*Updated for the 2022 fantasy football season.
Being commissioner of your fantasy football league comes with great power. Part of this power is the responsibility of deciding the league’s fantasy football draft order. This will decide the GM’s dance partners for the next four months. Given there’s only one per year, it’s critical to maximize the fun in all aspects of draft day. Let’s review some different methods of seeing who will be the lucky winner of Jonathan Taylor this upcoming season.
TRADITIONAL METHODS
If you’ve played fantasy in any capacity, you’ve likely experienced at least one of these next few methods. They’re no-frills, straight to business, and get the job done.
Reverse Standings Method
This is one of the easiest methods if you have the same group of owners year to year. The worst team last season receives the first pick and the league champ receives the last pick. This also mirrors the actual NFL draft every April but may lead to shenanigans towards the end of the season for teams that aren’t competing for a playoff spot.
The Hat Draw
Another common approach is drawing names out of a hat. Traditional, NBA draft lottery style, with building suspense as the last few names remain in the hat. Another tweak is putting names in one hat and draft slots in another. This adds a little flare and draws out the process a bit more to see if you’ll be landing Cooper Kupp or stuck with back-to-back picks at the turn.
Randomization Tool
Randomization websites like random.org or even the draft hosting site are other options for the no-nonsense commissioner that wants it done the easy way. Plugin your 10 or 12 owner names, and let technology do the rest. Your pick destiny now lies with the internet gods.
VIDEO GAMES
Most fantasy players also come from a phase of video games at one point in their life. What better way to decide your draft slot than by flexing your prowess on the sticks?
Royal Rumble
A personal favorite is the Royal Rumble simulation. Each owner chooses a wrestler, cracks a beer, and watches the pixelated employees of Vince McMahon throw each other over the top rope for your enjoyment (or displeasure if you’re the first eliminated, signaling pick 10 or 12). Be the last man standing to hear your theme music play as you envision your roster shaping out from the first draft slot.
OG Super Mario
If you’re a child of the past 3 decades, you’ve no doubt played at least one Super Mario Brothers game. Dust off the NES console, and get the stopwatch. The GM that completes world 1-1 with the fastest time receives the first pick. Big decisions need to be made from the very beginning. Do you choose to go for the mushroom or fly by it and go straight for the flag? This is the difference between starting Justin Jefferson as your WR1 versus taking a flier on Tyreek Hill catching ducks from Tua Tagovailoa.
Madden NFL/NBA Jam
Another method centers around the game that first captured the essence of the NFL in pixelated form, Madden NFL. Set games for 2-minute quarters, and have a tournament amongst your league, with the winner receiving the first pick. Another alternative is the retro-friendly game, NBA Jam. Do you play tall ball with Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley, or do you go with the sharpshooting of Reggie Miller and Detlef Schrempf? The choice is yours but choose wisely… unless you want to miss out on one of the top-tier running backs in round 1.
REAL WORLD/ROAD RULES CHALLENGE
Reliving the glory days of intramural flag football or company softball are common occurrences with most gentlemen as they enter the parenthood chapter of their lives. So, why not re-capture that magic? Who doesn’t want to pretend they’re CT from Boston dragging Johnny Bananas through the Inferno on his back?
Beer Chug
There’s typically no shortage of beer consumed on draft day, so why not use it to determine the draft order? Take the stopwatch out, and time a beer chug for each owner. The quickest chug receives the first pick. Add a few wrinkles to it, like dizzy bat spins, push-ups, or Gauntlet/Inferno-style physical challenges. Be mindful of the ABV, otherwise, you’ll have a league full of “Jack Daniels” owners as detailed in our 5 Most Common Draft Day Personalities article.
Pick Pong
Owners that went to college, or partied with college kids know the game of beer pong (or as the OG’s called it, Beirut) all too well. In this version, each cup will have a number on the bottom once they’re set on the table. Once an owner lands a shot, pull the cup. Repeat until all owners have a cup in hand. Give owners the option to trade their cups prior to checking the bottoms to add a little more fun. Everyone will then draft from the slot that’s written on the bottom of the cup they pulled. This may also help break the ice with any new owners that may not know everyone in the league.
QB Challenge Course
This is the most physically demanding option in this list for you fit twenty-somethings. Set up a quarterback accuracy course using barrels, recycling bins, basketball hoops, and whatever else is on hand, while setting a point value for each. Every GM then will receive a set amount of time to see how many points they can rack up using the different targets. The most points land the first pick.
MENTAL CAPACITY/ FORTITUDE
This last category tests the mental capacity and performance under the pressure of the league owners. Feel free to add wrinkles or change the subject matter of any of these scenarios to better fit what you think your league will enjoy.
State Capitals
Being married to an elementary teacher has kept school curriculums relevant all these years after grade school. Print off a map of the 50 states, and hand one out to each owner. Start a timer for 60 seconds, and see which owner can write in the most state capitals. Another scenario would be just to name the states themselves. Everyone thinks they can pick out Alabama and Mississippi, but when Josh Allen is at stake in your super-flex league, can you still name them correctly under pressure?
Wonderlic Test
This will need an unbiased third party to develop the questions for a mock Wonderlic test. NFL Quarterbacks go through this before the draft and is one of the metrics used to determine their draft profile. Can you perform under pressure like Ryan Fitzpatrick from Harvard, or will you fold, and fall to the end of the draft?
Fantasy Trivia
This last method will again require an impartial third party to develop the test. Each owner will receive a questionnaire with 10 questions pertaining to the most recent fantasy season results. Questions related to which player led the league in targets, and to which player produced the highest single-game score of the season are some examples. This pairs perfectly with your draft prep, and should give you a leg up on the competition if you’re keeping up with our Fantasy Stock Watch!
OTHER
The Pizza Order
Everyone in your league gets together and orders a small cheese pizza from pizza shops in similar proximity. Everyone plays drinking games in the meantime and you set up a podium by the door for when the pizza arrives. When the pizza arrives, everyone sets up their chairs so they are all facing the podium, and your commissioner asks the delivery person who the pizza is for. The pizza delivery person then becomes a part of your draft and announces the draft order. You can go from 12-1 or 1-12, it works either way, and you get pizza.
In the end, draft day is the best day of the fantasy season for your league and is the closest we get to Christmas morning as kids. Gather with your league, and have some fun deciding the draft order. Even if you end up with the last pick, you should at least have some laughs getting there. Good luck on your draft slots this season Wolfpack!
