Contract Leagues

(AKA Salary Cap Leagues)

How to Play

Drafts

Contracts

Salaries

Waivers

Trading

Playoffs

Slots

FAQ

Timeline

This page covers the automated behavior and settings for League Tycoon. The commissioner has a full set of tools they can use to manually override or implement custom rules for your league.

Drafts

Contracts

Salaries

Waivers

Trading

Playoffs

Slots

FAQ

Timeline

Drafts

All new leagues kick off the season with an Auction Draft, a dynamic and exciting way to acquire players for your team. There’s no Rookie Draft in your league’s first season. All players, including rookies, are eligible for selection in the Auction Draft pool. Following the first season, the Auction Draft pool will include any players who are no longer under contract and any rookies not taken in the Rookie Draft.

If you’ve participated in an auction draft before, you’re already familiar with the process. However, for those who are new to this method, the Auction Draft offers an exhilarating alternative to the standard snake draft. Instead of teams taking turns selecting players, teams take turns nominating players for bidding. This means that every team has the opportunity to acquire any player, regardless of draft order. Want the best player in the draft? He’s yours, if you’re willing to bid higher than the competition.

Auction drafts are particularly important in Contract/Salary Cap formats, as the winning bid becomes the player’s salary. All players drafted in the Auction Draft will have the option of being signed to a long-term contract after the draft. Any player taken in the Auction Draft who is not given a long-term contract will automatically be on a one-year contract and will be available in the next year’s Auction Draft, with the exception of a Franchise Tag being used on the player after the season.”

Related Settings

  • Salary Cap: Default is $300 – The total amount of money you can spend on contracts.

  • Reserved Cap (for in season acquisitions): Default is $100 – The portion of your Salary Cap that can’t be used during the Auction Draft.

    • Example: Salary Cap: $300 Reserved Cap: $100

      • Managers will be able to spend up to $200 during the Auction Draft and will have at least $100 left over for Free Agent Blind Bidding and completing trades during the season.

  • Draft Date – The date and time that your draft starts

  • Nomination time limit seconds: Default is 30 – The time limit that a team has to nominate a player before the highest available player is auto-nominated. This can be changed throughout the course of the draft to speed up or slow down the draft.

  • Initial bidding time limit seconds: Default is 30 – The amount of time someone has to bid after a player is nominated. This can be changed throughout the course of the draft to speed up or slow down the draft.

  • Bid reset seconds: Default is 10 – The number of seconds that the auction clock resets to when someone bids. This can be changed throughout the course of the draft to speed up or slow down the draft.

  • Draft Order – Order in which teams will nominate players to be bid on. The commish can adjust the draft order before the draft begins.

Optionally, you can choose to replace your standard Auction Draft with a Slow Auction Draft. The salary and contract aspects remain the same, but the process offers a unique experience.

Slow Auction Draft [How They Work]

Video walkthrough for Slow Auction Drafts

Slow Auction Drafts are a great alternative for leagues that have a hard time getting everyone together for the draft. Also, there are a lot of leagues that just think that Slow Auction Drafts are more fun. Let’s look at how these drafts are different from standard drafts.

Obviously the main difference is that these drafts are slower, and so the nomination and bidding time for a player can be hours or days. Another major difference is that there will be multiple players up for bid at the same time. These drafts typically take 2-3 weeks.

Nominating
You will nominate a player based on the draft order, the same as you would in a standard auction draft. The difference is that you don’t wait for that player to be won before the next team nominates. So you will have many players nominated at the same time. When the max number of active nominations is reached (default is 20), nominations will be paused until a player is won which will free up a nomination spot.
When you nominate a player you will put in a max bid, but the player will start off at $1. Learn more about Proxy Bidding under Bidding.

NOTE – If you are on the clock then you MUST nominate a player before you are allowed to bid again. This provides several benefits like keeping the draft moving along and preventing the nominating team from gaming certain situations, which leads to them sitting on the clock until the last minute.

Bidding
When you bid on a player you will put in the max bid you are willing to pay. No one will be able to see your max bid, only the current high bid. The system will then automatically increase your bid up to your max bid as other teams try to outbid you. This type of bidding is known as “Proxy Bidding” which you might be familiar with if you’ve used eBay.
Example: Team1 currently has a high bid on PlayerA for $5 and a max bid of $40. Team2 puts in a max bid of $25. Team1 is still the high bidder and the high bid is now $25. Team3 puts in a max bid of $45. Team3 is the new high bidder and the high bid is now $41.

Adjusting Your Max Bid
Your max bid is not set in stone. You can increase or decrease your existing max bid on a player at anytime. You can decrease your max bid down to the current high bid.

Bid Timer Reset
When there is a new high bidder for a player then the bidding clock will reset (default is 24 hours). However, if your bid is not high enough to make you the new high bidder, then the clock will NOT reset.

Example: Team1 currently has a high bid on PlayerA for $10 and a max bid of $20. Team2 puts in a max bid of $15. Team1 is still the high bidder and the high bid is now $15. This will not reset the bidding clock as the winning team didn’t change. A team would have to put in a max bid of $21 or higher to become the new high bidder and reset the bid timer.

Related Settings

Active nominations allowed at a time: Default is 20 – Nominations will be put on hold when there are this many players being actively auctioned.

