Here are some key facts:
1. The draft starts at 6am tomorrow morning (all times EST not board time).
2. Each team will be on the clock for 4 hours. The clock starts as soon as the team above you makes their selection. For example, Cleveland goes on the clock at 6am. If they make their pick at 6:20am, then St. Louis goes on the clock for 4 hours STARTING AT 6:30. They will have until 10:30am to make their pick. If their pick has not been made by 10:30am, then the Vikings go on the clock and can make a pick before St. Louis logs in to pick. It is VERY important to keep up with the draft now, you should try to check in at least 2 or 3 times a day if not more.
2a. The clock will also stop overnight. The clock freezes at 12am (midnight), so whoever is on the clock at midnight stays on the clock until after 6am. For example, the Bears go on the clock at 10:30pm, the time their pick expires is 8:30am. Now, in the same scenario, let's say the Bears log on at 3am & make a pick and the Bengals have the next pick in the draft. The Bengals time on the clock starts at 6am and goes until 10am.
2b. For the purpose of this draft we divide the hours up into 15 minute increments. Teams will go on the clock at either :00, :15. :30, or :45. So if a pick is made at 2:34, the next team goes on the clock officially at 2:45. If the board time says it was 8:01 when the pick was made, the next team goes on the clock at 8:15.
3. If you are not going to be able to log in for a while, and your pick is coming up fairly soon, then you probably need to PM me a draft list. This will be a list of a few players IN ORDER that you want to draft. I am drafting for Chicago, so if you pick after me and you don't want to send me your picks, then I need you to either let me know who has authority to pick for you or you can send a draft list to an alternate GM.
4. Alternate GMs....I would like to get at least 2. On Sunday I have to go to Kings Bay, GA to visit a submarine for a couple of days. After that, I am going to visit my grandmother who is very ill and I don't expect to live for very much longer (probably a month or less). While there, I may not have any internet access outside of my iPhone and I'm not sure how much manipulating of the boards I can do from my phone (edit posts to add picks or change rounds). So, from Sunday - Thursday I'm going to be very limited in my access & I'll need the Alternate GMs to kinda keep the draft going.
5. If you miss your pick and there are 4 or 5 picks after your pick made, either an Alternate GM or I will make a pick for you just so that your #10 overall pick doesn't turn into a #33 pick the next time you check the board. If you miss a pick & a pick was made for you that you didn't want, I will give you the option (provided no more than 2 people have picked after the pick was made for you) to change that pick to someone who hasn't been drafted yet. I will then give the 2 people who drafted after you the option to take the player that was selected for you or keep who they drafted. If more than 2 people have drafted after a pick was made for you, then you are stuck with that pick. There is too much to try and change at that point.
6. If you miss 2 picks consecutively or 3 overall, then I will remove you from the draft game and someone else will take over your team. For those teams that did not participate in FA (Jacksonville, Washington, Buffalo, Baltimore, San Diego, Arizona, Green Bay, & Minnesota), if you miss your 1st pick I may remove you from the game and assign your team to an active player. If you are GM of one of those teams & just chose not to participate in FA, then PM me to let me know you are still planning to be a part of the draft & you won't have to worry about that.
7. Here is my preference on how you make your picks (without the bold):
With the 19th pick of the 5th round, the Chicago Bears select:
Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford
When I do the draftboard the picks are not numbered 1-224, so I need you to say the pick number & the round (19th pick of the 5th round). Also, when I put a drafted player on the draftboard, I am going to put them by NAME, POSITION, COLLEGE, so if you put it in that order (Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford), I can just copy/paste it in. Please also make sure you put your team name on your pick.
8. Now that the draftboard is up, the 1st team on the clock (OTC) can make their pick at any time. They just do not officially go OTC until 6am. If they make a pick, other teams can follow in order, but again, there is no time limit for today, so if #1 makes their pick, St. Louis doesn't have to pick until 10am EST on Friday (3/16/12).
9. Making a trade when you are on the clock is going to be done differently this year. If you are on the clock, you can still trade your pick during the first 2 hours you are on the clock. However, the time does not reset and the person receiving the draft pick will only have the remaining time left to make their pick. We did have some problems last year and this caused delays in the draft. Teams tried to trade their pick right up to the very last minute of their pick and sometimes waiting a little past their pick in the hopes of trading before the next person knew that they were on the clock. Some people I talked to wanted no trades at all once you were on the clock & some didn't want to change it. I decided to use this as a compromise & see how it goes for this year.
For a trade, both parties need to have the trade offer in to a TC member before the 2 hour cutoff. If both parties don't have it in, then no trade. Now, chances of both TC members being online when you are trying to trade a pick while you are on the clock are slim. I'm going to give all TC members authority to approve an on the clock trade when there are less than 30 minutes remaining on the clock. To make sure that the pick gets in, the person RECEIVING the pick must include the person that they are wanting to draft in the trade request. That way, if the person receiving the pick does go offline before it's approved, one of the TC members can post the pick to ensure that the player being traded for isn't lost. And of course, when dealing with on the clock trading, include me in the PMs because I will act as a 4th TC member.
10. This is very important...After you make your pick PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE extend a courtesy to the next person drafting and let them know that they are on the clock. Send that person a PM. That is why I included a list of teams & owners in the 3rd post of the draftboard thread.
