FRANCHISE – The Final Update

tibbs | Posted on April 1, 2013 |

Alright, the first and second Franchise League blog posts laid out most of the groundwork for what has grown into a grass roots campaign to make sure the Franchise Draft League (aka Franchise Mode) gets off the ground. This is the FINAL UPDATE which provides information on the new Auction Draft for season 1, adjusted salary cap and 2nd season contract escalation, as well as an adjustment for Captain’s Cap Hit.

Sign-ups are OPEN. There are only 14 spots left in the league, so let me know ASAP if you want to get involved in the league. This is going to be the Doctor Who of Draft Leagues. Those that get in on the ground floor are going to hold it over the heads of everyone that comes after them.

Schedule

Deadline to pay the league fee of $150 is Friday April 19th
Draft Combine will be held on Tuesday April 23rd @ CAC
Draft will be held on Saturday April 27th @ CAC
Preseason games will be played on Tuesday April 30th
Games will be played on Tuesday nights at C.A.C. starting on May 7th
Games will be played at 7:00 PM, 7:50 PM, 8:40 PM or 9:30 PM
ALL 8 teams will qualify for the playoffs and the Finals will be a Best of 3, with schedule TBD

1st Off-season
The first draft will be held on April 27th at CAC. It will be conducted as an Auction Draft.
Captains will be determined by B Draft APR. Anyone with an APR under 40 can be a captain for the Franchise League. In order to have such a wide variation of talented captains a cap hit will be assessed each season based on the Captain’s APR
Captains with an APR from 0-19.99 do not have an additional cap hit each season
Captains with an APR from 20-26.99 have an additional $3 cap hit each season
Captains with an APR from 27-34.99 have an additional $6 cap hit each season
Captains with an APR from 35-40 have an additional $9 cap hit each season

All captains will have access to each and every player. Captains will be able to nominate players for auction and bid on them accordingly until all players in the Auction Pool are assigned to a team.

Captains must have enough cap space to sign players to make a 6 man roster (mimium contract is 1 season $1) without going over the salary cap for a bid to be valid. Contracts to players, can only be offered as a whole number or tenth of a decimal

All players are originally signed to 1 season contracts. Captains would be able to extend players contracts to a second season after the preseason game if the player agrees to it and they have available cap room. Players do not have to take the second season

The second season of the contract will increasing based on Escalators. These escalations are also applicable to contract offers to free agents and auction players.

Escalators
$1 – $4.5 – additional season + $1
$5 – $9.5 – additional season + $2
$10 – $14.5 – additional season +$3
$15 – $19.5 – additional season +$4
$20+ – additional season +$5

If a captain offers a draft player a two season contract, the player has the right of refusal and can keep the 1 season contract. Captains have until Wednesday May 1st at 12 PM to turn in contract lengths to League Offices.

There will be a hard Salary Cap $58 million that teams cannot surpass unless they have a Cash Exemption (see Trades). Here’s an example of the salary structure projected a few seasons out: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ap8yZgk0io8MdG43d3lMUTdaQ2RWdF9xMzZjVUlWRHc#gid=0

2nd Off-season
The off-season will contain 3 major activity periods (Cuts, “Free” Agency, and Auction) with Trades allowed throughout the entire off-season, that will begin once the full player pool has been determined and paid for. (August 26th, 2013 deadline).

Cuts
Captains can cut 1 player under contract each season for a $2.0 penalty against the cap (cap hit) for the following season

Captains are not penalized with a cap hit if a player decides to not return between seasons. That cap money is immediately freed up and available for use heading into the free agent period. A player not returning the following season does not count as a ‘cut’ against a captain.
No cuts can be made after free agency starts. Deadline for cuts will be determined each season

“Free” Agency

Any player who’s contract has expired, or has been cut, and is also returning for the following season up will be subject to the rules of free agency
Every “free” agent must be signed before the auction draft
Contracts to free agents, and auction pool players, can only be offered as a whole number or tenth of a decimal
To sign a player captains must also have enough cap space to sign additional players to get to the required 6 players

All bids are made known to all the captains so each captain has a chance to bid on each player. Free agents must sign with the team that offers the highest initial season salary. This will prevent free agents from joining a friend’s team for below market value

Example

Free Agent Mike Strange
Offer 1 – From Matty Bells – 1 season @ $4
Offer 2 – From Sam Boyer – 2 seasons @ $9.5 and $11.5

Offer 2 would win the Mike Strange sweepstakes, he would not be able to join Matty Bell’s team for a $4 contract if he is offered more $ by a different team.

