2023-2024 RULEBOOK [Last edited Sept. 12, 2023 & June 26, 2023]
🏀 PAYOUTS
• COMO Finals winner: 60%
• Finals loser: 16%
• Regular season champ: 16%
• Butterburger® champ: 8%
These new percentages are based on feedback from the Spring 2023 league survey. As always, these payouts include salary taxes added to league pot. Side pot is available option for interested teams, and will be organized by the league office. Annual CBS fees are removed from total pot as necessary.
🏀 SCORING
• Point (+1 pt.)
• Rebound (+1 pt.)
• Assist (+1 pt.)
• Steals (+2 pts.)
• Blocks (+2 pts.)
• Missed shot (-1 pt.)
• Missed free throw (-1 pt.)
• Turnover (-1 pt.)
Averages, not totals: Each period, a player's individual score will consist of his average score from NBA games, not his total score. Ex. if James Harden racks up 70 bones over two NBA games in a COMO period, his score will be 35.00, not 70.
🏀 REGULAR SEASON
• 2023-2024: On average, two periods per week with three matchups per period (~6 matchups per week). The regular season will last 15 periods—90 total H2H COMO games—from the NBA's opening night, and will end 2 periods before the All-Star Break to make way for both the Play-In Tournament and the culmination of the Culver's Butterburger® Classic.
• Culver's Butterburger® Classic: This is an in-season tournament—with most games played as part of the normal COMO schedule—that features some great prizes, including:
• How is the Culver's Butterburger® Classic bracket determined?
🏀 STANDINGS
• There is one conference with 14 total teams.
🏀 PLAYOFFS
🏀 ROSTERS
• Teams are allowed 15 roster spots plus three (3) injured reserve spots. Players must, at minimum, be ruled out for their next game to be eligible for IR. Teams will not be able to make additions or trades if a player is illegally on IR. Enforcement is the responsibility of the league office because CBS does not have proper settings in place. A team must have a minimum of 10 players on its roster.
• Teams must set a starting lineup of eight players.
🏀 SALARIES
• Each team has a base salary cap of $100 million, with each player having an individual contract worth at least $1 million.
• Teams are not allowed to drop a player worth $20 million or more during the regular season. This is meant to prevent roster dumping to avoid the $125 million in-season cap (explained later). Players with contracts of $20 million or more must be traded in order to be moved off of a regular season roster.
• In-season salary cap ($125 million): If a trade or a signing puts a team over $100 million, there is no penalty. Just be warned that the total team salary must be back at $100 or lower by the end of the next offseason. This rule allows teams to trade players for players of unequal cash value or to give/receive draft assets in trades. In other words, cap wrinkles may be introduced during the season, but they MUST be ironed out during the offseason.
🏀 WAIVERS
• Waivers will run twice a week on a bidding system. This will occur every Monday (early AM) and Friday (early AM). Players will not be added to rosters in the middle of the week. This ensures that GMs will have an extended period to bid a fair contract for a player on the open market.
• Teams will have $30 million limit to spend on waivers throughout the season.
PLEASE NOTE: There are no waivers during the postseason, barring an emergency signing (see "Lineups"). The final waiver period will be conducted on the Monday immediately following the NBA All-Star Game.
• Waiver tiebreaker is determined by the standings (worst team gets No.1 position, best team gets No.14). If waivers occur during the offseason, use the previous season’s standings (including COMO Finals results).
🏀 AWARDS
• There will be three All-COMO teams, each made up of the following:
• 1 PG
• 1 SG
• 1 SF
• 1 PF
• 1 C
• 1 6th Man
PLEASE NOTE: Prior to 2018-2019, there were only two All-COMO teams.
• The All-COMO teams, MVP and Rookie of the Year are decided by blind voting following the regular season. COMO franchises with two executives will only be allowed one ballot. Only games in which a player counts toward a COMO team’s score will be counted. If a player is on a team’s bench during his NBA game, his points from that game will not reflect on his COMO season stats.
