Part two on draft order. A reader on the Facebook page was asking about the "Third Round Reversal" format, and whether that was any better than a regular serpentine draft.

I looked into it some, and I believe it is.

You are familiar with a serpentine draft, of course. You draft 1-12, and the order is reversed to 12-1 for the even-numbered rounds.

With the "Third Round Reversal", you basically eliminate the third round. So it goes 1-12, 12-1, 12-1, 1-12, 12-1, 1-12, etc.

I looked at the first nine rounds of a 12-team draft, using my player projections and assuming every team drafted perfectly. Scoring system was standard.

In a serpentine draft, the No. 1 team can expect to be 47 points ahead of the worst team after nine rounds. That's a big difference - over 10 percent.

In the 3RR format, that difference gets whittled down to 27 points.

I've added one additional option. I've called it the "36 Double Reverse". In that one, you go 1-12, 12-1, 12-1, then that 36-pick order is repeated until the draft is over. It moves the team with 12th pick up into the top spot, but overall, the results aren't much different from the 3RR.


SERPENTINE DRAFT
   No   Pts   Pct
    1    423   100%
    2    404   96%
    3    403   95%
    4    387   92%
    5    385   91%
    6    384   91%
   12   383   91%
    9    382   90%
    7    380   90%
   11   380   90%
    8    379   90%
   10   376   89%


THIRD-ROUND REVERSAL
   No   Pts   Pct
    1    408   100%
   12   398   98%
    3    393   96%
   11   393   96%
    2    391   96%
    9    387   95%
   10   387   95%
    8    383   94%
    6    383   94%
    4    382   94%
    7    381   94%
    5    381   93%


36 DOUBLE REVERSE
   No   Pts   Pct
   12   405   100%
    1    401   99%
   11   395   98%
    3    391   97%
   10   388   96%
    2    388   96%
    9    388   96%
    8    386   95%
    6    382   94%
    7    382   94%
    4    380   94%
    5    378   93%

^aEUR"Ian Allan