IFFBL Rulebook

The following rulebook is an outline of all the major rules. It can and will be amended in the future based on new scenarios and issues which arise. For situations not listed below, the Commissioner will make a decision based on what is best for the league.

League Office

Commissioner

Nick Simpson
commissioner@iffbl.com

Duties:

• Runs the sims and updates the website.
• Approves trades, arena proposals, rule changes, GM movement, expansion teams and new league members.
• Maintains the rulebook.
• Can answers questions pertaining to the league, rulebook, sim, and FBB3 application.
• Approves GM cash purchases and maintains GM cash balance for all GMs.
• Deposits GM cash rewards at the All-Star Break and at the End of the Season.
• Approves league articles and assigns GM cash based on content.
• Can answer questions pertaining to GM cash, GM purchases, and league articles.
• Maintains Slack site for the IFFBL, which is the GM Tool for communicating with the league, including general league talk, trade talk, etc.

Deputy Commissioner

Robert Sheppard
robertjsheppard@gmail.com

Duties:

• Runs the sim and updates the website in the Commissioner’s absence.
• Approves trades in the Commissioner’s absence.
• Can answer questions pertaining to the league, rulebook, sim, and FBB3 application.

GM Expectations

There are certain expectations each GM must adhere to whether their team is doing well or not. If a GM does not meet the requirements listed below, the Commissioner may decide to review the GM’s participation in the league and place the GM on a probation period. If the GM still does not meet the league required expectations, the Commissioner may remove the GM from the league. NOTE: Extenuating circumstances may arise where a GM is not able to be active in the league for some time. However, the GM is responsible for bringing these circumstances up to the Commissioner.

GM Check-ins

There will be at least two GM check-ins throughout the season to verify GM’s participation in the league. Each GM will have one week to respond by email before they are considered non-responsive.

Responsiveness

Respond to trade offers. Even if it’s a simple “No thank you,” all GMs are expected to respond to trade offers within a couple of days of receiving them.

Play by the rules

Most rules are outlined here, but some are not. Do not attempt to bend the rules or find loopholes.

Cheating

Cheating will be defined as a GM purposely seeking out an unfair advantage based on the Commissioner’s judgement.

Examples

1. Stealing/using another GMs password to gain inside knowledge or submit team files on another GM’s behalf
2. Posing as two different people to run two different teams
3. Utilizing a glitch in the application to gain an unfair advantage

If a GM is found to be cheating, the person will be banned from the league immediately.

GM Management Tools

Fast Break Pro Basketball 3 Application

The sim is run through a software program every GM has to download and install on their on computer, which is Grey Dog's software Fast Break Pro Basketball 3. Instructions for how to configure the league in the FBB3 application can be found here.

GMs can upload their team files to the FTP site within the FBB3 application by clicking on Team Setup and then using the “Export team file to FTP” option. While this option is the most commonly used, keep in mind it is not always 100% successful even when the application tells you it successfully uploaded the file. If you want to be 100% sure your file was uploaded to the FTP, you can use the manual option described below.

File Manager

To view the most current data in the FBB3 application, GMs will need to download the league data files from IFFBL website. File Manager can be accessed by using the GM Tools drop-down and selecting the File Manager option. Each GM will be provided with a username and password to login to File Manager. You will be required to enter a new password on your first login. If you forget your password or want to change your password, there are options available to do so. Once logged into File Manager, there is an option to download the league file, which will always be titled “league.zip.” Once you download the league.zip file to your local machine, you can extract it directly into your league data folder. Then, you can load FBB3 with the latest data.

The second option on the File Manager page is the Team File upload option, which allows you to manually upload a team file instead of using the FTP export option in the FBB3 application. You will still need to use the FBB3 application to export your team file. You can do so by click on the Team Setup option and then using the “Export team settings to file” option. This will output an file with a naming format of your team name followed by “.exp” extension. Then, you can upload that file in the File Manager to import you team file with your changes. For detailed instructions, use this document.