Nomination time limit: Default is 24 hours – The time a team has to nominate a player before a player is auto-nominated

Initial bidding time: Default is 24 hours – The initial bidding clock when a player is nominated.

Bid reset time: Default is 24 hours – The time that the clock resets to when there is a new high bidding team for a player.

Rookie Drafts provide a unique opportunity for leagues in year 2 and beyond to acquire the newest NFL prospects. In the first season, all players including rookies are auctioned off in the Auction Draft, which ensures a fair distribution of talent among teams. A Rookie Draft in the first season would give an unfair advantage to teams with early draft picks.

The Rookie Draft is a linear selection process, not a snake draft. Salaries for players are determined by their draft spot, using a pre-determined Rookie Pay Scale. Additionally, all players drafted in the Rookie Draft are automatically given a 3-year contract (length is customizable in league settings). This allows teams to plan for the future and build a solid foundation for their franchise.

Draft Order: The draft order is determined by how teams finish the previous season. There are three options in the settings for how draft order can be determined.

  1. Lottery(Default) – Non-playoff teams are given a number of balls based on their finish in the regular season standings. Playoff teams are added to the draft order in the inverse order of playoff finish (champion picks last). The commissioner will be able to set a date/time for the ceremony after the league season rolls over on April 1st. When the ceremony begins, league mates will be notified and will have a button on the league page to enter the draft lottery ceremony.
    • Here are the number of balls which are based on regular season finish (the number of teams getting balls is equal to the number of non-playoff teams in your league). Note that the commissioner can overwrite these values to give any team any number of balls (even playoff teams).
      1. 100 (Worst Record)
      2. 80
      3. 60
      4. 45
      5. 30
      6. 15
      7. 13
      8. 11
      9. 9
      10. 7
      11. 6
      12. 5
      13. 4
      14. 3
      15. 2
      16. 1
  2. Standings – Non-playoff teams pick first in the inverse order of the regular season standings. Playoff teams are added to the draft order in the inverse order of playoff results (champion picks last).
  3. Manual – Draft order is never automatically updated. You update your league’s draft order in the draft settings.

*Note – The draft order for playoff teams is the same for both the Lottery and Standings option.

*Note – You can manually update the draft order in the settings at any time even if you don’t select the manual option.

The Rookie Draft takes place before your annual Auction Draft. You can do the rookie draft back to back on the same date as the Auction Draft or have the Rookie Draft by itself at an earlier date.

*Note – All Rookie Picks are guaranteed. You don’t need cap space or roster space to make your rookie pick (although you will have to be under the cap in order to update your lineup, make trades, or get players off the wire).

Related Settings

  • Rookie Draft Rounds: Default is 3 – The number of rounds your Rookie Draft has each season.
  • Rookie Draft Contract Years: Default is 3 – All players taken in the Rookie Draft automatically get signed to a contract of the same length.

In contrast to the Auction Draft, players selected in the Rookie Draft do not have their salary determined by a winning bid amount. Instead, the Rookie Draft follows a linear selection process, where a player’s salary is determined by the Rookie Pay Scale. This scale assigns a higher salary to players drafted higher in the draft, and a lower salary to those drafted later. The following breakdown illustrates the cost of a player at a specific draft position:

Related Settings

  • Rookie Pay Scale Start %: Default is 4.5% – The percentage set for the rookie pay scale will be assigned to the first overall pick in the rookie draft. Values will be rounded up.
    • Example: Salary Cap: $300 Rookie Pay Scale: 4.5%
      • The first pick in the rookie draft is assigned a salary of $14.
      • Here are the full values for a league with the default settings:
        • 1.1 – $14
        • 1.2 – $12
        • 1.3 – $12
        • 1.4 – $10
        • 1.5 – $10
        • 1.6 – $10
        • 1.7 – $8
        • 1.8 – $8
        • 1.9 – $8
        • 1.10 – $6
        • 1.11 – $6
        • 1.12 – $6
        • Remaining 1st round picks – $5
        • 2nd Round Picks – $4
        • 3rd Round Picks – $2
        • If your league has added 4th and 5th rounds then players drafted in those rounds are all $1

Contracts

Contracts allow teams to retain players for multiple seasons, adding an extra layer of strategy to your league. Following the Auction Draft, teams have the option to sign players to 2-year, 3-year, 4-year, or 5-year contracts, or leave them with the default 1-year contract.

These contracts are similar to keepers, but with some added features that make the decision-making process more intriguing. The salary for the first year (current year) will be the amount paid for the player in the Auction Draft. Each year, when the season rolls over, players under contract will see a salary increase of 10% (this percentage is customizable in league settings). Dropping a player under contract will also result in dead money, which is determined by the number of years remaining on their contract. These elements create a dynamic risk-reward system, where teams must weigh the potential upside of a long-term contract against the potential downside.

It’s worth noting that by default, teams have a limited number of contracts they can hand out each year. These available contracts reset when the new league year starts (April 1st). This means that an owner who used all of their contracts and an owner who used none of their contracts will have the same amount of available contracts when the new league year starts. Contracts are “use it or lose it” and teams need to use them wisely.

