Bylaws

The Postseason is scheduled from Week 15 to Week 17 of the NFL season, wherein the top six teams from the regular season advance to the playoffs, while the bottom six teams engage in the Losers Bracket.

"Postseason" refers to either Playoffs and/or Losers Bracket.

Section IV. League Champion, LOSERS, and Consolation Winner

See Article VIII for more information.

Champion: The winner of the Championship matchup in the Playoffs shall be designated the League Champion, with the runner-up being the losing team in that matchup.

Each season shall designate two LOSERS:

LOSER A: The team finishing in 12th place based on regular season record
- In the event of a tie, the following articles should be observed in order:
  - Total points scored during the regular season.
  - Head-to-head record between the tied teams.
  - 100-Yard Rush simulator.
LOSER B: The team determined from the Losers Bracket, based on the lowest cumulative point total over the three weeks of the postseason, manually calculated by the League Commissioner

Article II - League Office

Section I. Platform

The league operates on the ESPN (2018 - present) platform. The rules delineated in this document shall correspond with the league settings established in ESPN. Should any discrepancies arise during the season, the ESPN settings shall take precedence. Any inconsistencies noted during the offseason shall be aligned with ESPN settings.

Section II. Commissioner

Brad Carpenter (2018 - Present), hereinafter referred to as "The Commissioner" has accepted the responsibility and privilege of serving the league members of WashMo Fantasy and to oversee and administer League activities.

The Commissioner is responsible for enforcing all bylaws and league rules, reactivating the league on ESPN, and sending annual invitations. The Commissioner also oversees daily administration, including but not limited to:

Implementing ESPN rules.
Resolving disputes and clarifying ambiguous rules.
Announcing significant league dates, such as trade deadlines and draft dates.
The Commissioner is also tasked with managing the league Treasury
1. Collecting dues
2. Distributing prizes
3. Orchestrating weekly payouts for mini games

Section III. Historian

Brian Trigg (2023 - Present), hereinafter referred to as "The Historian" has accepted the responsibility and privilege of serving the league members of WashMo Fantasy and to oversee and administer League activities.

The Historian shall maintain all bylaws and records, ensuring that changes are made fairly and communicated effectively to all league members. The Historian is also responsible for, but not limited to:

Constructing and maintaining the league trophy
Verifying that the Commissioner fulfills their duties without abuse of power
Organize voting for various league changes, important dates and event locations
Maintain the league website and Ledger

Section IV. Ledger

Official League Office business and league member communications shall take place within the Ledger (aka the group chat). The Ledger operates on the Discord (2024 - present) platform. The Ledger has operated through SMS text (2018 - 2019) as well as GroupMe (2019 - 2024).

The Historian is responsible for maintaining the Ledger. Official League Office announcements shall be posted within the #announcements channel of the Ledger.

The "WashMo Fantasy Bot" has been granted access to post regular updates within the #bot channel of the Ledger. These updates include, but are not limited to:

Standings Updates
Waiver Reports
Final Scores
Trophies of the Week

Article III - Membership

The league currently consists of twelve owners, but has operated with fewer members in the past.

2018 - 8 members
2019 - 10 members
2020 - 12 members

Section I. Joining

Existing owners shall receive annual invitations from the Commissioner to join new seasons.

New owners may only be added when an existing owner requires replacement. Replacement can only take place during the offseason, unless a two-thirds vote from the league requests immediate change.

Existing owners can nominate potential new owners during the offseason, followed by a vote conducted by the Historian to determine the suitability of the candidate.

Section II. Entry Fee

Participation entails a $100 entry fee payable before the commencement of the NFL regular season, which the Commissioner is responsible for collecting.

Entry fees are entered into the Treasury, which is then divvied out at the end of the season. See Article IX - Prizes for additional details.

Late entry free: See Article IV - Code of Conduct for information

Section III. Other Fees

(A) High/Low Score Mini Game

During the regular season (the first 14 weeks of the NFL season), the member with the lowest point total of the week must pay $10 to the member with the highest point total of the week. See Article IX - Prizes for additional details.
An additional $10 is to be added to the entry fee to cover a league-wide parlay.

Section IV. Active Participation

Owners are expected to set a full roster each week during the NFL regular season and to actively participate in the annual draft and all league decisions

Section V. Resigning

Owners wishing to exit the league must communicate their intent to the Commissioner well in advance of the draft during the offseason. Records achieved by a resigned owner will remain intact. A resigned owner seeking to rejoin the league must wait for another owner to resign; upon successful re-entry, they will resume accumulating their existing records.

