Introduction
A Whale Time fantasy football league consists of 16 franchises, with each franchise maintaining a roster of real National Football League (NFL) players. Franchise owners are responsible for "coaching" their teams throughout the football season in an effort to achieve a Whale Bowl championship.

Official Whale Time leagues operate within what is known as a Keeper League system. Franchise rosters are maintained from year to year with limited turnover. Thus, in addition to achieving success in the current season, owners must formulate and implement long-term strategies to be successful year after year.

Rules can be modified to create a Redraft League in which all or most players are drafted again year after year, but for maximum enjoyment of the Whale Time system, Keeper Leagues are recommended.

The intent of this rule book is to explicitly and completely describe the framework within which Whale Time leagues and franchises may operate. It will be updated as necessary in this online format and will be printed when necessary. This is a living document, and every effort will be made to keep it fresh each year, if not each week.

All are welcome to follow the Whale Time rules structure so long as credit is given to the name-origin of said league rules structure (e.g., "Bob's Southern Colorado Fantasy League - a Whale Time League"). Unauthorized use of this rule book is prohibited. We are in the process of creating a system by which we can operate multiple leagues for a nominal fee.

League Operation

Conference/Division Structure
Official Whale Time leagues are comprised of U and V conferences. Each conference consists of two four-team divisions: the U holds the Whale and 4D divisions, the V holds the Cetacean and Time divisions. Essentially, this is a cute way of saying "Whale Time" twice.

The first ever Whale Time fantasy football league, created in 1985, is still in operation and currently stands as such:

Team names may change due to the relocation of franchise headquarters, change in franchise ownership, or other circumstances. All such changes require the approval of the league commissioner. It should be noted that team names need not change simply because of a geographic move within a specific geographic area (notably, from one neighborhood of a metropolitan area to another) if the franchise owner has operated for at least five years under a single name. Franchise rosters and franchise alignment shall remain intact, regardless of name/geographic changes, unless it is decided by a rules committee that such a change would somehow be beneficial to the league.

The use of geography—whether street, neighborhood, city, or state—is recommended to create team names more akin to NFL franchises. For instance, there is something more sweet and pure (especially if you are from Minnesota) about the Como Park / Highland Park battle than between Tony's Monkeys vs. The 11 Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Too many leagues seem to feature contests between the Destroyers vs. Brad's Bombers. This system attempts to rectify that.

Regular Season & Playoffs
The start of a Whale Time regular season coincides with the start of the NFL regular season. The Whale Time regular season is 14 weeks long and teams play head-to-head games (i.e., each franchise has only one other opponent, which is another franchise).

Each game yields a winner and a loser (or a tie) based on the NFL performances of the participating teams' starting lineups for that particular week. Wins, losses, and ties shall be recorded by the commissioner and all disputes will be forwarded to the commissioner.

Each team plays two regular season games against division rivals and eight regular season games against teams outside their division. A complete schedule of games can be determined by the commissioner based on a unique system (given in the next section of this rule book), or by some other system for 16-team leagues. Several are available throughout the Internet, but the Whale Time system is used specifically to assure an appropriate taste for each unique league.

At the conclusion of the regular season, final standings are recorded and three rounds of playoff games are conducted during weeks 15, 16, and 17 of the NFL season. The four division winners automatically advance to the playoffs. In addition, the two best teams excluding the division winners from each conference are awarded playoff berths as wildcards.

The four playoff teams from each conference are then seeded #1 through #4 without regard to status as wildcard or divisional winner. Teams are ranked within their divisions and conferences on the basis of a unique tie-break procedure.

For the first round of playoffs, seed #1 plays seed #4, and seed #2 plays seed #3 within each conference. First-round playoff losers are eliminated from postseason play. The second round of playoffs are called the Conference Championship games. The two first-round playoff winners from the U Conference contend for the U Conference Championship; the two first round playoff winners from the V Conference contend for the V Conference Championship.

In the third and final playoff round, the U and V conference champions compete against each other for the league championship in the Whale Bowl while the second-round playoff losers play each other in the annual Third Place Game, a consolation that may or may not be played for monetary benefit as a reward for making it this far.

One additional postseason game takes place during the first week of the playoffs. It is a long-standing Whale Time tradition known as the Pooper Bowl. The Pooper Bowl is a contest between the team with the worst record in the U Conference and the team with the worst record in the V Conference. The loser earns the dubious distinction of being the worst team in the league, The Pooper.

