Newbie Drafts Her First Team

As a full-time business school professor, ardent Baltimore Ravens fan and  fantasy football newbie I was flattered to be asked to join the fantasy  league of a group of second year MBA's. Flattered but also nervous.

With only two days to prep for the draft, I reached out to my expert advisors, my son, a first year law student, and a colleague who shares my passion for Baltimore sports. I realized quickly I was in waaay over my head. I read up on the how-to's of fantasy, quickly reviewed the Yahoo, ESPN and NFL websites, and printed out ranked lists of players by position. How can all these female sportscasters be so knowledgable, I wondered, as I try to get to know the names and positions.

Next, I offered to buy my anonymous colleague a beer at a local spot by the school. Over a beer, we surreptitiously ranked players by position. I  tried to absorb the  abbreviations such as  WR, TE, RB, and the  positions that didn't matter because, for example,  the defense was drafted by team. my colleague passed over some top 200 NFL ranked players..." I don't like him".... and some seemingly obscure picks were ranked...."I like him". I learned some nicknames, like "the Law Firm", Ben Jarvis Green Ellis (what were his parents thinking?), AD ( all day-Adrian Peterson), and Megatron (Calvin Johnson). I realized quickly that unlike the picks for March Madness, mascots and team names were not going to be factors.

After a few beers, I wrote out my draft plan: what positions and players to draft each round. At home, my son advised me on strategy and how points are scored, though it wasn't really sinking in, because I was overwhelmed by the lists of names I had to study.

Draft day rolled around and after class we met up at the 4 Seasons bar across the street from school where students hang out. (Networking in bars is an important part of business school.)  We sunk into the soft sofas, logged on to the network and ordered Nattie Boh's. Surprisingly, at such a high class place, they  came in cans. The draft got off to a slow start: class (mine) had ended before the scheduled draft time, and no one wanted to sit around in the bar waiting. So we abandoned our Yahoo League and  started an ESPN one so we could get going. One student used Excel to generate a random order for drafting, and we agreed to snake the picks. I was third. At last, the draft got going and the trash talking began  in earnest.

Things happened pretty quickly. I got some good picks in early but the players I wanted went pretty quickly, and I drafted a few dogs by mistake because I didn’t check the player’s status on draft day. All in all, I managed to fill my roster without any major faux pas such as drafting Aaron Hernandez. I look forward to week one and learning how to set my roster.

I can see a Big Data course on fantasy football- some much data, so many variables. We can do topics like how to model the draft, or practice via simulation. Our students are among the best and brightest and I am sure there will be entrepreneurial ventures launched before the Superbowl!