Football Guys Home Leagues Official Rules

Article I: League Host

1. Football Guys Home Leagues (FBGL) is a partnership between Football Guys and the SportsHub Games Network (SHGN). SHGN is a licensed fantasy operator and is solely responsible for administering all FBGL league operations. When joining FBGL, you will be asked to make your payment via LeagueSafe. LeagueSafe has common ownership with SHGN. It is the trusted source for collecting and protecting fantasy league dues and will be utilized to help administer the collection of entry fees, the distribution of prizes, and various other services.
2. FBGL uses a third party host (Sleeper) as our game play provider. The league will be played on that site. Sleeper has no partnership or stake in FBGL.
3. Upon payment at LeagueSafe, team managers will receive a link and login information to their Sleeper league. You must provide your Sleeper ID to LeagueSafe in order to make a payment. This link can be found on the LeagueSafe league page as well.
4. We are at the mercy of the league host for their players and designations. This includes but is not limited to available players, positions, injury or suspended designations, etc.
5. We will not manually change and designation or add players to the player pool. That is designated and done by the league host.
6. In most cases, FBGL will be bound by what the league host does and also what their system allows. Certain abilities/features allowed by the host may be turned on or off for a league or specific user for various reasons at the sole discretion of FBGL.
7. The contact information for our league commissioner’s desk is fbgleagues@shgn.com
8. By making a payment into the league, you are agreeing to the LeagueSafe Terms of Service and SportsHub Master Terms of Service
9. If you've made a payment via LeagueSafe, but are taking too long to join the league on Sleeper, we may opt to refund your payment and allow another player to pay and join the league. We do this to ensure that drafts are launched in a timely manner.

Legal States

SHGN, via subsidiary entities SportsHub Regulatory, LLC and SportsHub PA, LLC, is a licensed fantasy sports operator in most U.S. States and Canadian Provinces.  You may play FBGL provided you are not physically located in the following states: Arizona (Tribal Land), Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Vermont and Washington, and in the province of Ontario, CA. We are legal in all other states and Canadian provinces. Unfortunately FBGL, like all season long fantasy contest operators, isn’t legal outside of US/Canada.

Article II: League Types

Redraft

Each redraft league plays only one season and is completed at the end of that season. There is no keeper or dynasty component to these leagues.

Article III: Fees and Payouts

All league finances will be administered by FBGL through the LeagueSafe website. End-of-season payouts will be allocated in accordance with their Terms of Service.

 

A. 12 Team League Entry and Payouts

B. Winnings Allocation

1. Any and all league winnings will be allocated into a team manager’s Leaguesafe Account.
2. This will be done after the contest has concluded. The contest concludes after Thursday morning stat corrections following the championship week of the fantasy season.
3. Any person who has winnings over $599 will be required to fill out a w9 (US) or a w8-BEN (Canada) before making a withdrawal.

Article IV: Football Guys Scoring System

Basic Scoring Rules

Article V: Rosters

A. Starting Lineup Requirements (10 starters)

• 1 Quarterback
• 2 Running Backs
• 2 Wide Receivers
• 1 Tight End
• 3 Flex Players (RB/WR/TE)
• 1 Team Defense/Special Teams

B. Bench spots

• Each team has 8 Bench Spots

C. Undroppable players

1. As an anti-collusion and anti-tanking measure, there may be players deemed “undroppable.” Start-worthy players and players ranked high enough that they should be rostered in leagues are generally considered undroppable given the depth of rosters allowed. FBGL will determine if a player is undroppable and correct if done. FBGL will also decide whether a player was dropped in an attempt at collusion or tanking.

D. Weekly Starting Lineup

1. You must submit a valid starting lineup weekly.
2. If a team manager fails to submit their own lineup, they may be removed from the league. Failure to set a lineup will be seen as league inactivity and potentially lead to a team being deemed abandoned.
3. Starting lineups are not allowed to have players on BYE or players who had been listed as OUT with a reasonable amount of time for the team manager to correct the lineup.
4. Players in your starting lineup will lock at their scheduled kickoff. That means you can add/remove a player from your starting lineup as long as their game hasn’t started.

E. Roster Limit

1. You must stay within your roster limit at all times. It is a hard roster limit. If you offer a trade, it is wise to make the players even by including the player you could drop. 
2. There are no Injured Reserve (IR) roster spots in FBGL.

Article VI: Trading

A. Trading Basic Rules

1. Trading is permitted.
2. All trades will be automatically processed.
3. They must be done on the league host. We can not process agreements in chats or emails. Nothing is official until done on the site.
4. Trading of FAAB budget is allowed.
5. Lopsided trades are not allowed in the system if there aren’t enough roster spots to process the trade. If you wish to make a 3 players for 1 player trade, the team manager receiving more players must drop the player(s) necessary so the trade will fit within their roster limit. 

