FOREWORD

This code of rules is written to govern the playing of football games by teams of the Professional League of SmallBall Football Clubs, as identified each season by the Commissioner of SmallBall Football. We recognize that many amateur and non professional organizations play their games under professional rules, and we are happy to make our rules available as widely as possible. It is well to remember that specific rules may be modified to meet the needs of each group. Banning, long term suspensions and similar penalties imposed by this code are not practical for amateur groups, but officers and referees of such organizations should insist on strict observance of all the rules governing the playing of the game. SmallBall Football not only has maintained its position as the Internet's favorite Game of the United States, but also has become an International Game being played in many countries. Its popularity will grow only as long as its players, managers, coaches, referees and administrative officers respect the discipline of its code of rules.

DEFINITIONS

Season: A Season is a block of time, usually 2 weeks, during which several things happen in the SmallBall Professional Leagues. Among those things are zeroing-out all player and team statistics, resolving prior season standings, and assigning game numbers for the scheduled Pro League Games. In general program code changes that might invalidate previously played games will occur on season boundaries, however this will not always be the case.

Game: For the purposes of this Pro League ruleset, a game is defined to be one of many scheduled games that are assigned a game number at the start of the season. Only the Visiting team may initiate a Pro League game.

STANDINGS

Qualification List: A team not in the Pro Leagues can earn a place on the Qualification List by initiating at least 10 games in the Big League, and maintaining an honor rating of at least 5.0. In the case of more qualifying teams than places on the list, the teams will be ranked first by win/loss ratio, and second by the team number, with lowest teams coming before higher-numbered teams of the same win/loss ratio. At the end of each season, teams on the Qualification list are moved into the Junior League, and are then considered members of the Pro League.

Standing tiebreakers: In the case of multiple teams with the same Pro League Win/Loss ratio, the order of the teams is determined by each teams' final ranking of the previous season. In the case of the Junior League, the team ranking on the qualification list is used. Rule Change 2001: The age of the team is no longer used for ranking purposes, except as noted in the qualification list description.

DISQUALIFICATION

A team may be disqualified for engaging in any of the behaviors listed in this section, at the discretion of the Commissioner of Smallball. Disqualification can include temporary or permanent removal from the Pro Leagues, enforced vacation from SmallBall, removal of rights to any teams, and/or some form of IP/E-mail blocking. The Commissioner and Smallball reserve the right to adjust season standings to reflect the disqualification and right any perceived wrongs.

Tampering: Any tampering with the configuration files of Smallball, whether on the hard disk or in computer memory.

Hacking: Any change or reading of memory or the datastream between the SmallBall Servers and the player's computer. This includes use of any program or utility designed to make the Smallball server think it is talking to the player's SmallBall Trainer or SmallBall program.

Throwing Games: Each Pro League team is expected to play its games, and to play them as well as it can. "Throwing" a game on purpose is highly discouraged, and the Commissioner will decide any penalties on a case-by-case basis.