  • Example Scenario – You draft a player and don’t sign them to a contract.
    • They are automatically on a 1-year deal.
    • End of the fantasy season (week 17) they are eligible to be Franchise Tagged.
    • If you choose not to use your Franchise Tag on them – New league year rolls over (April 1st), contract length is reduced to 0-years and they are dropped from your roster. They will be available in the upcoming Auction Draft.
    • If you choose to Franchise Tag them – New League year rolls over (April 1st), contract length is set to 1-year. The following year they will be reduced to 0-years and dropped from your roster.
  • Example Scenario – You draft a player and after the draft you sign them to a 2-Year contract.
    • You complete your first season and on April 1st the new league year begins. This player’s contract is reduced a year and now has 1-year remaining.
    • Player is eligible for a contract extension from April 1st until the first game of NFL Week 1 kicks off.
    • If you choose not to use your Extension on them – At the end of the season they will be Franchise Tag eligible.
    • If you choose not to use your Franchise Tag on them – New league year rolls over (April 1st), contract length is reduced to 0-years and they are dropped from your roster. They will be available in the upcoming Auction Draft.

*Note – This means that players who are on a 1-year contract will never be eligible for a contract extension. You must give them a 2-year, 3-year, 4-year contract if you wish to give them a contract extension in the future. Players taken in the rookie draft get an automatic 3-year contract, which will allow them to be extended as well.

Related Settings

  • Player Salary Increase Per Year: Default is 15% – The Player Salary Increase percentage is multiplied by the players salary each time a new league year starts.
    • Example: 15% Player Salary Increase. A player is drafted for $20 and signed to a 4-year contract.
      • Year 1: $20
      • Year 2: $20 x 15% = $23
      • Year 3: $23 x 15% = $27
      • Year 4: $27 x 15% = $32
  • 2-Year Contracts: Default is 3 – Number of contracts each team has available to use each season
  • 3-Year Contracts: Default is 2 – Number of contracts each team has available to use each season.
  • 4-Year Contracts: Default is 1 – Number of contracts each team has available to use each season.

*Note – Some leagues will set Available Contracts to 99 each (unlimited contracts of each type), which also works fine. This works because there is a risk/reward with signing longer contracts. Just because you CAN sign everyone to a 4-year deal, doesn’t mean you should. The compounded salary increases of a 4-year contract and the dead money penalties provide a built in constraint. We don’t recommend this approach for new leagues.

Players are eligible for contract extensions when they are entering the final year of their current contract. It’s worth noting that players on a 1-year contract will never be eligible for an extension. If teams wish to extend a player’s contract in the future, they must first sign them to a 2-year, 3-year, or 4-year contract. Players selected in the Rookie Draft are automatically given a 3-year contract, which also makes them eligible for an extension.

It’s important to note that a player can only be extended once. Utilizing an extension on a player allows teams to add an additional 1, 2, 3, or 4 years to their contract, depending on the settings of your league.

There are two options for determining a player’s extension salary. In the settings you can choose either Stable Extension Salaries or Computed Extension Salaries. These options determine the player’s salary for year-2+ of the contract (next season forward). They do not affect their existing salary for the current season.

Stable Extension Salaries
Choosing this option will simply continue the contract with your league’s standard Player Salary Increase Per Year which applies to all players under contract.

Computed Extension Salaries
This option will calculate a new salary based on the player’s performance and the salary distributions in your league. Each position’s salary distribution is evaluated individually.

Player performance is based on a weighted calculation over multiple seasons and is specific to your league’s scoring settings. Player performance has a recency bias built in, but is designed so that it is easier for a player’s performance score to increase than it is to decrease.

Your league’s salary distribution by position is captured at the conclusion of each Free Agent Auction Draft.

This means that extension prices are updated after each week of games (for the player performance updates), and after each Free Agent Auction Draft (for the salary distribution updates).

There’s a lot of complexity going on behind the scenes, but the resulting salaries should generally make sense and not come as a surprise. As a simple rule of thumb: If a player was the 5th highest scoring player at his position last season, then his salary should be around the 5th highest salary at that position in your league. However, please keep in mind that this isn’t actually how the system evaluates performance or determines salary.

Related Settings

  • Extension Contracts: Default is 0 – The number of Extensions that a team can use each season.
  • Minimum Extension Salary: Default is $10 – All extensions salaries will be at least this amount.
  • Computed Salary Percent: Default is 85% – A computed salary percent of 100% would aim to be around full price. We recommend less than 100% otherwise the owner could just redraft the player for a similar price. It is also good for the salary to have “room to grow” or it will be unlikely that an owner ever signs a long extension (due to your league’s Player Salary Increase Per Year setting).

Franchise tagging is a tool that allows teams to retain a player for one additional season. A player is eligible for a franchise tag if they have completed the final year of their contract and have not been tagged before. The option to tag a player will become available in the app after NFL Week 17, when the fantasy season concludes. Teams must use their franchise tag before the start of the new league season on April 1st, or the player will be dropped from the roster.

The cost of a franchise tag is calculated as the average of the most expensive players at the player’s position (default is top 10 players per position, but is configurable in the settings), or the player’s existing salary plus a 10% increase (based on the league’s annual salary increase setting), whichever is greater. The specific tag amount for each eligible player will be displayed on the contracts screen for your team, so you can make an informed decision.

