Blind Bidding & Free Agency
TheFootballEducator.com uses Blind Bidding – the fairest and most intriguing method in fantasy football for acquiring free agents.
All teams receive $1,000 for the year in Bidding Dollars (not real money).
Blind Bidding will start after the 1st week of games are played and continues throughout the season including playoffs – so remember to spend wisely.
Blind Bidding starts Tuesday, 8AM EST and ends Thursday, 6AM EST.
Once the Blind Bidding is over you still may pick up a player in what becomes a 1st come, 1st serve process that stays in effect until 5 minutes before each player’s game-time.
NOTE: There may be a delay of up to a few hours from the completion of blind bidding to the start of 1st come, 1st serve free agency.
Free agents are locked starting at the first kickoff each week until Tuesday, 8AM EST of the following week.
Free agents will be available for pick-up after your draft and before the season begins.
After the season starts any dropped players will not become available until blind bidding begins the following week, to give each manager a chance at acquiring that player.
How Blind Bidding works:
- The team that bids the highest for a player will get that player. Since this is a blind bidding process, no one knows what the others are bidding.
- Bid minimum is $1.
- If you win the bid at $55, and the next highest bid was $18, you still pay $55 for your player. That $55 will then be deducted from your remaining blind bidding dollars. If you lose that bid, no blind bidding dollars will be deducted.
- If there is a tie bid, the player bid on is awarded to the team with the worst record. 2nd tie-breaker is lowest point total, and the final tiebreaker is which manager entered the league first.
- The software will guide you through the process of bidding on players.
- You are allowed to bid on multiple players for different bidding dollar values for each player you would like to drop.
- To bid on multiple players for each player dropped, you will rank your preference of which players you would like on your roster. Your 1st preference will be considered first. If someone outbids you, your 2nd preference is then considered and so on…
- You must have enough bidding dollars to bid on players. You will not be allowed to bid more than you have.
- When a player is cut by an owner, that player will not become available again until the next Blind Bidding process. This will eliminate any issues of owners trying to drop players for a friend to pick up, and give everyone an equal opportunity to bid fairly on that player the following week.
1st come, 1st serve:
- You may pick up as many free agent players that you would like once the Blind Bidding process is over and before the free agent’s game is played that week.
- The cost is $10 bidding dollars for any free agent not picked up during the Blind Bidding process.
Trades
Weekly trading deadline is Friday at 11PM EST. Trading opens Monday of each week. Any trades involving player’s participating in a Thursday night game for that week must be approved before Wednesday 6PM EST.
Season trading deadline is Friday at 11 PM EST before week 8, October 27, 2014.
Trades may not be approved until late on Saturday night. Any player approved in a trade will be eligible to start the same week as long as the game has not been played yet. You will need to adjust your lineup accordingly.
It is the owner’s responsibility to reset your starting lineup once a trade has been approved.
Trades that have not been accepted or rejected before the deadline will be deleted. This will alleviate any issues of owners receiving offers, but not responding and waiting until the opportunity to jump on the trade once they see it benefits them due to a player’s injury status changing.
If you proposed a trade to someone and it gets deleted at deadline, you could propose the same trade again the following week.
A trade will not be approved if any players involved in the trade are injured after the trade was proposed. This shouldn’t come into play often as trades will not remain on the table and be deleted weekly.
All trades will be reviewed and must be approved. An e-mail will be sent to all members of the league when a trade has been accepted. Any member of a league may protest the trade during a 24 hour period. If there is no protest and TheFootballEducator.com believes the trade is fair, the trade is allowed.
If a trade is protested, the owner protesting the trade MUST GIVE A VALID REASON why they think the trade cannot help one of the teams or show signs of collusion for the veto to be considered. A valid veto is a veto explained in detail how a trade cannot benefit one of the trading teams. If TheFootballEducator.com agrees, or is able to see the side of the protestor, TheFootballEducator.com will then ask either both owners, or just the owner perceived to be getting the lesser end of the deal their reasoning for the trade. If TheFootballEducator.com is satisfied that the trade is fair, the trade will stand. If TheFootballEducator.com is not satisfied with the answers, TheFootballEducator.com can reject the trade and will ask the parties to try and work another deal that would be fair.
INVALID VETO EXPLANATIONS & VETO PROCESS:
– One or two words about how a trade is “dumb” is NOT a valid explanation.
– The number of vetoes for a trade does not matter. There could be one veto or 5 vetoes and the trade may or may not be approved.
