DISCORD Channel link: Real Team Allegiance League on DISCORD
This is a place you can talk to other members of this league and me - the commissioner - in real time all year round (in or out of season) and is hosted on my BLM Fantasy Games server where I have separate channels for different sports and separate fantasy draft type leagues I run.
REAL TEAM ALLEGIANCE
Keeper Deadline Date: To Be Advised
Live Draft Date: To Be Advised (Auction style draft)
Full RTA settings can be viewed within the league on Sleeper here: RTA League Settings
Bold & Boxed text always means new for this season (to aide returning GM’s to quickly find internal rule changes or new rules).
Foreword: I like each and every league I play in to have a different feel and strategy etc. making them unique and very different in how they work. I have plagiarised some rules I have seen mentioned in other peoples custom leagues on other NFL forums over time - they do say that plagiarism is the best form of flattery so if you see any rule you had first being used in this league then all I can say is thank you for the idea. On the other hand if you wish to copy any rules seen here for your league - go right ahead. 
RULES
As the league name suggests my #1 golden rule will be all team names and logo’s within this league will be of real current NFL teams. In theory you will be coach of your beloved team and there can only be one of any team in the league.
TO MAKE THE LEAGUE LOOK UNIFORM ALL TEAM NAMES SHOULD BE IN CAPS!
Unbelievably in previous seasons I’ve met resistance from players selecting the current and up to date team logo for their respective teams. It’s tiring to have to keep asking owners to do this so as it’s my #1 golden rule I am taking the decision to replace owners that can’t be arsed to meet this small request. So should a team not display the correct and up to date logo after being asked to do so for 3 consecutive weeks then they may be be replaced. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!
It is a league requirement that you must start 2 players (one Offensive and one Defensive) from your real team every game week - including post season - with the exception of your teams Bye week.
This league is a long term dynasty league so you have the option to select up to *20 keepers (*maximum Sleeper allows) from your finishing team the previous season (subject to the internal cap restrictions - see next).
CAP / DRAFT BUDGET
The draft money per team default is 200 and your player roster is 23 players so to make things simple for all and for me to administer it, this is how it works - keepers cost you money from your draft allowance budget as follows:
Any RTA player kept will cost 5 from your draft budget allowance.
All other keepers will cost you 10 from your draft budget allowance.
This is a very simple thing for me to work out annually and leaves all GM’s an easy method to work out how much players on their roster will cost to keep.
To allow me to adjust the team draft budgets accordingly I make the keeper lock date at a minimum the day before our live draft day so pay attention to the keeper lock date once a draft date has been set for the coming year.
This league uses an auction style draft (and not the usual snake style draft). From 2017 the draft was changed to a Custom Linear nomination order… in a reverse of the previous years final league standings.
Waivers will be done by a blind bid system known on Sleeper as the Free Agent Acquisition Budget or FAAB for short.
Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB) - Each team is allotted a seasonal budget. This seasonal budget is the amount of points that each team has at their disposal to bid on available players. The team with the highest bid wins that player and is charged the amount of FAAB points that they bid to obtain the player. If you bid on a player, but lose to a higher bid, you do not forfeit the amount of points that you bid. All of the FAAB points that you bid will be returned to your seasonal budget. In the event of a tie, the team with higher waiver priority will win the bid.
SURPLUS DRAFT BUDGET RULE (introduced in 2018)
Any unspent live draft funds will be converted to FAAB points and added to your seasons FAAB total.
UNSPENT FAAB POINTS (introduced in 2018)
Any unspent FAAB points at the end of each season will be carried over, converted and added to a teams Auction Draft budget amount the following season. So the first time this change will be felt will be in the 2019 draft. This change will allow teams to accumulate a bigger salary cap to increase either their live drafting power or mean they can afford to keep nearly every single player on their roster should they wish to do so.
So from the start of the 2019 season each teams income is a fresh $200m salary cap draft budget + whatever unspent FAAB (converted to draft $'s) they carried over from the previous season.
PLAYER POACHING (Introduced from year 2 onward)
As this league is a maximum keeper league I wanted a way where GM’s could still get hold of their favourite players and change the look of teams season to season. I wanted to have something really different to any other league I am in and so came up with this idea - ‘Player Poaching’.
In a new twist for this RTA league every week of the regular season (not play-offs) the winner of each game can select one of their starting players from that game and swap him for a starting player from the team they beat - within the following criteria:
Only starting players on each team can be swapped.
