Socially Distant Drafting

Draft Day is a huge event for most Fantasy Football leagues, especially when it is an in-person gathering at a bar or restaurant or at home, or even a road trip to Vegas to conduct the draft in a bigger venue. These gatherings can sometimes be the heart and soul of a league. But we understand that this year presents some unique challenges for in-person gatherings, so we wanted to make you aware of on-line drafting options for leagues in case you’ve never explored these options on MFL. And while “Socially Distant” is a commonly used term now, it should really be referred to as “Physically Distant”, because the on-line options at MFL allow everybody to draft from their own location, but stay socially connected with on-line chats and email notifications of the progress throughout.

Drafts and Auctions
You can conduct your annual draft or auction on-line directly from your league here on MyFantasyLeague.com. Just pick a date and time to start, and then set everything up ahead of time by setting a draft order or specifying your auction parameters.

Live or via Email
There are two types of on-line options for drafts and auctions. You can conduct them “Live” if all of the Franchise Owners can get together and login from their devices at the same time. These types of events usually take a couple of hours (with 1 or 2 minutes per pick, for example) and participants all join each other in a Draft or Auction “room” on-line.

The draft or auction room features a list of players to choose from along with a chat window to trash talk or discuss things while waiting for your next pick. The system automatically keeps track of the progress and lets you know when you’re on the clock and keeps a running tally of the picks that were already made. For Auctions, it tracks the funds available and allows you to nominate or bid on players throughout the auction.

The other option is to conduct a Draft or Auction via Email if you prefer to allow everyone to make their picks at their convenience over the course of several days or even weeks. This option is especially useful if you can’t find a date and time that works for everyone in the league. The system will keep track of the progress and send out email notifications to all franchises to keep them updated throughout. There are even options in the Email Drafts to make pre-draft picks for owners that know they won’t be around when it is their turn to pick, which helps keep things moving along quickly. Just be sure to start these a week or two before the first NFL game so you have enough time to finish drafting or bidding on players before kickoff.

Plan Ahead
Note that if you’ve never used these options before, you do need to prepare by setting them up before the desired date and time of the draft or auction. So if you are the commissioner, don’t expect to enter your live draft room at 6:59pm for a 7:00pm draft! Instead, you’ll want to configure everything at least a day in advance to give you time to set the draft order or the auction parameters as needed. Check out the Commissioner Tutorials for more guidance.