Deadline(s)
I know we had discussed previously that the money issue might influence votes on the draft order issue, so we're going to have a tiered deadline in this thing. I'll open voting for both issues right now. If your draft order preference is uninfluenced by whether we have money (according to the voluntary money parameters outlined on the league page and below), then feel free to vote on both right now. If your draft order preference will depend on whether we have the voluntary money wager, wait until the results of the money vote are tallied and then vote on your draft order preference.
In order to achieve the above staggering, all votes regarding money (as outlined below) must be submitted no later than midnight (Pacific) Friday, March 13 (another Friday the 13th this year; spooky). I'll tabulate and post results on the league page sometime Saturday, March 14. Voting on the draft order will close at midnight (Pacific) Tuesday, March 17, to give those who were waiting for the money vote time to get their votes in. I'll post the results on the league page on Wednesday, March 18, well before the beginning of the playoffs (remember: if you want to keep a guy, he must be on your roster before the playoffs start and must stay on your roster through the end of the season). If either vote is completed before the deadline (i.e., everyone gets their votes in early), I'll just post the results ahead of time.
Voting Procedure
You can vote in one of three ways: comment to this blog post; comment on the league page; or email me (or beermail, if you are so inclined). My email address is on the league page (follow the "Managers" link at the top of the page). Whenever and wherever you vote, include your team name in the vote.
In your vote, choose one option for each "ballot initiative."
Ballot Initiative #A: Dolla Dolla Billz, Y'All
For a more extensive explanation of the options, please see my comment on the league page. When you vote, just say which number you're voting for.
We'll do option 2 if at least 5 people vote for it (voting against it doesn't mean that you can't participate; if it passes, everyone will have the option of doing it if they want to).
The options:
- No organized league-wide money bet (this does not preclude informal side bets between two or more league members, it just means that I, as league Commish, won't be collecting money, enforcing a deadline, and doling out the cash winnings).
- A voluntary league-wide money bet (where everyone in the league can opt in, but nobody is forced to participate). If this passes, we can haggle on the amount of the buy-in, but it won't be more than $25/person, and the payouts (whatever the buy-in) will be as follows: 3rd place will get their money back; 2nd place will get double the buy-in; 1st place will get the rest.
As stated above, please submit your vote for Ballot Initiative #A by midnight (Pacific) Friday, March 13.
Ballot Initiative #B: Draft Order Options for Next Year
In our previous discussions, some people expressed that they might want to do something different next year than they would going forward. This vote, on Initiative #B, is for next year only. Initiative #C will be for years after next year. If you want the same method for next year AND the years following, just vote accordingly; the options for #B are the same as #C, so vote for the same option on each Initiative.
If you want to vote for one of the options 6-9, and you want to know what the weighting of the odds will be, the answer is that it will roughly follow the odds for the regular NBA draft (see the explanation of the process here and here; basically, the worst team will have about a 25% chance of getting the top pick/choice and some ridiculously high chance of getting a top-3 pick/choice). I can't/won't replicate exactly what the NBA does, assigning teams up to 250 sets of 4-digit combinations (out of 1000) and then pulling numbers out of a hat to get those combinations and thus the draft order, etc., because that's crazy. The method I have in mind is replacing the 4-digit codes with pieces of paper in a hat and rounding off the decimal points so I can use 100 little pieces of paper (instead of 1000). The worst team will get 28 pieces (since we're cutting out picks 11-14 from the NBA model -- we only have 10 teams, so we only need 10 picks -- the numbers don't add up exactly, so I thought I'd give the worst team a little bump in the odds with three extra chances), second worst will get 20, third worst will get 16, fourth worst will get 12, fifth worst will get 9, sixth worst will get 6, seventh worst will get 4, eighth worst will get 3, ninth worst will get 2, and tenth worst (i.e., league champion) will get one measly piece of paper (which can still hit the jackpot; just ask the Bulls). The first name plucked from the hat would get the first pick/choice. The second unique name plucked would get the second pick/choice, and so on (according the the parameters of options 6-9, since they differ slightly).
It should be stated, too, that in all of the options, the draft order will snake: the order for even rounds will be the reverse of the order for the odd rounds.
If none of the options gets at least 5 votes, we'll have another vote between the top two vote-getters.
The options:
- Last place finisher gets first pick in the draft; rest of first round follows reverse of league finish.
- First place finisher gets first pick in the draft; rest of first round follows order of league finish.
- Last place finisher gets to choose his/her draft slot first; next worst finisher gets to pick his/her slot next (and so on in reverse order of league finish).
- First place finisher gets to choose his/her draft slot first; next best gets to pick their slot next (and so on in the same order as league finish).
- Random order.
- Draft lottery wherein the last-place finisher gets the best odds of getting the first pick in the draft (conducted in the same way as the NBA draft lottery, where only the top three picks are lotteried off -- picks 4-10 will follow reverse of league finish, just like in the NBA).
- Draft lottery wherein the last-place finisher gets the best odds of getting first choice of all the draft slots (similar to #3 above, only in lottery form, and following NBA draft lottery rules as in #6 where 4th choice through 10th choice will follow reverse of league finish).
- Same as #6, except ALL picks will be lotteried off.
- Same as #7, except ALL draft slots will be chosen by teams, and the order of choosing will be entirely determined by lottery.
Ballot Initiative #C: Draft Order Options for After Next Year
Again, if none of the options gets at least 5 votes, we'll have another vote between the top two vote-getters.
The options:
- Last place finisher gets first pick in the draft; rest of first round follows reverse of league finish.
- First place finisher gets first pick in the draft; rest of first round follows order of league finish.
- Last place finisher gets to choose his/her draft slot first; next worst finisher gets to pick his/her slot next (and so on in reverse order of league finish).
- First place finisher gets to choose his/her draft slot first; next best gets to pick their slot next (and so on in the same order as league finish).
- Random order.
- Draft lottery wherein the last-place finisher gets the best odds of getting the first pick in the draft (conducted in the same way as the NBA draft lottery, where only the top three picks are lotteried off -- picks 4-10 will follow reverse of league finish, just like in the NBA).
- Draft lottery wherein the last-place finisher gets the best odds of getting first choice of all the draft slots (similar to #3 above, only in lottery form, and following NBA draft lottery rules as in #6 where 4th choice through 10th choice will follow reverse of league finish).
- Same as #6, except ALL picks will be lotteried off.
- Same as #7, except ALL draft slots will be chosen by teams, and the order of choosing will be entirely determined by lottery.