Schedule
The schedule has been made by hand every season since the inception of the original Whale Time fantasy football league in 1985. Various spices and seasonings have been added to the process over the years to bring it to a clean, sweet-smelling froth. Okay, maybe making a fantasy football schedule is not really a culinary process, but it is a delicious labor of love.

Whale Time is aware of many simpler mathematical systems for schedule making, and some of your more technically minded leaders may suggest the use of more modern procedures. It is perhaps true that if you assigned numbers to all teams and gave some basic parameters like teams 1, 2, 3, and 4 all have to play each other twice but not one week after already having played the same team, the computer could spit out a schedule.

But a league's schedule should reflect its character. Who's in the league? Are they friends? Do they work together? Are they strangers, but from cities or neighborhoods with historical rivalries? A good schedule should find a way to incorporate all of the following:

• division (obviously)
• friend/family
• coworkers
• geography (particularly if a league is made up of strangers)
• tradition (over time)
• timing (try to bring the playoff chase to a head)
• continuity (create an Army/Navy or Michigan State/Ohio State finale)
• fairness

In the case of the original Whale Time league, there is loads of history to draw from and well-defined divisional and familial rivalries. There have been great geographical rivalries over the years, such as Minneapolis vs.St. Paul and Milwaukee vs.Chicago, but never to the extent as obvious markers like Hamline vs. Highland Park (married) and White Bear / Centerville / Loeb / Roseville (blood relatives).

There's plenty of room in every league to create lasting traditions, but if you flood the league with them, it defeats the purpose. It can also create unforeseen unfairness, which raises the technical aspect of creating the Whale Time schedule. We start with a graphic:

This chart is used to monitor who has already played who and how many times two divisional teams have played each other (the first game of the two-game series is shaded in a different color until it is darkened for the second game). The chart from a current year should always be compared with the one from the year before to make certain gaps are being filled so that every team plays every other team at least once every other year, regardless of winning percentage or rivalry potential.

Every season there are going to be four empty spaces. These spaces are filled in over the course of making the schedule for the next year until all the spaces are gone.

Teams are also broken up into three categories based on their performance from the previous year: nonplayoff, playoff, and final four (drawn from playoff). Every attempt is made to schedule nonplayoff teams against other nonplayoff teams and playoff teams against other playoff teams. The final four teams are pitted against each other with the thought that these battles will help to create a different final four in the next year.

Notes are made throughout this tricky process, particularly revolving around how many playoff teams from the year before are on the schedule. The first number written next to each team is how many automatic bids against playoff teams are on the schedule. These scheduling bids are based on the need to play each divisional rival twice. The most automatic bids any one team can have is six, because only three teams can go to the playoffs from one divison. The least is zero, if your team was the only one from the division to go to the playoffs.

As the schedule is made, games against playoff teams are ticked and compared to the automatic bid number. At the end of the schedule-making process, the total number of games played against last year's playoff teams is tallied as is the differential from the automatic bid number. That list might look something like this:

Tie-Break Procedure
The Whale Time rule system borrows a page from the National Hockey League. Playoff positions are determined by a points system rather than winning percentage. Within this system, one win equals two points, and one tie equals one point. Therefore, two ties equals one win, and no three-decimal winning percentage will ever change that (i.e., a 6-6-2 record is considered exactly the same as a 7-7 record). Love it or hate it, ties are an integral part of the Whale Time experience. Blame it on melodramatic loyalty to Minnesota origins if you must, but it has certainly created some fantastic closing weeks.

When two or more teams have identical point totals, the following sequential criteria are examined until the tie can be broken:

Two or More Teams in the Same Division

1. Head-to-head competition
2. Record within the division
3. Record versus same opponents (rvso)
4. Total points in all games
5. Point differential in head-to-head games
6. Point differential in division games
7. Point differential versus same opponents
8. Random selection (usually a coin toss)

Two Teams Not in the Same Division

1. Head-to-head competition
2. Record versus same opponents (rvso)
3. Total points in all games
4. Point differential in head-to-head games
5. Point differential versus same opponents
6. Random selection (usually a coin toss)

Head-to-head competition is just that; if you won your game against the team you are tied with, you win the tie breaker.

Record versus same opponents (rvso) is used to determine the best win-loss percentage in all games where the tied teams share common opponents.

Total points in all games is a comparison of the "points for" (PF) total for the regular season.

Point differential tie breakers are won by the team with the highest net points—PF minus "points against" (PA) in the games indicated.

