SBFFC Live-Draft Strategy Guide
The SBFFC is less than two weeks away! For those of you who don’t know what the SBFFC is or the format, you can find out more information here. With the draft coming up I want to break down some strategy about bidding on a draft pick, preparing for the draft with a co-owner, and some live-draft tips.
About the SBFFC
The SBFFC is a similar tournament to the FFPC and NFFC but is hosted in Kentucky with a $200 entry to their main event. It's a 12-team PPR league with a tournament-style, top-heavy prize pool. I attended the draft last year and will be attending again this year. There are a few unique quirks about the SBFFC that are important to understand prior to drafting. One of them being the third-round reversal. This means:
- Round 1 draft order: Team 1–Team 12
- Round 2 draft order: Team 12–Team 1
- Round 3 draft order: Team 12–Team 1
- Round 4 draft order: Team 1–Team 12
This provides an advantage to those picking at the end of the first round and makes it harder for those who have an early pick. The idea of a third-round reversal originally started in the Ladinian Tomlinson days where having a top pick was a massive advantage. We now have the second-coming of LT with Christian McCaffrey so a third-round reversal again makes a lot of sense and is a fun twist.
What makes this even better is that you get to bid on the right to choose your draft position using FAAB (Free agent acquisition budget). Before the draft, the commissioner will have auction-style bidding for the right to choose your draft position. This means that the person who wins the first bid has the right to choose any draft pick. After they choose their draft pick, the commissioner re-opens up bidding for the next-highest bidder. It continues from there until the draft is full. It allows you to enter your draft with a specific plan on not only acquiring your favorite draft slot but going and grabbing “your guys.”
Draft Pick Strategy
How should you approach bidding on your draft pick? I did two write-ups on SBFFC-style satellite drafts where we also bid for our draft picks. Usually, the first three picks and last three picks go and then the middle is filled in. Most of the first few picks are sold for around $250-to-$450 of FAAB money.
How much of your FAAB should you use? I think a lot of this comes down to which picks you want, and how locked in you are in those. For example, if you want CMC more than anything in the world, you'll have to pay the piper and make sure you win that first draft pick.
I usually try to give myself a range of picks I want and don’t start bidding until the first in that range is picked. For example, at last year’s SBFFC I wanted the 10th -12th pick. The first few picks that were won happened to be at the top of the draft. That meant I was able to wait and didn’t have to start bidding until four picks had already been selected. This allowed me to get my favorite pick for a cheaper price. But how did I decide which pick range I wanted?
The best way to figure that out is to start by looking at redraft ADP and mapping out different teams taking the third-round reversal into account. Normally I would advocate for just hopping in some best ball drafts (and you still should in order to practice) but due to the third-round reversal, it’s not quite as applicable. Just as an example for this season, would you rather prefer a team that starts with:
No. 1 pick: Christian McCaffrey, Mike Evans, and Odell Beckham Jr
or
No. 10 pick: Joe Mixon, Nick Chubb, and Kenny Golladay?
Using redraft ADP, both scenarios are legitimate possibilities. You can do this with any pick and layout a number of different teams depending on which spot you start from. Obviously, someone can snipe you or a player can fall but after going through this thought process a number of times you should be able to put yourself in a position where you are getting players you really like at the top of the draft.
Draft Prep Process
Since I draft with a co-owner, our process is as follows:
- Discuss which players we really like and want to make targets
- Discuss which players we don’t like and don’t want to draft
- Map out a variety of teams from different spots
- See which teams we like best
- Give ourselves a range of picks that we would be okay with in order to get our favorite players
- Go through pick-by-pick and provide multiple options at each round
Side note: If you are drafting with a co-owner, make sure to have as many arguments about players BEFORE the draft and not while you are on the clock. There’s nothing worse than picking a player one of you don’t like and can spiral the draft out of control.
That whole process takes a while but it’s definitely worth it. With a strong plan written down and talked about you will be in a good position to take advantage of drafters who haven’t put in the work or preparation.
Live Draft Tips
- As I mentioned above, come prepared and know which players you like.
- Utilize 4for4’s Draft Hero or at a minimum bring a list of players to cross off who has already gone. (Don’t be the guy who tries to draft a player who was picked two rounds earlier)
- Don’t get TOO intoxicated. 4for4 did a whole article on drafting under the influence.
- Have fun. At the end of the day, playing fantasy football is about having a good time and trying to win some money along the way.
I’d love to dive more in-depth on specific players I will be targeting in this contest but don’t want any snipers during the draft. I’ll be doing a draft review afterward highlighting each pick after the draft so that those in upcoming drafts get a good feeling for which players I’m targeting specifically.
Thanks for reading and if you have any questions about the SBFFC or want to play in the draft at Kentucky, check out SBFFC.com.
