My Commish Rules

Draft Randomization

100 Yard Rush

A Rule About Draft Randomization

“I’m tired of letting our league site determine our fantasy football league draft order but I’m too lazy to do anything about it,” – Most Commishes. Well, what if I told you there was a beautiful place that could serve to randomize your fantasy football draft order all while creating an exciting event for your league to participate in? Ok, pretty cool. But, what if, ON TOP OF ALL THAT, I told you that you’d also get a huge helping of nostalgia along the way? Now we’re talking. 

 

Introducing 100YardRush.com

 

Gone are the days of letting your league platform randomize your draft order and letting your mother pick your outfits!

 

How It Works

Randomizing your fantasy football draft using 100yardrush.com is simple and fun but with enough of a show to make you feel like you did something as The Commish.

 

This site is beautiful. When you first enter the 100yardrush site you’re greeted by a throwback to those late nights playing Techmo Bowl at sleepovers as a kid – with all of the bright 8-bit colors and pixelated characters but minus all the Cheeto dust on your fingers. 

 

Once you select the number of owner’s in your league, enter their names, click the mouse a few times to confirm everything and – BOOM – all of a sudden you’re watching a bunch of little tiny 2D runningbacks make their way across the field.

 

But how does it all work, you might ask? Well, algorithms. Someone way smarter than us set it up so that every 2 – 7 seconds (randomly selected), each player will move between 1 and 10 “yards” on the screen (also random), for the duration of said 2 – 7 seconds. That means a player can move 10 yards in 2 seconds giving them a strong lead, then immediately queue up for only 1 yard in 7 seconds, which will put them behind.

 

While this all happens in the background, the visual result is a race down the field you’ll find yourself cheering for. Eventually, the runningbacks make their way across the goalline to the finish – deciding your upcoming fantasy football draft order. 

 

The best part though is that the geniuses at 100yardrush figured out a way to give you a link to an exact copy of the race. That way, you don’t even need to run this as a live event. All you have to do is just copy the link, send it to the group chat, and let them watch the fun for themselves.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Visit www.100yardrush.com, where all of the magic happens.
  • Do a trial run as commissioner, playing around with the various options and watching how things work.
  • Set an official time and day for the event to take place, and encourage league members to gather for the viewing, if possible. 
  • Cheer on your little runner and hope for the best. One race. One official set of results.
  • If not all leaguemates are together to watch the event, be sure to send along the race link in the group chat!

Change Ups

The programmers of 100yardrush.com have recently made updates to incorporate some “luck” factors such as offering a “Code Race” option where each leaguemates can enter any phrase of their choosing before the race. This can be something meaningful to them like their dog’s name, their favorite drink, their favorite website (MyCommishRules, obvi), or something completely meaningless. That code then gets converted into a series of numeric values on the back end which the app uses to further calculate each runningback’s movements. Essentially, this gives players a tiny bit of ownership in the randomness.

 

Also, if you’re really feeling ambitious, get the leaguemates together for just one more excuse to enjoy some libations, have some snacks, and talk trash for the most exciting (slight exaggeration) couple of minutes you’ve ever experienced (unless you’re a professional bull rider or have gone skydiving or drove over 60 mph). 

 

But really when it comes to the actually 100yardrush site itself – if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. And we can’t think of a single way you would want to change up this rule anyway. It’s your own little personal two-dimensional horse race at the click of a button.

Related Rules

Horse Race Draft

The fastest two minutes in sports – horse races are a heart pounding burst of adrenaline for sportspeople of any type. Anything can happen once those gates fly open, which […]

Read More »

The Most Charitable Draft

The charitable spirit has always been alive and well in Fantasy Football. Stories of recurring league donations are commonplace. Recently, Fantasy Football generosity has gained even more momentum with the […]

Read More »

Beer Pong Draft

Throwing it back to the ol’ College Days, the Beer Pong Draft rule is exactly what you think it is. Get all the boys back together in someone’s dirty basement […]

Read More »

Pick Picks

Finding out your draft order can be like opening up a Christmas gift from your great-grandmother. You can never be too sure what you’ll get but it is likely you’ll […]

Read More »

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

The Most Charitable Draft

A Rule About Draft Randomization

The charitable spirit has always been alive and well in fantasy football. Stories of recurring league donations are commonplace. Recently, fantasy football generosity has gained even more momentum with the rise of leagues that put up donations as a form of “punishment” for owners who finish the season in last place. This is a great way to donate at the end of the football season, but what about the other times of the year? Here at MyCommishRules, we continue the tradition of giving by marrying philanthropy and the draft board. 

