The best part of fantasy football is the draft. Everything from the pre-draft process all the way through selecting players is the most fun part of fantasy. Before you can draft, though, you need a draft order. If you want, you can make this exciting as well. Here are some classic — and some a little bit out there — ways to determine your fantasy football draft order.
Top 10 Ways To Decide Your League’s Draft Order
There are truly an infinite amount of ideas we could come up with to determine a fantasy football draft order. They range from the most creative and elaborate activities to the most mundane.
If you’re interested in doing something fun while also making it a bit of a spectacle, here are some ideas to consider. As always, the goal is for it to still be a random chance.
Host a Combine
I know what you’re thinking. It’s hard enough to get everyone in the same place for a draft, let alone for a draft order. Fortunately, we have technology to assist us.
This combine can be done remotely by each league member at their leisure, provided it is recorded and documented for authenticity.
The specifics of what your combine will entail are entirely up to you. The possibilities are endless. Ideally, you want to choose activities that don’t really have a high skill cap, as you ultimately want this to be mostly random. The draft order will be determined by the speed at which each manager completes the assigned tasks.
Wager on a Horse Race
This is as straightforward as it gets. Pick a day. Pick a race. Have everyone draw a horse. The order in which everyone’s horses finish is your draft order.
Simulate Games of Madden
You can play real games of Madden … or any video game. But that brings a level of skill into play. In a simulation, everyone is equal, and it remains a random chance. You can run a tournament with a losers’ bracket and everything. The winner gets the first pick. The runner-up gets the second pick. And so on.
Play a Poker Tournament
Not everyone knows how to play poker, but while poker is a game of skill, there is an element of luck to it. In fact, it’s quite similar to fantasy football in that way.
Get all of your managers at a poker table (either in person or online), and the draft order is determined by the order of elimination.
Go Minigolfing
Unless you have a golf professional in your midst, minigolf is mostly a game of luck. While this also has the problem of getting your entire league together for a second day besides the draft, it works if your league consists of mostly a group of friends who typically hang out with each other.
Everyone can spend a nice day or night out together. You can have fun and also get a fantasy football draft order out of it.
MORE: What Does ADP Mean in Fantasy Football?
The Arcade Challenge
This is a fun one because it actually involves a bit of strategy. Everyone goes to an arcade with an identical amount of money. Twenty dollars is fine. The goal is to accumulate the largest sum of tickets (or coins or whatever their prize system is). The draft order will be determined by the number of tickets each manager earns.
Take the Wonderlic
We like to poke fun at quarterbacks who struggle with the Wonderlic. Well, here’s your chance to prove there’s at least one thing you do better than an NFL quarterback (because throwing a football certainly isn’t it). Have every manager take the test, and the draft order will be based on the scores.
You can also do this with any sort of test or quiz. Maybe a standard IQ test; perhaps you want to find a football trivia quiz on a site like Sporcle. As long as no one has an unfair advantage, it’s both fun and fair.
Play Laser Tag
Maybe your league has a laser tag wizard in its ranks but probably not. I haven’t played laser tag in years, and I can’t imagine anyone in my league has. When no one is particularly skilled at something, it’s the perfect game for determining your draft order.
You can structure this however you want, but here’s how I’d do it for maximum fun: Have the previous season’s finalists serve as captains. Draft two teams of presumably six. Play a round or three of laser tag. The members of the winning team get the top six picks, and the specific order of picks will be based on your total score within the game(s).
An Eating Challenge
Think hot dog eating contest but with way fewer hot dogs. No one has to be Joey Chestnut over here.
Decide on a food. Could be hot dogs. Could be waffles. Could be grapes. Could be anything that is easily measured.
Set a timer to something reasonable. The smaller the food item, the shorter the timer. The draft order is determined by whoever eats the most during the time allotted.
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Go Bowling
This wouldn’t work in any of my leagues because I actually bowl as a hobby (you’re probably thinking I’m super cool now. Thanks!). Most people go bowling a couple of times a year for a night out and no one is particularly good.
If you have a league of 12 people who have no bowling skill whatsoever, it’s the perfect game to determine your draft order. Go out and bowl three games each. It doesn’t even have to be together or on the same night. The highest to lowest determines your draft order.
Draw From a Deck of Cards
Maybe this belongs in the “less fun” section, but it feels slightly above it in terms of level of excitement. Everyone draws a card and the draft order is set from highest to lowest. Any ties are broken by a redraw between the managers who drew the same card.
Additional (Less Fun) Ways To Decide Your League’s Draft Order
Sometimes, you just want to get the draft order done as quickly and efficiently as possible. That’s what most of my leagues do, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Pick Names Out of a Hat
This is as old school as it gets. Throw all the team names in a hat and draw them one at a time. We go from last to first to build suspense, of course. The first name out gets the last pick, and so on, all the way to No. 1.
Run an Online Randomizer
This is the automated version of picking names out of a hat. It’s as simple as it gets and even removes the element of suspense as the remaining names dwindle down during the drawing.
There are plenty of websites out there you can use to randomize a list. Find one, put all the team names in, and click randomize. The randomizer will then spit out your draft order.
