Would You Be In Favor Of Ranking Your Draft Spots?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 5:47 am

There seems to be a discussion on every message board for high-stakes events about the way draft spots are randomly selected. Z-Men has proposed Gekko's draft slot bidding idea on the WCOFF boards and now that idea is being discussed there, too. I've already said it's an option for the future in the NFFC and I think it's been discussed well on another thread.

However, another less drastic option other than using FAAB to pick your draft slots is to allow owners a chance to rank their preferred draft spots. The idea, which I've also posted on our NFBC boards for our baseball owners to discuss, is to allow owners to rank their draft spot preference and once Tom and I picked the leagues and random order, we'd then assign the draft spots according to each owners' preference. So if we picked Joe Smith with the No. 1 pick and Joe's top preference would be the third pick, we'd slot him third. If John Doe was No. 2 and his top preference was fifth, we'd slot him fifth. We'd do this for all 14 owners in each league and announce the order for each league after the changes were made. The No. 14 pick wouldn't get any say in choosing his favorite spot, obviously, but he also might not be slotted 14th if someone else wanted to control the ends.

The only way to do this would be to have a system in place online where you could rank your 14 preferences and change those rankings right up until our deadline. Tom and I would then take it from there. A system would have to be created like this:

1st Choice: No. 3
2nd Choice: No. 5
3rd Choice: No. 6
4th Choice: No. 1
5th Choice: No. 4
6th Choice: No. 7
7th Choice: No. 2
8th Choice: No. 8
9th Choice: No. 10
10th Choice: No. 14
11th Choice: No. 9
12th Choice: No. 11
13th Choice: No. 12
14th Choice: No. 13

Someone said this is called the Kentucky Derby Style of drafting. Whatever it's called, it's a viable option and gives owners a "little" more say in their draft spots. I also think it would be easy to implement next year.

Again, I'm just looking for random thoughts on this idea and any other ideas you have as I want the draft to be as skillful as possible. There's no doubt that you can win this football league from any spot in the draft, but giving owners a little more say in where they draft isn't a bad idea if it doesn't change the rest of the contest at all. I'm open to ideas, so please give me your thoughts in this thread. Thanks everyone.

[ October 10, 2005, 11:47 AM: Message edited by: Greg Ambrosius ]

renman · Post by **renman** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:07 am

Greg,

I really like this idea. This is a more complete idea to something I threw out last year where owners would pick their preferred spots rather then bid on them and go from there. I also have no problem with using bidding as an option but I am looking at the big picture and think using faab money to bid for draft position could be that one small thing that intimidates a newbie owner from joining the event.

The bidding for spots idea is something that no one does in their local leagues. So people would have no idea as to how to approach doing it. It might scare some people out of bucking up their $1250. I think randomly picking the order and then consulting each owners prefered draft position list is a great idea. The bidding for spots is something we could do a down the road once the event is filled with a waiting list.

I like the idea very much even though I believe owners can win from any part of the draft with the right mix of good picks, good team management, and good fortune. Although I think the best place to draft from year to year might change season to season (seems to be the top spot this year as many have mentioned), I do think it would be fun to give owners the feeling they had SOME control over their draft position and it would add something fun to pre-draft preparation...

[ October 10, 2005, 12:08 PM: Message edited by: renman ]

ultimatefs · Post by **ultimatefs** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:18 am

[ October 10, 2005, 12:18 PM: Message edited by: UFS ]

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:50 am

While I personally am in favor of bidding for your draft order, I think the ranking idea is an acceptable "happy medium." This gives people some control over their pick while letting everyone start with the same FAAB money. It is an improvement over what currently exists, so I can't see anyone having a problem with this.

It sounds like you're leaning in this direction for baseball, Greg. Should be interesting to see how people feel about it for football...

Diesel · Post by **Diesel** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:06 am

Greg, like I've said in the past...I'm in no matter how you end up doing it. But IMHO, this way seems to be the best way at this time. I read about Kentucky Derby Style Drafting about 2 or 3 years ago in a draft strategy magazine(probably Grogan's). My home league did it 2 years ago, and everybody loved the idea. It's not as "extreme" a jump as free agent $ slot bidding, but it's a slight jump up from where the NFFC is now.

dgamblnman · Post by **dgamblnman** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:37 am

Quite honestly, I prefer the random method. This is the "National Championship", so you should be able to win with any slot if you think you are that good.

With that said, the other alternatives are ok. I don't like them as much but it isn't the worst thing either. The only problem I see is getting NEW players to join, they may think it is too complicated. (and yes, ppl putting down 1300 or so want something that isn't too complicated to do). I think most players now will stay no matter what happens. Plus, brace yourself for the owner who was selected 14th in the league, he will be bitching up a storm how he got screwed in the RANDOM league draft and is stuck with pick 14. You know it will happen, I know it will happen. So no matter what, there will be complaining involved, just read these boards.

ultimatefs · Post by **ultimatefs** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:50 am

Originally posted by Vega$ Gambler$:
Quite honestly, I prefer the random method. This is the "National Championship", so you should be able to win with any slot if you think you are that good.

With that said, the other alternatives are ok. I don't like them as much but it isn't the worst thing either. The only problem I see is getting NEW players to join, they may think it is too complicated. (and yes, ppl putting down 1300 or so want something that isn't too complicated to do). I think most players now will stay no matter what happens. Plus, brace yourself for the owner who was selected 14th in the league, he will be bitching up a storm how he got screwed in the RANDOM league draft and is stuck with pick 14. You know it will happen, I know it will happen. So no matter what, there will be complaining involved, just read these boards. Yep, people will bitch because #14 would probably rather have 14.

I think it's rather funny that this draft stuff goes nuts when LT goes nuts. Where were they last year when he was hurt?

renman · Post by **renman** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 10:12 am

UFS..

actually this topic came up last year during the very weeks he was hurt... everyone knows you can win or lose a fantasy football league from any spot in the event... the idea is to give a good taste in the mouth to as many people as possible when running an event like this. and most people prefer having some control over where they draft...

there still will be some "randomness" to it for those who prefer things random... but there will be a sense that you have some control over where you end up... how much control will be the random part...

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 10:42 am

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:
Someone said this is called the Kentucky Derby Style of drafting. I'm just looking for random thoughts on this idea and any other ideas you have as I want the draft to be as skillful as possible. i don't like it. it's still based on randomness. if you want it "as skillful as possible", randomness shouldn't enter the equation.

is it better than the current system? NO WAY! why randomly give someone their first preference, and then possibly giving someone their 14th preference? that certainly doesn't seem fair. you don't run the weekly FA process the kentucky derby way.

keep it totally random or give each owner the same chance at getting the slot they prefer (blind bidding).

[ October 10, 2005, 04:47 PM: Message edited by: Gordon Gekko ]

renman · Post by **renman** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:07 am

As far as I am concerned the less "random" the system is (without going so far as to maybe frighten the newbie owner from the event the) better...

The system Greg proposed is clearly WAY less random then the current system. The guy who is drawn 14th might very well get his 5th favorite spot to draft from...

I see this system as the best for sending the highest number of owners into the event happy or reasonably happy with the position they will be drafting from...

[ October 10, 2005, 05:09 PM: Message edited by: renman ]