If each step of the tie-break procedure yields an identical result for each of the tied teams, ranking is determined randomly. This generally involves that good old football staple, the coin toss, unless one of the owner's wants to defer the playoff position...an unlikely proposition.

Divisional tie breakers are applied prior to nondivisional tie breakers. Therefore, when determining conference position (for wildcard berth or playoff seeding) for three or more tied teams that are not all in the same division, first apply the divisional tie-break procedure to identify the highest ranked team (among the tied teams) in each division. Then, for the two divisional tie-break winners, apply the nondivisional tie-break procedure.

In general, whenever a tie breaker that is applied to more than two teams yields dissimilar results for any team(s), the tie-break procedure for that group of teams is stopped at that step. The teams are ranked according to the results of that particular tie breaker. The tie-break procedure shall restart from the top for any teams that remain tied.

Commissioner/Owner
A league commissioner must be trustworthy and honest or the league cannot work. It is that simple. This person has the advantage of knowing all bids, the responsibility of keeping up with and sharing all NFL news, and the privilege of holding the final starting lineups for each game day. A league will deteriorate quickly if the commissioner abuses the power of the position or betrays the trust of league members.

The position should be held with respect and dignity and used to do the best job possible to assure fun and friendly competition. It can be a time-consuming and thankless job, so leagues may consider creating a revolving commissioner rule to keep things fresh and to spread the responsibility.

Special guidelines should be followed by the combined commissioner/owner:

1. A commissioner/owner should make all bids to another trusted member of the league.
2. Bids should be made as early as possible so as not to abuse the power of knowing the bids of others. For example, if the commissioner is always making minimum bids five minutes before the weekly bid deadline on players that nobody else bid on, this unfair bargain hunting can disrupt league confidence.
3. The commissioner cannot bid on players that other people have already made bids on that the commissioner is aware of.
4. Generally, the higher the stakes or the less familiar the commissioner/owner is with the rest of the owners, the better it is to use a bidding option that almost seems unfair to the commissioner, such as forcing this person to make all bids to another owner by Wednesday.
5. Each week, a commissioner/owner must share his or her starting lineup with at least one other owner.
6. A commissioner/owner should make every effort to know what is going on around the NFL and share that information with other league owners. Whether it is a weekly newsletter, an e-mail group, or a batch of telephone calls, all owners should be informed of any important changes.

It is recommended that the commissioner send out league information as often as possible. A weekly update is often all that's necessary for a smooth-running league. In this update, weekly scores, records, rosters, available players, scoring leaders, and recent bids should be posted. It is up to each individual league to decide what, if any, compensation the commissioner should receive for the extra work.

Money
The Whale Time fantasy football rule system is designed to be fun. Financial gain is not a focus, and team payrolls are left up to individual owners through bidding and a minimal start-up fee. Leagues should never become a financial burden to its members.

A good starting fee in today's economy is $30/team. This fee should be received on or before Draft Day. Money is used to pay rewards at the end of the year and to cover expenses throughout the season, such as Web maintenance costs and materials publishing. All money used for bidding on players during the season goes into "the pot" and is used only for continuous league upkeep, awards, and as the main body of currency for a banquet at the end of the season. Some money is carried over to the next season for Draft Day food and beverages.

If the $30 starting fee is not paid before or on Draft Day by a franchise owner, penalties are assessed by the league's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), which may include a restriction on bidding and other league privileges. This is meant to assure that collection of the fee will not drag into the off-season. Furthermore, an owner's bidding debt should never be greater than an established amount, such as $100. Bidding debts should be posted weekly.

All debt is expected to be paid to the league CFO by Super Bowl Sunday. If the debt is not paid and no honorable effort to reach the league office for an explanation is made, the CFO reserves the right to begin assessing additional fines and the commissioner may begin looking for new ownership by the Monday following the NFL Pro Bowl.

Prize money should be given to the top three teams, with the champion receiving approximately ten times the starting fee, 2nd place receiving $75, and 3rd place receiving around $50. These figures are subject to your league structure.

Changing Rules
Adding rules or modifying any existing rules requires unanimous approval by an established rules committee. On an interim basis, the commissioner has the authority to make rule modifications that are in the best interest of the league or that are necessitated by changes in NFL rules. Interim modifications remain in effect until the rules committee approves or rejects the change(s).

On occasion—when there is enough debate about a potential rule change—a league vote requiring majority acceptance may be brought to the entire league. This usually occurs on Draft Day.