Since the dawn of time, the serpentine draft has had a unique influence
on the fantasy football experience. What pick did you get? Who
got the first pick? These questions told you that draft day was near...the
greatest day of the year in fantasy football. My league fully embraced
the serpentine draft as we utilized it during our initial nine years of existence.
In year ten, we made a highly controversial decision. In the spirit
of trying to make our league better, we eliminated the serpentine draft in
favor of a new system. At the time, some were skeptical...but they
aren’t anymore.
If you are currently using the serpentine draft, you are not using the most
efficient player selection system available. You may not know it, but
your system is deficient. You need to make a change. It’s time
to go to an auction. We used it for nine years, so I know the serpentine
draft works, it’s just that the auction works better. Let me tell you
why.
The primary reason is because it allows you to instill a higher degree of
fairness within your league. There is a fundamental flaw with the serpentine
draft in that all team owners are not on equal ground at the start of the
player selection process. Simply put, every player is not made available
to every owner. This fact is irrefutable. The player that is
drafted first is not available to 90% of the league. This inequity
is compounded depending on how far down an owner’s draft position is, as
there are multiple players that are never available to him. This issue
is easily remedied by going to an auction format.
The auction also offers the additional element of salary cap management.
This feature is a nice benefit in that it makes the process more strategic,
challenging, and fun for the hard core fantasy football owner. Rather
than simply drafting the highest valued player available, an owner needs
to determine when he should strike and when he should stand back and let
the others fight it out for a certain player. It is the World Series
of Poker, fantasy football style. You look your opponent in the eye
and back and forth you go in your bidding war, wondering if your opponent
is just trying to make you pay more, or if he absolutely has to have the
player.
Opponents of the auction will argue that it takes too long. This is
a myth. The auction took us about the same amount of time as the regular
serpentine draft. Opponents of the auction will argue that you have
to pay more attention, rather than relaxing between picks. This...is
actually true. If you are concerned about having to pay attention,
you probably shouldn’t auction; in fact, you probably shouldn’t play fantasy
football at all because you are obviously incompetent.
The truth of the matter is that most leagues aren’t moving to auction because
they don’t think there is a problem with their current system. I used
to feel that way. As I stated earlier, the serpentine draft does work.
A typewriter works too, but I chose to type this article up on the computer
anyway. It just seemed like a more efficient way to do it. This
isn’t about good old Mr. Serpentine not working; it’s about the auction working
better.
Should you try it, you will find the auction to be more equitable, challenging,
and entertaining than its serpentine brethren. I wrote this article
because I now realize that our league should have made the transition years
ago, but we didn’t think it was any big deal. We were content in our
ways; we didn’t know what we were missing. Now that I know what I know,
I have chosen to enlighten the masses. It is now up to you, young grasshopper,
to learn from my wisdom.
As a reward to you from me for joining the 21st century and moving to auction,
I will write a follow up article with some tips and tricks for you to use
during the auction. I know you all will agree that this is very generous
of me. I tend to agree, but I can’t help it, it’s what I do...I help
people. Be on the lookout in the next couple weeks for that article.
Until then, good luck and welcome to the auction.