Instant Messaging / Chat

The league uses Slack for the majority of communication, including general league talk, trade talk and direct messages. New GMs will be invited to the IFFBL group on the Slack site. The application can also be downloaded on PC/Mac and there is an iPhone and Anroid App for mobile phones. For more info on how to sign-up and install the program, see these instructions.

GM Cash

Our league wants to provide an avenue for GMs to earn rewards for participating and achieving on court success to league activities. Therefore, we are launching a GM Cash program. It will work as follows:

Earning GM Cash

Writing Articles

League Articles

While not mandatory, the easiest way to rack up needed cash is to write league articles. Please submit your proposed topic to the league office just to verify it would constitute as a league topic. Additionally, please understand that not all articles are created equal and therefore the amount given will be based on merit and effort. The rewards for an article will be between $1 and $5 million in value.
Note: Limit $10 million per GM per season.

Team Articles

Team specific articles can be written at any time and do not require topic approval from the League Office. Team articles are submitted on the league's Wordpress site, which can be accessed via the Article Editor link under the GM Tools drop-down on the website. After submitting your article, the League Office will publish it and assign GM Cash based on the length and content quality. The rewards for a team article will be between $0.5 and $2.5 million in value.
Note: Limit $10 million per GM per season.

Player/Team Performance

We will be rewarding teams GM Cash also for on-court performance. The two windows to earn cash on performance includes All Star Weekend and around Playoff Time.

All Star Rewards

• Player Makes the All-Star Game: $1 million
• MVP of Rook/Soph: $1 million
• MVP of All-Star Weekend: $1.5 million
• 3PT Contest Winner: $0.5 million
• Dunk Contest Winner: $0.5 million

End of Season

• All League Team (1st through 3rd): $1 million
• Points / Rebounds / Assists / Steals / Blocks Leader: $1 million
• MVP: $2 million
• Rookie of the Year: $1 Million
• Defensive Player of the Year: $1 million
• 6th Man of the Year: $1 million
• Most Improved Player: $1 million
• Division Winner: $1 million
• Playoff Runner-Up: $1.5 million
• Champion: $2.5 million
• GM of the Year (voted by league): $2 Million

Spending GM Cash

You can find the current GM Cash balance for all GMs here.
Below you will find the current list of items that can be purchased for GM Cash. A GM may only purchase each item once per season and GMs may not stack “like” items. For example, you can’t apply both medical specialists to the same player, but could buy one of each and use them on different players. All items must be used when purchased as there is no banking of items.

• North American Medical Specialist (Injury Reduction 10%): $5 million
• Global Medical Specialist (Injury Reduction 25%): $15 million
• The Negotiator: $10 Million
  • 10% Reduction to Remainder of Contract Starting the Following Season.
  • NOTE: Player will decrease loyalty by 50%)
• Buy-Out City: $10 Million
  • Final year of a player's contract is removed as long as the final year is not a player option year.
  • Note: You will have a penalty of half the final year’s amount added to cut salary on your books. So if you buy out a 10 million dollar final year, you would show 5 million in cuts on your books.
• The Guillotine: $5 Million
  • Pony up your own cash to use in a cash buy-out, softening the blow to your team's budget.
  • Instead of paying out 75% of the total remaining coach contract, only pay 25% from your team budget. For example, if you buy out a coach with 2 years left on his contract at 5 million dollars per year, only $2.5 million would be subtracted from the team budget, saving the team budget $5 million.
• Stadium Investment: $10 million
  • Option 1 - Increase Capacity by 500
  • Option 2 - Increase Club seats by 100
  • Option 3 - Increase Suites by 20
  • NOTE: Can only be used once every 3 seasons
• Owner Replacement: $5 million
  • Current franchise owner retires and a new random owner is generated. The new owner's attributes are random.
  • NOTE: Can only be used once every 10 seasons.
• New Arena Proposal: $10 million
  • Call it bribes, call it media spin, or just call it greed. You can pony up some GM Cash and propose a new fancy arena for your franchise.
  • Note: If a rejection happens, the GM will get back 50% of their investment. If it is accepted, they get nothing back other than a new shiny building.
• Team Rebrand: $10 million
  • Want a new team nickname? Beef up your marketing department and pay those trademark and legal fees.
  • Note: Can only be used once every 10 seasons. Changes will only be made during the off-season.
• Pre-Draft Workout: $500 thousand per player
  • Can't decide between two players in the draft? Bring them both in for separate pre-draft workouts to see who has the better potential. For each pre-draft workout, you will receive a scouting report with a letter grade representing the player's potential along with other workout details.
  • Note: Your scout's Potential rating will affect the letter grade slightly. The higher your scout's Potential rating, the more accurate the letter grade.