B. Trade Deadline

1. Trading will be allowed for a team once they have paid for the league for that season and up until the trade deadline.
2. The final trade deadline is the kickoff of the final game of week 12. Although players may be locked at the start of their Week 12 game. We follow Sleeper’s guidelines on trade deadline availability.

C. Protesting Trades / Reversals

1. If you believe that there is collusion involving a trade or a trade is far too unbalanced, email the commissioner (fbgleagues@shgn.com) If possible, provide evidence as to why you think the trade may be collusive.
2. If there are at least three protests from a trade, we will begin an investigation to determine if the trade should be reversed for creating an unfair advantage for one team and/or behavior or activity that indicates collusion.
3. FBGL's investigation process may include any or all of the following:
   1. Utilizing several readily-available online fantasy football trade calculators to determine the value exchanged on both sides of the trade.
   2. Analyzing transaction (add/drops, trades, lineup decisions) patterns of both owners.
   3. Analyzing contest standings and previous matchups involved with both teams.
   4. Analyzing payment details, IP address and geolocation logs.
4. If a trade is protested, the owners of the teams whose trade is protested may have those teams or all their teams in all leagues locked until the end of the investigation. The investigation may take hours, days, or even weeks.
5. FBGL is the sole arbiter in all trade disputes, and reserves the right to take any action necessary to maintain the integrity of the league, including inaction.
6. In all instances, the FBGL ruling is final and cannot be appealed or disputed.
7. In cases where a trade is reversed, other transactions (trade/waiver move/pick) may be undone as well to restore each roster to its original state prior to the trade.

D. Trade Accidents

1. If a team manager contacts us via email within a reasonable amount of time and says a deal was accepted in error or made an accident in the trade they offered (which often isn't noticed until the trade is accepted and sometimes not until the next morning if a trade is made overnight), we will reverse that trade as well. It may not be done immediately since we aren’t next to our email at all times, but timestamps will be checked.
2. It is always best to alert the other party and the league along with the commissioner as well as trying to trade back with the other party.

Article VII: Waivers / Free Agents

A. Free Agent Blind Bidding Waivers

1. All leagues utilize a Free Agents Acquisition Budgets (FAAB) Blind-Bidding waivers system.
2. Each team manager begins the year with a $1,000 FAAB budget to place blind bids on waived players. This is for in season and off season waivers. It’s all you get for the entire year.
3. To get a player who is on waivers, a minimum bid of $0 must be made. All bid amounts must be made in $1 increments.
4. The team manager with the highest bid will acquire the player, and for the exact dollar amount that was bid. Since this is blind-bidding, other team managers will not be able to see your bid amount (and for what player) until waiver claims are processed.
5. Blind bidding is not conditional. Simply bid the amount you want on a player along with the player you want dropped (if you have an open roster spot you don’t need to drop a player).
6. In the event two or more team managers bid an equal amount on the same player, we will default to Sleeper’s tiebreaker procedure for equal bids
7. A player who is dropped will be available and subject to either FCFS or next week's waiver run.

B. Pre-Season Acquisitions

1. After the conclusion of your draft, waivers will be locked until the week leading up to Week 1. The first pre-season blind-bidding period will run overnight on the Wednesday before the season starts at 3:00 AM EST.

C. In-Season Acquisitions

1. After the conclusion of Week 1, the first in-season blind-bidding period will run on Wednesday at 3:00 AM EST. It will run weekly on that day and time.
2. There will be a second weekly blind-bidding period that will run on Thursday at 3:00 AM EST. It will run weekly on that day and time.
3. After the Thursday waiver claim period is processed and complete, all unclaimed players will become available for pick up on a First Come, First Serve (FCFS) basis until their respective game kicks off for that week.. All FCFS transactions are $0 and nothing will be deducted from your FAAB balance.
4. Once a player’s game kicks off, they will be put on waivers until the next waiver run on the following Wednesday at 3:00 AM EST. This schedule/cycle will continue on a weekly basis for the remainder of the fantasy season. The blind bidding process continues during the fantasy playoffs, even for teams that have not made the playoffs.
5. A player who is dropped may be picked up 24 hours later if the drop does not take place between the kickoff of that player’s game and that week’s waiver run. If the player is dropped in that time frame, he will be available for and subject to that next waiver run.
6. Add/drops that are seen as collusion by nature may be reversed and the team(s) involved may be disqualified from play in the league

D. Waiver Accidents

1. Accidental add/drops can be fixed if notified quickly and in a reasonable amount of time. With waiver runs, accidents are less likely to be fixed, but may be fixed in some cases if emailed quickly and in a reasonable amount of time and also if we are able. It may also be fixed if the accident is clear and obvious.
2. In rare occasions, additional moves (trade/waiver move/pick) may be undone as well when reversing another move. This would be due to a move being made that either includes assets in the move being reversed or made due to the belief the move being reversed would stand.

