The Constitution
in order to form a more perfect league, establish justice, insure intra-league tranquility, provide for the common working-man, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty and libations to ourselves and those we idolize, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Competitive Fantasy-Level Baseball Dynasty League.
Contents
Article I.
Section 1. Defined Terms
The following terms carry the meanings given here wherever they appear in this Constitution.
a. Active Roster means the twenty-three (23) playing slots described in Article II, Section 1.
b. Auction Draft means the live salary cap draft conducted under Article IV.
c. Bodybag Rule means the roster relief designation described in Article II, Section 3(a).
d. CFLB means Competitive Fantasy-Level Baseball, the League.
e. Commissioner means one of the three (3) Commissioners who administer the League under Article I, Section 3. Commissioners means those three (3) Commissioners acting as provided in that Section.
f. Consolation Bracket means the bracket for non-playoff Franchises described in Article VIII, Section 4.
g. FAAB means the Free Agent Acquisition Budget described in Article VI, Section 1.
h. Franchise means one of the twelve (12) member teams of the League.
i. FYPD means the First-Year Player Draft conducted under Article V, Section 5.
j. Injured List means the five (5) additional slots described in Article II, Section 2.
k. Keeper Deadline means the date and time, set by the Commissioners in the Yahoo league settings, by which each Manager must declare the players he is keeping and be in compliance with the Salary Cap.
l. League means the Competitive Fantasy-Level Baseball Dynasty League, operated on Yahoo Fantasy Baseball.
m. Majority Vote means the affirmative vote of at least seven (7) of the twelve (12) Franchises.
n. Manager means the person who operates a Franchise.
o. Ohtani Rule means the two-way player rule described in Article VI, Section 2.
p. Opening Day means the first day of the Major League Baseball regular season.
q. Prospect means a player who satisfies Article V, Section 1.
r. Prospect Slot means one of the minor league roster slots described in Article V, Section 2.
s. Salary means the dollar cost a player carries against a Franchise’s Salary Cap, determined under Article III, Section 2.
t. Salary Cap means the maximum total Salary a Franchise may carry into the Auction Draft, set under Article III, Section 1.
u. Season Payout Pot means the total of all team dues and penalties collected, distributed under Article I, Section 5.
v. Supermajority Vote means the affirmative vote of at least nine (9) of the twelve (12) Franchises.
w. Team Control means the three (3) season cost discount period described in Article III, Section 2(a) and Article V, Section 4.
x. Week means a scoring week as set in the League’s Yahoo schedule.
y. A reference to a Yahoo setting means the setting in effect for the League at the relevant time, as recorded in Appendix A.
Section 2. Membership
a. The League consists of twelve (12) Franchises for each season.
b. Every Manager from the previous season has the right to retain his Franchise unless removed under subsection (d).
c. Each Manager must submit current contact information, including phone and email, to the Commissioners before the Auction Draft.
d. A Manager may be removed from the League by Majority Vote for franchise negligence, failure to pay league fees in a timely manner, collusion, or any other conduct that the League, by Majority Vote, determines warrants removal.
Section 3. Governance
a. The League is administered by three (3) Commissioners. The Commissioners maintain the Yahoo league settings, keep the records this Constitution requires, conduct the Auction Draft and the FYPD, and rule on questions of interpretation that this Constitution does not resolve.
b. An act of the Commissioners that affects competitive conditions requires the agreement of at least two (2) of the three (3) Commissioners and must be posted to the League. Such acts include setting or moving the Keeper Deadline, setting the date of the Auction Draft, changing a Yahoo league setting, releasing a player under Article III, Section 4(c), declaring a forfeiture under Article II, Section 5(g), and deciding a question under Article X(e). Any Commissioner may perform routine administration alone.
c. The Commissioners must give the League at least fourteen (14) days’ notice of the Keeper Deadline and of the date of the Auction Draft.
d. A Commissioner may not set any other Manager’s lineup absent extraordinary circumstances.
e. A Commissioner may not decide any question in which he is personally involved; rather, such questions are decided by Majority Vote. If two (2) or more Commissioners are personally involved in the same question, the question is decided by Majority Vote.
f. A question put to the League for a vote remains open for seventy-two (72) hours. A Franchise that does not vote within that period is recorded as not voting, and its non-vote does not count toward the threshold required to pass.
g. The Commissioners maintain and publish to the League a record of each Franchise’s kept players and their Salaries, remaining Team Control seasons, Bodybag Rule designations, and the results of the FYPD lottery.
h. A Commissioner serves until he resigns or is removed by Majority Vote. A vacancy in the office is filled by Majority Vote.
i. As of the adoption of this Constitution, the Commissioners are Collin, Bill, and TJ.
