[PINNED] In-Season Free Agency Rules

Because salary cap exceptions and bird years will be carried through the season this league, in-season free agency (anything after training camp) will work differently in this league.

After every sim, including training camp, players will be able to court offers for 24 hours. If you wish to sign a player at this time, you can create a new thread with the player's name in the title, as normal. In that thread, please post the contract you're willing to offer the player and the role you're willing to give him. This is not a negotiation, though you can choose to up your offer if you wish. If you do not post anything of substance, the contract will be assumed a one-year minimum, and no playing time will be assumed.

Here's the kicker, other teams will be able to offer for this player as well during the 24-hour period. If you're offering on a player who's already received one or more offers, please just reply in his thread that's already been made -- do not make a new thread. Once that time is up, the player will decide which offer he wants to take. He does not have to take any of the offers if he doesn't like any of them.

Once the 24-hour period is up, all players who were not offered during that time will convert to normal "first come, first served" free agency. All offers during this stage will be for a one-year minimum with no option years^a. A player who is on waivers immediately goes to "first come, first served" free agency once he clears waivers; the waiver period serves doubly as the 24-hour offer period.

Notes:
a - The only exception to this will be players who are restricted free agents.

What Type of Contracts Can Be Offered during the Season?

CAP ROOM

If you have managed to take cap room into the season, you can still use it to sign free agents, if you wish.

EXCEPTIONS

As I mentioned in the post above, salary cap exceptions and bird years will be carried through into the season for those who haven't used them yet. One thing worth noting, starting on Day 40, the amounts of all the exceptions will be scaled for the amount of time remaining left in the season. For example, if you offer a non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Day 81, the contract will only be worth 40/120th's of the full amount of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception.

If you are planning to offer any non-minimum contracts during the 24-hour offer period, please see the off-season free agency rules thread (link) for specific guidelines on what you can offer.

MINIMUM CONTRACTS

If you are offering a minimum contract during the 24-hour offer period for a free agent, you have the option to offer a second year, and can even have that second year be either a player or team option in your offer. After the 24-hour offer period is up, you can only offer a one-year minimum contract. All minimum contracts are pro-rated for the amount of time left in the season, and guaranteed for the remainder of the season.

One important change in TSFBL III is that all players with 3+ years of experience will be treated on your team salary books as a two-year veteran minimum. This is meant to encourage you to sign the best free agents available, regardless of experience.

For luxury tax purposes, all minimum contract amounts will be equal to the two-year veteran minimum, regardless of experience. If you are over the tax and are worried about cost-cutting but need to sign a player in a pinch, all the free agents on the board will cost you the same amount.

Minimum contract amounts can be found in the Minimum Salary Table.

ONE-SIM CONTRACTS

One-Sim Contracts are minimum contracts that only last for one sim (twenty days), thus lessening the financial impact. This is what we used to call a "10-Day contract", but sims are 20 days now.

If you wish to sign a player to a One-Sim contract, once the 24-hour offer period is over, simply post a signing as normal with "(One Sim)" in the thread title. If it's not in the thread title, it's not a One-Sim contract offer and will be treated like a full deal.

You can only sign the same player to one (1) One-Sim contract per season. After that expires, you can either sign him to a fully-guaranteed deal or sign another player to a One-Sim contract.