Franchise tags are automatically calculated when your draft completes, to prevent manipulation of tag values through dropping and adding players. This means that if you want to change the number of players to average for the franchise tag cost, you must do it before your draft.

You can’t extend a player after they’ve been tagged, because the player’s extension window has already passed by the time they are eligible for a franchise tag.

It’s worth noting that there is a commissioner tool available to override the minimum tag prices for custom league rules.

Related Settings

  • Franchise Tags: Default is 0 – The number of Franchise Tags that a team can use each season.

Salaries

The Salary Cap is the backbone of your dynasty league, governing all transaction decisions. During the Auction Draft, teams bid on players, and the winning bid amount is subtracted from their team’s available cap space. Similarly, during the season, teams bid on free agents through Free Agent Blind Bidding, with the winning bid amount also subtracted from their team’s cap space. Additionally, when making trades, teams must have available cap space to take on the contracts they are receiving.

The available cap space after the Auction Draft is the same amount that teams have to use for signing free agents during the season. There is no separate budget for the draft and in-season acquisitions. Therefore, it’s crucial to manage your cap space effectively, so that your team has enough room for signing free agents during the season.

To prevent teams from spending all of their salary cap during the draft, the league can use the “Reserved Cap” setting, which requires managers to set aside a portion of the salary cap for in-season free agent acquisitions. This ensures that teams have enough cap space to make necessary moves throughout the season.

Having a Reserved Cap also helps teams avoid getting into cap hell on season rollover when salaries increase.

Check out this FAQ for a better understanding of how Reserved Cap effects your draft.

Related Settings

  • Salary Cap: Default is $300 – The amount to increase a player’s salary by each time a new league year starts.
    • Example: Player Salary Increase set to 15%
      • $20 Player is signed to a 4-year contract.
      • Year 1: $20
      • Year 2: $20 x 15% = $23
      • Year 3: $23 x 15% = $27
      • Year 4: $27 x 15% = $32
  • Reserved Cap (for in season acquisitions): Default is $100
    • Example: Salary Cap: $300 Reserved Cap: $100
    • Managers will be able to spend up to $200 during the draft and will have at least $100 left over for free agent blind bidding during the season.

The salary of a player is determined by the method of acquisition:

Players acquired through the Auction Draft have a salary equal to the winning bid amount.

Players acquired through Free Agent Blind Bidding have a salary equal to the winning bid amount.

Players acquired through the Rookie Draft have a salary determined by the Rookie Pay Scale, based on their draft position.

It’s important to note that players’ salaries increase by 10% (by default, this percentage is configurable in league settings) at the start of each new league season. This increase applies to all players, regardless of how they were acquired.

Related Settings

  • Player Salary Increase Per Year: Default is 15% – The amount to increase a player’s salary by each time a new league year starts.
    • Example: Player Salary Increase set to 15%
      • $20 Player is signed to a 4-year contract.
      • Year 1: $20
      • Year 2: $20 x 15% = $23
      • Year 3: $23 x 15% = $27
      • Year 4: $27 x 15% = $32
  • Rookie Pay Scale Start %: Default is 4.5% – The percentage set for the rookie pay scale will be assigned to the first overall pick in the rookie draft.
    • Example:
      • Rookie Pay Scale is 4.5%
      • Salary Cap is $300
      • The first pick in the rookie draft is assigned a salary of $14. Each pick becomes cheaper than the previous with larger drops at the start of each round.

When a player is dropped from a team, two things occur:

  1. The player’s salary for the current season becomes dead money, and the team does not receive a refund (configurable with the setting: “Current season dead money penalty”)
  2. A dead money penalty is incurred for the next season, based on the number of years remaining on the player’s contract. The default penalty setting is 25% per additional year remaining.

Note – Players dropped while in a Practice Squad slot have a different set of settings. By default the “current season” dead money is 25% of the full salary, so if your PS Slot Salary Percent setting is 25% this will result in no change to your current season cap space. By default the “next season” dead money penalty is 0%, so you never pay a future year dead money penalty.

For example:

  • 1 Year Remaining – 0% of the player’s salary is dead money the following season
  • 2 Years Remaining – 25% of the player’s salary is dead money the following season
  • 3 Years Remaining – 50% of the player’s salary is dead money the following season
  • 4 Years Remaining – 75% of the player’s salary is dead money the following season
  • 5 Years Remaining – 100% of the player’s salary is dead money the following season

It’s worth noting that there are no additional cap hits after the following season, once the penalty is applied.”

Related Settings

  • Dead money penalty per year remaining: Default is 25% – The percentage of a player’s salary that is dead money in year 2 based on the remaining length on the contract.
    • Example: You drop a player that has a contract of 4 years @ $20. The $20 remains on your books for the current season as dead money, and next year you will have a dead money penalty of $15.
    • Example: You drop a player that has a contract of 1 year @ $20. The $20 remains on your books for the current season as dead money, and there is no dead money penalty the following year.

An optional setting called “Max Cap Rollover” is available, which allows teams to carry over a certain amount of unused salary cap space to the next season. The “Max Cap Rollover” setting determines the maximum amount of unused cap space that teams are allowed to roll over to the new league season on April 1st, in addition to their regular available cap space.

It’s important to note that discounts from IR slots do not count towards “Unused Salary Cap.” After the playoffs end, IR players are moved to the teams’ bench and the IR slot is closed until the new fantasy season begins on April 1st.