Section VI. Termination

All owners may be subject to termination at the discretion of the Commissioner if their conduct is deemed detrimental to the league. Owners may propose the termination of other owners by presenting their concerns to the Commissioner. Should the Commissioner find merit in the claims, a vote will be conducted. A two-thirds majority vote in favor of termination is required for it to be enacted. Grounds for termination include, but are not limited to:

Malicious harm toward another owner.
Sentencing to imprisonment.
Intentional violation of bylaws.
General negativity that disrupts league harmony.

Article IV - Code of Conduct

Section I. Good Sportsmanship and Fair Play

All owners are expected to set their best possible lineup each week and to attempt to win every game to the best of their ability. As explained below, collusion, tanking, churning, inactivity, etc. are violations of this code of conduct.

Section II. Infractions

(A) Collusion

- Collusion occurs when members work together against the rest of the league or another member, or one team makes moves to benefit another team without trying to improve their own position. Collusion undermines the ethic of good sportsmanship as well as the competitive balance of the league.
- Examples include, but are not limited to:
  1. 1. One-sided trades
    2. Dropping a player so that another team may pick up that player
    3. Transactions that involve future considerations or preferential treatment
    4. Swapping players with other members to cover bye weeks or injury (aka "rentals")

(B) Tanking

- Tanking occurs when a member intentionally loses or ties a game, by dropping or sitting players to alter playoff matchups and/or the competitive balance of the league.

- Teams are prohibited from dumping valued players and/or large chunks of their roster into the player pool for any reason, including after giving up on a disappointing season.

(D) Churning

- Churning occurs when a team adds and drops players on waivers for the sole purpose of making them unavailable to other teams, which is prohibited.

(E) Inactivity

- A team is considered inactive if there are inactive, injured, or bye week players in the starting lineup, or empty lineup positions, and no changes have been made to the roster.
- The Commissioner will contact a member whose team is inactive for one or more weeks in a row.
- If the team remains inactive, the Commissioner reserves the right to make changes to fill the roster. and reassign ownership of the team for purposes of competitive balance.

(F) Other

If any other actions not outlined in the Bylaws negatively affect the league, it is the duty of league members to bring these actions to the League Office.
The League Office must first attempt to correct the situation with the affected parties. If the situation cannot be remedied internally, it will be brought to the league for discussion and voting.

Section III. Penalties

(A) Good Sportsmanship and Fair Play Infractions

The Commissioner reserves the right to amend rosters to their original state prior to an infraction.

First offense: Written, public warning from League Office into the Discord.
Second offense: Loss of FAAB - $25 each offense
- If violation occurs during the regular season, enforce during current season
- If violation occurs during the postseason, enforce during following season
Third offense: League vote for Termination. See Article III, Section VI Termination for more information.

(B) Late Entry Fee

Owners failing to remit payment prior to the start of the NFL regular season will incur one loss for each week of non-payment, irrespective of their team's performance. The week begins when waivers reset. These losses will be reflected in the final standings, resulting in an equivalent deduction of wins. PF and H2H records/results will remain.
- - - For example: Player 7 fails to pay their dues until Thursday morning of NFL Week 3. Player 7 then goes on to finish with a 7-7 record. However, since they were three weeks late with payment, their reflected record becomes 4-10.

Article V - League Structure

Section I. League Format

The League will operate as a standard head-to-head format.

Section II. Roster Size and Details

Each team shall have a roster consisting of a maximum of 15 players, including:
- 1 Quarterback (QB)
- 2 Running Backs (RB)
- 2 Wide Receivers (WR)
- 1 Tight End (TE)
- 2 Flex Positions (RB/WR/TE)
- 1 Defense/Special Teams (DST)
- 6 Bench spots

Article VI - Draft

Section I. Draft

The draft shall be conducted in a snake format, allowing teams to alternate selection order between odd and even rounds.

Section II. Draft Order Selection

The draft order will be determined through a random lottery conducted by the Commissioner, one hour prior to the draft. Following the randomization of the draft order, the winner of the previous year's punishment has the opportunity to swap their draft position with any other member.

For example: In 2024, Corey Kluesner was given the #2 draft position, but instead swapped with Keegan Gilligan who had the #1 position. Kluesner assumed the #1 position, while Gilligan was forced into the #2 position previously held by Kluesner.

Other members may trade draft slots, but must alert the Commissioner as soon as possible. The Commissioner can approve or deny this trade at his their discretion.

Article VII - Transactions

Owners are permitted to make roster changes through trades, free agent acquisitions, and waivers.

Section I. Trades

Trade deadline is 11:59pm on Wednesday of Week 13.

(A) Approval Process

A trade may be subject to a 24-hour review period during which any owner may contest the trade. This review period begins immediately after the trade has been accepted.
If contested, trades can be overturned with a 7-vote majority veto.
Once a trade has been processed, it cannot be vetoed.
The Commissioner can overturn trades in rare cases where a trade cannot be reasonably defended as mutually beneficial from the perspective of all involved parties.

