What Are Your Thoughts On Bidding For Draft Slots?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:17 am

This idea was presented by Gordon Gekko late last year as a way to eliminate the random draft slot process that the NFFC and almost every other contest uses today. The idea would be to allow NFFC owners to use their $1,000 Free Agent Allocation Budget to bid for draft slots, using a blind bidding process just like we do today for free agents. Before the season, we'd set up a process online where you could bid the following way:

#1: $423
#2: $311
#3: $79
#4: $151
#5: $49
#6: $99
#7: $12
#8: $11
#9: $0
#10: $1
#11: $21
#12: $0
#13: $0
#14: $33

Obviously, you'd have different preferences for different draft spots and I'm exaggerating above with some of my bids. But you get the idea. The leagues would then be randomly selected and after they are selected Tom and I would go through these bids for the 14 owners in each league and give the #1 pick to the owner with the highest bid for that spot. We'd continue that all the way through (breaking ties when needed) and then subtract your bids from your $1,000 FAAB before the first week of free agent bidding. In essence, those who got lower draft spots would likely have more FAAB for in-season pickups.

It would be a unique process and one that we'd have to educate current members on and especially new members. The online system would also have to be in place so that we could automatically make this happen. I'm not saying we are going to do this, as I'm just looking for feedback now because I think the concept has some merit for the NFFC.

Here's my question to current NFFC members:
1) Would draft slot bidding for the main event be a positive or a negative for the NFFC?

2) Would this proposal make you want to compete in the NFFC even more or make you want to leave the NFFC? Why on either one and no piling on by anyone for hearing honest comments.

3) Is there a better way to determine draft slots in each league? If so, shoot your ideas here.

4) Or do you like the randomness of the way we pick leagues and draft slots now?

I'm curious to the thoughts of all our members and I know the Message Boards aren't for everyone. If you'd rather e-mail me your thoughts on this, shoot them to me at [email protected]. I'll likely poll the group later as well.

Again, I'm not saying I'd do this in 2006, but I'm thinking about it. I look forward to any and all feedback on this matter. I promise that no matter what we do, we'll again have your draft slots determined at least five days in advance of the draft. There won't be any live bidding for draft spots, at least not at this point!

chris schinker · Post by **chris schinker** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 5:08 am

Greg, I am a huge advocate for gekko's blind bidding process......however it absolutely does not appeal to the masses or growth of the event. Also the proponents of this bidding process have a fairly loud voice on these boards and your response here will be somewhat scewed...anyway I look forward to the upcoming 40 page debate.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 5:23 am

Originally posted by chris schinker:
Greg, I am a huge advocate for gekko's blind bidding process......however it absolutely does not appeal to the masses or growth of the event. Also the proponents of this bidding process have a fairly loud voice on these boards and your response here will be somewhat scewed...anyway I look forward to the upcoming 40 page debate. I hear ya. We'll make sure the loudest don't necessarily mean the majority. I'm just looking for feedback from the group. Again, FAAB was an unknown process until I started doing it in LABR back in the late 1990s and now it's accepted by all. Maybe this process could be explained just as easily and figured out....or not.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 5:24 am

Just as an FYI: There are other methods to use to figure out the draft slot bidding than the one I have above. I believe Gordon's is slightly different and I'll let him explain his idea when he has time. For now, I'm just looking for feedback on the concept and whether owners like it better than random selection of draft spots.

Eddiejag · Post by **Eddiejag** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 5:32 am

GREG im not sure it would be different. IS it possible to do both , sign up for the one you like. Im not sure what ild do if i had the choice.

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 5:32 am

Greg, I think this is a great idea and one whose time has come. However, it must be implemented in a way where YOU can easily figure out the draft positions once the leagues are picked. The way things are right now, owners have less than 120 hours between league assignment and the actual draft. It's not a huge deal to me that we have only 5 days, but to others it is a problem. The introduction of Draft Slot Bidding would likely delay our draft selections -- it's just a question of how long.

If STATS can handle this process and somehow automate it, I really don't see any drawbacks to the proposal.

Now let me get back to reading "Who Moved My Cheese?"

Nag' · Post by **Nag'** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 5:57 am

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:
1) Would draft slot bidding for the main event be a positive or a negative for the NFFC?I like the slot bidding idea as I believe any complication to the rules favors the more prepared owner and slot bidding is definitely a complication.
Having said that, I believe implementing it in the near future will have a negative impact on the NFFC as I believe it will act as a deterrant for new signups, especially those who are new to the hobby. As much as every owner here likes to publically state how they welcome all competition, in reality, does everyone want a high-stake contest to be filled with FF fanatics? I have no problem being honest and say that I sure don't. The competition is fierce as it is now, and we have a fair amount of newbies and casual FFers. I certainly wouldn't want to see that ratio diminish. That's my opinion from a participant's perspective.
As far as NFFC organizer's perspective, I seriousy doubt they want to deter ANYONE from joining and helping grow this event. The 14-team concept is already a scary thing for some onwers and I bet that's one of the reasons why the 350-team goal was not reached this year. Now you want to add slot-bidding? I wouldn't do it just yet if I was Greg/Tom. But it's something to consider for the future as it is a pretty good idea.

My 2 cents.

JerseyPaul · Post by **JerseyPaul** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 6:11 am

From the cheap seats...

The suggestion to offer both seems to be an excellent idea. When the software is built, a league based on/off switch for slot selection needs to be added. The no bidding group gets random slots. With that new software, the hat will be eliminated, which can't be bad. Seems like the process would be to assign leagues based on bidding/no bidding, then run the software to get draft position, then do a copy and paste onto the draft board/email. The process could be made speedy by inputting the names ahead of time. Even better would be the software randomly assigning leagues by type as a first step, then running the position module.

I can't see any downside to doing this. These players are the best. Those who like the gambling element could have their fun, those that yearn for control can get it.

Edited to add...

Found the downside.

Now let's think about competitive balance. The leagues with bidding will have fewer bidding dollars available to go after free agents. This will not affect the strength of those leagues versus others because all the free agents will still be available. Average prices for those teams will likely be lower than non-bidding leagues.

There is, however, a downside to bidding in some leagues and not others. If we assume Position 1 is strongest, Position 1 in a bidding league will be at a disadvantage to Position 1 in a non-bidding league because of having a lower percentage of the outstanding bidding dollars. This year (so far) it would be a non issue because few, if any, impact players have been available as free agents. Last year we had Droughns, Colbert, Larry Johnson and probably more. That difference alone would probably cause me to join a non-bidding league. Some, however, may choose to join a bidding league anyway.

[ October 06, 2005, 12:23 PM: Message edited by: JerseyPaul ]

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 6:20 am

i wish i had known that this topic was going to be discussed (in depth). i could have prepared my model for review. everything will be done on-line and will be done ALMOST the SAME EXACT way FA bidding is done.

in any event, carry on. i'll be at the Penn State / Ohio State game this weekend. i should get some free time next week.