• Voters will select three All-COMO teams (18 total players: 3 PG, 3 SG, 3 SF, 3 PF, 3 C, 3 Sixth Men), with first-team votes getting three points, second-team votes getting two points and third-team votes getting one point. In separate MVP and ROY voting, voters will list their top five candidates for both awards, with first place receiving five points, second place receiving four points, third place receiving three points, fourth place receiving two points, and fifth place receiving one point. NOTE: Players who do not make the COMO playoffs will not be considered for the MVP award.
• There will also be one All-COMO postseason team, made up of the same six-man format. Those players — as well as the COMO Finals MVP — will be selected by the league office.
PLEASE NOTE: Awards voting will no longer affect player salaries, as of 2021-2022.
🏀 OFFSEASON
• After the postseason concludes, each player with an "Evergreen Contract (EG)" increases. This makes it unlikely that a team will be able to keep its entire roster for the new season (unless it has performed a trade that saved enough cap space).
NOTE: Players can receive multi-year contracts in free agency. During the length of these contracts, they do not have "Evergreen" status, meaning the value does not rise. At the completion of these contracts, teams will have an opportunity to re-sign the player using the "Evergreen" system.
• As of 2021-2022, players’ "Evergreen" salaries increase based on the following formula:
Salary floors: Previously, these bumped EG players to certain dollar amounts based on All-COMO voting, MVP, etc., but beginning in 2022, we will just use the True Bones score ^ to determine salary floor for a small group of EG players. The formula is as follows:
Here's an example of how the new bumps and floors would work, based on 2021-2022 player stats.
NOTE: There are no longer any Restricted Free Agency penalties for players who don't start X number of games in COMO lineups, as all NBA contests will count toward a player's True Bones score.
🏀 COMO ROOKIE DRAFT
• 2023 Draft: Each team seeded Nos. 7-14 will be entered into the Lottery (regular season standings; pre Play-In Tournament). There's also a ninth team added, per the new Culver's Butterburger® Classic reward (see "Regular Season"). All teams will share equal odds of gaining the No. 1 selection. If a No. 7 or No. 8 seed advances in the Play-In Tournament or playoffs, they still retain their Lottery standing.
• The COMO Draft will be similar to the actual NBA Draft: Only newly drafted NBA rookies will be eligible to be drafted, and the order of picks No. 1-9 will be determined by a lottery. The draft will last two rounds: The first overall pick will have a contract value of $5 and the second and third overall picks are worth $4, while picks No. 4-8 be worth $3. First-round picks No. 9-14 will be worth $2, while second-round picks will be worth $1. Undrafted rookies will join the waiver wire.
• First-round rookie contracts will be 2 years plus a team option for the third year (a player's value will not change over the duration of the contract, regardless of performance). Beginning in 2021, second-round rookie contracts will be 3 years of team options, beginning with the first Cut Day following the draft. If a player spends three years under his rookie contract, he will then be subject to the open market via Restricted Free Agency.
• Selected players who do not sign with their new NBA teams (e.g. Ricky Rubio or Dario Saric) will not count toward COMO teams’ roster numbers or salary caps. Once a stashed player signs with an NBA team, the COMO team that holds his rights has 10 days after a commissioner’s warning to either assign him a roster spot or cut him.
• The Draft is conducted via Twitter, with teams submitting picks telephone to the commissioner, who then posts the choices online (@COMOLeague). First-round selections have a 10-minute time limit, while second-round picks have a five-minute time limit.
🏀 RESTRICTED FREE AGENCY (RFA)
• Due to the new rules (2021-2022) about Evergreen contracts and salary floors, traditional RFA is no longer part of the offseason. However, there is still a Rookie deal RFA / Hometown Discount period, which you can read more about in the section above.
🏀 TRADE DEADLINES & WINDOWS
• The in-season trade deadline will take place roughly 3 weeks before the end of the COMO regular season. This will be set by the league office when game schedules are made official.
• Following the in-season trade deadline, teams will not be able to make trades again until the week of the COMO Draft, which typically takes place at the conclusion of the NBA Summer League (the league office will announce the re-opening of this window each season).
• Following draft night, teams will not be able to trade again until Free Agency is complete (the league office will announce the re-opening of this window each season). Newly signed free agents are not eligible to be traded until the season tips off.
