The Snake Draft

Have you heard your friend boasting that he has the first pick in his fantasy draft, or complaining that he's be forced to pick last?  Ever wondered what that meant?  Well based upon those statement it's safe to say that your friend's league uses the Snake Draft system.

In fantasy football there are basically only two drafting systems.  The Snake Draft and the Auction Draft.  By default, many of the online fantasy sites use the Snake Draft, so that is the one we're going to start with.

The premise is simple.  Just like the NFL Draft, each team in your league is assigned a specific slot to pick from.  Generally speaking in fantasy these slots are assigned randomly.  Unlike the NFL Draft, however, the Snake Draft then reverses the order after each round.  For example, if you are in a 10 team league and have been lucky enough to have the first pick, you're first two picks will be numbers 1 and 20.  Not 1 and 11.  Doing this helps create parity amongst the teams. 

It also presents interesting strategic options for people who pick "on the turn".  To pick, "on the turn" means that you are either the team with the first of last pick in the first round, because as the rounds rotate order, you will have the opportunity to pick back-to-back.  Many, many winning fantasy teams are built from the last drafting position because of this advantage.  So if you hear your friend complaining about being forced to draft last, you might want suggest to that person that they start reading this blog.

The Auction Draft

The Auction Draft functions exactly like the name implies.  Essentially each team in the league is given an equal dollar amount to bid on players.  The beauty of this system, is that unlike the Snake Draft, in an Auction Draft each and every team has an equal opportunity to get every player.  So there is no drafting first or last.  If you want to bid on every player you can.

The rub here of course is that once your out of money the rest of your team will be filled with scrubs.  So strategically you're trying to get the most out of your money with every purchase.  In addition of course, you're trying to drive up the price of players that your competition wants.  Thus limiting how many top notch players they can buy.

In future posts I will covering a whole host of strategies and thoughts on these two systems and how to make sure you end up with a quality team regardless of the system your league uses.  The key with both, however, is practice.  During the offseason take the time to develop your strategies and contingency plans by using mock drafts provided by your league's hosting service.  In the end, that's about the only way to ensure that you come out on top when your league conducts it's draft for real.