Trading GM Cash

A team is allowed to trade GM cash as long as the guidelines are followed. These guidelines are as such:

• The GM Cash cannot be the only thing traded from one side. I.e. you cannot sell a 1st round pick for GM Cash straight up or for a player straight up. This is to avoid messing up budgets and salary matching issues with the sim. Essentially think of cash as possible icing on the cake and not the cake itself.
• GM Cash cannot be “owed” under any circumstances. You trade or pay with what you have in your bank.

Season Schedule

The events of each season will follow the schedule below:

• Off Season
  • Draft Lottery
  • Coach Hiring
  • Expansion Draft (If Necessary)
  • Rookie Draft
  • Free Agency
  • Ticket Prices
  • Arena Proposals
  • Expansion Proposals
  • Training Camps
• Regular season
  • Pre-Season
  • All-Star Break
  • Trade Deadline
  • Playoffs

Simulation

During regular season, four game days are simulated each day, Monday through Friday, around 9pm EST. Team files are due by 8:30pm EST. Playoffs will advance one game day each week day.

Staff Management

Staff Firing

In the IFFBL, all staff member contracts are 75% guaranteed. Therefore, if a staff member is fired while still under contract, 75% of the remainder of his total contract, including all remaining years, will be subtracted from the team's budget for the current season. For example, if a coach has a 3-year contract that pays him $2 million a year and he is fired, a $4.5 million decrease will be applied to the team's budget for the season he is fired. If a coach is in the last season of his contract, 75% of the salary will be subtracted from the team's budget. If the team's budget cannot be reduced, then the league office will deny the termination request.

NOTE: A written notice to the league office is required before firing a coach. Failure to notify the league office prior to firing a coach will result in a financial penalty described below.
PENALTY: 100% of the remainder of any fired coaches' contracts, including all remaining years, plus $2 million dollars will be subtracted from the team's budget for the current season. If the team's budget cannot be reduced by this amount, then the league office will place the terminated coaches back on the team and restore their original contracts.

NOTE: A coach who has been hired for less than 60 game days cannot be fired.

Staff Hiring

Staff hiring takes place during the off-season. All teams must have a full staff at all times. Staff can be hired during the season, but the Staff Firing rules noted above will be enforced.

Staff Contract Extensions

Contract extensions for staff is NOT permitted. This rule is in place to keep staff parity among the league and prevent teams in larger markets with larger budgets from continually extending the best coaches until they retire.

Staff Poaching

While the application does allow GMs to offer on other team's coaches, GMs are prohibited from doing so. This rule only applies to pro-league coaches. D-League coaches can be offered contracts normally.

Minimum Salary Exception

Teams can sign staff for the minimum salary even if they are over the cap, for up to two years in length.

Roster

Teams are required to keep a legal roster during the regular season. A legal roster consists of at least 12 players and a maximum of 15 players. During the off season, a team may have up to 20 players on their roster. However, before the regular season starts, GMs must cut their roster down to 15 players. Players sent down to the D-League still count as one of the 15 roster spots.

Depth Chart

Teams must have 10 healthy players with defined positions in their Depth Chart for the Depth Chart to be legal. If at any point, a team does not have a legal Depth Chart, the Commissioner will be forced to adjust the team’s Depth Chart in order to continue with the simulation. This may include activating players or signing minimum contract players to make a roster legal.

Finances

Team Budgets

Team budgets are a hard cap on players/coaches salaries that may not be exceeded except for the noted exceptions below and in the Staff section. Draft picks, minimum contracts (players and staff) are the exception to this rule. All draft picks are automatically assigned a contract and can put a team above the budget. A team can sign a minimum one-year contract player regardless of their budget.

