Ever hear of "drafting" for divisions in your league? (1 Viewer)

[matttyl]

So my 11 year running 10 team dynasty league wanted to "shake things up" a bit this offseason when it came to splitting the teams into our two divisions. Our divisions structure has worked out very well in the past, as you play your 4 division rivals twice each (as the NFL does), and you play your 5 non-division rivals once each - making the perfect 13 game season before our playoffs.

Previously we simply took the top 5 teams from the previous year and put them in one division, and the bottom 5 teams would make the other division. This gave a "leg up" to the weaker teams by theoretically giving them an easier schedule - proven by have a "bottom division" team in each of the last two championship games, including one ultimate winner.

This year, a new idea has come up. Have the two teams from the championship game "draft" who the other teams in their division will be, with the champ getting the first pick of the 8 remaining teams. Should lead to some interesting trash talk I would think. Anyone else ever done this? How'd it go?

 

[dirtyhalos]

we do it in 3 of my dynasty leagues... the 4 division winners enter a draft to pick the teams, its been fun and does lead to rivalries and extra trash talking

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

If you have to have divisions, it's a relatively fair way to try and balance them. At least on paper. I drafted last year and managed to have my division finish 1-2-3 in a 12 team league.

 

[Pickle Rody]

We don't "draft" divisions, but we do re-align every three years. We use combined 3-year records and a "placement" schedule. Basically, after three years the teams with 3-year combined regular season records ranking 1, 4, 7 and 10 are placed in one division, 2, 5, 8 & 11 in another, then 3, 6, 9 & 12 in the last. This gives a better long-run depiction of each teams success and then "places" them in divisions accordingly. It works great and we have eliminated the complaints about "weak" vs "strong" divisions. Yes, we play each division opponent twice and all others once for a full 14-week regular season.

 

[Monty Burns]

we do this every 4 years in one keeper league I'm in....the "draft" adds a little excitement and changes things up as well as somewhat re balancing the 3 Divisions....

 

[Hoosier16]

We've started doing this to realign every 3 years. Instead of the winners doing the drafting, we had the 3 teams with the worst record do the drafting. The first one was pretty fun and jump started the pride in the bottom teams.