(B) Transferable Assets

Trades may only involve players and FAAB dollars.
When FAAB dollars are involved in a trade, the League Office must be notified. A formal voting process is not necessary for this trade to commence, however owners can still veto.
The Commissioner will have to manually adjust FAAB dollar totals of both teams to process this trade.

Future considerations including draft picks as well as "Players to be named later” are non-transferable and may not form any part of the value in a transaction between members.
Other assets cannot be used as trade credit. This includes but is not limited to:
- Cash
- Beer
- Relations with members' WAGs

Section II. Free Agents and Waivers (FAAB)

The league has used different formats when it comes to obtaining unclaimed players. With a continual rolling waiver list, you can only realistically pick up one key player from waivers every week. FAAB differs in that it gives every manager an equal opportunity to add players from waivers.

FAAB stands for Free Agent Auction Budget. It’s a blind bidding system where each manager submits a bid or offer for a player in the form of a fake dollar amount. Managers organize those bids based on preference. Then, the system awards the free agents to the highest bidders.

All teams may freely add or drop players following the annual league draft until rosters lock following Week 17, constituting the team’s end-of-season roster.

Waiver window is 1 day
Waivers process Wednesday morning at 2:34am.
Free Agent Acquisition Budget
Waiver priority is based on a Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB).
FAAB budget for the season is $200.

Article VIII - Scoring

The League will adopt standard scoring rules. See official WashMo Fantasy Scoring page in the Settings section of ESPN Fantasy.

Scoring rules cannot be changed in the middle of the season.

Article IX - Playoffs

Section I. Format

The playoffs will be held over a three-week period, culminating in the League Championship.

Round 1: NFL Week 15
Round 2: NFL Week 16
Championship: NFL Week 17

Section II. Winner's Bracket

The playoffs will consist of the top six teams in the standings at the conclusion of the regular season. Its purpose is to determine the League Champion.

Round 1
- #1 Seed and #2 Seed receive a Round 1 Bye
- #5 Seed vs #4 Seed
- #6 Seed vs #3 Seed
Round 2
- #1 Seed vs Winner of #5 vs #4
- #2 Seed vs Winner of #6 and #3
Championship
- Winners of Round 2

The Winner of the Winner's Bracket Championship is the season's league Champion.

Section III. Losers Bracket / Consolation Ladder

The Losers Bracket consists of the six lowest-ranked teams in the standings at the end of the regular season. Its purpose is to determine LOSER B and the Consolation Winner.

(A) LOSER B

LOSER B: The member who scores the fewest points in the Losers Bracket.

While ESPN Fantasy’s consolation ladder ranks these teams for historical stats and matchup records, the WashMo Fantasy League uses a custom method to decide LOSER B: total points scored across the three playoff weeks. This ensures the lowest-performing team in the postseason earns the title of LOSER B.
Simply losing the ESPN Consolation Bracket does not automatically result in LOSER B status; only point totals matter for this determination.
The League Commissioner manually calculates scoring totals to determine the member with the lowest point total over the playoff period.
LOSER A, the last-place finisher from the regular season, is included in the Losers Bracket but cannot be punished further by also meeting criteria for LOSER B. If LOSER A has the lowest cumulative points, the team with the second-lowest total will be designated LOSER B instead.
In the event of a tie in total points scored, the following tiebreakers are used in order:
1. Total points scored during the regular season.
2. Head-to-head record between the tied teams.
3. 100-Yard Rush simulator.

(B) Consolation Winner

Consolation Winner: The member who scores the most points in the Losers Bracket.
- In some years, the Consolation Winner will receive a $50 stipend - paid out by the League Commissioner, from the league dues pot - to use on costumes for LOSER A and LOSER B to wear during their punishment.
  - Season 7 punishment will not feature costumes, therefore the $50 stipend will not be allocated to the Consolation Winner.

Article X - Prizes

Section I. League Championship

With the current 12-member, $100 buy-in format, this translates to:

- League Champion: $700 (58.33%)
- Runner-up: $300 (25%)
- Third Place: $100 (8.33%)
- Regular Season Champion: $100 (8.33%)

Section II. Mini Games

(A) High/Low Score Payout

During the regular season, the member with the lowest point total of the week must pay $10 to the member with the highest point total of the week.

The Weekly Payout is only active during the fantasy league regular season - NFL Weeks 1 through 14
There is no limit to how many times a player can win or lose the weekly payout.
Payouts should be conducted quickly, with the lowest scoring member sending money to the highest scoring member.
Venmo is the encouraged method of payment.
A ledger will be kept to track who scores the highest and lowest totals for each week.

Article XI - Amendments

These bylaws may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the owners during the offseason.
- This vote does not have to be in-person, but is recommended.
Proposed amendments must be submitted in writing to the League Office at least one week before the vote.

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