IX. RESTRICTED & UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS
A. RFA - Each team must designate their RFAs (up to 10) and UFAs by February 17th, starting in 2008. Open bidding with a rolling 48 hour deadline will occur for restricted free agents until March 31st. The team of origin is not allowed to bid on their own RFAs during the auction. Once an auction has been won, the team of origin will be notified and given up to 1 week to match the winning bid and retain the player. If they choose not to match, the amount of the winning bid will be paid to their account.
** If a team is caught bidding on their own RFA’s, the first time they will be given a   
warning,  the second and all subsequent times, they will forfeit the amount of the
bid and have their bid removed and the player moved back to the last highest legal
bidder.
B. UFA - Unrestricted free agents are designated by their team at the beginning of the RFA period. Open bidding with a rolling 48 hour deadline will occur for unrestricted free agents until March 31st. The team of origin is allowed to bid on their own UFAs.
C. The RFA/UFA period will end on March 31st. At this point, three things will happen:
1. Any ongoing auctions will be allowed to continue until the 48 hour rolling deadline is met.
2. Teams of origin will be given 1 week to retain any RFAs that did not receive any bids, for a cost of $50 .
3. Teams of origin will be given 1 week to retain any UFAs that did not receive any bids, at no cost.