Rules

Platform: Fantrax

Competition Name: JLFB Bowl (JLFB Bowl)

Entry Fees: Vary depending on league format and tier

Duplicate Players: Allowed across different divisions

The JLFB Bowl is the overall competition.

The competition is made up of multiple Bowl Leagues, each containing 96 teams.

Each Bowl League is divided into 8 divisions of 12 teams each.

Each 12-team division functions independently during the regular season with its own draft, trades, and free agency.

Playoffs and prize structures are then combined across the full 96-team Bowl League.

The JLFB Bowl offers multiple formats:

9-cat Head-to-Head

8-cat Head-to-Head

8-cat Roto

Points Leagues (ESPN standard fantasy basketball scoring)

Stats Begin: Tuesday October 20, 2026

Stats End (H2H): Sunday March 28, 2027

Stats End (Roto): Last day of the NBA regular season

Matchup Periods: Weekly, with occasional 2-week matchups

Draft Times: Vary by Bowl League

Format: Live Online Snake Draft

Rounds: 16

Pick Timer: 7 hours per pick (slow draft style)

Draft Order: Randomized

Some leagues have 3RR

Some leagues will be straight snake draft

Some leagues will be All-Round Reversal

Undrafted Players: Move into the Free Agent pool

Post-Draft Note: Rosters have 18 spots, but the draft only fills 16. After the draft, each team has 2 empty roster spots to be filled through FAAB free agency.

Total Players (Regular Season): Max 18

Active Slots: 10

Injured Reserve: 3

Roster Enforcement: Illegal rosters are prevented

Position Slots:

G, G2, F, F2, C, Flx1, Flx2, Flx3, Flx4, Flx5

Each slot: 0 minimum, 1 active, 4 maximum per week

Injured Reserve Rules:

Suspended players may be placed on IR

IR players do not count against roster maximums

Enforcement: If a player occupying an IR slot becomes ineligible for IR, the team has 2 lineup periods to correct its roster. After that point, claims and trades are locked until the roster is made legal.

Head-to-Head

Game Cap: 4 games per position per week

Each team plays 2 separate opponents per matchup period

Roto

Game Cap: 82 games played per position for the season

Points

Uses ESPN Standard Fantasy Basketball Scoring System

2 matchups per week: one against an opponent and one against the league median

Game Cap: 4 games per position per week

Timeframe: Feb 15 - Mar 28, 2027

Length: 5 rounds (6 weeks)

Teams Qualifying per Bowl League: 24

8 division winners automatically qualify

Next 16 best records across all remaining teams also qualify as wildcards

Seeding: Division winners receive Seeds 1-8 and a first-round bye. Wildcards receive Seeds 9-24.

Round 1: Seeds 9-24 play 8 matchups. The 8 winners join the 8 division winners to create a 16-team field. Reseeding is in effect after each round.

Playoff Tie-Breaker: Higher seed advances

Special Rules:

Roster Expansion: Teams expand from 18 to 21 players for the playoffs. The final Sunday of the regular season is the last opportunity to add players, so teams must submit FAAB bids that day to fill any of the 3 additional playoff roster spots.

No Adds/Drops: After the final Sunday of the regular season, no further adds, drops, free-agency claims, or trades are permitted for the remainder of the playoffs.

Head-to-Head (9-cat / 8-cat)

9-cat Categories:

All 8-cat formats use the same categories as 9-cat, excluding Turnovers.

Assists

Blocks

Points

Rebounds

Steals

Three Pointers Made

Turnovers

Field Goal %

Free Throw %

Points Leagues

ESPN Standard Fantasy Basketball Scoring

Additional Bowl Leagues may be offered using alternate scoring systems or category configurations. Any such format will be disclosed before entries are accepted and will not be changed after entry.

Lineups

Lineup changes lock 1 minute before scheduled game times

Matchup periods follow the custom schedule

Trades

Unlimited trades allowed

Deadline: Wednesday February 10, 2027

Approval: Commissioner. Trades will only be vetoed for collusion or other competitive-integrity concerns. Unequal trade value alone is not grounds for a veto.

