PREAMBLE

We, the People of the FanEx Football League, in order to Promote a more perfect game, Disregard domestic tranquility, Scout obscure players in faraway places, Spend inordinate amounts of money on newsstand magazines with questionable value, Peer endlessly over columns of stats, Curse inaccurate injury reports, and Revel in our genius when players occasionally perform remotely near our projections, hereby establish this Constitution as the Official Rule book for Play and effectively end this run on sentence.

*When discussing this Constitution, "Owners" and "Members"are defined as the Fantasy Team Owners. "Players" are the actual NFL Football players.

I. Mission Statement

A. FanEx proudly shares our Mission Statement.

Our mission is to make "The Fantasy Experts League" the premiere Fantasy Football League. The League, and its membership, will utilize all avenues available to them to fully promote the league and its members.. Seek new approaches and opportunities to promote ourselves.. Be an open knowledge base for the fantasy football community. Provide in-depth, timely and useful information to the seasoned fantasy football veteran, while still promoting and encouraging the involvement of those new to our hobby. Be actively involved in the fantasy football industry and guide it appropriately.
Be a catalyst for the expansion of our industry so the hobby we enjoy can transcend generations.

II. Teams and Members

A. FanEx will be made up of a league comprised of two separate but equal conferences. Each 12 team conference will hold separate drafts. Both conferences will participate in a 14 game regular season with a three game playoff where the two conference winners will meet for the FanEx Championship. The championship game will be played in week 17. The FanEx Executive Committee (XC) will make conference and division assignments (Note: During the duration of the current FOXSports.com/FanEx affiliation, FanEx has agreed to allow FOXSports.com to make conference assignments). Each Conference will be comprised of four (4) divisions made up of three (3) teams each. Assignments to the two conferences are good for one full season.


B. One conference of 12 owners will hold an e-mail based draft to begin NLT July 15 with the express goal of finishing NLT 10 days prior to the start of the NFL season. The FanEx Commissioner will set the starting date and timing restrictions for this draft. The other conference of 12 owners will hold a live draft at a date and time determined by the XC (Note: During the duration of the FOXSports.com/FanEx affiliation, FanEx has agreed to allow FOXSports.com to select the Date and Place of the Live Draft). Both drafts will have the full pool of NFL players available to them. All draft picks and trades will be accompanied with written analysis for publication.

C. One or more league members own and control a team. Each team has one vote in determining the league membership. FanEx recognizes the original team owner(s) as the "primary" owner. That owner may partner with others for the betterment of the team. Those partners shall be treated as equal members, with the exception of individual voting and revenue sharing.

Owner commitments to the league they choose are binding for 1 full season. After that time the following may take place:
1. An owner in one in-season league may choose to fill a vacancy in another in-season league before that position is filled via normal owner expansion guidelines.
2. An owner in each in-season league may choose to "swap" positions between each in-season league.

D. League membership is decided by nominations and balloting from the current membership. A majority vote of the membership is required to approve any team ownership and/or partnership.

E. Should a primary owner leave the league for any reason, the team is NOT automatically inherited by the co-owners. Instead, the Commissioner will immediately contact the remaining co-owner(s) and determine if they wish to continue membership. Should there be multiple co-owners, one will be selected to serve as the Primary Owner. This person will then be placed before the Committee of the Whole for a confirmation vote. As with other membership votes, a simple majority will confirm the new owner.

III. Player Drafts

A. The FanEx Live Draft will be conducted at place and time to be established by the XC (Note: During the duration of the FOXSports.com - FanEx affiliation, FanEx has agreed to allow FOXSports.com to select the Date and Place of the Live Draft). Every attempt will be made to provide non-drafting members and one guest free access to the event. Transportation and living costs will be
the responsibility of the membership. Attendance at the live draft is
mandatory for members of the Live Draft Conference and optional for members of the E-Mail Conference. All FanEx members are strongly encouraged to attend the Live Draft. All player selections will be accompanied by a written and verbal analysis. These analysis will be made available, to the league, at the conclusion of the draft for publication.

