6 replies to this topic

[UCanCallMeMitch]

For all the years I have been playing fantasy football I have never been involved in an straight / snake long running draft, but this year I will.  Yea, I couldn't believe it either.  

 

My question - How long in a slow-email draft should I allow between picks (there's 238 of them) if the draft starts August 10th. My calculations show that there will be 624 hours from the start of the draft to about 4 hours before the 1st NFL game of the year which allows 2hrs, 37 minutes between picks.

 

I know not everyone will take the entire allotted time to make their choices, but I'm wondering what the recommended time should be between picks (not shutting off the time overnight)?

 

What is your experience - six, eight, twelve hours or something else where the draft completes in a timely manner?

 

And I know they can PreDraft and such and no, a "live draft" is not an option.

[bonscott]

Most of the online "email" slow drafts I've been in have 12 hour timers, and often suspended overnight (say 11 pm - 6 am).  Usually things move pretty quickly and if there are huge delays it's usually just one or two teams.  If you allow trading of picks then expect teams to use their full time more as they try to trade.  If there is no trading it really should go pretty quick with just a few delays each day. But it really all depends on your owners. 

[UCanCallMeMitch]

Thanks for your reply BScott, but can you or anyone tell me how long it actually took to complete your snake / serpentine draft?

 

And if so, how long between picks and how many picks there were? 

 

I'm trying to get a basis / feel of what to expect.

 

Again, thanks.

[bonscott]

The last full draft I did online few years ago that was 20 rounds took about 2 weeks.  We did have a service member in Korea so it usually got held up on him since he was on the other side of the world.    I'd say about a round and a half a day.

[Andypro]

I have a 4 conference league with all long slow email drafts - all redrafts. I also have different numbers of roster spots for each draft.

 

Since I love excel and have a lot of free time, I looked at all the drafts for the past two years, and I calculated the number of minutes per pick and got the average for all the drafts.

 

The final tally is that the average time per pick was 1.89 hours. If you multiply that by 238 picks, you get a total time for your draft to come out to 18 days and 17 hours.

 

A couple of things: I also run a dynasty and a salary keeper league with lots of trading. If your league is like that, I can run those numbers. Also, the timer on these drafts is turned off for 6 hours at night, but you can still make a pick. I think I use 18 hours.

 

If you want your draft to end by the end of August, even allowing 24 hours per pick you should still easily make it. I wouldn't use anything less than 12 hours - you need to account for the possibility that because of work, etc, these people might be offline for 8+ hours at a time.

 

And I also have one later draft that's pushing it to get finished before the start of the season. I think we finished on the Monday before the season last year. If you're worried about that, you can do what we do - if the draft isn't finished by the Tuesday night right before the first Thursday game, the draft gets finished as a live draft starting at 8 pm that Tuesday night, with only one minute between picks and everyone must be there or the computer picks for them.

[UCanCallMeMitch]

Thanks guys - that was big help.

 

I'm going with 8 hours between picks without shutting off the timer.  Those that have other commitments during the draft or can't be on the site 24/7 will have to PreDraft.

 

If for some reason an owner misses his pick - that pick will be moved to the end of the next round.  i.e., misses pick 2.7, will be moved to 3.18 (17 franchises). If misses two or more picks, all the franchise's remaining picks will be moved to the end of the draft.

 

And if it looks as though the draft is not going to finish before the 1st NFL game of the season (Thursday), one or more of the following will happen -

1. Shorten the time between picks and/or
2. Have everyone PreDraft and/or
3. Have the software pick for each franchise using the rankings as posted by Fantasy Sharks

[UCanCallMeMitch]

Update:
 
Held two drafts as outlined in my last post and they ended as follows:

• The Invitational:  199 Players (14 Teams x 14 Players) - 7 days,  8 hours, 31 minutes with 3 time-outs.  Average Pick = 44 minutes.
• Chopped By LuckyDog Sports:  239 Players (17 Teams x 14 Players) - 5 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes with 1 time-out. Average Pick = 43 minutes

Now I know.