 

Behold – THE MOST CHARITABLE FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFT!

 

 

How It Works

Beginning on a date after the season is over, the league owners will vote on a charity to become the league’s “Charity of the Year”. During a specified timeframe, league owners may donate to this charity. Prior to the draft, the Commish tallies up the total amount donated by each owner. The owner who donated the most earns the #1 draft position and so on.

 

If one or more of the league owners donated the same amount (including $0), a variety of tiebreakers can be considered. One way to break a donation tie is to use the previous year’s standings to determine order. In this case the owner who finished lower in the standings would get the higher draft pick in this year’s draft. Another, more exciting way to break the tie is to open up another round of donations only between those two owners. The owner who donates the most in this additional round is awarded the higher draft position.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • After the season is over, have league owners nominate and vote on a charity that will be deemed Charity of the Year for the upcoming season.
  • Dedicate a specific timeframe that will serve as “open season” for donations to the Charity of the Year. This time frame should be centered around the upcoming season’s draft. We suggest the open season be the 30 days prior to draft day.
  • At the close of the open season (and prior to draft day), the Commish will tally the amounts donated by each league owner. The owner who donated the most, earns the #1 draft position, second most gets the #2 draft position, and so on.
  • In the event of a donation amount tie, have a predetermined tiebreaker such as a new round of donations or use the reverse final standings from the previous season to determine which owner gets the higher pick.

Change Ups

When you are dealing with other people’s money, things can get sticky and complex. We get that asking your league owners to donate money can be difficult. If the owners in your league are the stingy type, we suggest placing a cap on the amount that can be donated. This can serve two purposes:

 

  1. An upper cap on the donation amounts can level the playing field a little bit for those who are not willing or able to drop $100 at once to get a high draft position.
  2. It will give owners a clear sense of what is expected of them in terms of how they can achieve the pick they hope to get. If the upper donation cap is $50, an owner can reasonably expect that a $50 donation will get them a top draft position whereas a $5 donation will likely find them drafting near the end of the first round.

Another adaptation to this rule would be to combine it with payment of league dues. Owners can be allowed to overpay on their league dues payments. The amount they overpay is their donation to the Charity of the Year. This way, you, as the Commish, will only need to request one transaction to get both the donations and the league dues paid on time, reducing headaches for all involved.

Related Rules

March Madness Draft

We here at MyCommishRules.com think that the best time of the year – outside of the fantasy football season, of course – is March Madness. With the thrill of rooting […]

Read More »

MLB Homerun Derby

This draft order randomization rule mashes up three of America’s favorite pastimes: fantasy football, gambling, and watching steroid-riddled men crush lobbed-up baseballs deep into left field. The MLB […]

Read More »

100 Yard Rush

“I’m tired of letting our league site determine draft order but I’m too lazy to do anything about it,” – Most league Commishes. Well, what if I told you there was […]

Read More »

Plinko Draft

A Rule About [cat=’keepers’] Remember those days when you would fake being sick so that you could stay home from school to avoid taking that quiz in Social Studies? Instead,

Read More »

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

Plinko Draft

A Rule About Draft Randomization

Remember those days when you would fake being sick so that you could stay home from school to avoid taking that quiz in Social Studies? Instead, you would watch as much TV as humanly possible, but it turns out that the only things on were soap operas and the Price is Right. Well, we think Bob Barker was onto something with that Plinko game. The thrill of a ball bouncing through a minefield of obstacles just got even more exciting! 

 

We love this idea as a way to determine your fantasy football draft order. Grab a piece of plywood, some golf tees, and a ping pong ball and meet in the Deets section below.

 

How It Works

We borrow heavily from your favorite 10 am weekday slot game show, the Price is Right, for this Draft Order Randomization Rule. The first order of business here is obviously to acquire a plinko board. We suggest making a custom one at home with some spare golf tees, a piece of plywood or foam core, and some glue or tape. But, if you’re not the crafty type, you can always get one for fairly cheap on Amazon or another online purveyor of goods.

The best part of using a plinko board as a way to determine your fantasy football draft order is that it gives league owners the ability to physically play the game with the outcome still being very random. Game play is similar to the OG plinko game. Each owner is given a number of ping pong balls, typically 5 or 7, to play with. They drop the balls down the board and watch as the balls finally meander into slots at the bottom assigned with different point values. Draft order is then determined using the total amount of points scored by each league owner. 