Owners will build their team through a traditional serpentine draft. Draft picks in odd numbered rounds are selected in the order 1 through 16. Even numbered rounds are reversed and selected 16 down to 1. For example, the Owner who drafts the 1.01 (first) pick, would draft next at the 2.12 (24th) and then the 3.01 (25rd) position. An Owner drafting in the 16th position of an odd numbered round, would also have the 17th overall pick.

1.Draft order. The draft order will be determined by random draw prior to the Analysis Draft. All league drafts will have a unique order, decided by random draw.

2. Trades. The following items may be exchanged for another owners draft picks in the current draft:
1. Players currently on your roster
2. Simoleans
3. Later draft picks in current draft
4. A combination of any of the above
Draft picks can not be traded for money or any other considerations.

3. Place. The FanEx Live Draft will be conducted at place and time to be established by the XC (Note: During the duration of the FOXSports.com/FanEx affiliation, FanEx has agreed to allow FOXSports.com to select the Date and Place of the Live Draft). Every attempt will be made to provide non-drafting members and one guest free access to the event. Transportation and living costs will be
the responsibility of the membership. Attendance at the live draft is
mandatory for members of the Live Draft Conference and optional for members of the E-Mail Conference. All FanEx members are strongly encouraged to attend the Live Draft. All player selections will be accompanied by a written and verbal analysis. These analysis will be made available, to the league, at the conclusion of the draft for publication.

4. The draft will consist of 16 rounds. Once a draft selection has been presented to the Commissioner, it cannot be rescinded.

B. An E-mail based draft is be held prior to the FanEx Player Draft. It will be the FanEx Analysis Draft, with results posted at the league website and the RSFF news group. Owners will select their teams through a serpentine style draft, using the basic FanEx Draft format, with exceptions enforced by the Commissioner. The exception would be the commissioner, who may not be an owner in LIVE or MAIL leagues. He may manage a FAD team. Individual owners within the in-season leagues can choose to team up for the ANALYSIS DRAFT.
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1. Place. A 12 round Draft will be conducted via e-mail with a round by round notification posted in the RSFF News Group. Owners will notify the Commissioner of their pick via email. At the end of each round the Commissioner will then post the picks to the news group. Each owner will be responsible for providing an analysis of why he/she picked the player chosen when the pick is made. The Commissioner will also notify each team Owner by E-Mail when each selection has been made official.

2. E-Mail (Analysis) Draft Guidelines

A. The Analysis Draft will begin prior to May 15th at a date set by the commissioner.
B. The Analysis Draft will consist of 16 rounds.
C. The draft order is separate and unique from the "Player" draft.
D. Each owner will have 18 hours to make their selection.
E. When an team owner exceeds the deadline for submitting their draft selection, other owners may make their selection in his draft position, until the originally schedule team owner has submitted a selection to the commissioner. (i.e. if the owner with selection X.03 misses the deadline, the X.04 and following draft positions may select in that place until the original tardy selection is presented to the commissioner.)
F. Each owner must draft a starting lineup and 16 total players.
G.The scoring format to be used will be the standard FanEx scoring rules.
H. Beginning with the start of the regular season, each owner will receive the points scored by the following positions on their team each week: Top Quarterback's points, Top Tight End's points, Top 2 Running Backs' points, Top 3 Wide Receivers' points, Top Kicker's points, Top Defensive Team points.
I.These points shall be tallied together through the first 16 weeks of the NFL season.
J. The team with highest total points shall be declared the Analysis Draft Champion.

3. After the completion of the NFL season, the commissioner will announce, and the league will honor the member which selected the most productive team in the E-Mail draft.

IV. Rosters

A. The maximum roster is 16 players.

B. Position eligibility. The final say on all roster eligibility will be what position the player is listed as at NFL.COM. In the event of a player being listed in multiple positions, the player is available to be inserted in the starting lineup at any of the positions listed. In the event that a player changes positions during the season, he may qualify to be inserted in the starting lineup at that new position once the Commissioner has determined the player has at least 5 "successes" at that position. A "success" will be defined as a passing completion (QB), rushing attempt (RB), pass reception (WR, TE) or field goal/extra point attempt (K).

