9/1/99
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.
|
