Menu
Before the Draft
I want to register for the draft and setup my account.
I want to get an overview of how the software works.
Once
the Draft Begins
COMMISSIONER'S
NOTES
Why you need to read them.
A NOTE ABOUT TIME SLOTS
Why time slots are only approximate.
MANUAL PICK
I want to manually pick during my time slot.
AUTO PICK
I want the software to make the pick for me during my time
slot.
I want to target just one player to be autopicked
in a round.
I want to draft only one player per position during a
day's rounds using Auto Pick.
SKIP A PICK
I want to DECLINE (or SKIP) my pick for a particular round.
I don't want to make a pick today in either round.
MISSED PICK
I missed picking in my time slot but still want to pick in
this round.
TENDERS
I want to tender a player. (Free Agent Draft Only)
MISTAKES/ERRORS
I want to report a mistake or software error.
SALARY COSTS PER ROUND
I want to know how much money I'm spending per round.
EXTRA DRAFT PICKS (Free Agent Draft Only)
I want an extra pick in a salary round.
Step 1: Connect to the Rookie Draft at http://www.aaroncraneinstitute.com/football/apcfb_rookiedraft
Or to the Free Agent Draft at http://www.aaroncraneinstitute.com/football/apcfb_draft/
Step
2 : Locate the Register Button
at the top of the page, click on it, and fill in the form.
You MUST use the EXACT three letter team code provided here
for your Team Name. It is a quirk of the software that the three letter team code must match exactly (all caps) with
the team name abbreviations used to set up the draft. Don't screw this
up.
ALA ATL BAR BAY BEN BLK CLE DES EDI KEN KUT MOL
NWK NYH PEN PIT RGG SAL SEA SWF TAM VAN WAR WSS
Your Username is up to you and it goes without saying that
your password should be easily remembered and written down.
Enter your email address for email notification of when you're
on the clock. Optionally enter your 10 digit
cell phone number (no spaces or dashes) and identify your phone carrier if
you'd like to get a text message when you're on the clock. (Note: Neither
of these notification methods are reliable. Sometimes they work, sometimes
they don't. We have no idea why. Don't count on them.
Instead, either plan to monitor the draft around the time of your draft slot or
use the AUTOPICK option).
Tick the Keep me logged in box.
Step 3: Click the Register Button .
Step 4: After registering,
click on the GM Options (menu at the top) and set Turn on Autopick
to 15 minutes (See "A note about Time Slots" for why this step is
important). Leave everything else alone unless you're adventurous.
Step 5: Hit SAVE .
Overview of the draft software
After you've registered, you'll see a number of tabs at the top of the page:
PLAYERS / PRIORITY / NOTES / GM OPTIONS /
SELECTIONS / TENDERS / CHAT
PLAYERS
List of all available players, sortable by position. Use this page to
make a manual pick when you're on the clock OR
add players to your priority queue when you're not.
PRIORITY
Arrange players in the order of their draft priority when using the AUTOPICK
feature. The Autopick must be on for the
Priority list option to appear.
NOTES
Make notes to yourself.
GM OPTIONS
Turn the AUTOPICK feature on/off here. Autopick should
ALWAYS be set to 15 minutes. Under
Available Columns and Selected Columns, you can choose what information appears
on the PLAYERS tab. Add or remove columns by clicking on the column name.
SELECTIONS
The main page where the ongoing progress of the draft is recorded.
TENDERS (Free Agent Draft Only)
The list of tendered players.
CHAT
We don't use this.
COMMISSIONER'S NOTES
At the top of the Selections page you'll find important and timely
announcements from the Commissioner regarding the draft each day. Read
them.
A
NOTE ABOUT TIME SLOTS
A schedule of time slots will be published on the website but it
is important to know that these time slots are only approximate. The
software doesn't allow us to specifically state when you'll be on the clock
because some teams will use the full time limit given
to them while others will pick quickly making the schedule wonky. Expect
that you'll likely be on the clock before your scheduled selection
time. The best way to deal with that is to either use the autopick option OR be able to monitor the draft a half hour
or so ahead of your pick time.
MANUAL PICKS
I want to manually
pick during my time slot.
You must, of course, be logged in AND on the clock. (The team
currently picking is always listed at the top of the Selections page with a
countdown clock that refreshes every minute). To make a pick manually during
your time slot, go to GM Options and make sure the Auto Pick option is unticked
(OFF) before you're on the clock and click SAVE
at the bottom of the page. Then go to PLAYERS and find the player you want to
draft. If you are on the clock, you will see
an option to DRAFT THIS PLAYER. Click on it then visit the SELECTIONS page
where you'll see your manually drafted player listed. (Note: If someone with a SKIPPED pick decides to make a
pick while you're on the clock, you will be temporarily taken off the clock
until that skipped pick is made).