It’s also worth noting that this feature may not be appropriate for leagues that change the “Current season Dead Money penalty for dropping a player” setting. By default, the current season dead money penalty is 100% of the player’s salary, so teams don’t gain cap space when they drop a player. If your league gives partial refunds when dropping players, then allowing cap space to rollover may not make sense, as teams can always drop players to gain unused cap space.

  • Example:
    • League Salary Cap: $300
    • Max Rollover Cap: $50

      Team1 has $80 in cap space available before April 1st. When the season rolls over on April 1st, their Salary Cap for the season is $350
      Team2 has $25 in cap space available before April 1st. When the season rolls over on April 1st, their Salary Cap for the season is $325

      The team’s contract costs and dead money for the new season are then subtracted from their new Salary Cap to determine their available cap space

Waivers / Free Agents

Players are acquired through Free Agent Blind Bidding (FAAB) when they are on waivers. Players who are free agents can be immediately picked up for $1 (or $0 if your league allows $0 bids).

Players are placed on waivers for two reasons:

  1. When a player is dropped by a team: They stay on waivers until the waiver time selected in league settings passes.
  2. When a player’s game has started: They stay on waivers until Wednesday morning at 10:00 AM CST.

Once a player clears waivers, they become a free agent and can be immediately picked up. The default behavior is to process the FAAB auction on Wednesday morning and then open it up for teams to pick up players immediately for the remainder of the week. This approach is preferred as it allows FAAB auctions to take place after a weekend of games while also allowing teams to pick up players immediately on game days.

Free Agent Blind Bidding (FAAB) is a method used in fantasy sports leagues to acquire players who are not currently on any teams. In this system, teams have a budget (your available budget is simply your available cap space) and they bid on players using a blind auction process. The team that submits the highest bid wins the player, and the winning bid amount is subtracted from the team’s budget. The process is called “blind” because teams do not know how much other teams are bidding.

In the event that two teams bid the same amount for a player, the tie is broken by the team that is lower in the league standings. The league standings are determined by:

Standings are determined by:
1. Record
2. Total Points For
3. Total Points Against

In the unlikely event that the standings criteria are exactly tied, the team with the most available cap space will win the tie. If both teams have the same amount of available cap space, the tie will be decided by a coin flip.

Free Agents picked up during the season will be assigned a 1-year contract with a salary that matches the winning bid amount. This means that they will become free agents and available in the next draft unless a Franchise Tag is used on them at the end of the season.

Trading


Why do a trade auction?

How many times have you put a player on the trading block only to receive little response? This is because a deal rarely gets done so league mates don’t want to deal with it. When the creator sets the first “Current Winning Offer” it is guaranteed that a trade will be completed. The auction can no longer be canceled and league mates are motivated to beat the “Current Winning Offer.”

Do people in your league gripe about trades that they aren’t involved in? After every trade there’s the guy who says: “I can’t believe you gave him that player, I would have given you XYZ!”

With Trade Auctions, no one can complain about the results of a trade because everyone has the same opportunity.

How do they work?

  1. Select the player, cap space, or rookie pick that you want to auction off for the trade.
  2. Select the types of assets that you are most interested in receiving.
  3. When an offer comes in either set it as “Winning”, to replace the “Current Winning Offer”, or “Reject” it.
  4. When the auction expires the “Current Winning Offer” is accepted as a trade.
    – If there are pending offers when the auction expires, the auction creator will have up to 12 hours to review pending offers. If the review clock runs out then the “Current Winning Offer” is accepted as a trade.
  • Everyone will see the list of offers.
  • The auction creator can choose to reject all offers and never accept a trade.
  • As soon as the auction creator sets an offer as the “Current Winning Offer” it becomes guaranteed that a trade will be accepted.
  • A Trade Auction cannot be canceled after the creator sets an offer as the “Current Winning Offer.”
  • A Trade Offer cannot be canceled after it is set as the “Current Winning Offer.”
  • Your league mates have the option to add additional players/cap/picks from your team to their offer, but they don’t have the option to modify any of the players/cap/picks that you selected for the auction.
  • It’s good strategy to quickly set an offer as “Winning” or “Rejected” as they come in. This gives your league mates time to improve their offer to beat the “Current Winning Offer.”
  • If the Time Remaining is less than 12h when a new “Current Winning Offer” is set then the Time Remaining will reset to 12h.
  • Trade Auctions must be STARTED before the trade deadline. They will be allowed to complete after the trade deadline if they were created before the trade deadline.

When a player is traded, their existing contract and salary are transferred to their new team. As a result, it is important to consider the contract details of a player’s contract when making trades.

How much is the contract? How long is the contract? Are they eligible for an extension? Can you franchise tag the player? These considerations make trading particularly exciting in contract leagues.

Trading is allowed year-round, except from the trade deadline through the final week of the season.

In addition to trading players, trading future rookie draft picks is also allowed and can be a valuable tool for teams. The trade window includes the option to include rookie draft picks as part of a trade offer. This can add an extra layer of strategy to trades, as teams can acquire picks in upcoming drafts to secure the rights to top prospects. Additionally, teams are able to trade picks two years in advance, giving them the ability to plan for the long-term. Trading future draft picks is a great way to build a strong team for the future, and it is highly encouraged in many leagues.