The players swapped must be of the same position so QB for QB or LB for LB (not LB for TE etc.).
RTA players are exempted - so any players in the team of the real team represented are protected. So for instance in my case I am GM of the Detroit Lions so any Detroit Lions players in my starting line up can not be poached even if I lose.
Further clarification - after a dispute and poll during week 1 of the 2020 season, (poll can be found in next post) no longer can a player that registers zero stats in a game be sent back in a poach request if he did not take part in that weeks game. A zero stat player in a starting line up can still be poached - played or not - but a zero stats player can not be sent back in return unless he took part in a game. Scoring 0 or a minus score is fine as long as the player took part in a game that week. But 0 with no stats (as in did not set foot on the field of play) whatsoever is now forbidden. Any such poach requests will be denied. For avoidance of doubt a player injured in a game regardless of if he is out for the rest of the season or not can still be sent away in a poach - that is just a bad beat and lucky for the team off loading them who still managed to win. For the avoidance of doubt when a player is being sent back in a poach that scored 0, I will use NFL’s GSIS website to check they played in a game that week. Then poaches will be approved or denied based on if they did play or not according to game stats found there.
More Clarifications / Ruling on Poaching (after being asked a valid question).
If a trade is agreed for a player who is then requested in a poach, the poach request takes precedence even if the trade was agreed prior to any games starting that week (but then is held over by the system to the following Game Week to process due to a player having played, i.e. on a Thursday). Rule of thumb is don’t start a player your trading away. Such Trades will not process or be overridden by me to do the poach request and should such a trade have gone through between the end of a game week and my doing the winners poaches I will still do the poach request and return the player traded away to the team who has now lost the poached player.
Game winners must post on the leagues message board (aka wall) before midnight Wednesday (going into Thursday) UK time their swap (so everyone can see it). If it breaks any of the above rules it will not be actioned. Assuming it is bona-fide it will be actioned between midnight Wednesday and Thursday morning.
Should any team fail to start the required number of RTA players on any given week (except the teams real bye weeks) then they forgo their chance to poach a player that week should they win!
The Player Poaching rule if everyone buys into it and takes advantage of it throws up new strategies on who you start and sit against other teams as the season unfolds. It will also offer a very new dynamic to get to grips with long term, as well as allow for greater roster movement throughout the season in this dynasty league.
Lastly if a match is a TIE then no poaching occurs.
STRIKES RULE XXX
A three strikes and out policy is in effect in the RTA. The reason for this is I want a competitive but fun league. The bane of most leagues (as anyone who has played for a while knows) is flaky owners that give up when they are not doing well or don’t pay enough attention with regard to setting valid line-ups a few weeks in when the initial interest has waned or they have decided their team sucks.
As the RTA is now my joint smallest league (12 teams) I will have no truck with owners who show the league this kind of disrespect.
Strikes are usually only given if you do not win your match up (i.e. lose or tie). In that event then for each player in your starting line up on a BYE, or who was listed as INACTIVE, on INJURED RESERVE or OUT etc. for a game at least one day prior to the actual game-day of said player a strike will be issued, (though RTA players are exempt - see more about this in the next post under ‘Polls that have shaped the RTA rules, regulations & settings’). Also a strike will be given for a player who you start that has been CUT as he can not play in a game while he is not with any team and this again is find out-able before game-day. To check the latest news for any of your players just click on their name when on your team page and it brings up their player card with news information about them.
Strikes will also be awarded for each EMPTY spot in your starting line up too, so be careful when picking up free agents off the waiver wire or when doing a trade as players by default get added to your bench - they never automatically go into your starting line-up slots. You have to manually move new players there yourself.
Lastly strikes will be awarded for not starting your minimum required Real Team Allegiance players on any weeks other than your real teams Bye week. These Strikes are awarded regardless of whether you win your match or not and is the only way you can pick up strikes when winning your match up (as it’s a fundamental part of this custom league). You will pick up 1 strike per minimum RTA player not started (1 offensive & 1 defensive).
For the avoidance of doubt Kickers count as offensive players in this regard. Only IDP’s count as defensive players in the RTA.
