2020 MFFL Rules Voting Results February 14, 2020 The 2020 MFFL Rules Voting has concluded and owners have had their say. Out of 31 proposals, split between two ballots, owners have voted to approve 9 measures. The following are the proposals that passed. 1. League payouts will be altered. The league’s owners have voted to alter the cash payouts at the end of the season according to the following model. Based on $900 in revenue, the earnings will be distributed as following: $25 to each division champion (TOTAL $100) $25 for winning a first-round playoff game (TOTAL $100) $50* for winning a second round playoff game (TOTAL $100) $250* for winning the Super Bowl $125* for losing the Super Bowl $50* for winning the third-place game $10 to the highest scoring team each week. (TOTAL $130) $45* to the league’s highest season scoring team not advancing to the Super Bowl. * indicates a change to the existing rules. Additionally, as part of this proposal, spending cash that is not used toward paying down future contracts will not be refunded to owners. Instead, it will be rolled over as spending cash available the following year. That cash can be used during the following auction or for in-season free agent signings, but a franchise must abide by the $75 salary cap. 2. The $5 stipend has been eliminated. No longer will MFFL owners be given a free $5 to use on acquiring free agents in-season. The accounting headache that was has been voted out of existence. Beginning with the 2020 Auction, owners will be responsible for saving cash from their $75 allotment to be used for in-season free agent signings. 3. The franchise tagging period has been altered and the deadline will now be concurrent with the new league year. March 1 will be the new opening day for applying franchise tags on players. Given that the franchise tagging period has already started this offseason, a special extension has been granted for the remainder of February. Beginning immediately, the last day to rescind a franchise tag from any player will be May 31, one day before the start of the new league year. Once June 1 hits, not only will contracts be paid for the upcoming season, but the franchise tags are locked in as well. 4. Draft order for non-playoff teams will now be determined by optimal points. In an effort to curb tanking, the MFFL has voted to assign the draft order for non-playoff teams (Picks 1-4) according to optimal points rather than record. Optimal points, as defined by Flea Flicker, are the most points a team would score if they had played their best lineup each week. Thus, this would prevent owners with good players from stashing them on their bench to get a higher draft pick. This could be a better indicator of which team is the worst and truly needs the highest pick possible. 5. Starting players on IR or BYE is now illegal. In yet another attempt to curb tanking and protect the integrity of the league, owners have voted to make it illegal to insert a player who is either on IR or on a BYE into a starting lineup. The one exception to the rule is if a team does not have a valid player on their bench to start instead. No resolution has been determined for violations of this rule and will remain a discussion point ahead of the 2020 season. 6. MFFL to award high-scoring teams in contention for wild card spots. Teams who score a lot of points don’t have to fret bad luck matchups anymore. Beginning with the 2020 season, the four wild card spots (two per conference) will be assigned to the highest-scoring non-division winners. Division winners will still be determined by record. The theory behind this proposal is that if a team is not among the four highest-scoring teams in a conference of six, they probably shouldn’t be in the postseason. 7. Kickers remain … but the team designation gets the boot Kickers are hanging on by a thread in the MFFL. The proposal to completely remove them from the league lost by a single vote, but the owners resoundingly voted to switch from team kicker to individual kicker on the second ballot. As part of the transition, MFFL franchises that have a “team kicker” under contract can choose between retaining the individual kicker from that team, or voiding the contract of the team kicker at no cost or penalty. This must be done before the league year begins June 1. 8. Implementation of 0.25 points per target Wide receivers and tight ends will receive a bump in scoring as both position groups will be awarded 0.25 points per target. 9. Expansion of 0.5 points per first down Last year, MFFL owners voted to approve 0.5 points per first down for tight ends only. Moving forward, owners approved the addition of 0.5 points per first down for wide receivers. For a look at the full results, click here.