V. Starting lineups

A. All starting lineups will consist of the following: 1 quarterback, 2 running backs, 2 wide receivers, 1 tight end, 1 kicker, 1 defensive team, and 1 "float" player that can be either runningback, receiver, or tight end.

B. The deadline for submitting starting lineups will be 5pm ET of the day prior to the first NFL game each week, a short weekly lineup analysis is to be submitted with a team's weekly lineup. These would be displayed at the website for the benefit of guest. In the weeks with a Thursday NFL game, the deadline will be Wednesday 5pm ET.

Preliminary lineups are due on the current schedule with comments. However, lineups can be changed up until 1 hour before Sunday's games if the original lineup was turned in on-time. Thursday and Saturday games only effect players on those teams and you can't move any of those players after those games.

Lineups must be submitted to the Commissioner by email, voice mail, or phone. The deadline for submitting starting lineups will be strictly enforced.

C. Default starting lineup. Each Owner may submit a Default Lineup to the Commissioner. It is not mandatory. If an Owner fails to submit a lineup on time for that week, his default lineup will be used if he has submitted one. If an Owner fails to submit a lineup on time for that week and he does not have a default lineup in place, his starting lineup from the previous week will be used, even if some players are on bye weeks. It is the Owner's responsibility to keep the Default Lineup current and up to date with regard to traded and waived players.

Note: Obviously, if an Owner trades or waives a player on his default lineup yet fails to update the default lineup, he will not receive points scored by that player if the default lineup is used.

VI. Scoring Points are awarded without regard to position. Official scoring is as follows:

TDs and other scoring plays (regardless of position*)
4 pts = Passing
6 pts = Rushing
6 pts = Receiving
6 pts = Defensive
6 pts = Special Teams (punt and kick returns only)
2 pts = 2 Pt Conversions
* Should a kicker pass for a TD he would be awarded a passing TD.

Yardage
1 pts per 30 yards for QB (passing, rushing and receiving combined)
1 pts per 15 yards for all other positions
(passing, rushing and receiving combined)

Penalties
-2 pts = Interceptions

Kickers
1 pts = PAT
-1 pts = Missed PAT

FG
3 pts = 1-39 yards
4 pts = 40-49 yards
5 pts = 50+ yards

Missed FG
-3 pts = 01-39 yards
-2 pts = 40-49 yards
-1 pts = 50+ yeards

Defense
6 pts = Defensive TDs*
2 pts = Turnovers
1 pts = Sacks
4 pts = Safeties
-1 pts = per 75 yards allowed (passing and rushing only)
-1 pts = per 3 Points Allowed**

* Defensive TD's include Interception returns, Fumble returns and blocked kick returns. Punt and Kickoff returns are scored by the individual as a special teams play. There will be no double scoring for TDs UNLESS a player both passes and receives for a TD.

** Points allowed includes all offensive and special teams scores but does not include defensive scores (safeties, interception returns, etc.)

Any two point conversion scored by rushing, receiving or passing is worth two points. - USA Today will be used to settle any scoring disputes. The USA Today scoring will be official and final.

Notes:

--Players are awarded points for a TD regardless of their position. Example: An RB is awarded 6 points for a rushing TD, 6 points for a receiving TD, and 4 points for a passing TD. In the same way, a QB is awarded 4 points for a passing TD and 6 points for a rushing TD.

--TD's are scored the same regardless of the length of score. Example: An RB is awarded 6 points for a 10 yard TD run and also awarded 6 points for a 25 yard TD run.

The weekly score for the starting lineup will be tabulated by the Commissioner. This will determine the winner in the Head to Head match ups as well as provide the weekly score for the Total Overall Points race.

Scores will be posted Tuesday evening.