🏀 FREE AGENCY
• Free Agency will comprise of:
• The FA process has changed multiple times over the years. In 2022, the league is expected to hold a manual live auction via Slack and Google Sheets.
• If no team bids on a player, he is sent to the waiver wire, which begins operating the day after Free Agency concludes.
Multi-year contracts and penalties: At the conclusion of the FA auction, teams will be able to assign players multi-year contracts. Here are the other rules for these contracts:
🏀 G LEAGUE
• Two new minor-league teams, the Columbia Columns (players from Chaska, Cleveland, Kansas City, Memphis, Minnesnowta, Shorewood, and West Grove United), and the Lawrence Buckets (players from Cream City, Hamburg BSV, Manhattan, Newport Beach, Paisley Park, Scranton, and Sunnyvale) will house developmental players separate from COMO rosters.
• Teams can designate any player to the G League who is still on his rookie deal. The caveat: We only have two (2) in-season call-up opportunities: One on Dec. 1, and one on Jan. 19. This means that G League players will be locked for the majority of the season, and teams will be unable to simply shuttle players back and forth between their active roster at the G League. Teams will, however, be able to send eligible players to the G League at any time.
EXPANSION
COMO currently has no plans to expand past 14 teams.
• COMO Finals winner: 60%
• Finals loser: 16%
• Regular season champ: 16%
• Butterburger® champ: 8%
These new percentages are based on feedback from the Spring 2023 league survey. As always, these payouts include salary taxes added to league pot. Side pot is available option for interested teams, and will be organized by the league office. Annual CBS fees are removed from total pot as necessary.
🏀 SCORING
• Point (+1 pt.)
• Rebound (+1 pt.)
• Assist (+1 pt.)
• Steals (+2 pts.)
• Blocks (+2 pts.)
• Missed shot (-1 pt.)
• Missed free throw (-1 pt.)
• Turnover (-1 pt.)
Averages, not totals: Each period, a player's individual score will consist of his average score from NBA games, not his total score. Ex. if James Harden racks up 70 bones over two NBA games in a COMO period, his score will be 35.00, not 70.
🏀 REGULAR SEASON
• 2023-2024: On average, two periods per week with three matchups per period (~6 matchups per week). The regular season will last 15 periods—90 total H2H COMO games—from the NBA's opening night, and will end 2 periods before the All-Star Break to make way for both the Play-In Tournament and the culmination of the Culver's Butterburger® Classic.
• Culver's Butterburger® Classic: This is an in-season tournament—with most games played as part of the normal COMO schedule—that features some great prizes, including:
- Cash for winner, 8% of total pot.
- COMO Draft Lottery ticket (Lottery pick created from thin air — extends Lottery from 8 picks to 9 picks)
• How is the Culver's Butterburger® Classic bracket determined?
- Periods 1-10: All 14 teams will play their first 30 normal regular-season COMO games (10 periods), at the end of which they'll be assigned into two pools based on COMO standings (1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 14 in Pool A ... 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13 in Pool B).
- Periods 11-15: Each team will play every other team in their pool 1x, round robin. At the end of the round robin, the Top 4 teams from each pool advance to the H2H quarterfinals.
- Periods 20-24: Quarterfinals
- Game 1: A1 vs. B4
- Game 2: B1 vs. A4
- Game 3: A2 vs. B3
- Game 4: B2 vs. A3
- Feb. 9-11: Semifinals (don't affect regular season standings)
- Game 1 winner vs. Game 4 winner
- Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner
- Feb. 12-15: Finals (don't affect regular season standings)
🏀 STANDINGS
• There is one conference with 14 total teams.
🏀 PLAYOFFS
- Top 8 teams make the playoffs, with the 7-10 seeds to be decided by the Play-In Tournament. Seeding tiebreakers based on head-to-head record and then total season points.