A team over budget may conduct trades but only if the deal reduces the team’s overall salary exposure in the next season

Arena Proposals

NOTE: See GM Cash Section for cost to initiate proposal. League approval is required in order to submit a proposal. You MUST send an email to the Commissioner. If a new arena is approved within the application without League Office consent, the construction of the new arena will be canceled.

Process

If a GM would like to propose a new arena, they can do so within the application, which is in the arena proposal area - under the Finances section of the application. The new stadium seating will need to be filled out along with the amount of money the team is willing to contribute to build the stadium. The tax payers will pay the rest of the amount, if the proposal is accepted.

Successful Proposal

Arena proposals can be submitted during the preseason and up through the playoffs. When the offseason is initiated, the arena proposals are evaluated by the application and an email inside the application will be received by the GM letting him know whether the proposal was accepted or not. If the proposal is accepted, the stadium will be built over the course of the next two seasons.

For example, if the new arena was approved in the 2017 offseason, the team would start playing in the new stadium in the 2019 season. The amount of money the team proposed to pay for the stadium will be spread out over the course of seasons (around 10 or so) and will be reflected in the Arena Rent portion of the teams’ finances. The GM can submit a name for the new arena or the league office will create one.

Unsuccessful Proposal

If the arena proposal was unsuccessful, the GM has the option of proposing the arena again with different capacities or team contribution amount, which will be evaluated the following offseason. The GM also has the option to propose an arena in a different city. This would mean moving the franchise to the new city. Proposing an arena in a different city is done the same way in the application, only the GM will select the new city from the drop-down above the stadium capacity text boxes.

When selecting a new city, keep in mind Market Size, Economy and, most importantly, the Wants Team attribute of the new city. You can view the attributes of each city in the table at the bottom of the Propose Arena section of the application.
NOTE: Proposing an arena in a different city requires Commissioner Approval. Please email the league offices BEFORE submitting the proposal.

Moving Franchise to a Different City

The proposal in the new city is evaluated the same way and at the same time, when the offseason is initiated. The proposing GM will receive an email in the application with the decision. If the proposal is approved, the stadium will be built over a course of two seasons and the franchise will move to the new city after two seasons.

For example, if the proposal was approved in the 2017 offseason, the franchise would move to the new city in the 2019 season. The amount of money the team proposed to pay for the stadium will be spread out over the course of seasons (around 10 or so) and will be reflected in the Arena Rent portion of the teams’ finances. The GM can submit a new nickname for the franchise and a name for the new arena or the league office will create them.

Team Expansion

As the GM base grows, the league office may decide to add more franchises. This decision will be made by the Commissioner. If the decision is made to add a team(s), the expansion team(s) will be added during the offseason and will also be given the top spot(s) in the draft lottery. This doesn’t mean the expansion team(s) will receive the first overall pick, but the team(s) will have the highest chance of landing the first pick.

Expansion Draft

Player Pool

After the Staff Hiring phase, there will be an Expansion Draft. Each pro team may be required to expose at least one player currently under contract to the Expansion Draft, depending on how many players are currently on the roster. Keep in mind, the expansion draft takes place BEFORE the Rookie Draft and Free Agency. Also, just because a player is exposed does not mean he will be selected.
GMs should keep in mind if their exposed players are selected they will no longer be on their team. The selected exposed players contracts will also transfer to the expansion team which selected the player along with their bird rights. If an exposed player is not selected, he is returned to the original team.
Only one player from each team can be selected by an expansion team(s). For example, if an existing team has to expose 3 players and one of those players is selected in the Expansion Draft, the other two players will be returned to the existing team and will no longer be available to be selected.
NOTE: Players who have been signed to a new contract less than 60 days prior to the expansion draft won't be eligible to be exposed. To clarify, only new signings will have this restriction. A player who signed an extension can be exposed. This rule is only meant to prevent teams from signing a bad player at the end of the season to avoid exposing their existing players.
See the details below for how many players are required to be exposed based on each team's roster:

# of Players Under Contract	Required # of Players to Expose
0-4 Players	0 Players
5-9 Players	1 Player
10 Players	2 Players
11 Players	3 Players
12 Players	4 Players
13 Players	5 Players
14 Players	6 Players
15 Players	7 Players

Pick Order

The order of the Expansion Draft will be in the opposite order of the Rookie Draft between the Expansion Teams. So, if the order of the Rookie Draft is first, Team A, second, Team B, third, Team C and fourth, Team D, then the order of the Expansion Draft will be in the reverse order. So, Team D would pick first, then Team C followed by Team B and finally Team A.