– One team is getting the better of the deal is NOT a valid explanation. The purpose of a trade is to make your team better. If a team has surplus at one position – kudos to them, they drafted well and now have excess to trade in one position to improve another. That is THE key aspect in trading. You don’t condemn a trade because someone had a good draft.
REASONS A TRADE IS DECLINED:
1) Collusion – an obvious attempt between 2 owners that know each other to improve one team at the expense of the other team.
2) The trade cannot in any way be beneficial to one of the trading teams. This would be an obvious trade like a star player for a backup running back.
3) There is a valid veto and when the owner who is perceived to be getting the short end of deal is asked to explain why they believe the trade helps their team, the owner replies that it doesn’t or has an invalid explanation.
4) Dumping of players from a non-contender to a contending team. This typically would happen near the trading deadline.
5) Trading partners – 2 teams attempt to trade to help each other cover bye weeks & short-term injuries.
6) The trade will not improve one team because they are trading away significantly more than they are receiving from the other owner.
7) There is more than one pending trade involving the same player and the original trade is quite “unequal”. Another team comes in and offers a more balanced trade. All trades involving the same player will be thrown out.
As you can see from the above rules, TheFootballEducator.com takes trading seriously. Our #1 priority with trades is to prevent any collusion from occurring. Most trades are approved, but some will not be. Rejected trades are more likely to happen closer to the trade deadline as some owners are looking to take advantage of struggling teams. Due to the delay of processing trades, it is best to offer trades early in the week to give the most time possible for review of trades and adjusting your lineup.
Draft Room (Live Draft)
You will use TheFootballEducator.com’s customized draft room for your draft.
Important tips to optimize draft room performance:
1) It is best viewable on a higher resolution setting. A high resolution setting will enable you to view the entire Draft room. eg. 1280×1024 works great for drafts.
2) Use Internet Explorer browser if possible- other browsers are usable but Explorer works best so it is recommended. Firefox works fine too but the lines could be slightly off. Chrome has been reported to work OK too but is not guaranteed.
IMPORTANT – If you are a Mac user, please try mock drafts first as some members report periodic problems with Macs. Some report it is fine while others have said it does not work well.
IF in doubt about your browser, try mock drafts before your real draft(s).
3) Disable anti-virus software – If you experience lags and use anti-virus software, disable it while you draft! McAfee On-Access Scan will cause trouble with your draft and some new Norton products could possibly cause problems too.
You may enter the draft room at any time after you signed up for your draft.
Draft Room features & instructions
1) Player selection – database of all the players relevant of drafting.
- Player database – Browse the available players in the player section located on the bottom left-hand side of your screen. Click on the different positions to show the players at each particular position.
- Switching views – There are two ways to view the players – TheFootballEducator.com’s rankings and alphabetically. TheFootballEducator.com’s rankings are the default view and although these rankings are quite good, TheFootballEducator.com’s rankings may be different than your personal rankings. You may want to utilize the pre-rank feature mentioned in the next section to avoid mistakes. Switch to alphabetical view to locate players alphabetized by last name.
- Drafting a player – To make a draft selection, double-click on a player to populate your Draft List (2nd box from bottom left-hand side). Once a player is in your Draft List, you may double-click again to put the player in your selection box or use the >> arrows to move the player. You may select players when it is not your turn to populate your Draft List. (see below)
- Populating roster – Your roster is located in the middle-right of the screen and will include the player’s bye weeks and where you selected the player.
- Player Grid – This takes up the entire upper-part of the Draft room and shows all players being selected by all owners color-coded by positions. This makes the draft easy to follow.
2) Draft List – use this to speed up the draft and organize a list for yourself before your turn to draft. You may also pre-rank players prior to your draft and the software will save your list even if you close your browser.
- You may select players before your turn to fill your Draft List located on the bottom middle left side of screen.
- To have your “Draft List” chosen for you, computer control must be checked. Computer control is automatically enabled when you are not in the Draft room or you choose to check the box yourself. The software will select the player that is at the top of the list when it is your turn. Please remember to uncheck computer control when you are finished using your Draft List.
IMPORTANT – IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED TO USE A DRAFTLIST TO DRAFT YOUR ENTIRE DRAFT FOR YOU IF YOU CANNOT ATTEND DRAFT. SINCE THE COMPUTER WILL SELECT THE NEXT PLAYER ON YOUR DRAFT LIST AND YOU HAVE 10 WR’S LISTED FIRST THOSE ARE THE PLAYERS THAT WILL BE SELECTED FOR YOU. YOU MUST ORDER YOUR DRAFT LIST ACCORDINGLY AND MIX ALL POSITIONS WITH THE PLAYERS YOU MOST WANT AT THE TOP OF YOUR LIST.