- The Play-In Tournament will take place at the conclusion of the regular season, with the following schedule:
- Feb. 9-11
- Game 1: No. 7 seed vs. No. 8 seed [determines No. 7 seed in playoffs]
- Game 2: No. 9 seed vs. No. 10 seed [loser eliminated]
- Feb. 12-15
- Winner of Game 1 vs. winner of Game 2 [determines No. 8 seed in playoffs]
- Feb. 9-11
- Playoffs schedule:
- First round (Best of 3)*
- No. 1 vs. No. 8
- No. 2 vs. No. 7
- No. 3 vs. No. 6
- No. 4 vs. No. 5
- Semis (Best of 5)*
- Winner of 1v8 vs. winner of 4v5
- Winner of 2v7 vs. winner of 3v6
- COMO Finals (Best of 5)*
- First round (Best of 3)*
🏀 ROSTERS
• Teams are allowed 15 roster spots plus three (3) injured reserve spots. Players must, at minimum, be ruled out for their next game to be eligible for IR. Teams will not be able to make additions or trades if a player is illegally on IR. Enforcement is the responsibility of the league office because CBS does not have proper settings in place. A team must have a minimum of 10 players on its roster.
- Playoffs IR: Playoff teams must set their injured reserve at the beginning of the playoffs. If a player is on the IR at the beginning of the playoffs, he will be ineligible to play for the remainder of the season, regardless of his health status after the first playoff period.
• Teams must set a starting lineup of eight players.
- 1 player eligible at PG.
- 1 player eligible at SG.
- 1 player eligible at SF.
- 1 player eligible at PF.
- 1 player eligible at C.
- 3 G-F-C flex.
- Emergency Subs
- Regular Season: No emergency subs available, although we will use "Playoffs" rules (see below) during the Culver's Butterburger® Classic.
- NOTE: During the regular season, the commissioner will not touch your lineup except by special request *before* all related games tip.
- Playoffs: If a team starts a player who is expected to play during the period but does NOT play due to injury/illness/etc., the league office will replace that player with that team's highest projected bench player eligible at that position (no more Frankenstein-ing players into the lineup at random positions). ALL of that player's scoring during the period will count toward the team's score (as opposed to only the games he plays after lineup insertion; still an average score, not total). Teams will be encouraged to submit manual changes to the substitution order as desired. See below.
- Manual emergency subs: If a team desires that a different sub order be used in the event of an emergency sub, they must publicly declare that intention before the first NBA games of the period for both (1) the highest-projected sub and (2) the requested sub/s.
- Emergency signing (Playoffs only): In the event a COMO playoff team does not have an eligible player or substitute at a particular position (ex. PG/SG flex), the league office will add the 15th-highest projected free agent (for the period) at that particular position. The emergency player will be removed at the end of the period, and the process will begin again for the following period, if necessary.
- Lineup neglect: During the regular season, if a team leaves a player in the starting lineup despite the player being ruled out more than 24 hours before his first NBA tipoff of the period, the following escalations will occur:
- First offense: Warning
- Second offense: $5 fine in USD to league pot
- Third offense: $10 fine in USD to league pot
- Fourth offense and beyond: $20 fine in USD to league pot
- NOTE: Most teams do not violate this rule (most lineup "zeroes" are same-day scratches), and it would be rare for a team to reach a third or fourth offense.
🏀 SALARIES
• Each team has a base salary cap of $100 million, with each player having an individual contract worth at least $1 million.
• Teams are not allowed to drop a player worth $20 million or more during the regular season. This is meant to prevent roster dumping to avoid the $125 million in-season cap (explained later). Players with contracts of $20 million or more must be traded in order to be moved off of a regular season roster.
• In-season salary cap ($125 million): If a trade or a signing puts a team over $100 million, there is no penalty. Just be warned that the total team salary must be back at $100 or lower by the end of the next offseason. This rule allows teams to trade players for players of unequal cash value or to give/receive draft assets in trades. In other words, cap wrinkles may be introduced during the season, but they MUST be ironed out during the offseason.
🏀 WAIVERS
• Waivers will run twice a week on a bidding system. This will occur every Monday (early AM) and Friday (early AM). Players will not be added to rosters in the middle of the week. This ensures that GMs will have an extended period to bid a fair contract for a player on the open market.
• Teams will have $30 million limit to spend on waivers throughout the season.
PLEASE NOTE: There are no waivers during the postseason, barring an emergency signing (see "Lineups"). The final waiver period will be conducted on the Monday immediately following the NBA All-Star Game.