VII. Tie-Breakers

Individual Game - Team with the highest individual scorer wins if both teams are tied. If teams are still tied the team with the second highest scorer wins, etc.

Head to Head Format Season Standings - (In Order)
1. Overall record
2. Total points scored
3. Head to head record
4. Division record
5. Most points against
6. Highest single game score to date
7. Coin flip

Head to Head Format Three Way Tiebreakers (Season Standings)
1. Most points scored out of all three teams
2. Best head-to-head record between all tied teams
3. Best division record
4. Most points against
5. Highest single game score to date
6. Three way coin flip (whoever has non-duplicate result wins)

Overall Points Season Standings
1. W-L record
2. Head to Head
3. Highest single game score to date
4. Division record
5. Coin flip

VIII. Playoffs/Divisions/Schedule
League will consist of 4 divisions with 4 teams (12 total teams).

A. Our regular season will end after NFL week 14. Playoffs will include 4 teams and will begin on week 15 of the NFL season. The 4 division champions will advance to the league's playoff, seeded on their 1) W-L record, 2) Head-to-Head results, 3) Total points scored. The #1 vs #4, and #2 vs #3 will play in week 15. The 2 winners will play for the championship in week 16.

B. Regular season schedule will be establish by league vote.

IX. Transactions

A. Trades.

Notes:

1. At the conclusion of trading, roster must not exceed 16 players.
2. For the trade to be valid both players must E-Mail, phone, or fax the move to the Commissioner.
3. You may trade a maximum of four players per week.
4. Trades must be fair. "Herschel Walker" trades are fair. Dumping players and collusion is not. Fairness will be decided by the Commissioner and he reserves the right to veto a trade.
5. Once a trade has been announced by both teams to the Commissioner, it cannot be rescinded.
6. No trades may be made for cash, future considerations, or a player or pick to be named later.Final trading deadline is after the completion of NFL Week #10.

B. Free Agents: You may obtain a maximum of 2 NFL players per week who are not on any team's roster. Free agents will be dispersed in a weekly blind auction.

The blind auction will work like this:

At the beginning of the season, the Commissioner will award every Owner 100 Simoleans. Simoleans (sims) are the official "currency" of our league. Sims are NOT real money and have no value. Every week, by the deadline, all Owners interested in picking up free agents must submit a 1 time "sealed" bid to the Commissioner for that player. No one knows what player you have bid on or the amount of your bid except you and the Commissioner. The only stipulation is that an Owner may not bid more sims than he has available. Once all bids are received, the free agent will be awarded to the Owner who bids the highest. The Commissioner will be responsible for tracking each Owner's available sims to spend. At the end of the season, all unused sims are voided.

For example: Say John Free Agent gets hot and starts tearing it up. Owner A bids 4 Simoleans for him. Owner B bids 3 sims and Owner C bids 12 sims. None of the Owners knows what the other has bid. John Free Agent goes to Owner C for 12 sims. He overpaid by 7 sims but that's too bad. Once his bid is in, he can't change it. No one calls you and says, "Owner C bid 12, do you want to go 13?" John Free Agent is simply awarded to the highest bidder.

Notes:

1. Your roster may not exceed 16 after you make a free agent acquisition.
2. Bids will be accepted for free agents until Friday 6:00 PM ET of each week.
3. The final free agent deadline is the completion of NFL Week #13.
4. Members will present pending roster moves with all free agent bidding.
5. In the event the highest bid is a tie between Owners, the player is awarded to the Owner with the lowest accumulated total points.

C. Waivers. Players may be waived at any time for any reason. When a player clears waivers, he becomes a member of the available free agent pool.

1. Clearing waivers. Once a player is waived, the Commissioner will post the waiver in the news/transactions section of the home page. The waived player cannot be acquired by a new team, or re-acquired by his old team, until 5 days have passed from the time the initial waiver was posted. If the old team wishes to re-acquire the waived player, they must submit a blind auction bid like all the other teams. For example: If a player is waived on Friday, he is not available to be bid upon in the free agent blind auction until Wednesday. This would push him into the following week's auction.