POLL STRIKES
From the 2020 season (onwards) strikes are also now issued for not voting in official polls - posted within the league itself during the season or on the latest RTA TFP forum thread out of season. It’s been the hardest thing for me as a commissioner to get people to engage with me on rules and proposals to do with the league like having a trade deadline, expansion etc., so now it’s mandatory to partake in polls. Moving to Sleeper makes this far easier for me as unlike NFL.com I can set polls up to show who’s voted. I will PIN all official polls to the leagues message board and anyone that has not voted after a poll has been up a minimum of 28 days will pick up a strike when I officially close a poll. I hate having to dish out strikes over this but for many seasons people have just not been engaging enough to help me shape the league by voting in polls so felt I had to do this so I can weed out and replace non committed GM’s with ones who buy into the ethos behind this dynasty league and actively contribute to shaping it.
I recognise everyone can make a mistake or have PC issues etc., so that is why it takes 3 Strikes to lose your spot for the following season and 6+ Strikes to be struck out immediately. Strikes also carry over to the following season but with each season one strike is deducted if you weren’t banned so if you only earned 1 or 2 strikes in a season and came back the next season your strike tally would be back to 1 (if you had 2) or none (if you had 1). So just like points on a driving license, if you have not triggered a ban you can get them slowly removed for good behaviour (or in this case not messing up in starting a valid team each week and voting in official polls).
Later on in a separate post within this thread, will be a list of any Struck Out GM’s if that happens, as a reminder to me who is no longer welcome in this RTA league and why they were struck out of the RTA (# of strikes picked up - 6+ to be permanently banned).
Polls
that have shaped the RTA rules, regulations & settings
In this league polls have shaped many of the rules/settings and will continue to do so (voted on by the current Team GM’s at the time). The results of those polls have shaped how the league is currently and for transparency all major past poll results are shared below:
Our first ever polls before the inaugural RTA season started decided this league is both an IDP and fractional scoring league.
(2013)
1. Would you prefer this league to have IDP’s (Individual Defensive Players) or a block team Defence?
Poll result: A Block team DEFENCE - 33% / IDP’s - 67% (9/10 voted)
2. Should we use fractional points scoring or rounding up/down to whole number scores?
Poll result: Fractional points - 100% / Rounded up/down - 0% (8/10 voted)
In later seasons commissioner adjustments and the results of more polls have created changes to the leagues settings and scoring as follows:
From 2017 an adjustment to the IDP scoring settings was made to factor in the real life rule the NFL introduced back in 2015 that the defence could score off a turnover on a PAT or two-point conversion by returning it the other way for a touchdown - worth two points. - So I added this scenario into the RTA’s scoring settings also.
(2018)
1. Should we stay a standard scoring league or switch to PPR (points per receptions) style league?
Poll result: Stay as Standard - 40% / Switch to PPR - 60% (10/10 voted)
So from the 2018 season onward, this league became a HPPR scoring league with Receptions earning 0.5 points. (So half a point per reception).
(2019)
1. Would you like to see 0.5 points per completion for the passer?
Poll result: 0.5 points a completion YES - 22% / NO - 78% (9/10 voted)
(2020)
This league was my smallest ever league - just 10 teams - but from 2020 was expanded after a poll in 2019 went in favour of expansion. So prior to the 2020 season a poll was run to see what size to increase the league to. The poll result (see below) went in favour of just having two expansion teams and becoming a 12 team league.
1. (Run Off) How big would you like the RTA to be?
Poll result: 12 Teams - 82% / 14 Teams - 18% / 16 Teams - 0% / 18 Teams - 0% (*11/10 voted) *can only think a GM voted but then decided to leave and replacement also then got a vote.
2. Should you be allowed to swap a player in a poach request that has registered zero stats in that game week?
Poll result: Yes - 36% / No - 64% (11/12 voted)
3. Should RTA players be exempt from earning you strikes?
Poll result: Yes - 67% / No, stay as is now - 33% (12/12 voted)
Analysis: From the 2020 season onwards RTA Players in starting line ups can no longer earn you strikes. You may leave them in even on their Bye week and win, lose or tie they will not earn you a strike. This means you can leave RTA’s in that are a doubt without fear of picking up a strike if you don’t win. This will also allow you to tactically take a risk of playing less players especially on your RTA players real bye week rather than having to cut players you don’t want to, just to field a full team to avoid the possibility of picking up strikes.
