Question about your leagues... (1 Viewer)

[GOODGRIEF]

I am the Commissioner in a league of my friends. It's mostly a friendly league with a small money prize (but none of us play for the money). We have had keepers (2) for the past couple of years, but we're doing away with them after this year, but the question applied to both the keeper and non-keeper "eras" of our league.

In the past 5 seasons (2 have had keepers, the other 3 no), the person who drafted first overall has been in the Championship Game. The past 4 years, they have won the Championship. The person who drafted #2 overall has appeared in the Championship Game 3 of 5 years, and looks likely to win this year (they also managed to snag Vick off the waiver wire after a fortunate poor showing Week 1). People drafting in the top 4 have made up 11 of the 16 playoff teams.

It's a pretty good league...we have very few "donaters" (those who seem to perpetually stink and don't know what they are doing). There are a couple teams who seem to always compete, but it's pretty balanced.

We do a normal snaking draft, with the #1 overall pick picking first in the odd rounds, last in the even rounds. Scoring is fairly standard (1 pt for 10 rushing/receiving yds, 6 pts for all TD's...with some bonuses for long runs, long receptions and milestone yardages - 100-150-200 rush/rec, 300-350-400 passing). No PPR, but we do aware 0.5 pt for first downs.

Draft positions are a two tiered lottery, with all the nonplayoff teams in one bag for positions 1-8 and playoff teams in another bag for positions 9-12. We have 3 divisions, with the previous years division winners "captaining" the selection process for the divisional assignments (selecting who will join them in their division). You play your divisional teams in weeks 1-3 and 12-14 and other teams 4-11

Do you find this to be true in your leagues...that those drafting 1 or 2 overall seem to have a really big advantage in total outcome? Is there something in how our league is structured that could be causing this...or is this just the nature of the beast in semi-evenly matched leagues?

Is there anything that is done in any of your leagues to disadvantagize the top drafting teams (maybe leaving the order reversed in round 3 or 5 to make the top drafting teams draft last again)? Any ideas?

 

[notoriousbob]

Our league has had no such trend. Our best team this year was from the #1 slot, but that was just because he picked up Vick and had some guys fall to him at the 2/3 turn that shouldn't have. If there is a trend in our league it is that the guys at the later slots tend to make the playoffs. But that is probably because we do a reverse order thing for draft slot in the next year. The worst 4 teams have a mini-playoff in weeks 15-16 for the top 4 picks (the winner of the bracket gets the #1 pick, second gets the #2, etc), the middle 4 have a mini-bracket for the middle four picks with the winner of that bracket getting the #5, and the championship bracket does the opposite with the champ getting the 12th pick, runner up getting the 11th, etc. This has served us pretty well, and everyone likes that their games mean something even if they aren't in the champ bracket. As I said before, one of the teams in the Championship this week had the #1 pick, but that means he was one of the bottom 4 last year. I'm in the championship game too and I picked #8.

 

[rocketsauce]

I think in a keeper league, all bets are off in regards to Draft Position affecting end of season success. Way too many variables in there to even worry about draft position.

In my re-draft, I'm in the Championship from the #8 slot (PPR, went WR-WR-WR, but also traded away my entire team) and am facing the guy who drafted at the #10 spot (went RB-QB-WR, and also traded a ton)

So, yay for trading!

 

[Mr. Know-It-All]

This year the #1 pick made it to the championship game...but did so after enetering the playoffs as the #8 seed. He is facing the #5 seed in the championship (who drafted #4). Neither team is particularly good - they just got hot during the playoffs (or in one case, was less cold than his opponents).

We have a draft lottery for 1-12. Lottery chances are inversely proportional to previous years record. So best team gets one chance. Worst team gets 12 chances. Numbers drawn from a hat.

In 18 years i have nver been higher than #4. I always get screwed by being good enough to get fewer chances - but seldom winning the big prize.

 

[glong989]

Don't think draft position has much to do with it. I was #4 pick and came in 4th in one league - and the one where I was #6 pick (with my #6 pick in Gore going down), I am in the Super Bowl with a 20 point lead and 2 studs left to play.

By saying that the 1 or 2 position has an advantage, you are saying that their first pick is that much better than a #10 slot first pick. After that, all bets are off. The only thing the #10 slot can't control is who the #1 guy chooses first overall. When it gets to him he can get anyone he wants who is left, and one player cannot win you the entire league in most cases. Also, take a look at the top 4 teams in your league right now. How many of those can you look back on the draft and say, man..he nailed it with his first 3-4 rounds? Usually isn't the case. The later rounds are what wins you leagues and that usually has little to do with your draft position and more to do with picking the right guy.

 

[GOODGRIEF]

Hmmm...well, maybe our league is just a statistical anomaly then.

Maybe I should do away with the 0.5 pt first down thing and go some kind of PPR. That should perhaps boost WR's some and make the top tier RB's a little less valuable....although I do hate to touch the scoring system for the sake of league history and records and such.

 

[jackdubl]

Our league goes almost in the other direction. We have a keeper league and do a NON-SNAKING draft, so the same guy picks first in every round. This is our second year with that format. 1st year the top pick made the championship game and lost. This year the top pick was eliminated in the semi's. Neither year did the 2nd or 3rd picks do anything. Both years it will be guys at the bottom of the draft, picks 10-12, who will win it all. Keepers seem to dictate more than the draft position in our league.

We go in reverse order of finish for the winner's bracket, non-playoff teams compete for picks 1-6 in their own bracket and pick according to finish.