X. Injured Reserve
There is no injured reserve. If a player is injured, the Owner has the option of waiving him and sending him to the free agent pool or simply riding out the injury.

XI. Player Retention
Players will not be carried over.

XII. League Governance
League stability is our primary goal. The league will be governed by this framework:

A. Commissioner. Our goal is to have a very strong, yet fair Commissioner. The Commissioner is sworn to act at all times in the Best Interests of the League and is vested with the following powers:

1. Interpret the Constitution as he sees just and fit.
2. Settle all position eligibility questions.
3. Approve team names.
4. Preside over draft and settle draft disputes.
5. Distribute free agents through the blind auction.
6. Provide timely weekly scoring results.
7. Maintain the integrity of the league and its Owners by enforcing Article XIII, "Expected Owner Conduct".
8. Approve all trades and transactions.
9. Be responsible for submitting and counting ballots concerning items requiring membership votes.
10. Have an equal vote on all league matters related to Amendments to the Constitution.

B. Executive Committee. There will be an Executive Committee (XC) made up of 3 Owners. The XC members will be determined by Joe Bryant and Greg Kellogg; the League Co-Founders. Steve Cohen, Mark Nulty, and Joe Bryant are the 2000 season XC members. The XC will serve several functions:

1.To serve as an appeal board for an Owner who feels the Commissioner has decided an issue unfairly. Each Owner will have the opportunity to appeal 1 Commissioner's decision per season to the XC.

2.Serve as a steering committee for the league. Decisions affecting the league will often begin with the XC.

3. Appoint member(s) to be responsible for maintaining the FanEx web site, located at fanexfootball.com, for the general good of the league.

4. Appoint member(s) responsible for scheduling, chairing, and/or taking minutes of any FanEx hosted meetings.

C. Committee of the Whole. The league Owners will function as the Committee of the Whole (CW) which is made up of all league members, each with an equal vote. The Committee of the Whole reserves the right to veto any decision made by the Executive Committee with a 2/3 majority vote (with at least 2/3 of all current owners casting a vote). Each member of the Committee as the Whole will be charged with the responsibility of acting in the Best Interests of the League.

XIII. Expected Owner Conduct
Owners will be expected to conduct themselves in a manner that will not disparage the league nor its Owners in any way, shape, or form.

1. While bragging is always a part of some Owner's personality and is to be expected, inflammatory or taunting acts will not be tolerated. The Commissioner will have total authority in drawing the line between a brag and a taunt. This will be strictly enforced. See Article XIV. "Extraordinary Situations".

2. All league owners are required to display promotional FanEx material prominently upon all football related websites that they operate and/or host.

3. Once-per-month activity is required from the membership from July to December. This may be a written contribution of a fantasy football related article posted at the FanEx website or a contribution to any FanEx sponsored online activity.

XIV. Extraordinary Situations
The following are serious situations and should be treated as such.

A. Appealing a Commissioner's decision. ONLY 1 APPEAL WILL BE ALLOWED PER SEASON. NO EXCEPTIONS. Once an Owner has appealed 1 decision, all further Commissioner decisions involving that Owner will be final with no appeal possible. Appealing the decision of the Commissioner is a very serious action and is expected to be a rare occurrence. The process for appeal is as follows.

1. Owner notifies the Commissioner he is appealing the decision.
2. Commissioner notifies the Executive Committee.
3. Owner and Commissioner present their positions to the XC via email.
4. XC members discuss the issue and deliver a final ruling.

B. Amendments to the Constitution. Amendments to the Constitution are allowed in the offseason. Thus, they can NEVER be made during a season. By definition, the season begins once the Commissioner accepts the first selection of the annual player draft. Amendments to the Constitution will follow this path:

1. 3 league Owners together or the Commissioner may recommend an amendment.
2. If 2/3 of the XC vote to adopt the amendment, the issue is put to the league Owners.
3. 2/3 of the league Owners & Commissioner must approve the proposed amendment (with at least 2/3 of all the Owners & Commissioner casting a vote).
4. If approved, the amendment becomes a permanent article of the Constitution and assumes equal status with all other articles.