• Waiver tiebreaker is determined by the standings (worst team gets No.1 position, best team gets No.14). If waivers occur during the offseason, use the previous season’s standings (including COMO Finals results).
🏀 AWARDS
• There will be three All-COMO teams, each made up of the following:
• 1 PG
• 1 SG
• 1 SF
• 1 PF
• 1 C
• 1 6th Man
PLEASE NOTE: Prior to 2018-2019, there were only two All-COMO teams.
• The All-COMO teams, MVP and Rookie of the Year are decided by blind voting following the regular season. COMO franchises with two executives will only be allowed one ballot. Only games in which a player counts toward a COMO team’s score will be counted. If a player is on a team’s bench during his NBA game, his points from that game will not reflect on his COMO season stats.
• Voters will select three All-COMO teams (18 total players: 3 PG, 3 SG, 3 SF, 3 PF, 3 C, 3 Sixth Men), with first-team votes getting three points, second-team votes getting two points and third-team votes getting one point. In separate MVP and ROY voting, voters will list their top five candidates for both awards, with first place receiving five points, second place receiving four points, third place receiving three points, fourth place receiving two points, and fifth place receiving one point. NOTE: Players who do not make the COMO playoffs will not be considered for the MVP award.
• There will also be one All-COMO postseason team, made up of the same six-man format. Those players — as well as the COMO Finals MVP — will be selected by the league office.
PLEASE NOTE: Awards voting will no longer affect player salaries, as of 2021-2022.
🏀 OFFSEASON
• After the postseason concludes, each player with an "Evergreen Contract (EG)" increases. This makes it unlikely that a team will be able to keep its entire roster for the new season (unless it has performed a trade that saved enough cap space).
NOTE: Players can receive multi-year contracts in free agency. During the length of these contracts, they do not have "Evergreen" status, meaning the value does not rise. At the completion of these contracts, teams will have an opportunity to re-sign the player using the "Evergreen" system.
• As of 2021-2022, players’ "Evergreen" salaries increase based on the following formula:
- True Bones score = ((Bones per NBA game)-(0.2)*((82)-(NBA games played))
- Players ranked 1-28 = $5 bump
- Players 29-56 = $4 bump
- Players 57-84 = $3 bump
- Players 85-112 = $2 bump
- Players 113-140 = $1 bump
Salary floors: Previously, these bumped EG players to certain dollar amounts based on All-COMO voting, MVP, etc., but beginning in 2022, we will just use the True Bones score ^ to determine salary floor for a small group of EG players. The formula is as follows:
- Players ranked 1-7 = $30 floor
- Players 8-14 = $25 floor
- Players 15-21 = $20 floor
- Players 22-28 = $15 floor
Here's an example of how the new bumps and floors would work, based on 2021-2022 player stats.
NOTE: There are no longer any Restricted Free Agency penalties for players who don't start X number of games in COMO lineups, as all NBA contests will count toward a player's True Bones score.
🏀 COMO ROOKIE DRAFT
• 2023 Draft: Each team seeded Nos. 7-14 will be entered into the Lottery (regular season standings; pre Play-In Tournament). There's also a ninth team added, per the new Culver's Butterburger® Classic reward (see "Regular Season"). All teams will share equal odds of gaining the No. 1 selection. If a No. 7 or No. 8 seed advances in the Play-In Tournament or playoffs, they still retain their Lottery standing.
• The COMO Draft will be similar to the actual NBA Draft: Only newly drafted NBA rookies will be eligible to be drafted, and the order of picks No. 1-9 will be determined by a lottery. The draft will last two rounds: The first overall pick will have a contract value of $5 and the second and third overall picks are worth $4, while picks No. 4-8 be worth $3. First-round picks No. 9-14 will be worth $2, while second-round picks will be worth $1. Undrafted rookies will join the waiver wire.
• First-round rookie contracts will be 2 years plus a team option for the third year (a player's value will not change over the duration of the contract, regardless of performance). Beginning in 2021, second-round rookie contracts will be 3 years of team options, beginning with the first Cut Day following the draft. If a player spends three years under his rookie contract, he will then be subject to the open market via Restricted Free Agency.