Event

After each team exposes the required amount of players, the expansion team(s) will draft from the pool of exposed players.

Location

The draft will take place in the Slack application. For more info on the application, see the Slack section of the rulebook.

Drafting Players

There will be two channels – one channel where the Commissioner will announce the picks and one channel where the “draft talk” takes place. The channel where the picks are announced will be locked so only the Commissioner can post in it.

Each team will have five minutes to make their pick. The Commissioner will announce who is on the clock and then send a private chat to the GM. Once the GM sends the pick to the Commissioner in the private chat, the Commissioner will then announce it in the draft chat.

NOTE: Once a player is select, any players who were on the same team as the player selected will be removed from the pool. So, if Team A exposed 3 players to the draft pool, after the first player is selected from Team A, the remaining two players from Team A will be removed from the draft pool. The draft will continue until there at least one player has been selected from each team required to expose a player.

Draft List

If you are unable to make the draft, you must notify the Commissioner in advance. GMs are free to send an ordered list of players and the Commissioner will make selections based on the list. NOTE: The list MUST be ordered and no special instructions, such as “draft a Power Forward in the first round and a Center in the second round” will be accepted. If a GM wants a specific position selected in the first round, then their draft list should only include players who play that position.

Draft Proxies

GM proxies will not be permitted in order to avoid confusion, save time and prevent cheating.

Auto-Picks

If a GM doesn’t send an ordered list to the Commissioner and does not attend the draft or if a GM does not respond within the allotted time for their pick, an auto-pick will be given. An auto-pick is where the Commissioner selects the Recommend button and selects the player recommended by the team's scout.

Expansion Cap Space

The Expansion teams will abide by the same Salary Cap rules as the other teams. However, a cut salary is added to each Expansion teams' budget equaling 20% of the salary cap the team's first season, therefore giving each Expansion team 80% of the salary cap. Keep in mind, the Expansion draft and Rookie draft take place before Free Agency, so the Expansion teams will have less than 80% of the salary cap to spend on Free Agents as they will have players for each draft under contract. In the team's second season, a cut salary is added to each Expansion teams' budget equaling 10% of the salary cap.

If an Expansion team chooses to cut a player selected in the Expansion Draft, the player's salary will be added to the cut salary per normal rules. See the Waivers rules for more details.

Salary Cap

The salary cap is set automatically by the application during the offseason. While it is a cap for player salaries, teams can technically go above the salary cap by using exceptions, which are described in more detail below. The salary cap is calculated by dividing the sum of the total revenue of each team by the total number of teams. For example, if the sum of all team revenues is 720 million and there are 12 teams in the league, then the salary cap will be $60 million.

Salary Cap Exceptions

As mentioned earlier, the league salary cap is a soft cap and it is possible for teams to have payrolls higher than that. Even if a team is without cap space, it can still sign players using various salary cap exceptions. These apply mostly to contracts signed in Off-Season Free Agency.

Larry Bird Exception

Free agents who qualify for this exception are called "qualifying veteran free agents" or "Bird Free Agents". This rule allows teams to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own free agents, at an amount up to the maximum salary. To qualify as a Bird free agent, a player must have played three seasons without being waived or changing teams as a free agent.

When a player is traded, his Bird rights are traded with him, and his new team can use the Bird exception to re-sign him. Bird-exception contracts can be up to five years in length. The maximum yearly raises for Bird-exception contracts are 8 percent of the contract's first year salary.