C. Reprimanding an Owner. If an Owner is considered by the Commissioner to be conducting himself in a manner not in the Best Interest of the League, this path is followed:

1. The Commissioner issues a warning.
2. If a second warning is issued, the Commissioner recommends to the Executive Committee that the Owner be removed from the league. (See section D.)

D. Removing an Owner. This is an extremely serious consideration, one which the league will seek to avoid at all costs. If it arises, this path will be followed:

1. 3 league Owners together or the Commissioner may recommend that an Owner be removed.
2. If 2/3 of the XC vote to remove the Owner, the issue is put to the league Owners.
3. If a simple majority of the league Owners vote to remove the Owner (with at least 2/3 of the Owners casting a vote), the Owner is removed from the league.
4. The Commissioner assumes control of the team and a replacement Owner is found as soon as possible. The new Owner will inherit the team's roster, CD player, Free Agent Simoleans, and draft position for the coming season.

E. Removing a Commissioner. This also is an extremely serious situation. If it arises, this path will be followed.

1. 3 league Owners recommend that the Commissioner be removed.
2. If 2/3 of the XC vote to remove the Commissioner, the issue is put to the league Owners.
3. If a simple majority of the league Owners vote to remove the Commissioner (with at least 2/3 of the Owners casting a vote), the Commissioner is removed from the league.
4. The Executive Committee assumes control of the Commissioner's duties and a replacement Commissioner is found as soon as possible.

XV. Revenue Sharing
The league will maintain a home page which will contain, among other things, pages for League Standings, News, Draft, and other items of interest pertaining to the league. The home page will also feature Team Pages with information about each Owner's team and an Owner Information Page featuring information about the Owner himself, if he chooses. We intend to display advertising on our League Pages from our stats provider and web page designer in return for their services. Depending on the popularity of the page, there may come a time when advertisers will pay the league, in addition to providing their services, for this type of advertising. In the event this happens, the league will divide the revenue as follows:

A. Advertisements on an Owner's Team page or Owner Information Page. Each Owner will be allowed to display an ad on his own Team page and Owner Information page. He may charge whatever price he wishes and collect 100% of whatever he collects for the ad.

B. Advertisements on League Pages. To eliminate duplicity, advertisements which appear on League Pages (League Standings, News, Draft, etc.) will be obtained by the XC. Suggestions and comments toward potential advertisers are welcomed by the XC. The league will determine prices regarding ads. The seller of any collected FanEx revenue will receive a 15% bonus payment. Afterwards, all revenue will be shared equally among the league Owners and the Commissioner.

C. A majority vote of the Executive Committee will permit any
expenditure from league treasury toward league activities. The annual
expenditures by the XC may not exceed 50% of the expected annual budget.

The money paid by advertisers for League Pages will be deposited in an interest bearing bank account controlled by the league Co-Founders. After week 16, all moneys will be divided equally and sent to each league Owner and the Commissioner. The league will retain no money and all taxes will be the responsibility of each individual Owner.

In the event that an Owner quits the league, his share of ad revenue will be forfeited to the Owner who replaces him during the season. In the case that an Owner is removed from the league, he will receive a prorated share of the ad revenue based upon the week he was removed. (3/16 if removed after the 3rd week, 12/16 if removed after the 12th week etc.)

All advertisements (League Pages and Team Pages) will have the following restrictions:

1. All ads will be of uniform size.
2. All ads will be in good taste. Regardless of how tastefully disguised, no Adult-content sponsors will be allowed.

XVI. Bottom Line
This League was founded on the ideal of conducting our game of Fantasy Football at an extremely competitive level. Every Team Owner is a vital part of that process and is essential to the success of the league. May the bounces go those who most deserve them.

Credits:

This Constitution was drafted by League Co-Founder, Joe Bryant.