Section 4. League Fees
a. Team dues are $125 a year, subject to annual increase by Majority Vote.
b. Team dues must be paid no later than two weeks after Opening Day of regular season play.
c. A Manager who has not paid his dues by the payment deadline will have his add and drop privileges disabled until payment is received.
d. Dues received after the payment grace period are subject to a mandatory $25 penalty. Penalty dollars are added to the Season Payout Pot and distributed under Section 5(c).
e. Failure to pay league dues is grounds for removal under Section 2(d).
Section 5. League Payouts
a. Payouts from the Season Payout Pot are made as follows:
b. The Season Payout Pot is the total of all team dues and penalties collected. At twelve (12) Franchises paying $125, the base pot is $1,500 and is fully distributed under subsection (a).
c. Penalty dollars collected under Section 4(d) are added to the Season Payout Pot and paid to the 1st Place Playoffs and 2nd Place Playoffs finishers pro rata, in proportion to the payouts those two finishes carry under subsection (a).
d. No payout attaches to the Consolation Bracket.
e. This payout scheme is subject to change by Majority Vote.
Article II.
Section 1. Active Roster
Each Franchise has twenty-three (23) Active Roster slots:
b. Lineups are set daily. Benched players are not locked.
c. Each Franchise must carry at least one player eligible at each starting position on its Active Roster.
d. Lineup completion. A Manager must field a full hitter lineup each day, meaning a player is started at each of the nine (9) hitting positions on his Active Roster. A player carrying an Injured List designation may be started at a hitting position and counts toward this requirement, provided he holds positional eligibility for the position in which he is started. Failure to field a full hitter lineup carries the consequence stated in Section 5(g).
Section 2. Injured List
a. Each Franchise has five (5) Injured List slots, in addition to and separate from the twenty-three (23) Active Roster slots.
b. Only a player carrying an injury designation that Yahoo recognizes as Injured List eligible may occupy an Injured List slot. An injured player may be added directly to an Injured List slot from waivers or free agency.
c. A player who loses his eligible injury designation must be moved to the Active Roster or released before a Manager may add any player from waivers or free agency.
Section 3. Roster Relief
a. The Bodybag Rule. Once per season, a Manager may designate one rostered player who is out with a season-ending injury to be held outside that Franchise’s Active Roster and Injured List slots. The Manager retains that player’s rights into the following offseason. The Commissioners must confirm that the injury is season ending before the designation takes effect. The designation lapses at the commencement of the next Auction Draft, and the player’s Salary for the following season is determined under Article III, Section 2.
Section 4. Scoring Categories
a. Each Franchise is scored on seven (7) batting categories:
b. Each Franchise is scored on seven (7) pitching categories:
c. Yahoo labels the batting and pitching total bases categories identically as “TB.” In this Constitution and on the league website, the pitching category is designated as “TBA.”
Section 5. Matchups
a. Each week one Franchise is matched against one other Franchise, in the Head-to-Head One Win format.
b. During each week each Franchise accumulates statistics in the fourteen (14) categories and receives one point for every category it wins.
c. At the end of a week the Franchise with the most category points receives one record win, and the Franchise with the fewest receives one record loss.
d. If both Franchises finish with the same number of category points, each receives one record tie.
e. For a Franchise’s pitching statistics to count for a given week, that Franchise must accumulate at least thirty (30) total innings pitched among all pitchers activated for the week.
f. If the thirty (30) inning threshold is not met, that Franchise forfeits all pitching statistics accumulated for the week.
g. Forfeiture for an incomplete lineup. If in any Week a Manager fails to field a full hitter lineup under Section 1(d) on four (4) or more days, that Manager forfeits all batting statistics accumulated for that Week, and each of the seven (7) batting categories for that Week is awarded to his opponent. If both Managers in a matchup forfeit the same Week, neither is awarded any batting category. This subsection applies in the playoffs and in the Consolation Bracket as it does in the regular season. The Commissioners review lineup compliance each Week and post any forfeiture before the following Week begins.
Article III.
Section 1. The Salary Cap
The Salary Cap was $230 for the 2026 season, the first year of dynasty play, and is $260 for the 2027 season and every season thereafter.
b. Any change to the Salary Cap requires a Supermajority Vote.
c. A change to the Salary Cap has no effect for a given season unless it is approved at least thirty (30) days before the Keeper Deadline for that season.
d. The Salary Cap limits the sum of: (i) the Salaries of all players a Manager carries into the Auction Draft, and (ii) the minimum of $1 that must be reserved for each unfilled Active Roster slot.