Article VIII: Divisions and Schedule

A. Divisions

There will be no divisions.

B. Schedule

It’s a 14-week regular season schedule.

The playoffs will be three weeks long. Starting in Week 15 and concluding in Week 17. See Article IX for information on the playoffs.

C. Standings and tiebreakers

Standings will be based on Sleeper’s settings, and each tiebreaker will be broken by the following method.

1. Winnings Percentage (win-loss record)
2. Total Points Scored
3. Coin flip, or some other method of random choice decided by the FBGL commissioner.

Tie scores are permitted during regular season play which may cause a tie in a team's record.

Article IX: Playoffs

A. Playoff Qualifiers

Six teams qualify for the playoffs and will be automatically seeded by Sleeper

1. The top two teams will receive a first round bye, and be seeds #1 & #2.
2. The next four best teams (by standings) will be the wild card teams and seeded #3-#6.

B. Bracket Setup

1. The top two seeds (top two best records) receive a bye in the first week of the playoffs (Week 15)
2. In Week 15 Seed #3 will play Seed #6, and Seed #4 will play Seed #5
3. In Week 16 Sleeper will automatically re-seed the teams, and Seed #1 will play the lowest ranked winner from Week 15, while Seed #2 will play the other Week 15 winner
4. In Week 17 the two teams that won in Week 16 will play for the the championship, while the two teams that lost in Week 16 will play for third place

C. Playoff Game Tiebreaker

1. In the event of a tie score in a playoff game, the top-seeded team will be considered the winner

Article X: Drafts

Draft start times will be released when the Sleeper league is full. At that time the FBGL commissioner will also randomize the draft order using Sleeper’s “randomize draft order” feature.

A. Draft Rules

1. Draft pick trades are not allowed
2. If a team manager does not make a pick before the timer expires, the system will automatically pick a player for the team manager based on the highest-ranked available player on the owner’s “My Draft List” player ranking or according to Sleeper’s ADP
3. You are NOT required to draft a full roster or a valid starting lineup. You must, however, have a valid starting lineup for week 1.
4. Draft selections will almost never be changed. Extraordinary circumstances would need to take place in order for it to happen.
   • Making a mistake pick or the clock running out are not "extraordinary circumstances" that would be needed to change a draft pick
5. In most cases the draft will begin at 10:00 AM EST on the day after the league fills, if earlier than that, the draft start time will be communicated via Sleeper.

B. Slow Draft Rules

1. Timer: 4 hours per pick
2. Overnight Pause from 10:00 PM EST to 10:00 AM EST
3. For leagues still drafting as the NFL season nears, the draft clock may be adjusted to a shorter time to accommodate all draft picks. We will communicate any draft clock changes within the Sleeper chat.
   1. For the 2026 draft season the draft clocks will be adjusted on the following dates:
      1. On Saturday September 5th at 10am ET, any "still drafting" slow drafts will have their clock change to 1 hour per pick
      2. On Tuesday September 8th at 10am ET, any "still drafting" slow drafts will have their clock change to 1 minute per pick and adhere to the live draft rules.
         • Free agency will run overnight to get in one round before the first game
            

C. Live Draft Rules

1. Timer: 1 minute per pick
2. Drafts start on time and will run without pause. If you sign up for the draft and do not show up in the draft room, your team will be auto-picked by Sleeper's system. There will be no refunds given or changed picks.

Article XI: Franchise/Team Manager Rules

Franchise/team manager rules are as follows: 