Early Bird Exception

Free agents who qualify for this exception are called "early qualifying veteran free agents", and qualify after playing two seasons with the same team. Players that are traded or claimed off waivers have their Bird rights transferred to their new team. Using this exception, a team can re-sign its own free agent for either 175% of his salary the previous season, or the Mid-Level Exception, whichever is greater. Early Bird contracts must be for at least two seasons, but can last no longer than four seasons. If a team agrees to a trade that would make a player lose his Early Bird Rights.

Mid-level and Low-level Exceptions

Once a year, teams can use a mid-level exception (MLE) or a low-level exception (LLE) to sign players to a contract for a specified maximum amount. A team can exceed the salary cap to sign players using these exceptions. The combined value of these exceptions listed in the Salary Cap report in the application and on the website. Teams under the salary cap by more than the total exception amount for teams in the off season will not have any exceptions afforded to them.

The mid-level exception is a contract that can be up to four years long. The mid-level exception can also be split and given to multiple players. Even if split, the annual raises are fixed at eight percent.

The low-level exception is up to two years long. The second-year salary for a two-year low-level exception contract is fixed at 8% higher than the first year.

Minimum Salary Exception

Teams can sign players for the minimum salary even if they are over the cap, for up to two years in length. This exception also allows minimum-salary players to be acquired via trade. There is no limit to the number of players that can be signed or acquired using this exception and minimum salary players can be acquired throughout the season.

Rookie Exception

Teams automatically sign their first-round draft choices to rookie "scale" contracts even if their payroll exceeds the cap. Second round picks receive two-year minimum salary contracts.

Salary Cap Floor

Teams are required to spend 75 percent of the salary cap each year or 75 percent of the team budget, whichever is lower. If a team’s salary does not meet these requirements, a Cut Player expense will be added at the start of the regular season.

Luxury Tax

While the soft cap allows teams to exceed the salary cap indefinitely by re-signing their own players using the "Larry Bird" family of exceptions, there are consequences for exceeding the cap by large amounts. A luxury tax payment is required of teams whose payroll exceeds a certain "tax level", which can be viewed on a team’s financial section of the application or on the website. The threshold is the same for each team, which is 61 percent of the sum of total team revenue. Teams that have spent more than the Luxury Tax threshold in player salaries during the regular season will have to pay a dollar of Luxury Tax for each dollar they're over the threshold. The tax money goes to Tax Pool, which will be shared equally with all the teams not paying the Luxury Tax.

Player Contracts

All players contracts are fully guaranteed, except for the rookie contracts signed by first-round draft picks, who have team option seasons in their Rookie Scale Contracts.
If a player is released while under contract, the contract continues to count towards the salary cap of the team until either:

(a) The end of the contract

(b) The player is signed by another team.

If a player retires, his contract will be removed automatically by the application.

Contract Lengths

The contract term cannot exceed 5 year and yearly raises cannot exceed 8% of the contract's first year salary for players with Bird Rights. For players without Bird Rights, maximum term is four seasons and maximum raises 5 percent of the contract's first year salary.

Type of contract	Maximum years	Maximum raise/reduction
Larry Bird exception	5	8%
Early Bird exception	4	8%
Mid-Level exception	4	5%
Low-Level exception	2	5%
Non-Exception	4	5%

Player and Team Options

On the salaries page of the FBB3 GUI, team options are displayed in Green and player options are displayed in Red. Players under contract as first round picks will have team options in seasons 3 and 4. These must be declined by a GM by November 1st of the previous season or they will automatically be accepted. Regular team options must be declined by the end of the season or they will be accepted. A GM will get “in application email” during the season reminding you which players are eligible for which type of extension.

Player options are decided by the player at season end. GMs will get an “in application email” letting them know whether or not the player used his option or not.

Rookie Player Options

First round contracts are guaranteed for two years and thereafter a team may exercise their option to add up to two additional years to the contract. The window for exercising an option year is open during the pre-season following the player's second pro season (for 1st round picks) or first pro season (for 2nd round picks). For first round picks, the player will become an Unrestricted Free Agent after the final team option year. If a team does not execute the team option, the player will become an Unrestricted Free Agent at the end of that contract year.