Preference is given to contract offers that are for multiple seasons if there are two contracts offered of the same first season amount.

Example

Offer 1 – 1 season @ $4.5

Offer 2 – 2 seasons @ $4.5 and $5.5

Offer 2 would be awarded the free agent player

If there are two identical bids in season length and contract money, the free agent can choose their team.
“Free” Agency period will be determined each season

Contract Restructuring

Starting in the Fall 2013 season, any player on a 2 year (non Bird Rights) deal can have their contract restructured provided a captain has the salary cap room in the current season to offset the cost of the next season. At no time may the value of the first season of the contract be equal to or exceed that of the second season

Example: Player A – S1 – $24,4000,000 S2- 29,400,000

Contract Restructure – S1 – 26,800,000 S2 – 27,000.000

This is provided that the captain in question has 2.5 in cap room in the CURRENT (S1) season

Bird Rights
Any player that has played 2 consecutive seasons on the same contract (either for the same team or, if traded, playing out the second season of a contract) is eligible to be resigned by the team that holds that players rights for a discount over two seasons. For every $2 offered in the contract, the team with the players Bird Rights can sign that player for a $.5 discount

Example
Offer 1 – non-Bird Rights – 2 seasons @ $8 and $10
Offer 2 – Bird Rights – 2 seasons @ $6 and $8

These offers are considered identical in money and length, so the free agent can choose which offer he wants to accept.

Discount is only applied to the whole $2, there is no partial discount

Example
Offer 1 – non-Bird Rights – 2 seasons @ $9.5 and $11.5
Offer 2 – Bird Rights – 2 seasons @ $7.5 and $9.5

These offers are considered identical in money and length.

Teams with a player’s Bird Rights cannot offer a discounted contract worth more than the maximum amount offered by a team that doesn’t have his Bird Rights.

Example

Offer 1 – Max non-Bird Rights offer – 2 seasons @ $20 and $25
Offer 2 – Bird Rights – 2 seasons @ $15 and $19

Offer 2 with Bird Rights cannot be for more than $15 and $19 in order to ensure that the player has a choice of which team to play on.

Auction Draft
Every subsequent season after the first, there will be an auction to add new players to the league. Every new player to the league will be a part of the auction draft. This will be in lieu of the traditional ‘draft’ in order to prevent tanking down the stretch of a regular season.
The auction draft is the last off-season transaction period before the season starts
Team captains bid on each player in the auction pool and every team must have 6 players at the end of the auction
Captains must have enough cap room to sign the player bid on plus additional cap room to have the required 5 players signed to the team for the bid to be valid
The minimum contract offer is $1 for 1 season.

Preference is given to contract offers that are for 2 seasons if there are two contracts offered of the same first season amount.
Ties in bids (same $ and length) to the same player will be broken by worst record the previous season. That captain will be awarded the player.

A player in the auction pool cannot refuse a contract offer of 2 seasons.

Auction date will be determined each season

Trades

Can be made at any time during the off-season, from the beginning of the Cuts until the very last player in the auction pool has been given a contract. There will be no in-season trades.

Trades must involve an equal number of players and can include Cash Exemptions. The monetary value of the contracts and cash exemptions must be within 125%

Example

Team 1 Trades player A – 1 season left at $6

Team 2 Trades player B – 1 season left at $3

Team 2 can offer a Cash Exemption of anywhere from $2 to $4.5 in order to make the trade work. This exemption will be added to Team 1’s Salary Cap and deducted from Team 2’s

Captains can offer a 1 season contract extension to the player(s) they traded for if it fits under the salary cap. The additional dollar value will be assigned by the escalation chart based on the players salary for the upcoming season. Players can decline the contract extension but cannot prevent the trade.

Additional Notes

Captains that vacate their team between off-seasons will be replaced. A new captain must fall within the original captain’s APR limit AND must be a Free Agent during the off-season that a captain vacates. A player from within the APR range on the team that has a vacant captain spot can become a captain if they are not a free agent.

At the end of the Auction period, there can be no more trades. The season will then proceed as normal, with a 9 game regular season plus playoffs, until the next offseason, when you do it all over again!

FRANCHISE – The Final Update

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