Fantasy Football Auction Prep

The Fantasy Football Auction.  So great they say that you will never want to go back to a fantasy football draft again.  Pure edge of your seat, adrenaline pumping, laugh in the face of your buddy excitement from start to finish.  Everyone has an equal shot at every player on the board.  Your in on every pick, no more waiting around.  You have more control over your team than letting the league dictate who falls to you.  Yes, the Auction can be all these great things but can also be a big pain if you are not prepared.

A quick rundown for those not in the know.  You may have heard the term Auction before.  There is a pretty popular site you may have heard of called EBAY for those that are computer people.  Think of it as EBAY for Fantasy Football.

The Basics:

• Rather than filling your roster with players via the traditional fantasy football draft, your going to fill your roster by bidding on players
• The amount of cash and roster size is totally up to your league, as well as the other rules you would normally have.

Pretty simple, huh?  All you really need to know to make the jump from draft to auction is that, first, your no longer having a traditional draft, second, you need to determine how much cash everyone gets.  There are other details to be worked out (general league rules, scoring, roster size, who the auction is run…) later and you can find a great deal of information in the links at the end of this article.  For the most part here we are looking to set you up as the owner for your auction.

It’s pretty simple to grab a cheetsheet and walk into a traditional fantasy draft and wing it.  Try this with an auction and there is a good chance your going to be the laughing stock of the room (or cyber space) for not only the duration of the auction but for the whole season.  Let’s have a look at a little case study…

NOTE: The story you are about to see is true; the names have been changed to protect the ignorant.

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Owner: Lenny
League: 16 team Dynasty with IDP
Cash: $1000
Roster size: 50
Starters: 17 with offense and defense

This is Lenny’s first auction and he is coming out of the gate fast.  The winning bid on Adrian Peterson?  $362.  36% of the total cash to fill a 50 man roster.  Of course your going to assign different values to starting positions and many of the spots can be filled for a few bucks, but Lenny still has to worry about 16 starting positions.

We are sure that he is going to be more frugal now, right?  Nope.  Next Lenny takes Marshawn Lynch for $193.  Now in his defense, RB’s are going for $200 or more…but Lenny turned in his right to have two higher tier RB’s when he bid so high on Peterson.  He now has 56% of his cap space tied up in two players.  Wanna hear a kicker?  RB’s are not even a required start, you have the option to start 0-2 and 3-5 WR’s.  In this league format 10 or the top 25 scorers in 2007 were WR’s.

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The moral of the story?  Don’t be a Lenny!  We should not be too hard on Lenny because if it were not him, some one else would have done it.  Others had to be bidding high to get it to that amount, right?  L.T. went for $351.  The difference is Lenny continued with the high bidding after his monster purchase.  With a few steps in preparing for your auction you can avoid these mistakes and even bounce back from your mistakes if you make them.

1. Know your League Rulebook! This goes for any kind of fantasy football draft.  Know your roster size, scoring system, how many at which position you need to start, know everything before going into the auction!
2. Make your Cheetsheet! As mentioned before, you can wing it in a traditional fantasy draft, although it would not be recommended.  Your going to want to go in with a plan, preferably a cheetsheet with some kind of auction values assigned (there are some examples listed below).  Even without values assigned you can look at a cheetsheet and plan accordingly as players come off the board.  You will have an idea of how people are paying for players of different talent levels.  Keep in mind that in later rounds of an auction you do not get to take whoever you want just because your up like in a regular fantasy draft, you have to have the cash.
3. Budget and Budget again! Take a look again at how many starters you need.  Shouldn’t you have an idea of what you want to spend for them?  You have already looked at your scoring system so you know what positions are valued, you should look at paying a little more for them.  You have also looked at your lineup requirements, right?  Some positions will be a little harder to fill, you can pay a little more there.  For example, in a 16 team league there are two starting QB’s available for each team…if you want to cover your bye week you better have two!  There is a must read budgeting article linked below.
4. Know your Fudge Factor! Things are not going to go exactly as planned.  Plan on that!  You have your budget set but for some players you are willing to give a certain amount more to have them.  Give this some though before hand so you don’t panic and throw the whole budget out the window.
5. Know who you want and don’t want! Your not going to get everyone!  You will have to sit back and watch some people go off the board that you would love to have on your team.  To make this easier, have a list of players that you already know you have no intention of bidding on.  Use the time they are on the board to go over how your budget is looking and adjusting those extra $$$ you saved to other targets. This also helps with the next step…
6. Know who to put out when it’s your turn! In most auctions owners take turns nominating players to the block.  If you know a player is going to go bigger than your willing to pay, why not put him out there?  Watch the others battle it out for him and their dollars fade away.  You can also put out a player you know you want.  Others may not value him as much and you have it out of the way and can go on with your day.  On the other side, if you don’t get him, you also have that out of the way and can adjust the cash you were going to spend on him to other players.
7. Know your Opponent! If your doing this with a bunch of buddies you already know a lot about your rival.  You know his favorite team, you know his favorite college, you know his favorite players.  Use this!  Use it when placing players on the board.  Use it when they are on the board carefully raising the bid if you know the other guy is going to match…this will likely burn you at some point so make sure it’s someone you wouldn’t mind on your team.  Also keep an eye on other teams rosters just as you would in a regular draft.  Know which positions they are likely to bid on.

These are just some things to take into consideration if you don’t want to be a Lenny.  Here are some great FREE resources to give a read to prep for your auction.  One thing that you can take from the fact that some of these articles are a bit older is that the information within stands true over time.  Give each one of these a read and take notes that jump out at you.

Tools:

Practice it up with some Mock Auctions at Fantasy Auctioneer.

Ask the Commish Auction Values

Articles:

The Huddle- Auction Budgeting (Must Read!)
The Huddle- Three Styles of Bidding
The Huddle- 10 Tips for Fantasy Auctions
FFToolbox- Auction Drafting Made Easy
FF Toolbox- Fantasy Football Auction Strategy
KFFL- Fantasy Football Auction League Strategy
ArmChairGM- Fantasy Football 101: Auction Draft
Wunder Dog Sports Picks- How to Draft in an Auction League
Fantasy Football Starters- Auctions: A Popular Alternative to Fantasy Football Drafts
Yahoo Sports- Auctions Drafts: Just the Tips
Ask the Commish- Auction Draft Strategy  Do’s and Don’ts
4 for 4- The Art of the Auction
FFToday- Auction Draft Strategies

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