Okay, so I wanted to get a quick fantasy football league going with some buddies, and we were all free one evening. The big question was, “how long does a fantasy football draft take 8 teams?” Figured I’d document my experience to help others out.
Getting Started
First, we decided to use an online platform – made things way easier. Everyone logged in, and we set a time limit per pick. We went with 90 seconds, figuring that was enough time to make a choice without dragging things out forever.
The Actual Draft
- Round 1: Everyone was super focused, making their picks pretty quickly. The big names went fast, as expected.
- Rounds 2-5: Still pretty smooth. A few guys took most of the 90 seconds to decide, but nothing crazy.
- Middle Rounds (6-10): This is where things slowed down a bit. People started looking deeper, comparing stats, and debating sleepers. We had a couple of time-outs as guys were trying to figure out the best options on the board.
- Later Rounds (11-15): To be honest, these rounds were the quickest. Everyone was mostly picking backups and fliers. The 90-second timer rarely got used.
The wrap up
I tracked our time, and from start to finish, the whole thing took us just about 2 hours. We started drafting around 7:15 PM and finished right at 9:00 PM. Not bad at all! I think if everyone had really used the full 90 seconds for every pick, it could have easily gone for 3+ hours. So, setting that timer and people mostly sticking to it really helped.
We did an auction draft before, the whole thing took us almost 3 hours to finish, Snake draft is so fast.
So, if you’re planning an 8-team fantasy draft, I’d budget around 2 to 2.5 hours. It can be done quicker, or it can definitely take longer, depending on how your league operates.