There is a trade setting called “Allow cap space trading” which allows teams to trade cap space along with players and draft picks. This allows teams to manage their salary cap more effectively, by acquiring additional cap space to sign free agents or make trades.

However, it’s important to note that when a team trades cap space, it will only affect the current season unless a “Max Cap Rollover” amount is set in the salary cap settings. This allows teams to roll over a certain percentage of unused cap space to the following season, providing more flexibility to manage their salary cap in the long-term. This setting enables teams to have more control over their finances and make more informed decisions when trading.

There are two options for approving trades in a league, which can be set in the league’s settings:

  1. Commish Approve/Veto: In this option, the commissioner of the league has the sole authority to approve or veto trades. The commissioner will review each trade proposal and determine whether it should be approved or rejected.
  2. League Vote: In this option, a vote is conducted among league members to approve or reject a trade. The number of vetos required to reject a trade can be set by the commissioner. If enough members vote to veto a trade, it will be rejected. This option allows for more democratic decision-making and gives league members more input on the trades that occur within the league.

Both options have their own advantages and disadvantages, depending on the preference of the league. Commish approve/veto allows for quick decisions and less involvement of the league members, while League vote allows more participation and input from the league members.

Playoffs

There are several playoff configurations that can be chosen in the league settings. However, these options are limited by the NFL schedule, which includes bye weeks through Week 14. This leaves a maximum of three weeks for fantasy playoffs: Weeks 15, 16, and 17.

It is important to note that the final week of the NFL season should always be excluded from fantasy playoffs, as NFL teams may rest their starters if the game does not affect their playoff standings. The last week of the fantasy playoffs is the most important game of the season and it is not ideal for it to fall on a week when starters are not playing.

The playoff seeding is determined by the standings. If your league has divisions, the division winners are seeded the highest, followed by those highest in the overall standings. If your league has a custom rule for who makes the playoffs, you can use the “Edit Schedule Matchups” commissioner tool to set custom playoff matches. This allows you to create custom playoffs that are tailored to the specific needs of your league.

In the case that the NFL schedule allows for 4 week playoffs, we will add more configurations to choose from.

Standings are determined by:
1. Record
2. Total Points For
3. Total Points Against

There are 2 or 3 playoff brackets depending on your league size and playoff configuration:

Championship

  • The bracket for those that make the playoffs and are competing for the championship.
  • Unlike the other brackets, results in this bracket DO impact rookie draft picks unless your league implements a custom rule.

Bankrupt Bowl

  • Loser Advances
  • It is common for leagues to use the results of the Bankrupt Bowl bracket to determine last place punishments.
  • Has no impact on rookie draft picks unless your league implements a custom rule.

Purgatory

  • Teams finished too high in the regular season standings to compete for last place, but finished too low in the standings to compete for a championship.
  • Every team will have a final tournament standings position.
  • Has no impact on rookie draft picks unless your league implements a custom rule.

Ties are uncommon due to the use of fractional points, but if a tie does occur during the playoffs, the higher seed will advance to the next round. The seed is determined by the regular season standings, so the team that performed better during the regular season will have the advantage in the event of a playoff tie.

Standings are determined by:
1. Record
2. Total Points For
3. Total Points Against

Practice Squad & Injured Reserve

Practice Squad slots, also known as “Taxi Squad” slots, are a valuable type of roster slot for fantasy football teams. They are designed to provide a salary cap advantage and additional roster space for players taken in the Rookie Draft that the team does not want to start immediately. This allows teams to keep a player on their roster without using a valuable starting slot, while also preserving salary cap space.

When a player is placed in a Practice Squad slot, only a portion (25%, configurable in Contract Settings) of their salary counts against the team’s cap space. This allows teams to keep more players on their roster without exceeding the salary cap. Additionally, teams can easily move players from the Practice Squad to the active roster when they are ready to contribute to the team. This is a great way to manage your team’s salary cap and to keep a close eye on the development of young players, especially when you have a limited salary cap.

By default, players in the Practice Squad slots have less risky contracts than other players. Their salary will not increase when they are on the Practice Squad on league rollover (configurable in settings). Additionally, when players are dropped from Practice Squad slots, there is no next season dead money penalty, which means teams will not incur any financial penalties for releasing them (configurable in settings).

PS Eligibility

  • Only player’s taken in the Rookie Draft can be placed in a PS slot. Rookies taken in the Auction Draft are not eligible.
  • Once a player has been moved into the starting lineup, they are no longer eligible to be placed in a PS slot (there is a warning when a PS eligible player is put into the starting lineup for the first time).
  • A player can be moved back and forth freely between the Bench and PS slots without losing eligibility.
  • A player can be put on the Practice Squad for the whole duration of his contract as long as he has never been moved into the starting lineup.

In Roster Settings, one of the options available is to choose the IR Slot Configuration for your league.

Traditional (Default)

  • Eligible Players: Out, Doubtful, Injured Reserve, PUP, Covid-19
  • Not Eligible: Suspended, Probable, Questionable
  • When a player is no longer eligible for the IR slot, you must move them out of the IR before you are allowed to modify your lineup.
  • If your league settings give a discount to IR Slot players, then your team must have the available cap space to move them out of the IR Slot.