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Build or purchase a plinko board. Bonus points for the best homemade plinko board!
  • One by one, each owner takes their turn dropping the ping pong balls down the board into the slots at the bottom.
  • Calculate the total points earned by each owner.
  • The league owner with the most points gets the first overall pick in the upcoming draft and so on down the line.

Change Ups

Because this requires at least some effort on the part of you, the Commish, either to purchase or make this plinko board, we suggest utilizing it for many other things throughout the course of the year. Use the board as the de facto tiebreaker in head-to-head matchups. Use it to settle minor disputes. Use it settle major disputes. 

 

The power is in the plinko.

 

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

MLB Homerun Derby

A Rule About Draft Randomization

This Draft Order Randomization rule mashes up three of America’s favorite pastimes: fantasy football, gambling, and watching steroid-riddled men crush lobbed-up baseballs deep into left field. The MLB Homerun Derby provides a great opportunity to use an outside event to determine the draft order for the upcoming season. The widely televised event gives league members a chance to watch the drama unfold before their very eyes. We can’t think of a better way to enjoy the MLB All-Star break than to co-opt it to kick off the fantasy football season.

 

How It Works

Similar to our Horse Race Draft rule, the MLB Homerun Derby Draft pairs each league owner with a participant and the draft order is determined by where that participant finishes in the competition. In the case of the MLB Homerun Derby Draft, names of the sluggers are drawn from a hat and paired with each league owner. The head to head format of the Homerun Derby adds an exciting element as league owners are competing directly with another owner during each Derby round. A good tiebreaker to consider before the Homerun Derby begins, is to have each owner predict the distance of the longest homerun hit that night without going over.

 

The Homerun Derby is limited to 8 players which may have you asking how this will work with your 10 or 12 owner fantasy leagues. A common remedy is to double up two owners on a single batter, however you see fit. One example would be to place the bottom two finishers on the same batter, or pair up arch-nemeses in the league for some additional personal entertainment as Commisioner. To determine who gets the higher pick between the doubled owners, the owner who was closest to correctly guessing the longest homerun gets the higher pick.

 

As the Derby plays out, the owners eliminated in the first round will be ranked based on the number of homeruns their player hit. If there is a tie, determine which owner gets the higher pick based on the longest home run prediction at the end of the Derby. In the second and third rounds, the players eliminated should be ranked based on the total number of homeruns their player hit throughout the whole Derby.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • First, If your league has more than 8 owners, determine how you will double up owners on batters.
  • Once owners are paired together as you choose, draw names of owners and batters from two separate hats.
  • Prior to the beginning of the Derby, have each owner make a prediction on the distance of the longest homerun that will be hit throughout the Derby.
  • After the first round, the owners who have been eliminated from the competition are ranked based on the number of homeruns hit by their matched batter. Tiebreakers may come into play.
  • In the second and third round, the eliminated owners are ranked based on how many homeruns their batter has hit throughout the entire Derby. Tiebreakers may come into play.
  • Any doubled up owners should be sorted based on their predictions of the longest homerun of the derby. Example: a doubled up set of owners have a batter who finished fourth in the standings. The owner who guessed closest to the longest homerun gets the fourth draft pick while the other owner get the fifth draft pick. All other owners lower in the standings get bumped down one spot as a result.

Change Ups

This rule is easily transferable to any other competition where participants are eliminated on a round-by-round basis….like watching an entire season of Survivor, you’ve got time for that, right? The change ups for this randomization rule mostly involve how you double up owners on batters. Here are some options: Closest birthdays, inter-league relationships, bottom dwellers (two lowest finishes previous year), or literally any way you’d like.

 

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

March Madness Draft

A Rule About Draft Randomization

We here at MyCommishRules.com think that the best time of the year – outside of the fantasy football season, of course – is March Madness. With the thrill of rooting for upsets and buzzer beaters, what’s not to love? But March Madness gets even better when paired with Fantasy Football! Get your leaguemates together in a Bracketology pool and see who comes out victorious. Since you all are probably filling out a bracket anyway, determining your next draft order based on March Madness standings adds another exciting layer to the mix. Who in your league will have their One Shining Moment this year?

