Nearly all contingencies have been accounted for within these rules, but for new issues that may arise, a group discussion is encouraged and then the wizened commissioner (Keith) makes the final decision. Everything is defined in the beginning of the season, and then the website runs the show.

During the season, all team owners are ultimately responsible for ensuring that their starters are declared and accurately scored.

Sometimes referred to as an "Ebay" style auction, this approach takes place over a time period of up to three (3) weeks, starting with the second week of August and ending prior to Labor Day weekend. It has a couple of tremendous advantages over the old realtime method that had been in place for years:
1) it is no longer necessary to schedule 12 people to sit down at the same time
2) it stretches out the auction for 2-3 weeks. each day is fun and can be intense.

Starting the Auction
Each team starts the auction with 400 Copper Pieces in their bank. On Day 1, each team can nominate 1 player to put on the auction block, along with their opening and (secret) maximum bids. When the player is placed on the block and the opening bid is placed, the bid deadline is set for 24 hours later. If someone outbids the initial bidding team, their bid becomes the new high bid and the bid deadline is reset to be 24 hours later.

This process continues until no team has bid on that player for a continuous 24 hour period. After that, the bid is processed. The player is removed from the auction block, placed on the team's roster, and the team's bank is deducted the appropriate amount of CP's.

With this method, a total of 12 players are placed on the league auction block on Day 1 (one player is nominated per team). On Day 2, each team can nominate another player to place on the auction block, bringing it to a total of 24 players being nominated through two days.

Bidding
Players are nominated with an Opening Bid and a Maximum Bid. The Opening Bid is presented to the public when the player is placed on the auction block, and the Maximum Bid is kept secret. If another team places a competing bid on that player, the current bid is adjusted based on the relation of the two competing bid values.

Maximum bid is greater than new bid
The current bid value goes to [New Bid Value] + 1CP and the owner of the current bid remains the same. Deadline remains the same

Maximum bid is equal to new bid
The current bid value goes to [New Bid Value] and the owner of the current bid remains the same. Deadline remains the same.

Maximum bid is less than new bid
The current bid value goes to [Old Maximum Bid Value] + 1CP and the owner of the current bid changes to the new bidding team. The deadline is set to 24 hours in the future, using this exact time of day as the base time.

Auction Schedule
The auction begins on Saturday, August 15th at 6:00am Eastern Standard Time. This date is considered Day 1, and Day 2 is August 16th, etc. As the Days progress, more players are able to be placed onto the auction block each day.

Day Number of Players to Nominate
1      1
2      1
3      1
4      1
5      1
6      1
7      1
8      3
9      3
10     3
11     3
12     3
13     unlimited
14     unlimited

100 Copper Pieces are deposited after the auction and before the season begins. In addition, any funds leftover from the auction are deposited in each team's bank account, and all of these funds are for use with Free Agency.

During the season, each loss suffered by a team results in 10 Copper Pieces being deposited to their account.

Each week, your team faces one other team (determined by the season schedule posted before the season starts), and every owner submits their starting rosters prior to kickoff in that week's first game (usually Sundays, but sometimes Thursdays or Saturdays). If there is an early game in the week, Sunday's starters can still be edited up until 1 pm EST on Sunday.

The 10 starters each week are always in the same positional ratio: 1 QB, 2 RB's, 1 TE, 3 WR's, 1 K, 1 DF/ST, and 1 Coach.

These players earn points for their fantasy team through actual real-life scoring and yardage bonuses. The total points earned by those players is that fantasy team's final score, and the winning team is determined by highest score between the two teams which faced each other.

For tiebreakers, the first and only level of tiebreaker is Head Coach. After that, a tie is a tie.

Teams accrue win-loss records through the first 13 weeks of the regular season, and the top 6 teams face each other in the playoffs, which take place in weeks 14-16 of the NFL regular season.

Divisional ranking and is based on total Victory Points, followed by season YTD. The four divisional winners get the top four seeds, and there are two wildcard teams as well.

During the regular season (covering the first 13 weeks of the NFL's 17 weeks), each team faces each divisional opponent twice, and every other team in the league once. Teams earn 1 Victory Point for a head to head matchup, and 1 Victory Point for being in the top 50% for scoring for that week. Standings are determined by Victory Points.

Each week, each team faces off against one team in a W-L format. In addition to this standard structure, all teams also play against everyone else in the league, in a "league game" or "meta game." Teams earn Victory Points via both channels, and VP's are used for ranking divisions.

If a team wins their head to head game, they earn 1 Victory Point. If they tie, they earn 0.5 VP. If their team scored in the top six teams for that given week, they earn an additional 1 VP. This is a reflection of a team's overall power and helps to mitigate the luck factor when it comes to a season's schedule of head-to-head matchups.