Section 2. Player Salaries
a. Players under Team Control. A player who entered the League as a Prospect carries a Salary of $1 in his first kept season, $3 in his second kept season, and $5 in his third kept season. Those three (3) seasons are that player’s Team Control period, and the escalator runs from the first season in which the Manager carries him on the Active Roster.
b. All other players. A player who is not under Team Control is kept at his average salary cap cost as published by the National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) on the NFBC Average Auction Value (AAV) page (see: https://nfc.shgn.com/aav/baseball), taking the auction value shown in the column labeled “ADP / AAV” with the league size filter set to 12 teams, as that figure stands at the Keeper Deadline. If the auction budget on which that figure is based differs from the Salary Cap, the Commissioners scale every figure proportionally and publish the scaling factor with the snapshot taken under subsection (c).
c. The Commissioners take a single snapshot of the figures described in subsection (b) at the Keeper Deadline, publish it to the League, and record the figure used for each kept player. The published snapshot governs for that season even if the source is later revised.
d. No player carries a Salary of less than $1. A player for whom the source described in subsection (b) publishes no figure carries a Salary of $1.
e. Auction price. A player acquired in the Auction Draft carries the price paid for him for the balance of that season. His Salary for the following season is determined under subsection (a) or (b).
f. In-season acquisitions. A player added during the season by FAAB bid, waiver claim, or free agency carries no Salary for the balance of that season. FAAB spending has no effect on any player’s Salary in any season. His Salary for the following season is determined under subsection (a) or (b).
g. Trades. Salary and any remaining Team Control seasons follow the player. A Manager who acquires a player by trade inherits that player’s Salary and his position on the Team Control escalator.
h. Prospect Slots carry no Salary.
i. Once a player’s Team Control escalator has begun it continues in each following season in which the Manager keeps him, whether he occupies an Active Roster slot or a Prospect Slot.
Section 3. No Floor, No Rollover, No In-Season Cap
a. Managers are not tied to a salary floor.
b. Any cap surplus remaining after the Auction Draft is discarded.
c. Upon completion of the Auction Draft, the Salary Cap lifts for the duration of the season.
d. In-season transactions carry no cap restriction.
Section 4. Cap Compliance
a. Each Manager must declare the players he is keeping and be at or under the Salary Cap by the Keeper Deadline.
b. There is no minimum or maximum number of players a Manager may keep.
c. If a Manager is over the Salary Cap at the Keeper Deadline, the Commissioners shall release his highest Salary players, one at a time, until his Franchise is compliant with the Salary Cap. The Commissioners must give the Manager notice and at least forty-eight (48) hours to cure before releasing any player under this subsection.
Article IV.
Section 1. Format
The CFLB draft is a live salary cap draft conducted by auction.
b. The Commissioners set the date of the Auction Draft, which is held within two weeks before or after Opening Day.
Section 2. Budget
a. Each Manager’s auction budget is the Salary Cap less the total Salaries of the players he keeps.
b. For example, at the 2026 Salary Cap of $230, a Manager who keeps sixteen (16) players totaling $160 has $70 to spend on the remaining seven (7) Active Roster slots he must fill.
c. A Manager must reserve a minimum of $1 for each Active Roster slot he has not filled, across all twenty-three (23) Active Roster slots.
Section 3. Nomination and Bidding
a. Nomination order is the reverse of the prior season’s final regular season standings. The last place Franchise nominates first.
b. A nomination carries a minimum bid of $1. The opening bid may be higher.
c. Once a Manager’s roster is filled, he is removed from the nomination order.
d. The nomination clock is thirty (30) seconds and the bid clock is twenty (20) seconds.
Article V.
Section 1. Definition
A Prospect is a player who has not exceeded 130 career at-bats in the Major Leagues, if a batter, or 50 career innings pitched in the Major Leagues, if a pitcher.
b. A Prospect may occupy either a Prospect Slot or an Active Roster slot. A player who is not a Prospect may not occupy a Prospect Slot.
Section 2. Prospect Slots
a. Each Franchise has fourteen (14) Prospect Slots. The three (3) Franchises with the best regular season records in the prior season have fifteen (15).
b. Prospect Slots may not be traded and carry no Salary.
c. Prospect adds are frozen from the end of the CFLB regular season to the start of the following CFLB regular season, except for cuts and selections made in the FYPD and for trades permitted under Article VII.
d. Current and past Prospect holdings are tracked in the CFLB Prospect Database and mirrored on the league website.