Draft picks, budgets, and cap space cannot be traded

Free Agency

System: FAAB ($1000 budget)

Processing: Mondays and Fridays at 10:00 AM Melbourne time (AEST/AEDT as applicable)

Minimum Bid: $0

FAAB Tie-Breaker: The lower-ranked team in its division standings wins

No Waivers: Players are always subject to FAAB

Add/Drop Locks: Locked at first game of each day

Head-to-Head

Win Bowl League = 50% of that Bowl League's total prize pool

Runner-up in Bowl League = 30% of that Bowl League's total prize pool

3rd & 4th place in Bowl League = 10% of that Bowl League's total prize pool each

Roto

No playoffs

Division payouts:

1st place = 8x entry fee

2nd place = 2x entry fee

Overall Bowl Champion = 20x entry fee. The champion is the team with the highest overall roto score across all 96 teams. For each roto category, all 96 teams are ranked together: the best result earns 96 roto points, second-best earns 95, and so on. Category scores are then combined to determine the overall standings.

Built to reduce constant streaming and daily add/drop grind

Deeper rosters and scheduled add times balance strategy with time commitment

Focus on fairness, inclusivity, and competitive high-stakes play

Collusion, roster dumping, coordinated transactions, intentionally assisting another team, deliberately circumventing rules, exploiting obvious errors in bad faith, or other conduct that materially compromises the integrity of the competition is prohibited.

The Commissioner may reverse or modify transactions, lock a team, remove a manager, disqualify a team, or impose other reasonable sanctions where necessary to protect competitive integrity.

Abandoned teams remain abandoned. The Commissioner will not take over or actively manage an abandoned team.

Fantrax standings tie-break rules apply in the following order:

1. Head-to-head record vs. all teams tied with

2. Best division record for entire season

3. Most wins in entire season

4. None

Fantrax league settings for the relevant Bowl League take precedence over this written rules document if there is a conflict.

The written JLFB Bowl rules apply where Fantrax settings do not resolve the issue.

Commissioner rulings apply to matters not resolved by Fantrax settings or the written rules, and to unforeseen administrative circumstances.

Official Fantrax statistical corrections apply, including retroactive corrections to matchup results or standings.

If Fantrax experiences an outage, processing error, incorrect roster lock, incorrect FAAB processing, scoring error, or other technical issue, the Commissioner may take reasonable corrective action where practical.

The JLFB Bowl rules are intended to govern all competitions as comprehensively as reasonably possible. However, circumstances may arise that are not expressly addressed by these rules, including but not limited to technical or platform errors, NBA schedule changes, statistical corrections, abandoned teams, irregular transactions, attempted exploitation of league settings or rules, contradictory or ambiguous provisions, and other unforeseen circumstances.

The Commissioner, Josh Lloyd, retains final authority to interpret and apply these rules and to make rulings where a situation is not specifically addressed, where provisions conflict or are ambiguous, or where strict application of a rule would produce an unintended result. Any such ruling will be made with the objective of preserving competitive integrity, fairness, consistency and the intended operation of the JLFB Bowl.

The Commissioner may take reasonable corrective action where necessary, including reversing or modifying transactions, correcting roster or scoring issues where technically possible, adjusting administrative deadlines or procedures, or imposing sanctions for collusion, bad-faith conduct, deliberate circumvention of the rules or other behaviour that materially compromises the integrity of the competition.

Fantrax will be the official platform of record for rosters, scoring, standings and statistical corrections unless the Commissioner determines that a clear platform or administrative error requires intervention.

League-specific settings or rules disclosed prior to the relevant draft may differ from the default rules contained in this document. Where this occurs, the expressly stated league-specific rule or setting will apply to that Bowl League.

Participation in the JLFB Bowl constitutes acceptance of these rules and acknowledgment that the Commissioner's decisions on matters of rule interpretation, administration and competitive integrity are final.