Homefield advantages are in place for the playoffs. The home team gets 2 bonus points to start the game with, reflecting their home-field advantage. There is no homefield advantage in the Championship game.

Once kickoff of Week 12 begins, all prior regular season games are considered final. All statistical adjustments/corrections must be made prior to the playoffs. The rule is: Stats are Stats are Stats, and the Stats rule.

After kickoff of Week 12, everyone will know exactly where they stand in the playoff hunt as they go into the final regular season game. Teams have until Wednesday night of the final regular season game to audit and correct their results.

The winners of each division, determined by the overall records within the division (and not merely the division record), get the first 4 seeds in the Midgard playoffs, which take place in weeks 14-16 of the NFL's regular season. This means that Team A with a 3-1 divisional record, 7-6 overall, would not beat Team B that had a 10-3 record but who's divisional record was 2-2. Team B would be the divisional champion because they have a better overall record.

Of the 8 teams remaining, the two teams with the best overall records make the playoffs. The worst 6 teams in the league do not play in the official playoffs (though see the next paragraph). In case of a tie in determining what teams will make the playoffs, the total points scored throughout the season will be used as a tiebreaker (starters' points for each week, totaled). The second tie-breaker for this situation will be divisional record. The third tie-breaker will be the teams' head-to-head record. The fourth tie-breaker will be a vicious game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, 3 out of 5.

As in the NFL, every team enters the playoffs with a clean slate. Just like the regular season, the Head Coach is the first tiebreaker. In the playoffs, bench points are the second level tiebreaker in "overtime." Third level tiebreaker in the playoffs: starting ST/DF. Fourth level: the higher seeded team.

The six teams that missed the playoffs will face each other in the Loser Playoffs.

Homefield advantage is used in the playoffs until the Championship game, which is on a neutral field.

Since Midgard does not keep any players from season to season, there is no Injured Reserve slot that is available. Rosters are limited to 20 players, period.

There is a free agent list posted every week and all owners can look it over and bid on any players on the list, keeping in mind that their roster size is limited to 20 players with no IR slots.

All free agent bids have to be submitted by 8 pm on Wednesday, via a link found on your team homepage. Bids are simultaneously resolved at 8pm each Wednesday.

Starting in 2008, there is also a second Free Agency on Sunday mornings at 10am (eastern). Obviously, most of the free agent pool will be picked clean in the first session on Wednesday, and therefore this second session serves to allow teams to respond to weekday injuries, last minute trades, etc.

At the beginning of the season, all funds left over from the auction will be deposited in each team's bank account.

When an owner sees a free agent which they wish to acquire, they will submit a secret bid for that player, complete with how many Copper Pieces they are willing to spend in order to get that player. The highest bidder gets the player; in case of a tie, the team with the worse record gains the player. If there is still a tie, then both teams can submit another round of secret and simultaneous bidding. If a tie is still the result, then the tie-breakers go as follows: worst total points by starting lineups thus far, worst divisional record, and finally a brutal game of rock-paper-scissors.

Copper Pieces can be traded amongst teams.

Owners can bid on as many players as they would like, but keep in mind the following important considerations:

The total number of Copper Pieces that are bid cannot exceed the total amount of money held. One cannot bid "20 Copper Pieces on Doug Chapman, only if my 40 on Jamal Lewis is unsuccessful."

For every player that is bid upon, an existing player on the roster has to be designated as being the one that would be cut. This is a mere 1 to 1 correspondence for the number of players that would be cut, but this information can be presented in list form; the players to be cut don't have to be linked to specific acquisitions, though that is an acceptable form, as well. (Details can be found in the free agent form.)

All trades are pretty much legal but are subject to a league vote if one is called for. If four owners vote against a trade, it is reversed. If it is reversed after kickoff and it affected that week's starting lineups, then the sanctioned teams are treated as if they started too many players at the affected positions; the lowest scoring player is considered "started".

Keep in mind that anyone who is involved in a bad-faith trade will in all likelihood not be invited back in the following season. This has never been needed in the past.

Trades can involve asymmetrical numbers of players (3 for 2, 2 for 1, etc.), and teams used to have until kickoff of the week's first game in order to waive player(s) to reach the roster limit. With the addition of a second Free Agency session on Sunday mornings, teams now have to adhere to a strict roster limit at all times.

Teams are not allowed to "loan" or "trade for a day" players to other teams.

Teams can include Copper Pieces as part of a trade.

The Trade Deadline is before kickoff of Week 11.

Dues are $25 for the prize fund. This results in $300 in the prize pool. The deadline for dues is July 1st of each year and can be mailed or paypal'd. If paypal'd, the paypal fee is added and the total becomes $27.

$130: 1st Place
$75: 2nd Place
$50: 3rd Place
$25: 4th Place
$20: Top YTD scoring team (regular season)