Any Player / Full Season

  • In this configuration the IR slot is a special slot designed to provide cap space in exchange for not being able to use that player.
  • You can put ANY player in the IR slot regardless of their injury status and only a percentage (depending on settings) of that player’s salary counts against your cap space. The trade off is that the player must remain on the IR for the rest of the season, so you won’t be able to use that player again until the following season. This allows teams to use this slot strategically, instead of it just being an extra roster slot for hurt players.
  • You won’t be able to drop a player that is on the IR until after the playoffs complete. You will still be able to drop the player before the new season on April 1st if you need to for strategic reasons.
  • If your league settings give a discount to IR Slot players, then your team must have the available cap space to move them out of the IR Slot.

The setting IR Slot Salary Percent under Contract Settings is meant to be used with the Any Player / Full Season IR setting. This gives you cap space back in exchange for not using the player.

If you reduce the “IR Slot Salary Percent” below 100% with Traditional IR, beware that a team can end up in a tricky situation. In a league that uses Traditional IR and less than 100% IR Slot Salary Percent, they could place a player on IR and gain cap space > Then they spend that cap space > The following week that player is no longer hurt and is ineligible for the IR slot > They won’t be able to update their lineup until they move this player out of the IR slot, and they won’t be able to move that player out of the IR slot if they don’t have cap space to do so.

*Note – Player’s that are dropped from IR slots are dropped for their full salary, not the reduced salary of the slot.

*Note – IR Slot Salary discounts do not count towards Unused Cap Space if your league uses Cap Space Rollover. IR Players are moved to your bench before the rollover.

FAQ

These are generic rules of thumb that don’t take into account your league’s full settings.

Player’s salaries increase 10% each year – League salary cap doesn’t change. High roster turnover. Low number of players under contract. Lots of high ranked players available each year in your auction draft. Strategy: You should only give contracts to players that you are predicting will increase in value. You don’t want to sign contracts for expensive players that you paid full price for. Their value needs to increase 10% by next season for it to be the correct decision.

Player’s salaries increase 10% each year – League salary cap increases 10% each year. Low roster turnover. High number of players under contract. Low amount of high ranking players available each year in your auction draft. Strategy: You should give contracts to players as long as you don’t predict them decreasing in value next year. You can sign contracts for players that you paid full price for. Their value needs to stay the same or increase by next season for it to be the correct decision.

League settings in League Tycoon offer a wide range of options to customize your league. Alongside these settings, there is a collection of Commissioner Tools that allow for further customization and flexibility. These tools enable the commissioner to manually manage and adjust various aspects of the league, such as players, contracts, teams, schedule, playoff matchups, draft, and more. Whether you want to implement a unique rule or handle a situation differently than the default settings, the tools make this possible.

When using the default settings, teams are given a $300 salary cap and a $100 reserve cap. The reserve cap is a portion of the total cap that cannot be used during the draft. This means that teams will have $200 of available cap space to use during the draft ($300 – $100 = $200).

If a team signs expensive contracts and enters the draft with a cap space of $90 ($210 used cap space and $90 available cap space), they will have to fill their empty roster spots with $1 players. This means they will only be able to acquire players who they nominate and no one else bids on.

It’s important to keep in mind that all rookie picks are guaranteed and teams will be able to make their rookie picks regardless of their cap space. However, they might have a limited options to fill the rest of their roster due to the limited cap space. It’s crucial for teams to manage their salary cap effectively, to ensure they have enough cap space to make necessary moves during the draft and the season.

Sometimes we get this question because the NFL salary cap increases. The thing to realize is that the NFL increases their salary cap because the collective bargaining agreement says that players receive a percentage of the NFL revenue (The salary cap in the NFL can also decrease).

Our platform does allow you to increase or decrease your league’s salary cap at any time. However, if you are feeling like your league needs more money, then our suggestion is to DECREASE the player salary increase %. Instead of having a 10% player salary increase and 5% cap space increase each year, maybe you have a 5% player salary increase and 0% cap space increase. This will make it simpler for your league mates and avoid complexity for complexities sake.

Check out the playoff configuration section under Playoffs .

Signing a free agent that was picked up during the season to a long-term contract is not the typical practice in contract leagues, however, the commissioner tools do allow for custom contract rules to be executed.

So, why is this not allowed by default in Contract Leagues?

What happens is someone in your league picks up a free agent during the season, and by the end of the season the player is really breaking out so they want to sign them to a long contract (of course). This idea is fine in non contract leagues, but in contract leagues it’s not balanced compared to other contract commitments. All the other contract commitments took place before the season started, some of which will certainly be bad and lead to regret.

Let’s compare the drafted player’s contract commitment to the in-season free agent contract scenario.

Team 1 drafts an up-and-coming player that they believe is going to break out and gives the player a 4-year contract before the season starts. If the player breaks out then it pays off big for Team 1. If the player flops then Team 1 is stuck paying the player for 4-years or has to take a big dead money penalty next season to drop him.

Team 2 picks up an up-and-coming player cheap in week 3. Team 2 then gets to watch and see if the player breaks out during the season, and then by the end of the season determine if they want to give the player an extended contract or not. There is no risk or tradeoff in this scenario. They simply sign a long contract if the player breaks out, or they don’t sign a contract if the player doesn’t.

