RFL RULES

RULES

General League Rules

1. This league will use Front Page Sports Pro Football 98 with the new 1.08 patch.
a. Install the 1.08 patch and you are ready to go.
b. This will be an 18 team league for the first season, we may expand if we get enough interest before next season
2. This league is a stock team, stock play league. You may design custom plans and profiles for your team, but now custom players or plays.
a. Please don't cheat, it isn't fair, and what are you cheating for, there is nothing at stake, so play fair.
3. This league will have player salaries, with full contract negotiations for free agents, and a salary cap to be set by a vote to take place at a later date.
a. The signings of free agents will work as follows:
1. A group of players (between 20 and 50) will be opened for bids for a specified period of time (probably about three days). The best offer over those days will take the player. The current offers will be posted on an offer page.
2. This process will be repeated until all free agents have been open for bids, then any unsigned free agents will be left in the pool, and can receive offers within the trade, free agent period stated below.
b. The salary cap as of 1/28/98 will be 35 million per team. Check the salary cap page for updates. There will be ways to increase this number visit the salary cap page to check it out.
4. When setting up your copy of Football Pro '98 for use with RFL, you must have these subdirectories set up in addition to standard FBPRO98 format: Replace the C with the drive you have the game installed on.
a. C:\SIERRA\FBPRO97\RFL For league files
b. C:\SIERRA\FBPRO97\RFL\aaaa, where aaaa is the first four letters of name of the city of the team that you own.
1. any profiles or plans that you have for your team go into this folder.
5. All league games will be played on SIGS, so if you don't have an account get one and get famaliar with the system before league play starts. If you need help with this Email me and I will help you.
a. If both owners agree not to play the game it will be simulated on the owners computer.

Owner Participation

1. All owners will be expected to attempt to play each weeks games
a. Certain circumstances will be accepted, but the owner must still contact their opponent to tell them of their intentions for the game
2. We are striving for a league that can be full and have all owners be active in all aspects of the game.
a. This includes trading, free agents, playing games, and most importantly answering all emails
1. Owners are not required to trade, but it makes the game more realistic.
3. All owners that will be away for an extended period of time are asked to notify the commish so that they avoid being put on probation.

Owner Probation

1. Any owner that does not respond to an opponents email to set up a game time will be placed on probation.
a. Probation consists of an email from the commissioner notifying the owner of the probation, and asking for an explanation.
1. If the commissioner feels that the reason is good enough, the owner will be but on probation, if the reason is not, the owner will be removed from the league, and have his team removed and sold to a new owner.
2. To clear probation, the owner must for two consecutive weeks answer all emails, carbon copying them to the commissioner, and make an effort to play the games.
a. If these requirements are not met, the owner will be removed.
b. If these requirements are met, then the owner will be reinstated, but will still be required to carbon copy all emails protaining to game times to the commissioner, and any game that they do not attempt to play will result in immediated removal.
2. At any time an owner may be put on probation for conduct that the commissioner sees fit.
a. If you receive an email asking you to respond, please do so, don't get removed.

Trades, and Deadlines

1. Trades may be made between any two human owned teams. Please no multi-team deals, as it gets messy.
a. Trades may involve any number of players or draft picks. Negotiate a trade with another owner, then both owners must email the commissioner clearly stating who and what is being traded, I will make the trade, email a conformation, and post it on the trade page.
2. Free agent signings during the season will be allowed any time before the deadline below. The proposal must include the number of years (1-4), signing bonus, and salary.
3. If a trade or a free agent signing puts you over the salary cap or the max number of players and a release order is not accompanying or sent by Tuesday at 11:59 pm, I will release the lowest salaried players until the problem is corrected.
4. You may resign or renegotiate players contracts on your team during the season by emailing the proposal to me in the same manner as in number 2.
a. First you use the fpsgm utility to get the contract settled the you email me the player and the offer, and I will propose it to the player
1. When using the fpsgm application, copy all league files into a new directory, and do it the negotiation there, if you do it in you regular directory, it will mess up your league files.
5. Depth Charts are due Wednesday at 8:00pm. We will use the rmupdate application.
a. To use the rmupdate, make a directory in the RFL directory called rmupdate, and put the application files in there. From there follow the readme instructions.
6. All trades are due to the commissioner by 11:59 pm Tuesday. Any trades received after that will not be recognized until the next week.
a. Make sure that when making a trade, you include the depth slots that you want your new player put into or else they will go at the bottom of there position.
7. All game file should be sent to owners by 12:00am on Thursday. League Games should be played and the out files should be sent back to the commissioner no later that Monday at 11:59pm.
a. The two owners involved should check the schedule and set up a time to play the games on SIGS, or direct connection if they want. Please account for different time zones.
b. Trades, Free agent offers, and depth chart moves should be sent after your game is finished, and before 11:59pm the following Tuesday.

Other Various GM rules

1. RFL owners may request player position changes as permitted by FBPRO98. Specifically, you may switch a running back between FB and HB, an offensive lineman between C, G, and T, a defensive lineman between DT and DE, and a defensive back between CB and S.
a. These are open from Sunday morning to Wednesday at 6:00pm during the season and intervals that will be set in the offseason.
2. A college draft will be conducted at the end of every season. This draft will be done via ICQ. That is why I ask that you all get it. This program can also be used to send a file or message much faster than email if you are in a bind.
a. The draft order will be selected the same way as the regular NFL draft. I will email a list of players that will be available for the draft, and you will be responsible for keeping track of who is gone.
b. There will be a time limit on selections like in the regular NFL draft. This is to prevent the draft from taking a month.
c. The draft will probably take more that one day, so be prepared.
d. Draft picks may not be traded after the draft has started. I will give you a few days between the announcing of the order and the actual draft to pull off the blockbuster trade for the number one pick.
e. The RFL will implement players from other NFL teams that are not in the league throughout the first season through free agency, and through the draft.

League Game Play

For those who are new to remote league play here are the steps to play a league game.
1. When you recieve the weeks final file delete the previous weeks file from your RFL directory.
2. Unzip the new files into the RFL directory. you should have the league files and a set of in files.
3. Take the in file that corresponds to your weeks game and place that in file in the Sierra\FBPRO98 directory.
4. Start FBPRO98 and choose type of play. Then choose league play. If you have the RFL as your default league the league sreen will show up. If not you must load the league. If you are playing via the SIGS network choose online play, then choose league play. You should have made arrangements with you opponent on the time you will meet to play your game.
5. Quit game and go to the FBPRO98 directory. There you will find the out file. Take the out file and send it to the commisioner.

Playoff Games

1. All playoff games will be played online via the SIGS Network.

Miscellaneous Information

1. Remember that all deadlines are Eastern Standard Time. Please account for this.
2. All files that are sent must be zipped. If you don't have a program that does this, please Email me and I will get you one.
3. Any files that you may need will be on the files link from the page

If there are any questions, Please feel free to email me with them, I want everyone to understand everything.

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