 

How It Works

Combining the excitement of March Madness and fantasy football has never been so easy! In this draft randomization strategy, owners take their best shot at picking the correct winner of each NCAA Tournament game, just as they would in any other March Madness Bracket Pool. But instead of the typical cash prize, in this case the winner is rewarded with the first overall pick in the upcoming football season’s draft.

 

Determining the winner is extremely simple if you decide to host your Draft Pool on a typical tournament bracket challenge website. We recommend either yahoo.com or cbssports.com as great starting points.

 

In the likely event of a tie somewhere in the final result, be sure you have a solid and previous agreed upon tiebreaker scenario. A classic tiebreaker in this case is to have each owner predict the National Championship game combined score before the tournament starts. In an example scenario, a few owners are tied for 5th place. This tiebreaker determines that the owner who’s prediction was the closest to the final combined score gets the higher draft pick while the next closest prediction gets the next highest draft pick, and so on.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Prior to tip-off of the first NCAA tournament game, have each owner fill out and submit a March Madness Bracket. We recommend using either of these industry leaders – yahoo.com or cbssports.com
  • Discuss and vet a tiebreaker scenario with league owners prior to the beginning of the Tournament. The “Championship Game Combined Score Prediction” tiebreaker is a classic.
  • Watch the Madness ensue!
  • Award draft picks in the order of the final March Madness Bracket Pool standings, after tiebreakers have been applied.
  • The National Championship is typically in the early part of April so this will give your league a much needed energy boost during the lull of the NFL offseason.

Change Ups

This Draft Randomization Rule works best in re-draft league formats, but can be adapted for keeper leagues.

 

You may have some concerns with the draft order “randomness” of this rule format given that knowledge of college basketball could give an owner an unfair advantage. If this is a major concern, we suggest changing this rule to act similar to the Horse Race Derby rule, where the names of the participating NCAA teams are randomly drawn and assigned to each league owner. *Draft order can then be determined by the results of the March Madness Bracket without requiring your league owners to make any predictions.

 

*The finer details of this change up may involve some more thoughtful planning than we are currently capable of so we suggest sticking to the OG rule structure, or emailing us with your own spin on this rule!

 

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

Horse Race Draft

A Rule About Draft Randomization

“The fastest two minutes in sports” – horse races are a heart pounding burst of adrenaline for sports-people of any type. Anything can happen once those gates fly open, which makes these races the perfect opportunity for bettors – or, say, for a certain fantasy football commissioner searching for the perfect way to randomize the order of an upcoming draft? A tried and tested Draft Order  Rule, the Horse Race Draft randomizer rule is a shockingly easy and exciting way to kick off a new fantasy football season. Continue reading to find out why this continues to be a MyCommishRule all-time favorite fantasy football draft randomizer.

 

How It Works

Similar to our MLB Homerun Derby Draft, the Horse Race Draft pairs each league owner with a race participant. At the end of the race, the draft order is determined by where each race participant finishes in the competition. In the case of the Horse Race Draft, names of each league owner are drawn from a hat and paired with a race horse. As the race begins, the all out sprint of the race adds an extremely exciting element as league owners can literally watch the first pick slip away as their horse gets pinned on the inside track or they can argue over which horse has the edge in a dead heat down the stretch. 

 

Another thing that makes this Draft Order Randomization Rule so great is that there are no tiebreakers needed. Horse races always have explicit results so you will never have to hear league owners complain about the unfairness of a tiebreaker scenario. Thank goodness! 

 

As you can imagine, this is best enjoyed when all league owners are present and in one place. Horse racing is already thrilling, add this Draft Order randomizer element and you can take it over the top. The ultimate way to enjoy the Horse Race Draft Rule though is to actually watch the race, in person, at the track. Peg your draft to the last race of the night, bet on the early races and enjoy some beverages. League owners are not soon to forget the simultaneous excitement and disappointment about to ensue.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • With the league owners, select the exact horse race you will be using to determine draft order. 
  • This race can be one at your local track or one that live streams either on TV or online. We strongly suggest tying this to one of the Triple Crown horse races held in the spring of each year (The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness, or The Belmont Stakes). 
  • Be sure to choose a horse race that has at least as many participating horses as you have league owners. 
  • Pair each league owner with a race horse by drawing names from two separate hats. 
  • Use the official race standings to order the draft by matching the league owner’s position with their paired horse’s position. Don’t worry about if there are more horses than owners, just be sure to skip unpaired horses when determining the final order.

