Since a lot of us have to do a lot of scheduling in advance, let's determine what day we're drafting this season. The first game is on Thursday, September 4. The Saturday before that is August 30, and the Sunday is August 31. But that is Labor Day weekend and always seems to hurt our attendance. Saturday August 23 and Sunday August 24 are possibilities, too. Vote in the poll below. If the vote is close, the top two vote-getters after one week will be the two choices in our run-off election to determine the draft date. That poll will also last one week.
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Draft Day 2014 will be the first time we draft under our own banners. VistaPrint is now the official banner provider of the OIL. The banners' cost totaled about $30. If you want to throw in some money, you can do that on the Donate page. This Monday each year is the most exciting and depressing Monday of the season. Today starts Super Bowl week. But we also know that it is the final Monday of the 2013-14 NFL season. My grandfather used to greet the end of summer by proclaiming that "the drought is almost over." Well, conversely, the drought is almost here. Seven months without a meaningful NFL game just seems cruel. But we persevere every other offseason and we will this year too. Of course, OIL blog updates will slow during the offseason. Expect a few scattered updates here and there but nothing major. The main priority this offseason will be organizing and finalizing the OIL2. There are still a few spots open in the OIL2, so tell your old 158 or SECFOR buddies about it. We also need to order the OIL2 trophy: the Killman Memorial Trophy. And we hope to come to a consensus over the summer on a draft date and location. It would be great to see some of the guys who haven't been able to attend our draft recently. Until then, enjoy the Super Bowl and head on over to Fantasy Football Calculator to get those mock drafts started. The season is over, and it's time to consider draft choices for next year. Here is the order for the 2013 draft:
Your commissioner and champion has changed zip codes (with much help from The Adam Duffy), so the Harrington Trophy has found a new place to call home as well. It's not the most glamorous of mantles, but I'm not complaining. I'll see all of you at the draft on the 27th in Lawton. There, I'll let you touch the Harrington if you'd like. I can't wait for this season to start, my first one as a defending champion. I'm starting a new career path and don't know how much free time I'll have, HOWEVA, I will never forget that our trophy is named after a man who won the entire ESPN.com network of fantasy football leagues while losing his job, his girlfriend, his health and his home. Arrogant Americans in 2011! This is the first season that members had the opportunity to choose their draft positions in a draft of draft positions, so to speak. While the first few selections did not surprise me, the rest of the process certainly did. To recap:
I had the first selection and chose the 14th pick. My reasoning is that I get to see the trends of the draft as the first round plays out and adjust accordingly with my first two selections. Additionally, I get two of the first 15 selections. With the first pick, I would get the top pick, but only two of the top 28 players overall. Finally, the pressure of who to choose with the number one pick is so great, that I do not value it highly. Because you have to wait 27 picks before you make it to your second selection, you absolutely have to hit a homerun with your first pick. To that end, I am happy that I have the last pick in the first round. It did not surprise me that Hastings chose the 13th position, although he gave some thought to the first position. His reasons for choosing 13 are much the same as mine. The allure of the number one pick almost swayed him, but two of the top 16 proved to be more valuable to him. With the third choice, Jessen did what I thought he would when he chose the number one position. The number one position is traditionally highly valued and I'm sure Jessen was thrilled that he was able to land the top spot while only finishing in third place last season. After that, however, things became a little less predictable. Duffy chose the 12th spot in order to capitalize on seeing trends as they unfold rather than choosing the number two position and the value that the second overall pick could net. At number five, Pyle was on the clock and had to choose between 2-11. I was certain that he was going to choose number two before he surprised me with number 7. Pyle is on the record, however, as saying he never again wants the pressure of the number one pick and perhaps number two was too close for comfort. As far as why he chose number seven, I can't be sure of whether or not that would have been his first choice, but I think I can rationalize why he and subsequent members chose the middle of the round over number two. With the back end of the draft filled up, members had their choice of the front end (minus number one) or the middle of the round. While there is generally more value given to earlier picks, six members chose picks in the middle of the round before someone decided to take the number two pick overall. While the trend was incredibly surprising, there is logic in remaining in the middle, not too far away from each end. Choosing in the number seven spot, Pyle will wait 12 and 14 selections between his picks at the front and back end of the rounds, respectively. With such consistency between picks, he can allow himself to get into a rhythm of sorts regarding his research and choices. He's not too close to the front of the draft, where he is blind to how the rest of the round will play out, potentially killing his initial draft strategy. He's also not too close to the end of the round, where there is less value to begin with. Additionally, although the 1st and 14th positions enjoy back to back selections throughout most of the draft, there are 26 players taken off the board in between each back to back selection by the member sitting on either end of the draft order. Screw up back to back selections and 54 players are off the board (including your own busts) before you gain a player of any value to your fantasy franchise. Five members after Pyle chose to crowd Pyle in the middle of the rounds, each one seemingly terrified of the pressure of selecting number two and then waiting so long for the opportunity to draft another piece of the puzzle. Finally, with the number 11 choice, Leal jumped on the chance to choose second in the 2011 OiL Draft. The remaining three members filled out the remaining slots and the order was set. I will take the surprise of this year's draft order draft with me the rest of the offseason and into next year's draft, however. It will be interesting to see how the strategy plays out for each member and even more interesting to see if those who chose to hang out in the middle of the rounds will choose to stay there in 2012. Good luck to everyone. Comment with any ideas or explanations for how the draft played out. Click on "More" and then "Results," followed by "Drafts" and "2010" to see the results of our first live draft at Buffalo Wild Wings. Everyone who attended had a great time. Discuss the best and worst on the message board.
I've been sick as a dog the past few days, but nothing could keep me from meeting everyone at Buffalo Wild Wings at noon Saturday for our live draft. Schmidt and Henderson will not be there and will have stand ins drafting for them. Trovillo and Cobb will not be there and will be calling and texting in their picks from Tennessee and Arkansas, respectively. Good luck to everyone; it should be a great time for all involved.
It is too late to retroactively make last year's drafted players available to be kept this year, but, if the league would like to institute a keeper policy, we can do so starting this year.
Here are the parameters the league would use if a keeper policy was instituted (although they too could be negotiable): 1. OklahomIraqis team owners may only keep up to two players. 2. The only players eligible for "keep" would be players drafted by the team owner and kept throughout the season. Players that were drafted but released or traded later could not be kept the following season. 3. Team owners would have to give up a draft pick equal to the round just prior to the round the player was initially drafted in. For example, if last year's draft class was eligible for "keep," Pyle could keep Steve Smith (NYG) in exchange for his 11th round pick this year. Pyle drafted Smith in the 12th round of last year. 4. Every season that a player is kept, the compensation given up increases by one round. In the above example, if Pyle were to keep Smith again for the 2011 season, he would give up a 10th round pick. The following year, it would be a 9th round pick, and so on. 5. First round picks cannot be kept. 6. Once the compensation for a kept player reaches a first round pick, the player can be kept for only one season. For example, Leal selected Chris Johnson in the second round last season. Under this scenario, Leal could keep Johnson for this season, but Johnson would not be eligible to be kept any season thereafter. Hastings and I will be hosting the first episode of our league podcast in just about an hour. The call in number is 646 595 2122. Feel free to call in and talk about the upcoming season. You can listen live at www.blogtalkradio.com/oklahomiraqis or at the podcast page on our site (if it is working correctly.)
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