1. Objective & Principles
Elite XII is designed to simulate the General Manager role of an NFL team as closely as practical, while maximizing participant enjoyment and minimizing administration.
- Fun and competitive.
- Fairness and equity.
- Meaningful multi-year personnel decisions without unnecessary complexity.
2. Franchise Owner Responsibilities
Owners are expected to compete with integrity, dedication and a desire to win. A franchise may have one or more owners, but no owner may hold a stake in or influence more than one franchise.
Ownership transfer
- The outgoing owner must not be in arrears for league fees.
- The incoming owner must meet Elite XII owner expectations and responsibilities.
Franchise dissolution
An owner must not be in arrears for league fees. All players are released from contractual obligations and enter the Free Agent Pool.
3. Teams, Format & Schedule
- 12 teams across the Buck, Nantz and Collingsworth divisions.
- Head-to-head competition.
- Each team plays division opponents twice, 6 games, and each team in the other two divisions once, 8 games.
- Regular season: NFL Weeks 1–14, 14 games.
- Wildcard: Week 15. Divisional championship: Week 16. League championship: Week 17.
- Week 18 is excluded to reduce the impact of NFL teams resting players.
4. Playoffs & Tie-Breakers
Eligibility and seeding
- Six teams qualify.
- Each division winner receives a playoff berth.
- The next three best records qualify regardless of division.
- The top two records receive first-round byes and are seeded No. 1 and No. 2 based on record. Remaining playoff teams are seeded based on record.
Tie-breakers
- Division: Head-to-Head, then Division Record, then Points For.
- Where multiple teams are tied in the division: Division Record, then Points For.
- Wild Card: Points For.
5. Rosters & Scoring
Active roster
9 starters: QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, WR/TE/RB Flex, K, DST. Inactive roster: 7 players. Injured Reserve: 2 slots for injured or suspended players.
Scoring
- QB touchdowns: 6 points.
- Receptions: 0.5 points each.
- All other scoring follows the league's standard scoring configuration on Sleeper.
6. Salary Cap
- Hard salary cap: $500.
- Salary floor: $250, intended to discourage tanking.
- Drafted player salary equals auction value.
- Waiver additions carry a $0 cap hit.
- Players on IR do not count against the cap.
- Teams must be cap compliant before kickoff of Week 1.
- In season, teams may temporarily exceed the cap by 10%, or $50, to facilitate trades and early terminations.
7. Player Contracts
- Every drafted player must receive a contract before NFL Week 1.
- Maximum total contract years: 40.
- Maximum individual contract: 6 years.
- Expired contracts enter the Free Agent Pool. Owners cannot simply re-sign their expired players.
- A contracted player's remaining years and salary obligation become null and void upon official NFL retirement, and the player enters the Free Agent Pool.
- Teams may exceed the contract-year cap in season to facilitate trades.
- Before the draft, maximum contract years must equal 40 less the number of open roster positions.
8. Early Termination & Amnesty
Early termination
An owner may cut a contracted player early. The penalty is:
Example preserved from the rules: a player with a $100 AAV and three contract years remaining creates a $50 cap hit in each of those three years, for a $150 total obligation.
Players cut after Week 12 are subject to cap-penalty carryover so teams cannot eliminate future obligations by bleeding cap at year-end.
Amnesty
Each team may terminate one player with no salary-cap impact once every four years, beginning in 2021 and resetting by calendar, for example 2021, 2025, 2029. Amnesty must be exercised by the pre-draft roster-freeze date. The player enters the Free Agent Pool.
9. Waivers
- FAAB system with $100 per team each year.
- Auctions clear nightly at 3:00 AM EST. Highest bid wins.
- Released players clear waivers in one day.
- An owner may reacquire a player they previously contracted, but the original contract value applies. Waivers cannot be used to manipulate the salary cap.
- Waiver pickups carry a $0 cap hit and expire at season end.
- At season end, an owner may contract a waiver acquisition at the prior season's average AAV of the top 12 players at that position, top 24 for WR and RB.
10. Rookie Draft
Non-playoff teams enter the lottery for Picks 1–6, with the highest probability assigned to the Toilet Bowl champion. Playoff teams receive picks based on playoff finish. The league champion receives Pick 12.
| Pick / Finish | Lottery Odds | Rookie AAV |
|---|---|---|
| Toilet Bowl Champion / Pick 1 pool | 40% | $25 |
| Toilet Bowl Runner-up | 25% | $23 |
| 10th Place | 17.5% | $20 |
| 9th Place | 10% | $17 |
| 8th Place | 5% | $14 |
| 7th Place | 2.5% | $11 |
| 6th Place / Pick 7 | — | $9 |
| 5th Place / Pick 8 | — | $7 |
| 4th Place / Pick 9 | — | $5 |
| 3rd Place / Pick 10 | — | $3 |
| Runner-up / Pick 11 | — | $2 |
| Champion / Pick 12 | — | $1 |
- Rookies may be signed for up to 3 years. Contract decisions are due before the Free Agent Draft.
- Injured rookies are eligible for cap relief ahead of the draft.
- A second round of rookie drafting has been adopted.
11. Free Agent Draft
- Auction draft held before NFL Week 1 at a mutually agreed time.
- Available auction budget equals $500 less existing contractual obligations.
- Rookie draft order is used to nominate players.
- A nomination requires a player name and starting bid.
- Winning bid becomes the player's AAV.
- All contract lengths must be assigned before kickoff of Week 1.
- The draft is hosted on Sleeper.
12. League Fees & Prizes
The original rule sets an annual league fee of $100 per owner, payable before the auction draft, with fees funding prizes and league administration.
Later amendments establish payouts for the regular-season/top seed, the championship runner-up and the Super Bowl champion, with the remaining pool going to the Super Bowl champion.