It is the beginning of another fantasy league season and you are
in your draft league selecting the draft order. For the third year
in a row you pick number six. You know many of the great picks are
going to be gone and, once again you are going to picking table
scraps. Worse yet, you may have picked number one and selected your
pick, but for the next half hour you are out of the action. If this
sounds like your league, you may want to consider an auction league.
The type of auction leagues vary, and so does the strategy involved,
but in many ways an auction league mimics the actual NFL in ways
a regular draft league can not. In an auction league, all players
are available to everyone, provided you are willing to bid for them.
It not only removes the luck of the initial draw, but also provides
a salary cap any owner can spend for the entire season.
Another advantage is, that by using actual cash up front, all players
have paid in full at the beginning of the season and commissioners
do not have to track down the delinquent payments of the league
losers. The money is there at the beginning of the season when all
players have hope of success.
Perhaps the singular advantage of an auction draft is that nobody
will help anybody. If someone is dense enough to select Trent Green
this season, nobody in your group is going to chime in with, "He's
out for the season." What determines the styles and strategies
of an auction league is the auction style that is to be used, but
you had better plan a couple of extra hours for the drafting process
to accommodate the bidding process inherent in an auction.
There are essentially two types of auction leagues, the blind auction
and the open auction. In a blind auction all bids are sealed and
submitted to the commissioner. Awarding of the player goes to the
highest bidder. In the case of a tie either the player can go to
the owner who put him up for auction, or the player can go to an
open auction format with the highest bidder gaining the player.
An open auction is just what the name implies; a player goes immediately
to the auction floor where all owners have the opportunity to bid
on the player. What ever the format, it is best to set a minimum
bid at a dollar or two, depending on your league cap, and have all
bids made in whole dollar amounts. Although the super star players
are usually up for auction first, there are a few techniques to
determine what players are up on the auction block. Remember, the
strategy used to put players on the block does not matter, all owners
have a shot at every player.
A simple method is to draw an auction order from a hat just like
a regular draft league. Another simple strategy is to draw for position
in the draft and then use player categories to begin the draft.
You could go running backs first, then quarterbacks, wide receivers,
with some leagues having the positions of rover players and coaches
as a part of their drafts. You may want to start with the players
who finished in the top of the league in their respective categories
last season or go in the reverse order of finish for the league
the previous season. The point is, it makes no difference. Everyone
bids. This is the backbone of the auction format and the bases for
strategy in the draft process.
In a fictional league the salary cap for the season is $200. In
this league there are 17 spots in the draft. The minimum bid for
a player is two dollars and the cap limit for the draft is $102.
At the minimum any player is going to have to spend $34 to have
a team in the league leaving $68 to spend on some of the top talent.
Number one strategy; do not over spend in the opening rounds. Say
you spend $38 to get Terrill Davis in the opening round. In round
two you spend another $20 for a start wide receiver or quarterback.
What you have left is $44 for the remaining 15 rounds and your chances
of picking up someone to support these players is slim and none.
In an auction league it is legal to sandbag, lie, bluff. A lot of
what you can get away with depends upon your rep in the league,
but do not be afraid to try to force the hand of other owners as
the draft begins to develop. The more they spend in the opening
rounds, the less they have to spend in the heart of the draft and
TD and Terry Kirby will most likely lose to two strong middle rounders,
and cost more. What ever strategies you use, and draft slots you
have to fill, have the league take an accounting at the three quarter
mark so all players have a clue as to the money available for the
last few picks. This prevents people from spending past their allotted
cap and having to lengthen the draft because of deficit spending
on the part of an owner. Players selected by an owner who has spent
past their cap must be returned to the pool until the owner is back
under the $102 limit. These owners must use their remaining $98
to pick up free agents to fill their 17 slots. (In one league I
know it cost ten dollars per free agent and it is a horrible way
to have to fill in empty draft spots.) Part of your strategy will
depend on the scoring your league has adopted, but it may also depend
on the divisions your league has adopted for the season.
Divisions should be adopted at the beginning of the season and may
be accomplished by a blind draw or random assignment. It would be
nice if your league has absolutely balanced divisions with each
team playing twice within their divisions and once out side, but
this is usually not the case. Usually there is one division, which
will be a little, to a lot stronger than the other division. This
could present problems if your league is having a playoff format.
The argument is this; Why should a seven and seven team from a strong
division with more total points, be knocked out of the playoffs
by a nine and five team from a weak division with a lower total
score? There are two relatively easy solutions. One is to keep the
divisions and develop wild cards, or eliminate divisions all together
and go to an open play format. In the wild card solution take the
top two teams from the divisions and then six other teams for the
playoffs based on total scores. In an open play format for a ten
team league all players play each team once during the season, with
duplicate play being at the mercy of a random draw for matches.
The auction format could breathe new life into your stale league
and there are plenty of sites on the net to assist the beginning
of one, but this is not rocket science. Talk to people, read the
articles and then decide if an auction format may better suit your
league. I play in one local league and one league a full state away,
you guess which one the auction format would work best for. Whether
you are in a regular draft league or an auction have fun, have at
it and enjoy the season.
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