- You may move the players up and down your Draft List by using the blue arrows.
3) Computer Control – you will have full control of this feature when you are in the draft room. If you arrive a few minutes late, you are automatically taken off computer control.
If you miss a pick while the draft room browser is open. The computer will pick for you and computer control will remain on until you uncheck the box.
The software uses TheFootballEducator.com’s up-to-date rankings. These are legitimate rankings updated often to ensure that the computer will draft players that should be taken at that particular point in the draft. The computer will pick the best available player and will still fulfill all the roster requirements. TheFootballEducator.com has the most ingenious computer picks in fantasy football! If for any reason you miss part or even all of your draft, you will still be a contender.
4) Draft Chat – Place your cursor in the bottom right box to type a comment and hit Enter on keyboard or Send to enter your text.
5) Standard Leagues and Flex Leagues- Both leagues will use a 2 minute timer per pick and Mock Drafts will use a 1 minute timer per pick. If a player is not selected in the allotted 2 minutes of that pick, the computer will automatically select a player for you. This pick will be filled with the best available player or your highest pre-ranked player. A good draft strategy is to fill out pre-ranks in the event you miss a pick.
6) Draft Positions- These are random and will be known after a team has signed up for a league or a mock draft. Teams can swap entire draft positions from the individual league or mock draft homepage.
7) Draft Style- All drafts are serpentine style drafts. The earlier you pick in odd rounds, the later you pick in the even rounds and vice versa. An example can be seen below:
Round 1: Team 1, Team 2, Team 3, Team 4, Team 5, Team 6, Team 7, Team 8, Team 9, Team 10, Team 11, Team 12.
Round 2: Team 12, Team 11, Team 10, Team 9, Team 8, Team 7, Team 6, Team 5, Team 4, Team 3, Team 2, Team 1.
The draft continues in this order for all 18 rounds, so at the start of round 3 Team 1 will have the first pick again. In round 4 Team 12 will pick first, etc…
8) Filling Rosters- It is important that you keep in mind roster requirements when drafting. To submit a line-up each week you will need to fill each starting position. Therefore, when drafting you must select at least one positional player for each position required to fill a starting line-up.
9) Note: Two people cannot be in the draft room at the same time (same or different location) with the same logon. You can draft in more than one draft if needed as long as you are using separate windows.
10) Good Luck and HAVE FUN!
The entry fee is all you pay NO TRANSACTION FEES or HIDDEN CHARGES
TRADITIONAL LEAGUE: 12 team League, Head to Head Competition w/Live Draft – Real Time Fantasy Scoring, Unlimited Trades, Free Agency/Blind Bidding, and Mock Drafts
6 team seeded playoff NFL Week 14 – 16 to determine Fantasy Bowl Winner & Runner Up
18 player roster, 9 positions to be fielded each week:
QB RB RB WR WR WR TE KICKER TEAM DEFENSE/SPECIAL TEAMS
FLEX LINEUP LEAGUE: 12 Team League, Head to Head Competition w/Live Draft – Real Time Fantasy Scoring, Unlimited Trades, Free Agency/Blind Bidding and Mock Drafts.
6 Team seeded playoff NFL Week 14 – 16 to determine Fantasy Bowl Winner & Runner Up
18 player roster, 9 positions fielded each week
QB RB RB WR WR (RB or WR or TE) TE KICKER TEAM DEFENSE/SPECIAL TEAMS
WEEKLY LEAGUES
League Play Begins September 5, 2014
12 Team Leagues
$20 Entry
This league is completely independent of all full season and playoff leagues, and lasts for one NFL week, with 16 individual contests in all. This league competition utilizes the Salary Cap format. Each week we will through our software provide all teams with the monetary value of each relevant NFL offensive player & Team Defenses/Special teams . Highest point total determines each week’s winners.
9 positions to be fielded each week:
QB RB RB WR WR WR TE KICKER TEAM DEFENSE/SPECIAL TEAMS
POST SEASON/PLAYOFF LEAGUE
League Begins with 1st Wildcard Playoff Game on Jan 3, 2015
League Ends after Super Bowl, Feb. 1, 2015
25 Team Leagues
Multiple Entries Permitted
League details and payouts will be announced and posted for all to see on November 1st, 2014