- Rookie deal RFA / Hometown Discount: There will be a special RFA period for players who play out their 3-year rookie contracts. Any team may bid on the player, but his current team will be allowed a discount of 5 combined dollars or years. Ex. if Zion Williamson is offered $38M/3yrs next summer, the Chaska Moose would have the option to sign him for $32M/4yrs, $33M/3yrs, $34M/2yrs, or $35M/1yr.
• Selected players who do not sign with their new NBA teams (e.g. Ricky Rubio or Dario Saric) will not count toward COMO teams’ roster numbers or salary caps. Once a stashed player signs with an NBA team, the COMO team that holds his rights has 10 days after a commissioner’s warning to either assign him a roster spot or cut him.
• The Draft is conducted via Twitter, with teams submitting picks telephone to the commissioner, who then posts the choices online (@COMOLeague). First-round selections have a 10-minute time limit, while second-round picks have a five-minute time limit.
🏀 RESTRICTED FREE AGENCY (RFA)
• Due to the new rules (2021-2022) about Evergreen contracts and salary floors, traditional RFA is no longer part of the offseason. However, there is still a Rookie deal RFA / Hometown Discount period, which you can read more about in the section above.
🏀 TRADE DEADLINES & WINDOWS
• The in-season trade deadline will take place roughly 3 weeks before the end of the COMO regular season. This will be set by the league office when game schedules are made official.
• Following the in-season trade deadline, teams will not be able to make trades again until the week of the COMO Draft, which typically takes place at the conclusion of the NBA Summer League (the league office will announce the re-opening of this window each season).
• Following draft night, teams will not be able to trade again until Free Agency is complete (the league office will announce the re-opening of this window each season). Newly signed free agents are not eligible to be traded until the season tips off.
🏀 FREE AGENCY
• Free Agency will comprise of:
- (1) the players dropped from their teams during the Early Cut Day (players $20+) and Cut Day,
- (2) all of the waiver wire players who did not belong to teams at the end of the season, and
- (3) all of the undrafted players from the most recent draft class.
• The FA process has changed multiple times over the years. In 2022, the league is expected to hold a manual live auction via Slack and Google Sheets.
• If no team bids on a player, he is sent to the waiver wire, which begins operating the day after Free Agency concludes.
Multi-year contracts and penalties: At the conclusion of the FA auction, teams will be able to assign players multi-year contracts. Here are the other rules for these contracts:
- To offer a contract longer than two years (ex. 3 or 4, max = 4), the money must be at least $10 million/year.
- If a multi-year contract ends, the player will receive a normal Evergreen contract boost (same as all other players on 1yr deals, with money increase based on annual performance).
- The penalty for cutting a player before the final year of their multi-year deal: owners must pay out of pocket with real cash. If a player is on a $30M/3yr deal and the team cuts him in Year 2, the team will owe $30 to the league pot for the player's owed third season. If a player is one a $30M/3yr deal and the team cuts him in Year 1, the team will owe $30 cash for two straight years.
🏀 G LEAGUE
• Two new minor-league teams, the Columbia Columns (players from Chaska, Cleveland, Kansas City, Memphis, Minnesnowta, Shorewood, and West Grove United), and the Lawrence Buckets (players from Cream City, Hamburg BSV, Manhattan, Newport Beach, Paisley Park, Scranton, and Sunnyvale) will house developmental players separate from COMO rosters.
• Teams can designate any player to the G League who is still on his rookie deal. The caveat: We only have two (2) in-season call-up opportunities: One on Dec. 1, and one on Jan. 19. This means that G League players will be locked for the majority of the season, and teams will be unable to simply shuttle players back and forth between their active roster at the G League. Teams will, however, be able to send eligible players to the G League at any time.
- FAQ
- Is there a limit to the number of rookie deals a team can stash in the G League? No limit.
- Do players count toward a COMO team's salary cap while they're in the G League? No, they won't count.
- Will teams be able to send players to the G League before free agency (in order to have more $$ at the auction)? Yes, but the G Leaguers will remain there until at least December. Alternatively, teams can keep those players on the roster during the auction and still send them to the G League at any time afterward.
EXPANSION
COMO currently has no plans to expand past 14 teams.