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Before you need to worry about whether you should take a running back or wide receiver in the first round, you must first know what pick you have in your fantasy draft.
The draft is one of the highlights of the fantasy season, bringing friends and family together in houses, sports bars and online forums around the world. Everyone is 0-0 and everyone, I mean everyone, loves to talk smack about their newly-drafted team in the immediate aftermath.
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While the draft itself is perhaps the highlight of the season, the process of setting the draft order can also be enjoyable. Sure, you can set it based on last season's standings or simply draws names out of a hat, but you can also do a lot better than that.
Allow us to help you by presenting a handful of more entertaining methods for setting your draft order.
Methods Based on Luck
Lottery
No, no, this doesn't involve anyone buying lottery tickets. Instead, you can simply rely on the local state lottery to help you determine your draft order.
Most states have some form of a "Play 3" or "Play 4," in which three or four numbers between zero and nine are drawn. There might be afternoon and night drawings, so decide in advance if you want to use both. Assign the 10 numbers to the league members either randomly or based upon last year's standings, then sit back and keep your fingers crossed.
Draft positions are assigned based on the lottery numbers drawn. So, for example, if the first drawing is 1-2-8-4, the players with those numbers would draft 10th, ninth, eighth and seventh, respectively. Keep going until all the spots are filled. Simple yet effective, and there's minimal effort required.
Horse race
This is basically the same principal as the lottery numbers, except one race can decide the entire draft order, as opposed to the lottery method taking a few days to unfold.
This is also more ideal if you and your other league participants live within reasonable distance of a casino or, better yet, a racetrack. Why not make a day trip out of it on the weekend? Betting on the actual horse race is purely optional.
Beer pong
Disclaimer: We here at RotoBaller encourage responsible drinking. That being said, beer and football go together like peanut butter and jelly. Cliched reference? Fine, they go together like Antonio Brown and receptions. Better?
An entire beer pong tournament isn't needed to determine the draft order, though you're welcome to do so if you have the dedication. Instead, you can just grab some Solo cups, number them one through 10 (or 12) on the bottom, have an impartial party shuffle them around, and then simply take turns shooting into said cups. Whatever number is on the cup you sink, that's your draft spot. If you miss, go to the back of the line and wait for another attempt.
Methods Based on the Mind
Wonderlic test
Hey, all NFL players are required to take the test prior to the draft. Why shouldn't fantasy players take it, too?
This is easy enough to set up. Simply get all your league mates on their own computer at the same time (preferably in the same place), and have everyone begin the online Wonderlic test at the same time. The top scorer earns the No. 1 pick and so on down the line.
There are a million Wonderlic tests out there, but you should follow the NFL standards -- 50 questions in 12 minutes.
NFL trivia test
Same exact idea as the Wonderlic test, except instead of testing random problem-solving skills and intelligence, you're testing knowledge of the National Football League. Like the Wonderlic test, a simple Google search can turn up a multitude of NFL trivia quizzes.
Just don't be too hard on the person that finishes in last place.
Madden tournament
Is this really a test of the mind? Probably not ... but it certainly isn't solely based on luck or a physical competition.
Let's be real -- Madden is great, but only consider this as an option if everyone in your league is, more or less, on the same level ability-wise. It won't be fair or enjoyable if the resident Madden ringer crushes all of his opponents en route to the No. 1 pick.
In lieu of Madden, allow me to suggest a few other video games that could lend themselves to either bracket- or round robin-style tournaments: Super Smash Bros. (any of them), Mario Kart (I'll always be partial to Mario Kart 64), GoldenEye 007. You know ... maybe just having a Nintendo 64 Olympics-style event makes the most sense.
Methods Based on Physical Competition
Bowling
Just like with the Madden tournament, bowling is only a good idea if everyone in your league is similarly skilled. If someone in your league once bowled a 300, or even just somewhere in the 200s for their high school team back in the day, this probably isn't the best option.
But if you choose to go this route, it's quick, straightforward, and with automatic scoring, minimizes controversy.
Scouting combine
This option is, at the very least, sure to produce plenty of laughs and joke-worthy moments. If your league members truly wants to earn their draft positions, setting up a mock draft combine will do the trick.
Some of the tried-and-true drills include: 40-yard dash, broad jump, three-cone drill and short shuttle. All of these are easy enough to set up, but please, make sure you stretch beforehand.
Touch football
First, agree upon some specific scoring for individual players (for example: six points per touchdown, one point per catch, two points per interception). Then split the league up however you prefer, but pit two teams of five or six against each other and play until one team reaches a decided-upon amount of points.
The winning team will get draft picks Nos. 1 through 5 (or 6), while the losing team gets 7 through 10 (or 12). Add up the individual stats to determine the specific picks (high scorer on winning team gets No. 1 pick, etc.).
Be warned: This has the potential for ball-hogging and other poor sportsmanship, but it also has the potential to be quite entertaining.
If you enjoyed this breakdown of ways to determine draft order, be sure to tweet me @Andrew_Lovell with fun ways that your league determines draft order!
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