1. No team manager may have a stake in, manage, or have control of more than one franchise in the same league. 
2. If a team manager abandons their franchise (either by declaring that they have given up their team, non-responsiveness, or not actively managing their team) -- that team manager will be removed from the league.
3. If a franchise is deemed to have been abandoned, that franchise reverts to FBGL. FBGL may sell abandoned League franchises at cost, below cost, or to the highest bidder through the FBGL website. 
4. If a team manager dies or becomes incapacitated the team will be deemed abandoned, but FBGL may work with the friend or family member that informed FBGL to find someone to finish out the season or take over the team.
5. If a team manager is engaged in illegal activities such as collusion, tanking, or any other breach of this document; FBGL reserves the right to remove that team manager from the league without refund. (See article XV for rules, terms and code of conduct)
6. If a team manager is removed, they forfeit any prizes the team had won up to that point and are not eligible for prizes that team would have won.
7. There will be no refunds for team managers removed from the league for any reason. 
8. If a team manager is removed from a league due to any reason, they may also be removed from all other FBGL without refund.
9. Co-team managers are not allowed for the purposes of paying the annual entry fee or receiving prize money. I.e. one team manager must pay the entire entry fee, and only one team manager will receive winnings due to the franchise. Co-team managers are allowed on the Game Play site.
10. Team managers may not give/sell their team to another person. All team managers must legally go through geolocation and identity verification, so giving/selling a team from one team manager to a new person without approval from FBGL is strictly prohibited.
11. Users are not allowed to operate on the same IP address. Additionally, if you are in a league with a coworker, friend, relative, or person in the same household where this may be happening... this must be disclosed to FBGL and an exception may be made. Failure to do so can result in removal from the league or all leagues. This is especially important for users in the same leagues.
12. All of a user's teams may be locked while we investigate potential rules violations and their ability to join new leagues be blocked.

Article XII: Code of Conduct / Terms of Service

1. By making a payment to LeagueSafe and participating in a FBGL, you agree to the SportsHub Master Terms of service and the SportsHub Privacy Policy.
2. The FBGL admins and commissioners will not actively monitor league chats. If situations arise in which some rules or code of conduct is violated, please contact the FBGL commissioner at fbgleagues@shgn.com
3. In true Football Guys fashion, our Code of Conduct is “be excellent to each other.” Here’s a general guideline:
   1. Be Respectful - Play nice. No harassment of any kind. If you’re not respectful, you don’t need to be here.
   2. Keep the Content Relevant - This isn’t the place for talk of violence, politics, hate speech and sexual content. It has no place here.
   3. Be a Great League Member - Don’t disrupt the chat, make a nuisance of yourself, deliberately make others uncomfortable, or attempt to start trouble.
   4. Be Nice to the Commish - If you’re rude or insulting to the FBGL staff, you’re out.
   5. Have Fun - These leagues exist for you to find enjoyment and to have more fun during the football season.
4. Conduct that is deemed detrimental to the league or to FBGL will not be tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to:
   1. Posts and or emails that are harassing in nature and serve no legitimate purpose other than to cause discord within the league or the FBGL organization. 
   2. Personal attacks, name-calling, or threats toward fellow team managers, the commissioner, or FBGL will not be tolerated. 
   3. Vulgarity in emails, on the message board, trade comments, or in other ways (text, images, videos, etc) will not be tolerated. 
   4. In addition, offensive wording and images in emails, on the message board, trade comments, text, images, team names, team logos, videos, and any other medium that is disparaging, antagonizing, or offensive towards gender, race, orientation, disabilities, etc will not be tolerated.
   5. Attempts to negatively impact the integrity of the league 
   6. Violation of any of the Franchise/Team Manager rules outlined in Article XI
5. Collusion between two parties in a league to sway the results of the league will not be tolerated. All instances of perceived collusion must be reported to the FBGL commissioner at fbgleagues@shgn.com. Some examples of collusion can include:
   1. Lopsided trades
   2. Exclusivity in trading: only trading with one other team.
   3. Dropping players so another team can purposely pick them up
   4. Player renting: trading a player to a team for a week, only to trade them back soon after.
   5. Offering anything outside of the league in trade: money, food, goods or services, trades in other leagues, etc.
   6. Tanking: intentionally starting a bad lineup to benefit another team.
   7. Any working between two or more teams to help one succeed.
6. Our rules will be enforced by our admins/commissioners on a case-by-case basis. Instances of this could result in:
   1. A warning
   2. Expulsion from the league
   3. Expulsion from the league and all other FBGL
   4. Total banishment from the FBGL and SportsHub Games Network platform 
   5. Any expulsion from a league will result in the forfeiture of your league deposit and disqualification to collect winnings from a league
7. In addition, FBGL expressly reserves the right to immediately modify, suspend or terminate your account and refuse current or future use of any FBGL service, including the SHGN properties and LeagueSafe, if FBGL, in its sole discretion: (a) believes you have violated or tried to violate the rights of others; (b) becomes aware of information indicating a safety concern for you, other FBGL users, or the general public, or (c) believes that you have acted inconsistently with the spirit or letter of the Terms of Service or the Official Game Instructions.
8. FBGL maintains the right to remove any team manager from a team, with or without refund, for any reason. FBGL also reserves the right to refuse their services to any person for any reason.
9. If you fail to turn in a W9 when required to have winnings over $599 net for the prior year, your SHGN account may be locked.
10. If you file a chargeback with your credit card company you will be banned from FBGL and the SHGN platform.
11. You may not advertise for other leagues or other services similar to ours on our message boards, chats, etc. 
12. FBGL contests are subject to all United States laws and to the FBGL official League Rules. By entering any contest, you agree to abide by the terms of the official rules and by the decisions of FBGL, which are final on all matters pertaining to its games. FBGL reserves the right to change the official rules at any time, in its sole discretion.
13. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless FBGL, its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, or other partners, and employees, from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorney's fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of, or participation in, fantasy football or other fantasy sports services, your connection to fantasy football or other fantasy sports services provided by FBGL, your violation of the Terms of Service, the Official Game Instructions, or of any rights of another person or entity.
14. If any provision of these Additional Terms or any document incorporated by reference is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of such documents remain in full force and effect.
15. The FBGL Terms of Service, which apply to your use of fantasy football or other fantasy sports services, provide that both you and FBGL agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the county of Hennepin, Minnesota, USA. The FBGL Terms of Service and the relationship between you and FBGL will be governed by the laws of the State of Minnesota, without regard to its conflicts of law provisions.
16. Use of this website and/or services, offered by FBGL signifies your agreement to this service and usage agreement.
17. All of a user's teams may be locked while we investigate a potential rules violation and their ability to join new leagues be blocked. They may be removed and refunded from a league that has yet to start as well.
18. Team managers must be 18 years of age or older in all cases. In some states there are provisions that fantasy players must be older. Check with your local state's fantasy age restrictions to ensure that you are of legal playing age. Here's a good tracker of laws in most states.

