10 fun ways to determine your fantasy football draft order

The fastest way to pick a fantasy football draft order is to click randomize. The most fun way is anything but. Here are ten of the best ones — and a backup plan for when your chaos method produces a tie or a fight.

1. The pizza delivery race

Each league member orders the same pizza from a different shop, all at the same time. The order pizzas arrive determines the draft order. Caveat: this requires everyone to live in the same city, and your delivery drivers will be confused.

2. The paper airplane contest

Everyone builds a paper airplane and flies it from the same line. Distance determines slot. Cheap, fast, and the throwing technique arguments alone are worth the price of admission.

3. NFL trivia tournament

Bracket-style trivia, league-themed. The winner gets first pick. This rewards the league members who actually pay attention, which is either great or terrible depending on your group.

4. The fantasy combine

Set up four to six events: 40-yard dash, throwing accuracy, cup pong, cornhole. Total points decide draft order. Best done at the league's preseason BBQ if you have one.

5. NASCAR finishing order

Every league member draws a driver from a hat before the next NASCAR / IndyCar / F1 race. Driver finishing order = draft order. You don't have to watch the race; you just have to live with the result.

6. Madden tournament

Bracket-style Madden, gauntlet seeding. The winner gets slot 1. Works great if half your league refuses, because they get slots in the back of the order by default.

7. Music shuffle

Each league member adds one song to a shared playlist. Hit shuffle. The first song to play decides slot 1, the second decides slot 2, and so on.

8. The auction

Every league member gets the same fake currency, and slots are auctioned off one at a time. Whoever wants slot 1 most pays for it. This works best in keeper leagues where draft slot has long-term value.

9. The blame draft

Last year's last-place team picks first. Last year's first-place team picks last. Cruel, simple, and weirdly motivating mid-season.

10. The reverse standings draft

Same as above but more democratic — everyone's slot matches their inverse standing position from last year. Functionally identical to the NBA's logic before they invented the lottery.

What if the chaos method doesn't decide it?

Three pizzas show up at the same time. Two paper airplanes tie. Your driver gets DNF'd. The fallback for any of these is the same: a public, scheduled, open-source draw that nobody can dispute.