For second round picks, picking up the third-year option means the team may gain Bird rights when the player becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent at the end of his contract. If a player who has a team option year in his contract is released before the option is exercised, the team option year is waived.

Teams can pick up the option year regardless of their total salary commitment, salary cap room and budget space for the season of the option. Once the option is picked up, it'll count normally against the team's salary cap and budget.

Contract Extensions

From the start of regular season to the end of playoffs, teams can send contract extension offers to their own players who are in the last year of their contracts -- excluding players on the fourth season of their Rookie Salary Scale contracts (see below).

The salary of the first extension year cannot exceed the maximum salary allowed, based on the player's years of pro experience. A contract can be extended after three seasons have passed from the signing of their current contract. Which means that only contracts for four seasons or more can be extended. For contracts that have already been extended, it can be extended again.

Minimum and mid-level exceptions are not available for use in extensions and the offered salaries must fit into the off-season cap amounts. However, Bird exceptions do apply. If a player receives a poor offer they will let it be known and if a player receives too many poor offers the player will no longer wish to negotiate.

Decreasing Salary Contracts

Offering players contracts where the salary decreases year-over-year is legal. However, the the yearly decrease cannot exceed 8% of the contract's first year salary for players with Bird Rights. For players without Bird Rights, the maximum decrease is 5 percent of the contract's first year salary. The FBB3 application may allow a GM to decrease the salary by more than the above mentioned amounts, but any contracts accepted which violates these rules will be voided and the player will be placed by in the Free Agency pool.

Waivers

Waivers are a temporary status for players who are released by their team. A team initiates the waiver process by choosing the “Cut Player” option from the Players page in the application. The player stays "on waivers" for nine "game" days, during which time other teams may claim the player and assume his contract. If no team has claimed the player before the end of the waiver period, he "clears waivers." The player's contract is terminated and he becomes a free agent.

Teams who cut players while under contract will have to pay the remaining value of the player's contract, if he clears waivers. The cut player’s salary will appear in the “Cut Salary” section of the Players Contract page. If a player is claimed before clearing waivers, the cut player’s salary will be released from his former team.

Draft

Draftees

At the beginning of each season after training camps, a list of draft prospects from college and around the world is available in the Draft Preview screen in the FBB3 application. The ratings and potentials in the application are according to your team scout and they will change over the course of the season.
The prospects can also be viewed on the website under Draft-->Draft Class. These ratings and potentials on the website are from the league scout (also referred to as "public perception") who is a 40/40 rated scout.

Draft Lottery

Teams who did not make the playoffs the previous season are automatically added to the draft lottery. The team with the worst record has the best chance of winning the lottery at 25% and each subsequent worst record has a slightly lower chance*. Based on the percentages, the application runs the lottery and assigns the draft order.

*Unless there are Expansion Teams. See the Expansion Team rules for further details.

Draft Event

Draft Location

The draft will take place online and in the Slack application. On draft day, the draft lobby will be opened and can be accessed from the IFFBL website under Draft-->Rookie Draft. For more info on Slack, see the Slack section of the rulebook.

Drafting Players

After GMs are logged into the Draft Lobby on the website, a list of players available will be listed for GMs to select from. When it is a GM's turn to pick he can select from the list of players by clicking on their name and then clicking the Select Player button. The draft board on the Draft Lobby page will continue to update as each GM makes his pick.

There will also be two channels in Slack – one channel where the picks are announced and one channel where the “draft talk” takes place. The channel where the picks are announced will be locked so only the Commissioner can post in it. In the “draft talk” channel, all GMs are welcome to chat and comment on players drafted. GMs can also propose trades in private chats between each other.

Each team will have five minutes to make their pick. The Live Draft Lobby will display who is currently picking, how much time they have available to pick and which prospects are available. Each GM will have the opportunity to select a prospect in the Draft Lobby when it is their turn.

Draft Trading

GMs can negotiate and make trades whenever during the draft. If a trade is made during the draft, both GMs MUST confirm it to Commissioner via Slack. The clock will be paused so that it can be checked before being made official.

