Fantasy Football: 10 Ways to Decide your League’s Draft Order
Draft season is upon us, and one of the key elements of the draft is what order everyone will be picking in for the draft. We want to give you commissioners some inspiration for finding the draft order your league mates will have to function with this season.
Note: I, for one, am not always a fan of the number one pick, so instead, I want the opportunity to decide my spot. You can always add that twist to any of these styles listed. Instead of winning the 1.01 draft pick, the member wins the right to choose where they want to pick from that season.
The Classic
Do you have a hat and some paper? Grab the hat, put all the names of the people in the league on paper, rip them apart, and put them in the hat. After that, draw the names from the hat, and that is your order. This method is the most tried and true for deciding any order, especially fantasy drafts. You get extra points for having a unique draft selection hat. Of course, it doesn’t have to be a hat, any object that can hold the papers and you can draw out of will work.
The Lazy Boy
Do you do an online draft? The computer can set the draft order for you. You just let it do all the work, and no one can say you cheated. It was the computer’s doing all along. You, as commissioner, do the least amount of work you can do, but it is at least an option for you.
The Tournament
Randomness is fine, but why not find a way to get more competition into your league? The tournament is a perfect way to get that infused in the league. Create a bracket of the league members. They will then compete for who picks first. The competition continues until you establish the entire draft order. This style makes for a great day with your league mates and ramps up the competition. Any game will work, but some options I have had in the past include: Cup Pong, Wall Ball, and Trash Can H.O.R.S.E. You FootClan members all know Andy, Mike, and Jason always recommend Pickle Ball, which would be perfect for the Tournament.
The Combine
Put together a series of events of different kinds. Someone times the league members while they complete these tasks, and the fastest time wins. Options include a 40-yard dash, throwing a football through a hoop, catching passes, Flip Cup, Cup Pong, or Corn Hole. There are plenty of ways to change this style, including how many corn hole bags go in the hole minus time off your ending total, or for every ball you drop, it adds time to the result. Any way you can think to spice it up, go for it!
The Charity
Everyone in the league comes in and blind bids an amount of money in an envelope. Please do not open the envelopes until everyone has turned in their bid. After everyone submits, the amount given establishes the order, highest to lowest. Then all of the money is donated to a local charity. This method makes the draft order feel so philanthropic that no one can be mad or feel cheated about where they landed in the draft. Also, it feels good to let charitable giving decide your draft order every year.
Here are some of our other writers’ favorites.
The 100-Yard Dash
Who wants to run 100 yards? No one wants to do that! Instead, visit this website (https://100yardrush.com/) and let Tecmo Bowl style characters do it for you! It has all the competitive edge and a nice touch of nostalgia. – Nate Henry
Paper Planes Contest
How about a good ol’ paper plane contest? Right before the draft, each player has to build their plane from a regular letter-size sheet of paper in front of everyone. No video tutorials or cheat sheets are allowed. You have to do your research and plan your strategy before draft day. When everyone’s ready, all the planes are thrown from the same spot to define the draft order according to where they land. -Javier Manzanera
Nerf or Nothing!
Option 1: Go by Rounds
With this option, the league mates will stand in a circle, and there will be as many rounds as needed to determine a winner (the last person standing gets to choose their draft slot first). The Nerf gun has six chambers but will only have one dart loaded. Each person will take a turn in the first round and spin the chamber with the loaded dart when it’s their turn. If one person loses in round one, they must get whatever pick is left over. If multiple people lose in any round, they can have a separate round of Russian roulette to determine who gets the higher selection.
Option 2: No Rounds
This option is very similar to the first; however, there will be no rounds, so if you are unfortunate enough to be the first one out, that’s just how it’ll be. You go until the last person is standing.
The BINGO!
With a Bingo game set, there are a few fun options to determine your league’s draft order. These options are good if you enjoy the random aspect of draft orders.
Option 1: BINGO!
If you use this option, the first player to record a bingo can choose the draft slot they want. Then you keep going Bingo by Bingo until the last person remaining gets their pick assigned because they had no luck.
Option 2: Pick a Number
This option will allow each league member to choose a number (1-75 based on the Bingo kit linked above). You can let the previous league winner choose their number first or do that however you want. Once each league member has selected a number, you can spin the Bingo cage, and whoever’s number is closest to the one revealed gets to choose their draft slot. You can either continue to re-do this process for the rest of the picks or go in order of who was closest to the furthest from the first number drawn. If there is a tie, you can have a separate draw between those managers or do Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Option 3: Assign a Number
With this option, the league will assign a number to each league mate. Then the only numbered calling balls in the Bingo cage should be the ones established for league members. Start calling out numbers, and you can either go with the first one drawn gets to choose their draft slot, or that they receive the first overall pick. – Ryan DeVaney
Dance Off for the Ages
Everyone in your league must submit a 30 second dance number video to an 80s song. Have a spouse or friend judge the videos and rank in order. Sounds simple enough right?-Kyle Borgognoni
If you have another unique draft order decider, hit us up on our Discord. We would love to hear more creative ways you order your drafts. Happy drafting!
Comments
My favorite has always been to make a march madness bracket.
I’m in a league with all my college friends for about 15 years. We’re all from Chicago and big Bears fans. (Bears go SUPER early in this league haha)
This is the first year we did something other than ESPN randomizing. We paid former Bears Coach Dave Wannstedt $50 on Cameo and he did AN AMAZING job randomizing our draft order. He made it real personal and picked names out of a hat and it was perfect
My league uses Royal rumble on WWE2K23. You get to select your random created characters in order of previous years finish. Then the characters enter the ring in a random order and are CPU controlled. The order is decided by elimination, first out is 10 and last is pick 1. Makes for great pre-draft entertainment as Woody from toy story is thrown over the top rope by Patrick Star!