4. With the expansion to 12 teams (from 10) should we increase the playoff slots?
Poll result: Yes, go to 6 teams - 75% / No, stay at 4 teams - 25% (12/12 voted)
Analysis: From 2021, 6 teams will now make post season, 3 from each conference - #1 seed in each conference will get a Bye to the Conference Championship game - #2 v #3 seed in each conference will play each other off for the right to meet the #1 seed in the Conference Championship game. This will make the Post Season now cover 3 weeks as opposed to the 2 weeks previously.
5. Should the RTA have a Trade Deadline and if so what week in November should it be set for?
Poll result: No Deadline - 83% / Deadline - 16% (12/12 voted)
Analysis: Okay the poll was clearly in favour of no trade deadline which makes sense as this is a dynasty league so trades can be made all season long.
(2022)
1. Should we change the FLEX spot to include TE’s?
Poll result: Yes, RB/WR/TE - 83% / No, RB/WR (as is) - 17% (12/12 voted)
Analysis: Okay the majority wanted the TE included in the Flex starting roster spot so from the 2022 season (onwards) the flex spot became RB/WR/TE (previously just RB/WR).
(2023)
1. Should we reduce the trade processing/voting time or keep it as it is (default - 2 days)?
Poll result: Stay as is (2 Days) - 0% / Reduce to 1 Day - 64% / Instant (no waiting) - 36% (11/12 voted)
Analysis: Okay the poll was clearly in favour of reducing the voting/waiting time for trades to go through to just 1 day so from the 2023 season this was made the case.
From 2024 (Year 12) the league migrated to Sleeper after a poll in 2023 was in favour of this:
2. Would you like to switch to Sleeper or stay with NFL.com for hosting the RTA league?
Poll result: Sleeper - 67% / NFL.com - 33% (12/12 voted)
Analysis: The majority of current GM’s were clearly in favour of switching to Sleeper so from the 2024 season (RTA year 12) onwards, the RTA will be hosted and run on the Sleeper platform.
(2024)
1. Should we have more IR slots?
Poll result: Yes - 75% / No - 25% (12/12 voted)
Analysis: Three-quarters of the GM’s voted for more Injured Reserve slots so this will be introduced from the 2025 season. Currently we have 2 IR slots so I will run an off season / pre draft poll to see if we up this to 3 or 4 IR slots.
(2025)
Team Draft Budgets
Draft Budgets for each team after last years unused FAAB points have been added (keeper costs will come out of these budgets prior to live draft):
After Keeper Deadline Reached
Keeper costs to come off their respective teams draft budgets (Keepers $10 / RTA’s 50% discount)…
Keeper Costs:
AFC
DENVER BRONCOS - $
CLEVELAND BROWNS - $
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS - $
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS - $
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS - $
TENNESSEE TITANS - $
NFC
ARIZONA CARDINALS - $
CAROLINA PANTHERS - $
DALLAS COWBOYS - $
DETROIT LIONS - $
GREEN BAY PACKERS - $
SEATTLE SEAHAWKS - $
Adjusted auction draft budgets (amounts teams will enter this seasons live draft with):
AFC
DENVER BRONCOS - $
CLEVELAND BROWNS - $
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS - $
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS - $
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS - $
TENNESSEE TITANS - $
NFC
ARIZONA CARDINALS - $
CAROLINA PANTHERS - $
DALLAS COWBOYS - $
DETROIT LIONS - $
GREEN BAY PACKERS - $
SEATTLE SEAHAWKS - $
RTA 2025 Final Draft banks
’Reserved for screen grab of final draft banks at conclusion of live draft.’
Each teams remaining $'s will be converted to FAAB points and added to your 100 FAAB points each team gets per new season.
Last seasons final standings (2024)
League Champions
NFL.com (2013-2023) - 11 seasons
Sleeper (2024-present) - 1 season
Tutorial for Newbies
Reserved for videos (coming soon)
HOUSE KEEPING - 2025 Poll Results
Polls Run in 2025 that will apply going forwards (either immediately or from the 2026 season onwards).
WEEKLY STRIKE COUNT 2025
WK1 -
WK2 -
WK3 -
WK4 -
WK5 -
WK6 -
WK7 -
WK8 -
WK9 -
WK10 -
WK11 -
WK12 -
WK13 -
WK14 -
WK15 -
WK16 -
WK17 -
Link to previous years table: WEEKLY STRIKE COUNT 2024
Additional Strikes (for not voting in polls):