Article XIII: Refunds

Refunds may be given to teams that opt out of the league before it fills. In order to receive a refund from a league, players must email fbgleagues@shgn.com prior to the league filling.

1. Any contest that does not fill may be canceled at any time and all teams will be refunded.
2. Once a league is full on Sleeper, the league is locked and no refunds will be allowed
3. Only under rare circumstances at the discretion of FBGL will there be refunds for leagues.

Article XIV: NFL Season Game/Schedule Issue Rules

1. If a game is canceled or postponed, that game will not accrue stats in the original week it was scheduled. The only exception to this is if it is postponed within the same NFL week and Sleeper has the scoring count for that week. Team managers must keep aware of these potential situations. Starting a player in a game with the potential to be canceled will be treated like starting a questionable (injury) player. The manager understands the risk and FBGL isn't capable of allowing potential replacements for such an event.
2. If there is no NFL season, the payments for teams in existing leagues would be pushed to the following year. For example, a 2020 payment would become a 2021 payment if the 2020 season is canceled.
3. In the event of a shortened season FBGL, depending on the length of the shortened season, will design a regular season and playoffs that fit or it will become a total points league for the shortened season.
4. If the NFL season is cut short (canceled) after a head to head schedule with playoffs is designed for the FBGL (the season starts normally and is canceled before there is a fantasy playoffs or during the playoffs and the playoffs are unable to be played out fully), Winning Percentage (W-L record) at the time the season is cut short will be used to decide the places of the teams with Total Points as the tiebreaker. Total points leagues will be determined by total points of all completed weeks at time of cancellation.
5. If the season is interrupted, they start and stop and restart... FBGL will attempt to finish out the fantasy season along with the NFL. They will work within the settings of Sleeper to figure out the best course for schedule, and/or playoffs. It is possible there will not be enough games for the playoffs.

If the NFL season completes 6 weeks, that will be considered a valid season. 

Article XV: Experience Level

A team manager's experience level will be noted with one of these two markers. If a team manager does not meet these qualifications they will not have a marker next to their team. Each league/year you enter is a separate contest. If you play in a dynasty league, each year is a new contest.

X - Experienced

• More than 500 contests entered OR
• Has winnings totaling $2500 cumulative across 5+ contests

XX - Highly Experienced

• More than 1000 contests entered OR
• Has won at least $1000 in each of 3 different contests

Article XVI: Rule Changes & Best Interest Clause

1. Rule changes are unlikely, but could happen based upon:
   1. Host (Sleeper) settings or issues
   2. Conflicts or issues within the NFL
   3. Something unforeseen, not stated in the rules document
   4. Acts of God
2. Should circumstances, issues, or problems arise for which a remedy is not stated in the rules… FBGL reserves the right to take whatever actions they deem necessary in order to make the league fair and complete.