Section 3. Call-Up Requirement
a. A Manager must promote an owned Prospect to his Active Roster before that player exceeds the thresholds in Section 1(a).
b. A Prospect who exceeds those thresholds while still occupying a Prospect Slot loses Prospect status. Upon discovery, the Commissioners shall remove him from that Manager’s Prospect Slot and release him, after which any other Manager may claim him from the free agent pool.
c. Optional assignment. A Manager may promote a Prospect to his Active Roster and return him to a Prospect Slot as often as he wishes, provided the player remains a Prospect under Section 1(a) at all times. A player who is no longer a Prospect may not be returned to a Prospect Slot.
Section 4. Team Control
a. A graduated Prospect carries three (3) years of cost discount on the $1 / $3 / $5 escalator described in Article III, Section 2(a).
b. When Team Control expires, the player is priced under Article III, Section 2(b).
Section 5. First-Year Player Draft
a. The FYPD is held during the winter meeting, before the Auction Draft.
b. Eligible players. The eligible pool consists of all players drafted in the prior year, all international players first signed in the prior year, and all other players who still qualify as Prospects under Section 1 and are not already owned by a Manager.
c. Pre-draft cuts. Before the FYPD a Manager may cut as many of his Prospects as he wishes. He receives one FYPD pick for each vacant Prospect Slot, whether the vacancy arises from a cut or from a slot he did not fill in the prior season.
d. Draft order. The first round order is set as follows:
(1) The prior year’s champion picks 12th.
(2) The prior year’s runner-up picks 11th.
(3) The remaining four (4) playoff Franchises pick 10th through 7th, ordered by regular season record. The best regular season record among them picks 10th and the worst picks 7th.
(4) The six (6) non-playoff Franchises are entered into a weighted lottery for the first six (6) picks.
(5) Lottery tickets are awarded by regular season finish: 12th place receives 6 tickets, 11th place 5, 10th place 4, 9th place 3, 8th place 2, and 7th place 1.
(6) The winner of the Consolation Bracket receives two (2) additional lottery tickets.
e. The lottery drawing must be performed in the presence of at least three (3) Managers, at least two (2) of whom are not Commissioners.
f. Rounds after the first follow the same order as the first round.
g. In any round, a Manager with no remaining vacant Prospect Slots is skipped.
h. FYPD picks may be traded as provided in Article VII, Section 2(c).
Section 6. International Players
a. If an international player is signed by an MLB club during the course of the CFLB season, he is not eligible to be rostered as a Prospect until the next FYPD.
Article VI.
Section 1. Waivers and FAAB
Every player dropped from a Franchise’s roster is placed on waivers for one day.
b. During the waiver period any Manager may bid on the player using the league’s Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB) system. The highest bidder at the end of the waiver period is awarded the player.
c. Each Franchise receives $100 of FAAB for the season.
d. Tied bids are resolved by Yahoo’s continual rolling waiver priority list.
e. If a Manager adds a free agent and drops that player on the same day, the player returns to the free agent pool.
f. There is no maximum number of acquisitions per week or for the season.
g. New players become available as soon as Yahoo adds them.
h. FAAB has no tie to the Salary Cap.
Section 2. The Ohtani Rule
a. Any player whom Yahoo lists as two separate players by reason of holding both SP and Util eligibility, such as Shohei Ohtani, is recognized as two (2) separate players but is a package deal and must occupy two (2) Active Roster slots.
b. A Manager must carry both versions of such a player. If cut or traded, both versions must be included in the same transaction and cannot be dealt or cut separately.
c. Each version carries its own Salary determined under Article III, Section 2, and both count against the Salary Cap.
Section 3. Playoff Lockout
a. At the commencement of the CFLB playoffs, all non-playoff Franchises are barred from making new player acquisitions for the remainder of the season.
b. As playoff Franchises are eliminated, their acquisition privileges are likewise disabled.
Article VII.
Section 1. General
Players may not be sold for currency or personal property.
b. A player may not be traded temporarily or rented for any period of time with the express or implicit expectation or contingency that he will be traded back at a later time.
c. The assets that may be traded are players, FYPD picks, and FAAB dollars. Prospect Slots may not be traded.
d. There is no limit on the amount of FAAB dollars a Manager may trade. A transfer of FAAB dollars takes effect when the Commissioners record it in the Yahoo league settings.
