Commissioner's Circuit League Guide

Overview

The Commissioner's Circuit is a set of promotion and relegation redraft leagues run in the style of European football. Higher tiers have higher buy-ins and payouts. Each season, the bottom three teams of each eligible league are relegated to the league below and the top three eligible teams are promoted to the league above.

There are currently three tiers. Additional tiers can be added as the circuit grows.

Tier I: The Commissioner's Premier Cup

League Overview

• 12 teams.
• Top 6 teams make the playoffs.
• Bottom three teams at the end of the toilet bowl bracket are relegated to Tier II.
• Relegated teams pay an additional relegation fee that is added to the Tier I prize pool.
• Relegated teams are replaced by three teams promoted from Tier II.

League Settings

• Snake draft.
• Randomized draft order through Sleeper.
• Draft pick trading enabled.
• Alphabetical player sorting, not ADP.
• No trade vetoing.
• FAAB budget: $500.
• Rolling waivers every day except Sunday and Monday.
• No free agents except Sunday and Monday.
• Scoring: 0.5 PPR and 4 points per passing touchdown.
• Rosters: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex, 1 K, 1 Defense, 5 bench, 1 IR.
• Playoffs: top 6 make playoffs and top 2 receive byes.

Buy-In And Prizes

Prize pool notes:

• Total prize pool: $1505.
• League buy-ins: $1200, $100 each.
• Relegation fees: $150.
• Tier II relegation fees: $90.
• Tier III relegation fees: $60 if filled.
• Top six teams receive part of the prize pool.
• Scaling relegation fee for the bottom three teams: 10th pays $25, 11th pays $50, and 12th pays $75.

Tier II: The Commissioner's Championship

League Overview

• 14 teams.
• Top 7 teams make the playoffs.
• One promotion spot is awarded to the top seed at the end of the regular season.
• Two promotion spots are awarded to the highest two playoff finishers, excluding the team that earned promotion as the regular-season top seed.
• Bottom three teams at the end of the toilet bowl bracket are relegated.
• If Tier III is active, relegated teams are replaced by three teams promoted from Tier III.

League Settings

• Snake draft.
• Randomized draft order through Sleeper.
• No trade vetoing.
• FAAB budget: $500.
• Rolling waivers every day except Sunday and Monday.
• No free agents except Sunday and Monday.
• Scoring: 0.5 PPR and 4 points per passing touchdown.
• Rosters: 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex, 1 K, 1 Defense, 5 bench, 1 IR.
• Playoffs: top 7 make playoffs and the top overall seed receives a bye.

Buy-In And Prizes

Prize pool notes:

• Total prize pool: $700.
• League buy-ins: $700, $50 each.
• Relegation fees feed into the Tier I prize pool, not the Tier II prize pool.
• Scaling relegation fee for the bottom three teams: 12th pays $25, 13th pays $30, and 14th pays $35.

Tier III: The Commissioner's League 1

League Overview

• 10 to 14 teams depending on season size.
• Top 6 or 7 teams make the playoffs depending on league size.
• One promotion spot is awarded to the top seed at the end of the regular season.
• Two promotion spots are awarded to the highest two playoff finishers, excluding the team that earned promotion as the regular-season top seed.
• Bottom three teams at the end of the toilet bowl bracket are relegated if a lower tier exists.
• If Tier IV is active, relegated teams are replaced by three teams promoted from Tier IV.

League Settings

• Snake draft.
• Randomized draft order through Sleeper.
• No trade vetoing.
• FAAB budget: $500.
• Rolling waivers every day except Sunday and Monday.
• No free agents except Sunday and Monday.
• Scoring: 0.5 PPR and 4 points per passing touchdown.
• Rosters: 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex, 1 K, 1 Defense, 5 bench, 1 IR.
• Playoffs: top 7 make playoffs and the top overall seed receives a bye.

Buy-In And Prizes

Prize pool notes:

• Total prize pool: $420.
• League buy-ins: $420, $35 each.
• Relegation fees feed into the Tier I prize pool, not the Tier III prize pool.
• Scaling relegation fee for the bottom three teams varies by league size.

Promotion Rules

• Tier I has no promotion because it is the top tier.
• Lower tiers promote three teams when an upper tier exists.
• For Tier II and below, the regular-season top seed earns one automatic promotion spot.
• The next two promotion spots go to the highest playoff finishers who did not already earn the automatic regular-season promotion.
• If an upper-tier vacancy requires supplemental promotion, candidates continue in playoff finish order, excluding teams already promoted. If the playoff field is exhausted, candidates continue in final regular-season standings order.

Relegation Rules

• Every tier with a lower tier can relegate three teams.
• Relegation is determined only by the completed Sleeper toilet bowl bracket, where the lower-scoring team advances. End-of-regular-season ranking is never used to replace completed-season toilet-bowl results.
• Sleeper's losers_bracket.w field means the bracket advancer, not the head-to-head winner. For a placement match with placement value p in an N-team league, w receives final place N - p + 1 and l receives final place N - p.
• Every toilet-bowl placement match is cross-checked against its matchup scores. The w roster must be the lower scorer; a disagreement is treated as a data error rather than silently producing movement results.
• When an odd-sized toilet bowl leaves exactly one participant without a placement game, that participant receives the only remaining non-playoff final position.
• Bottom finishers may owe additional relegation fees that feed into higher-tier prize pools.

Offseason Vacancies

• Normal promotions and relegations are applied before offseason vacancies are reconciled.
• A manager departure that overlaps with an already scheduled promotion or relegation counts once. It does not create a second vacancy in the tier the manager was already leaving.
• Remaining vacancies cascade downward: an opening in an upper tier is filled from the next tier's supplemental promotion order, and that move creates an opening in the tier below.
• The lowest active tier fills any remaining openings through recruitment.

2025 Official Results And 2026 Reconciliation

The following final placements and movements are the website's documented 2025 results. AtmIsLive/nickcham23 is one co-managed Championship roster and counts as one team.

Premier

Relegated: nillanp, slimchim, and angrycaptain19.

Championship

Promoted: Toflmao as the automatic regular-season top seed, plus playoff champion chrislupats and playoff runner-up AtmIsLive/nickcham23.

Relegated: petearriaza, jkong, and SchuylersDad.

League 1

Normal promotions: quallsimodo1, desto416, and tbosch82.

Supplemental promotions: jianglebells and scottcheloha.

Confirmed Opt-outs And Openings

• Confirmed opt-outs: slimchim, hashslinging25, and DJ6194.
• Premier receives no supplemental promotion because slimchim's departure overlaps with his scheduled relegation.
• Championship has two openings: only two active relegated managers arrive from Premier, and hashslinging25 opted out. jianglebells and scottcheloha fill those openings.
• League 1 has three recruitment openings after its normal promotions, supplemental promotions, and DJ6194's opt-out.

Waivers And Free Agency

• FAAB budget is $500.
• Rolling waivers run every day except Sunday and Monday.
• Free agents are only available on Sunday and Monday.
• Waiver and transaction activity is published across all active tiers on the website's Live page.