Change Ups

This basic setup for determining draft order via racing can be translated to almost any form of race you can think of. NASCAR, turtle racing, the Iditarod – you name it.

 

Whichever race you choose to tie your draft order to, we recommend following it live with your leaguemates. Nothing beats that trash talk and commiseration.

 

Give your leaguemates a little more control by allowing them to CHOOSE their pony when their name is drawn out of the hat. Afterall, we are here to gamble. With the freedom of choice, league owners have no one to blame but themselves when “Moons Over My Hammy” loses by a nose.

 

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

Beer Pong Draft

A Rule About Draft Randomization

Throwing it back to the ol’ College Days, the Beer Pong Draft rule is exactly what you think it is. Get the crew back together in someone’s dirty basement to throw pieces of plastic into bigger pieces of plastic filled with cheap liquid that tastes like plastic. Unlike the glory days of the past however, this beer pong tournament has more at stake than bragging rights. The first overall pick is on the line!

 

How It Works

Treat this beer pong tournament as you would any other. Owners play in a single elimination bracket with the eventual winner taking home the first overall pick. Seed this beer pong tournament to end all beer pong tournaments as you see fit. We suggest using the league’s final standings from last season. This works extremely smoothly in 8 and 10 team leagues. In those 10 team leagues, designate four teams to play in two separate “play-in games”. The winners of these “play-in games” then enter a standard 8-team bracket to be crowned the league’s best. As owners get eliminated, assign draft picks based on the total number of cups they’ve sunk up to that point. Given the circumstances, any other tiebreakers should be determined by some sort of drinking game.

 

We won’t go through the arduous task of explaining the proper way to play beer pong (that could be an entirely separate website). Just be sure to make sure you have an agreed upon set of House Rules in effect before someone tries the elusive triple bounce shot. As always, stay safe when mixing fantasy football, friends, and drinking – bad trades can happen at anytime!

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Get all league owners together on an unassuming Saturday afternoon
  • Seed the tournament using last season’s final standings. Fantasy football prowess translates directly to the beer pong table, right?
  • Owners play single elimination matches until a champion has been crowned
  • Determine draft order by the final standings of this Beer Pong Tournament
  • Watch those elbows!

Change Ups

This setup pits a single league owner against another. This may seem daunting if you’re trying to avoid a miserable hangover the next day. To speed up this tournament and split the amount each owner drinks in half, pair league owners together for 2 v. 2 games. Determining which owner in a team of two gets the higher draft should come down to whichever owner sunk the most cups….BOUNCE!

 

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.

Pick Picks

A Rule About Draft Randomization

Finding out your draft order can be like opening up a Christmas gift from your great-grandmother. You can never be too sure what you’ll get but it is likely you’ll be disappointed. You are either too early or too late or fricken Carl drafts right before you and he always steals your picks. It never pans out the way you want it to. How about taking control of your life and trying something new, like picking your own picks.

 

How It Works

On the opposite side of the Draft Order Randomization spectrum from drawing owner names out of a hat, is just letting owners choose their own draft positions. Rest assured, there certainly is a reasonable dose of randomization baked into this Rule.

 

Turn the standings from the previous season upside down and allow the last place team the first opportunity to choose where they will draft in the upcoming season. Depending on their drafting strategy, the keepers they may already have on their roster, or other superstitions, they may or may not choose to draft in the first overall position. After the last place team has cemented their place on the draft board, the second to last place team will then have their opportunity to do the same. This process will continue until last season’s champion is left with the last open draft position.

 

If your league has historically just drafted in reverse standings order year-over-year, you seem primed and ready for a shake up. This is the Draft Order Randomization Rule for you.

 

Nuts and Bolts

  • Flip the final standings from last season so that the last place owner is at the top.
  • In this reverse standings order, allow each owner to select their draft position for the upcoming draft. (This does not have to be in order, owners can pick any available draft position.)
  • After all owners have selected their draft positions, last season’s champion is forced to draft in the only position left.

Change Ups

If you want to explore an added layer of randomization to this Rule instead of selecting draft positions in reverse standing order, find an exciting way to determine the selection order. We have a whole host of awesome ways to do this in our Draft Order Randomization page. Choose any one of the Rules on that page, like Plinko or a Horse Race, to determine a new selection order and let the pick picking begin!

 

Related Rules

You're the Commish.
Make your own rules.