Section 2. Windows and Deadline
a. The CFLB trade deadline is the final day of the CFLB regular season.
b. Off-season trading reopens at the conclusion of the CFLB championship game, and remains open until the following CFLB trade deadline.
c. FYPD picks may be traded at any time, except from the CFLB trade deadline until the completion of the CFLB championship game in the same year.
Section 3. Salary Cap Treatment
a. Each Manager remains responsible for being at or under the Salary Cap at the Keeper Deadline, including after any off-season trade.
b. In-season trades carry no cost restriction. Managers are free to agree to trades that would otherwise place them over the Salary Cap.
Section 4. Review
a. In-season trades are not subject to contemporaneous veto. All trades executed during the season may be retroactively reviewed by Managers for acts of collusion only.
b. If an in-season trade is deemed collusive by Majority Vote, the trade is reversed and each Manager involved is penalized one record win.
c. Collusive activity is grounds for removal under Article I, Section 2(d).
d. Off-season trades are subject to veto by Majority Vote, and may be reviewed for collusion or gross unfairness.
e. If an off-season trade is vetoed for unfairness, each Manager involved may provide a written explanation of why he believes the trade is balanced. If adequate rationale is provided and a Majority Vote approves in a second vote, the trade is processed.
f. During any veto vote, the Managers involved in the pending trade are presumed to vote in favor of the trade and may not vote against their own trade.
Article VIII.
Section 1. Regular Season
The season schedule is randomly generated by Yahoo.
b. The regular season runs twenty-two (22) weeks and ends after the completion of Week 22.
c. Scoring begins in Week 1.
d. The League does not use divisions.
Section 2. Tiebreakers
a. Regular season. First, winning percentage calculated on the W-L-T record. If still tied, best regular season record against the tied opponent based on the most total stat category wins, not overall matchup wins and losses. If still tied, best regular season record against all opponents based on the most total stat category wins.
b. Playoffs. First, best regular season record against the opponent based on overall matchup wins and losses. If still tied, the higher seed.
c. Payout. Where two or more Franchises finish tied for first in the regular season, the 1st Place Regular Season payout follows the same tiebreaker Yahoo applies to seeding.
Section 3. Playoffs
a. The top six (6) Franchises based on overall regular season record make the playoffs.
b. The playoffs are three (3) rounds and take place during Weeks 23, 24, and 25.
c. The top two (2) Franchises based on overall regular season record are seeded first and second and receive a first round bye.
d. The League uses Yahoo’s auto-reseeding feature, which matches the highest remaining seed against the lowest remaining seed in each round.
Section 4. Consolation Bracket
a. The six (6) Franchises that do not qualify for the playoffs compete in a Consolation Bracket during Weeks 23, 24, and 25.
b. The winner of the Consolation Bracket receives two (2) additional FYPD lottery tickets under Article V, Section 5(d)(6).
c. The Consolation Bracket carries no payout.
Section 5. Season Numbering
a. Seasons are numbered from 2011 as Season 1.
b. The 2020 season is not counted, having been shortened by COVID-19. The 2026 season is Season 15.
Article IX.
If for any reason a Manager leaves the League, a replacement should be named as soon as possible.
b. A new Manager takes the Franchise as it stands, including its Active Roster, Prospects, player Salaries, Team Control positions, and FAAB balance.
c. If more than one Franchise is vacated before a given season, the incoming Managers select from the combined pool of players on the vacated rosters, in an order set by the Commissioners, before the Auction Draft. Players so selected carry the Salaries and Team Control positions they held on the vacated rosters.
Article X.
An amendment proposed by a Manager requires Majority Vote approval before the start of the season to which it applies.
b. A change to the Salary Cap requires a Supermajority Vote.
c. An amendment proposed during the season is reviewed at the end of that season and does not apply to the season in progress.
d. This Constitution governs the League. Where a Yahoo league setting conflicts with this Constitution, the Commissioners shall conform the Yahoo setting to this Constitution as soon as the platform permits.
e. Where this Constitution is silent, the Commissioners decide as provided in Article I, Section 3(b), subject to review by Majority Vote. Any Manager may put such a decision to a vote within fourteen (14) days of its posting.
Appendix A.
The settings below are the Yahoo configuration that gives effect to this Constitution.
In witness thereof, and as Chairmen of the CFLB Committee on Rules, we the Commissioners have hereunto subscribed our names on this day, the 31st of August, in the Year of Our Lord, Two Thousand Twenty Six.
