank.

An expelled or abandoned team is handed to a caretaker manager under the same terms as a draft no-show — except that the 75% championship reduction does not apply, because the team was not autodrafted.

Conclusion

TL's Constitution is a living document. Rules can be modified from year to year under the process in Article I. Voice your opinion; the process is there so that being outvoted still feels like being part of something. The goal of this league is longevity — let's have a good time.

Appendix 1.1 — Code of Conduct

The purpose of The League is to provide a fun, competitive, and engaging fantasy football experience for all its members. All General Managers are expected to adhere to the following.

1. Sportsmanship and respect

• Treat each other with respect, online and in person.
• Trash talk is acceptable. Personal attacks, harassment, and discriminatory language are not.
• Conduct yourself in a way that reflects positively on TL.

2. Integrity and fair play

• Compete fairly and honestly.
• Collusion, match-fixing, tanking, and any other form of cheating are strictly prohibited.
• All transactions must be conducted in good faith.

3. Rule adherence

• Understand and follow the Constitution.
• Resolve disputes civilly, citing the Constitution.
• The LC is the final authority on rule interpretation, subject to Appendix 1.2.

4. Communication

• Participate in league discussion on Discord.
• Respond to league inquiries in reasonable time.
• Avoid excessive negativity.

5. League participation

• Set a complete, valid lineup every week. See Roster abandonment.
• Engage in trade and waiver activity.
• Draft your own team, live or by proxy. See Missed picks, no-shows, and caretaker teams.

6. Consequences of violations

Penalties may include, in escalating order: verbal warning, fine, loss of draft picks, reversal of transactions, forfeiture of the team to a caretaker, suspension, and expulsion. Severity is determined by the LC in proportion to the violation. Expulsion requires a league vote under Article I — the LC cannot impose it alone.

7. Amendments

This Code of Conduct is amended under Article I, at the rule-change threshold.

By joining TL, each GM agrees to abide by this Code of Conduct.

Appendix 1.2 — Dispute Resolution

1. Initial discussion. Any GM with a complaint should first raise it directly with the other party, respectfully. Most things end here.

2. LC and LCC involvement. If that fails, submit a written complaint to the LC and LCC via Discord DM or email, with a clear description, evidence, and any proposed resolution. The officers may request more information from anyone.

3. Review and decision. The LC and LCC review and decide based on the Constitution, the principles of fairness and sportsmanship, and the specific circumstances. They may consult other GMs or seek outside input, which may result in a league vote.

4. Timeline. A response within 48 hours where possible. Complex matters may take longer.

5. Finality, and the override. Decisions by the LC and LCC are final and binding, with one exception.

Where the LC or the LCC is a party to the dispute, the officers still rule — but their ruling can be overturned by a two-thirds vote of the GMs who are not parties to it.

• The involved officer must declare the conflict in writing to the league before ruling.
• Any GM may call for an override vote within 48 hours of the ruling.
• "Not a party" excludes everyone on either side of the dispute, the same way the trade veto excludes both teams.
• The override passes on two-thirds of the whole non-party group, rounded up — a fixed count, not a share of turnout, so abstaining is a vote against overturning. In the ordinary case — one officer, one other GM — that is 7 of the remaining 10. If an officer's dispute involves no other GM, it is 8 of 11.
• A majority of the non-parties must cast a ballot for the vote to count. That is the quorum; the two-thirds above is the threshold.
• Where the dispute is between the LC and the LCC, neither rules. It goes straight to a two-thirds vote of the other ten GMs — 7 of 10. Nobody adjudicates a fight they are in.
• An override vote decides the matter. Its result is final and is recorded in the amendment log.

6. Amendments. This process is amended under Article I.

Appendix 1.3 — The League Survivor Series

2026 is the inaugural season. The Survivor Series is a league-run NFL survivor pool, built as part of TL's own tooling.

• Buy-in: $10 per entrant.
• Participation is optional. No GM is required to enter, and non-entry carries no penalty of any kind.
• The Survivor Series pot is entirely separate from the league pot and from The League Bank. Its money never touches the $3,000, never affects a league payout, and never affects standings, seeding, or lottery odds. A dispute in the Survivor Series is not a league dispute.
• The format, lock times, and payout split are not part of this Constitution. The LC publishes them in the side-game rules document before Week 1. It is an NFL survivor pool — weekly picks against the NFL schedule.
• Changes to the buy-in are a money vote under Article I. Changes to the format are not constitutional and are made by the LC.

Appendix 1.4 — TL Investment Fund (dormant)

"If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die." — Warren Buffett

Status: DORMANT. The fund does not run in 2026. No dues money is invested, and no GM's payout depends on a market. It is recorded here so it can be resurrected by vote rather than reinvented from memory. It is not part of The League Bank, which is a separate and newer thing.

History

The fund invested the league pot in SPDR® S&P 500® ETF Trust (SPY) before kickoff, selling to cash whenever the S&P 500 traded below its 50-day moving average, and liquidating entirely on December 31. Net gains went to the champion.

The 2025 constitution's own account, preserved without arithmetic added to it: it added "an extra $30 or so" in 2021; the league "took a pause in 2022 for good reason"; and it "paused in 2023 and missed a 5.3% gain, leaving just shy of $100 on the table."

The unresolved question, now resolved

The old text defined what happened to gains and never said what happened to losses — while the payout table already allocated the entire pot. A shortfall would have come out of somebody's prize with no rule saying whose.

If the fund is ever resurrected, it operates with a hard stop-loss:

• Liquidate to cash immediately on a $100 cumulative loss.
• Any realized loss comes out of the championship prize, not out of 2nd place, 3rd place, or a pro-rata reduction across all payouts. The prize that receives the gains is the prize that absorbs the losses.
• The 50-day moving average rule and the December 31 liquidation carry forward as written.

What must be settled before it returns

Reactivating the fund is a money vote under Article I, and the proposal must answer: who holds the account, who executes the trades, and how the moving-average rule is verified by anyone other than the LC. Twelve people's money in one person's brokerage account with no written procedure was fine for five years, and the sixth year is how that story usually ends.

Amendment log

Pre-2023 dates and vote tallies were never recorded in the source document and are reconstructed from inline references.