This would make in-season free agent contracts substantially better(easier, less risky) than the contracts given to drafted players. This type of imbalance is bad for the overall picture of contract leagues. BUT if your league has a custom in-season free agent contract rule, the commish tools allow you to update player contracts.

The system doesn’t allow you to perform transactions that would put you over the salary cap.

However, there are certain situations where a team will end up over the cap due to contract increases or rookie picks.

Keep in mind that if your league uses a reserve cap it is almost impossible to go over the cap on season rollover. This really only happens in leagues that remove the reserve cap.

When a team is over the cap they will not be able to update their starting lineup, trade, or pickup players unless that move puts them under the salary cap.

Often players don’t “officially retire” and so the official data for them won’t reflect that they are retired. Some of the names in the active list haven’t played in the NFL for several seasons. On the other hand you have people who retire and then come back.

We leave this up for the commissioner to manage how they see fit. Commonly, the team is released from the retired player’s contract with no penalty. The commissioner can do this by removing the player from the team in the Commissioner Tools, giving the team back their salary space and avoiding any dead money. If the player returns to play after retirement, they are available in the draft.

Every once in a while an NFL team will change the position of a player. We most commonly see this with Defensive Ends and Outside Linebackers because players often play both positions. This situation has a different impact on contract leagues than it does for standard league types. Let’s say your league has 1 DL slot and 1 LB slot. You sign a defensive lineman to a 3-year contract and a linebacker to a 3-year contract. The following season the defensive end changed to outside linebacker. It feels bad to be forced to play that player in a linebacker slot and now having 2 linebackers under contract and no defensive lineman.

By default, the software takes the approach that you can continue to play a player in the position that they had when you drafted them. However, the commish can change a player’s position using the Modify Player commish tool. At the bottom of the modify player screen there is a drop down where you can change a player’s position.

We get several variations of this question. The question itself is a misunderstanding, so let’s clear this up.

Cap Space: How much money you have available. The number shown under your team name.

Reserved Cap: This is a predetermined amount set in your league settings. (Helps teams to have cap space after the draft in order to make trades, pick up players, and have cap room for salary increases on league rollover)

Draft Cap = Cap Space – Reserved Cap

Therefore, any action that decreases your Cap Space—such as trading for players, trading cap space, or drafting rookies—will likewise decrease your Draft Cap. It is not a different pool of money; rather, the Draft Cap is simply a term to express the amount you have when subtracting the reserved cap from your available cap space.

Example:

You have $212 in cap space. Your league has a $100 reserved cap. You currently would have $112 to use in the draft.

You trade for a player or draft a rookie that reduces your total cap space to $203. You now would have $103 to use in the draft.

Draft Cap = Cap Space – Reserved Cap

We’ve designed the format with a focus on keeping things user friendly. A big goal is to prevent scenarios where teams find themselves in such tough spots that managers feel the need to throw in the towel, causing the league to fall apart.

Especially in contract leagues, teams can find themselves stuck in “cap hell,” forced into making even more unfavorable decisions just to dig themselves out. While signing terrible contracts can create these risks, we believe it’s a critical part of the game.

However, when we consider holding the Free Agent Auction Draft before the Rookie Draft, several concerns come up. For starters, what if a team blows all their budget during the Free Agent Auction Draft and then can’t afford their rookie picks? Also have to consider trades that occur in the time between the two drafts (or during the rookie draft). If teams can’t pay for their picks, it leads to difficult situations. Should they be forced to forgo their rookie picks? That won’t go over well. Should they draft their rookie picks and then be in cap hell?

We then put those concerns up against the benefits of having the Free Agent Auction Draft first. The problem is that we haven’t come up with a benefit.

Having the Rookie Draft first means that the money you have leftover after the Rookie Draft is what you have available in the Auction Draft. It also means that undrafted rookies can be acquired in the Auction Draft.

We’ve found that the benefits of having the Free Agent Auction Draft first just don’t outweigh the risks. In the best case, this order adds no benefit to your league, while the worst-case scenario could endanger the entire league’s stability. We’d rather not take that risk, aiming instead for a setup that encourages enjoyment and longevity for all involved.

Timeline

August 28th (Date set by commish)

Auction Draft
Opens – Signing drafted players to contracts
Opens – Free Agent Blind Bidding

NFL Week 1 - First Game Kickoff

Deadline – Signing contract extensions
Deadline – Signing drafted players to contracts

NFL Week 9 Ends (Set By Commish)

Deadline – Trade Deadline. All trades must be accepted before week 10 begins

NFL Week 17 Ends

Current season completes
IR Players moved to bench
Closes – Free Agent Blind Bidding
Opens – Signing Franchise Tags
Opens – Trading

April 1st

Deadline – Signing Franchise Tags
New league season begins
Player contracts are reduced by 1 year
Player salaries are increased
Players with 0 years remaining are dropped
Cap Space Rollover
Draft Lottery ceremony (Date set by commish)
Opens – Signing contract extensions for players with 1 year remaining

July 1st (Date set by commish)

Rookie Draft – Rookie drafts can be on a separate date like this, or done back to back with the Auction Draft as one draft event.

August 28th (Date set by commish)

Auction Draft
Opens – Free Agent Blind Bidding
Opens – Signing drafted players to contracts