Points-allowed total includes points given up by Offense and Special Teams.

Those points-allowed totals are tallied through the end of regulation (although other statistical categories are tallied through overtime). This means that if your defense holds its opponent to 10 points in regulation but ends up playing seven overtimes, your defense isn’t penalized for giving up a ton of points in overtime.

Weighted Defense Points

Since the purpose of defense in actual football is to prevent the opponent from scoring, we have included a component in which your defensive points can subtract points from your opponent’s score.

Each week, nominate one of your defensive schools to be your Weighted Defense. The total number of points that school earns for you will not only count toward your overall total, but that same amount will be subtracted from your opponent’s score.

For example, say you start LSU as your Rushing Defense and elect them to be weighted. If their Rushing Defense earns you 8 points, your total claims those points, and then 8 points will also be subtracted from your opponent’s total.

(We believe this is a means of addressing the only real flaw in fantasy football leagues around the country: defense is given short-shrift. It’s fifty percent of the game, and in SBR, it’s very close to that same amount.)

The only touchdowns counted as Special Teams touchdowns will be punt returns, kickoff returns and those that are explicitly stated in the box score to have been as a result of a blocked kick.

Victory Bonus

For each of your five starting schools that earns a victory, you will be rewarded with an extra point. For each of your five starting schools that loses their game, one point will be subtracted.

Therefore the maximum Victory Bonus each week is 5 points; the maximum number of points subtracted is also 5 points.

Call this the Ohio State Rule: rewarding schools that play winning football but don’t necessarily rack up huge numbers.

The Kansas State Rule: I-AA opponents only earn half points

In the past, we have only allowed participants to use a particular school each week if they are playing a I-A opponent.* The idea was that we didn’t want managers feasting on the likes of Prairie View A&M or other schools from I-AA, I-AAA, NAIA or otherwise. However, more and more schools are following in the footsteps of Kansas St, which means more weeks in which it’s difficult to field a full squad. For that reason—and because we’re always looking for ways to mix things up—this season we will be allowing SBR participants to use schools who are playing I-AA opponents. The catch is that if your school is playing a I-AA opponent, then that school’s point totals will be cut in half (and rounded down). So, for example, if one of your squads plays a lower-division opponent and puts up 400 rushing yards, with 6 rushing TDs and no fumbles, you’ll earn 13 points rather than 27. (The only exception is the Tiebreaker slot: if a school is playing a I-AA opponent, you can’t use that school as your tiebreaker.)

As always, it’s your responsibility to double-check your schools’ opponents each week, to confirm whether they’re playing a I-A opponent or not. If you do start a school that is playing a non-Division I-A opponent, you will receive half points in all the relevant categories.

Special circumstances: fumbles and interceptions

During the season there may also be what we’ll call ’special circumstances’ stats—like a WR or QB fumbling, or a RB throwing an INT or TD pass. These will always fall within the scoring totals of the particular school’s offense that you chose. For example: if the Kansas State QB fumbles, and even though you chose Kansas State for Rushing Offense that day, the fumbles would count against you (even though it’s a passer doing it). But—if you chose Kansas State as your Passing Offense, the fumbles wouldn’t count against you (even if it was the QB—or a WR—who fumbled). However, if you’ve started Kansas State as your Passing Offense and the Kansas State RB tries a halfback pass that is intercepted, the INT counts against you since it was a passing play.

Negative point totals

If a team ends up with a negative point total (a slew of interceptions or fumbles, for example), then the amount of negative points gets added to the other team’s total until the negative-scoring team finishes with zero. For example: if one team has 30 points and the other team has -7 points, then the final score is 37-0.

This is a rarity in our league (where the average score is 38-35), and it ultimately won’t matter on a weekly, head-to-head basis. But the point totals may come into play in the case of an end-of-season tiebreaker to decide who gets a playoff bid.

Overtime/Tiebreakers

Select an extra school for tiebreaker purposes only. The tiebreaker will be determined as follows:

1. Tiebreaker school wins their game
2. Tiebreaker school scores more total points (in regulation)
3. Tiebreaker school allows fewer total points (in regulation)

If one of your starting five has a game that is cancelled, your tiebreaker school fills that slot in the starting lineup. The tiebreaker school can still be used in a tiebreak situation.

Home-field advantage

For the playoffs, “home-field advantage” will be added. The difference in won-loss records of the two competing teams is added to the point total of the team with a better record.

For example, if an 8-2 team is facing a 5-5 team, the 8-2 team receives 3 additional points for being 3 games better during the regular season. This rewards teams for “playing hard” each week during the regular season, but it’s also not an enormous obstacle for the “road team” to overcome.

Where our scoring comes from

Scoring will be calculated from the box scores on ESPN.com. In the event that ESPN.com is down or does not have a particular box score, the following sites will be used (in order): FOXSports.com, CNNSI.com, USAToday.com, SportingNews.com.

All these pages of rules might seem a little confusing or overwhelming at first, but it’s actually pretty simple to follow and play. For an example of these rules in action, take a look at a sample box score.

* We will, for as long as possible, avoid using the heinous, and some might even say Orwellian, terms “FBS” and “FCS.”