Draft Lists

If you are unable to make the draft, you must notify the Commissioner in advance. GMs can utilize the My Draft List feature, which can be access on the website under GM Tools-->My Draft List, to rank the prospects and submit the list to the League Office.

NOTE: Emailed lists will not be accepted. GMs must rank the players using the My Draft List feature on the website and submit their lists via this feature only.

NOTE: The Commissioner will not accept special instructions, such as “draft a Power Forward in the first round and a Center in the second round” will be accepted. If a GM wants a specific position selected in the first round, then their draft list should only include players who play that position.

Draft Proxies

GM proxies will not be permitted in order to avoid confusion, save time and prevent cheating.

Penalty Picks

If a GM doesn’t send an ordered list to the Commissioner and does not attend the draft or if a GM does not respond within the allotted time for their pick, a “penalty pick” will be given. A “penalty pick” is the 10th best player available according to the league scout’s rankings, which can be viewed in the application.

Trades

Players, draft picks and GM cash can be traded at any point before the Trade Deadline, which is on Thursday of the 16th week to the start of preseason. All trades must be submitted via a Slack.

Submitting a Trade

Once you've agreed on a trade with another GM (or two), you must submit the trade via Slack. Create a direct message with the Commissioner and all GMs involved in the trade. Please include the team(s) you are trading with and enter the players/assets you are trading and the players/assets the other team(s) is trading to you. After the other GMs approve the trade by replying to the direct message in Slack with their approval, the Commissioner will review the trade for fairness.

All trades can be vetoed if deemed unfair to the league. The Commissioner will reply in Slack to the parties with an approval or disapproval. Assets will be moved to their new teams after the sim has run for the day.

Restrictions

Salary

If a team is over the salary cap, it cannot acquire more than 125 percent plus 0.1 million of the salaries it is sending away. Minimum salary players can be traded without regard to the salary cap and salary matching. Minimum salary players are not included in incoming salaries in trades, but they are included in outgoing salary when traded away.

60-Day Rule

A player who is traded or signed as a free agent, must stay on his new team's roster for 60 game days before he can be traded again. Players who are under the 60-Day Rule will show up in red in the Propose Trade tool within the application.

First Round Picks

This rule prevents teams from trading away future first-round selections in back-to-back years. In other words, a team can’t be without at least one first-round pick (its own or another team’s) in consecutive future seasons. A team can still trade its first-round pick every year if it wants to, but if that club has already dealt away its first-rounder, it will have to wait until after the draft to trade its pick the following season.

A pick in the upcoming draft is not considered a future pick, meaning that a team must have a first round pick in the second or third draft. If a team acquires a first-rounder from another team in the second draft, they can trade their own pick even if they don't have a first-round pick in the third draft.

Trade Scenarios

Sign-and-Trades

Sign-and-trades follow the same process as a normal trade. The player must sign with the team with bird rights first and then once the player signs, the agreeing parties should email the Commissioner with the trade details and their confirmations. Sign-and-trades must be legal in the Propose Trade tool within the application. If for some reason the trade is not legal after the player has signed or the parties no longer wish to move forward with the trade, the player will remain with the team he signed with. He will NOT be released and put back into the FA pool.

One-Year Contract Players

If a player involved in a trade is on a one-year contract and would have Bird or Early Bird rights at the end of season, he loses his Bird rights and is considered a Non-Bird Free Agent in the following Free Agency.

Injured Players

Injured players can be traded even though the Propose Trade tool within the application doesn’t allow for it.

Future Trades

Two or more teams can agree to a trade that isn't currently legal but will be in the future. However, the trade will not be reviewed or approved until the trade is actually legal. Also, future trades agreed upon are not binding and the League Office does not enforce trades unless the trade is legal at the time of submission and all parties have agreed upon the trade.

Changing Teams

If a franchise GM spot opens up the Commissioner will email the rest of the league to let them know of the vacancy, which will be filled in the following order:

1. Pro GM with another team
   • If there are more than one pro GMs who wish to fill the opening, the number of years experience in the league will be the deciding factor, following by career winning percentage as the tie-breaker.
2. Development League GM
3. Applicant to the league