Pearl Constitution

2025 Pearl Fantasy Football Constitution

(Last updated 8/26/2025)

Draft & Entry

  • $100 entry fee per team. Prize money distribution:
    • 1st: $800
    • 2nd: $300
    • 3rd: Free entry for next year.
  • Owners who don’t show up to the draft (virtually) are placed on auto pick, BUT there’s a penalty.
    • For each of the first 5 rounds, auto pick is 15 spots below the current top available player. For rounds 6+, Sleeper auto picks based on best available.
    • Owners are allowed to have someone draft for them, without penalty.
    • Owners who are unable to make back-to-back drafts are removed from the league the following year.

In-Season Basics

  • Roster size: 9 starters, 7 bench players
  • 2023 Starters include: FQB, FBQB, WR1, WR2, RB1, RB2, TE, FLEX1, FLEX2 (No kickers or team defense).
  • Trade deadline: Week 9.
  • Half PPR.
  • Single week playoff rounds, which start Week 15, with the league’s top 7 teams.
  • Free agent auction for in-season pick-ups. Each teams gets a $100 budget for the year.
  • Trades are official once accepted. Commissioner can revert any trade if there’s a smell of collusion.

Spice

#1 – Franchise QB Rule

  • Teams can draft unlimited QBs and/or sign new QBs after the draft.
  • Once Week 1 kicks off (Thursday night), teams can only roster 2 QBs. The better of the two QBs is designated as the “Franchise QB” (FQB) and the second QB is his real-life back up. Both start in your lineup.
  • Teams with an improper QB configuration will have the worst QB (using ADP) removed and fixed to the proper configuration via commissioner tools.
  • What happens when an FQB is injured in real life? He must be dropped and replaced with the new real life second-string QB.
  • What happens when an FQB is benched in real life? If he’s still the second string, no changes should be made to your roster. If he’s now a third string QB, he should be dropped for the new second string QB.
  • During a team’s FQB’s bye week, he can be replaced with any available QB from the free agent pool, along with the real life backup of acquired player. Only two QBs can be rostered AND both of these QBs must play on the same NFL team.
  • When the FQB is back from bye, owners are obligated to resign him and his backup during the Wednesday waiver period.
  • Except for bye weeks, failing to start a FQB or his real-life backup, results in 0 points from the QB position.
  • If an FQB is traded in real life, teams keep the same FQB and get his new real-life backup.
  • Keeper Clause:Every team must designate their previous year’s FQB as their keeper for the next year’s draft. However, you’re not obligated to roster him after the draft. Multiple QBs can be drafted to fight for a spot on your roster before opening kickoff.
  • Scrub Clause:If your FQB is traded and immediately benched in real life, you’re allowed to pick up a new QB who’s ranked 15th among QBs or worse. This rule only applies during the regular season.

#2 – Rookie Rule

  • Each team must start a rookie (eligibility designated by Sleeper) each week.
  • Each team can own unlimited rookies and start any of them from any eligible position (QB, RB, WR, or TE), on a week-to-week basis.
  • The rookie placed in a starting lineup can’t be inactive, or on a bye week, or your backup FQB and still count as an eligible rookie.
  • Penalty:the points from the team’s top scorer are taken away, on Tuesday morning if a rookie wasn’t in the lineup.

#3 – Stepien Rule

  • Owners must have at least one first round pick (their own pick or another owner’s pick) in every other year of the draft.
  • Example #1: If D-Lam trades his 2026 first rounder, he can’t trade his 2025 or 2027 first rounder.
  • Example #2: If D-Lam trades his 2025 and 2027 first round picks, he must hold onto his 2026 first rounder.
  • Trades will be voided if wrong amount of picks are sent out.
  • Unlike the NBA’s Stepien Rule, ours will apply for each round of the draft.
  • Example #3: Owners can’t trade fifth round picks in connective years.

#4 -Tourney for Tankers

  1. Non-Playoff Tournament:
    • A tournament will be held for the top four non-playoff teams (seed #8, #9, #10, #11).
    • The winner of this tournament gets to choose their draft position for the next year’s draft.
    • The second-place team chooses their draft position next, followed by the third-place team, and followed by the fourth-place and fifth-place team.
  2. Championship Tournament (Playoffs):
    • After the non-playoff tournament selections are completed, the remaining draft spots will be filled as follows: playoff teams will choose their draft position based on inverse final standings, with the league champion selecting last.
  3. Draft Order Selection:
    • League owners will finalize the draft order during a live call, two weeks prior to draft (or earlier). A draft of draft picks.

#5 – Groundhog Swap — one use per season

After our final regular-season game wraps on Monday night (Week 14), each team gets a single chance to replace one benched player (from his/her team) with a starter for oneearlier regular-season week (from his/her team). The commissioner uses Sleeper’s Edit Lineup → Recalculate to lock it in.

9.1 Eligibility
  • Swapped-in player musthave been on that team’s roster during the target week (Sleeper roster history = source of truth).
  • The post-swap lineup must still include:
    • Franchise QB andthat QB’s real-life backup
    • A valid Rookie starter.
  • If either rule above breaks, the swap is void.
9.2 Submission timing
  • All teams submit their swap on the first Tuesday after the regular season ends via a Google Sheet by 4:00 PM ET. Anything after 4:00 (according to Google) is ignored. (We’ll try to get a neutral party to host this poll so that the commish can’t see any results, but if nothing works, you’ll have to trust the commish.)
  • Commissioner applies the approved swaps, then Sleeper handles the recalculated records, points, and seeding.
9.3 Anti-Collusion (honor-system enforcement)
  • Any owner can flag a suspicious swap within 12 hours of the public post.
  • A league vote opens; a penalty triggers only if both conditions are met:
    • 67% or more of neutral owners(owners not named in the protest and not directly benefiting) vote “yes.”
    • The commissioner sees objective evidence of coordinated manipulation.
  • Penalty: Each team involved forfeits its next year’s 2nd round pick (pick is removed from that draft).