Five Fun Ways to Determine Fantasy Draft Order

September 1, 2026

Fantasy football drafts are one of the most fun parts of the game. Quincy helps you decide how to determine your draft order for the upcoming 2026 season with five ways.

Fantasy football draft night is arguably the most fun aspect of fantasy football. Months of research, pining, and maybe a few tears all come to fruition on draft night. We finally get a chance to see what our team will look like and get excited for the start of the regular season. On draft night, everyone is a winner.

Of course, there needs to be a draft order determination in order to hold a draft. Many leagues randomize their draft order, but if you are in a league with a lot of friends, why not have a little fun with it? Whether it be physical challenges, mind games, or something else, thinking outside the box to determine your league's draft order only adds to the fun of playing fantasy.

I wrote about this a couple of years ago, but since then my horizons of what is possible have expanded. Let's jump into a few more ways you can determine draft order as we head into the crux of fantasy draft season ahead of the NFL regular season kickoff.

Joey Chestnut vs. Usain Bolt Hot Dog Sprint Contest

We are going to begin this column with a bang. There is an age-old question circulating around the internet considering whether Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt or hot dog eating champion Joey Chestnut would win in a race if both men had to eat a hot dog and sprint 100 meters.

If you're not answering Joey Chestnut, then you're wrong, but you can find out just how long it takes a non-competitive eater to eat a hot dog by employing this tactic to determine your draft order.

Challenge: Eat a hot dog. Run 100 meters.

Joey Chestnut vs. Usain Bolt.

Who wins? pic.twitter.com/1ZRfWRU33k

— PGA Tour (@PGATour) July 4, 2025

Each player in your league gets one hot dog. The minimum is a bun and the dog itself, but you can add ketchup, water, mustard, or whatever else makes it go down easier. Players line up either individually or head-to-head. They must completely finish their hot dog before running. You can make the run a 100-meter, 200-meter, 800-meter, or whatever distance you want.

If every player is head-to-head, you can easily determine the order based on who comes in what place. For leagues with more remote players, have each player film and time themselves when completing the race. The best time gets the first pick and the worst time gets the last pick. Simple!

Hopefully no one is feeling too much pain after this contest. Eating a hot dog as fast as you can and following that up with any level of physical exertion is not exactly going to be the easiest on the body. However, I can't think of a sillier way to determine your draft order year-over-year.

40-Yard Dash

If we stick with the running theme, I'd like to bring back the 40-yard dash idea. The 40-yard dash fits in directly with the NFL. NFL teams place a lot of stock in 40-yard times when evaluating prospects. This can be a great way to feel like you are a part of the game and participate in a low-stakes physical challenge.

There are endless ways you can run this race. Of course, the simplest way would be to time each person's 40-yard dash on a straight track. However, that is a bit boring. Why not spice it up?

TRENDING: This fantasy football league had everyone run a 40-yard dash IN THE OCEAN to determine their entire draft order.

🤯🤯🤯

Where you finish in the race is where you pick in the draft.

Pretty cool idea. pic.twitter.com/xT1Ee6Kjp9

— MLFootball (@MLFootball) August 18, 2026

You may have seen videos online of fantasy football league players running their 40-yard dash through the water or waves. Whether you live on the coast or have access to a pond, you could take a nice hot summer day and run 40 yards through shin-deep water.

The water levels the playing field for individuals with different running speeds. Running through water also takes a bit of strategy. Will you brute force your way through the water or will you try to bound along? The possibilities are endless.

End of Summer BBQ Cook-Off

As a bit of a pitmaster myself, this one hits home. Fantasy drafts happen to coincide with the end of summer and transition to fall. It is the perfect time to bust out the grill or fire up the smoker and make some barbecue. Everyone's appetites are massive at this time of year, and you can capitalize on that with a Food Network-style cook-off.

Of course, this contest mainly works for individuals who are near each other, but that makes it that much more enjoyable. Pick a dish as simple as burgers or hot dogs, or as complicated as smoked pulled pork or ribs, and let the grills rip. For a real challenge, require each participant to present a side as well. After all, who doesn't want a nice bowl of mac and cheese with their barbecue?

Have each league member present their dish at the barbecue and let other attendees submit a 0-10 rating for each one. Once the ratings are in, tally them up. The highest aggregate score gets the top pick while the lowest score gets the last pick. For any ties, you can have a head-to-head rating.

This is a great way to get everyone together and include outside friends and family in your fantasy football process. Eat some great (or possibly not so great) food, have a few drinks, and kick back while you enjoy the end of summer. Not to mention, having a cook-off allows you to poke fun at anyone who performs very poorly in the contest.

Strength Challenge

This type of challenge may take some scaling based on the size of each participant, but it still provides a fun element. If you have been watching "Hard Knocks" this season, you would have seen Seahawks players Rylie Mills and Mason Richman settle a practice dispute by holding two sledgehammers out to the side. The first one to bend his elbows loses.

You can do the same thing. Whether it be with sledgehammers, milk jugs, or anything that provides a little bit of weight, put everyone's shoulder strength and endurance to the test. You can add a handicap if some league members are clearly significantly larger than others, or you can roll the dice and see what happens in a vacuum.

Again, this can be a timed challenge or head-to-head. Whoever holds on the longest has the right to the No. 1 overall pick.

Trivia

We'll round out our fun ways to determine draft order with a trivia challenge. Presumably, if you are in a league that is serious enough to determine draft order using silly competitions, then many of your league members likely have solid knowledge of NFL trivia.

You could run a trivia competition similarly to how they are done at breweries and other venues. There are plenty of websites where you can download trivia questions that each league member can answer. Make it challenging with a mix of new-age and old-timer questions. Even bring out a wild card question or two. Whatever keeps it light and fun yet challenging.

Run this competition in an everyone-for-themselves type of format. Keep it simple. Each question should be worth one point. Each time someone answers a question correctly, they receive one point. At the end of the competition, whoever has the most points wins. Tiebreakers can be settled with rock-paper-scissors, tiebreaking questions, or any other fun and harmless competitions that may fit within the context of your league.

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