AUTO PICK
I want the software to
make the pick for me during my time slot.
Make sure the Auto Pick option is ticked ON (and that you've clicked
SAVE at the bottom of the page) in GM OPTIONS before you're on the clock.
You also must make sure that your PRIORITY list is sufficiently populated with
enough players to make sure someone is picked when your time slot comes
up. If there are no available players left in your PRIORITY list your pick
will be skipped. (Note: If you try to switch from
manual to autopick while you're on the clock (and
presumably vice versa), the software will pick for you randomly. The
simple solution is: DO NOT switch from manual to autopick
when you're on the clock! ).
Also, when you turn AutoPick
on after turning it off, a bug in the software will reset you Auto Pick time to
“After 0 minutes”. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU
CHANGE THIS TO 15 minutes before clicking Save.
I want to target just one
player to be autopicked in a round.
If you want the Auto Pick to only choose a specific player if they
are available and no other, for example, you want to pick up Brown, Jim,
RB the next round but skip your pick if he is no longer
available, simply place Mr. Brown as the only player in your active queue.If someone else picks him
before your turn, the pick will be skipped. Depending on your draft
strategy, it is probably advisable that you revisit your priority list before
each round or turn off the autopick if you know you
want to skip the next round's pick. This can be done at any
time prior to when you are on the clock.
I want to draft only
one player per position during a day's rounds using Auto Pick.
Go to GM Options and tick the option "Zero Out Priority
Of Players with Same Position:" Use
this option when you are auto-picking for two or more consecutive
rounds and don't want to pick up more than one player at a specific
position. For example, you might want to pick a QB in round 4 so the
top players in your priority list are QBs. Assuming you had enough
QBs prioritized to get a QB auto-picked in that round, all other remaining
QBs in your list will automatically be moved to your inactive list and the
remaining non-QBs will move up in your rankings.
SKIP A PICK
I want to DECLINE (or SKIP)
my pick for a particular round. There is currently a bug in the software which will occur if
you decline a pick. AT THIS TIME, DO NOT EVER DECLINE A PICK. If you do by mistake, notify Mark Blume and
Steve Ward IMMEDIATELY. We hope to have this
bug fixed soon.
If you know that you don't want to make a pick in a round for salary
reasons, when you're on the clock you can click on either the
Decline or Skip options on the Selections screen if you are picking
manually. The difference between DECLINE and SKIP is that the
latter gives you the option of changing your mind and pick later in the round.
If you'd like to SKIP a round using AUTOPICK, make sure your Priority Queue is
empty of Active listings.
I don't want to make a pick today in either round.
If you turn the AUTOPICK on and clear your active Priority list,
your picks for that day will be skipped. You can safely ignore the draft
for as many days as you like using this option.
MISSED PICK
I missed picking in my
time slot but still want to pick in this round.
If you missed your pick while set to manual picking, or, you have changed your
mind during a round and would like to make a pick in the slot you've previously
SKIPPED, simply click "Unskip" on the
Selection page next to the round and time slot of the pick you are making up
and proceed to make your pick manually (AUTOPICK must be OFF before unskipping). Return to the Selections screen to
confirm that your unskipped pick was made. Make
sure before making an an Unskipped
pick that the round and salary tier is what you intend. Once processed,
the pick is irrevocable.
TENDERS (Free
Agent Draft only)
I want to tender a player.
Tender Offers must be submitted by email to the Commissioner before the
conclusion of drafting on the previous day. The email should include the name
of the player tendered, his position, your team name and the next day's round
(salary tier) that your offer will be applied to. All Tender Offers are
provisional because it is possible that another team will draft your tender
offered player at a higher salary if the current round hasn't concluded.
Successful tenders will be processed after the day's draft concludes and prior
to the next day's rounds and can be found listed under Tender Selections.
Tendered players do not count as draft picks for the round in which they are
tendered (ex. a team tendering a player in round five can still make their
round five pick).
MISTAKES/ERRORS
I want to report a mistake or software error.
Problems of any kind, software errors, user errors, oopsies, should be reported immediately
to the commissioner by email. The faster the notification, the quicker the
resolution.
Known Minor Errors:
ERROR 1: I picked a player manually and the software slotted the pick in an
earlier more expensive round.
SOLUTION: Don't panic. Don't draft another player in your schedule slot. Write
the Commissioner who will simply re-record your pick in the correct slot at the
correct salary. You will get your player.
ERROR 2: I picked a player manually and he disappeared from the draft list but
did not show up as drafted on the Selections page.
SOLUTION: Double check to make sure that he is not still listed in the player
list. If he is, the pick didn't process so try it again. If he isn't, don't
worry. You will get your man. Write the Commissioner and he will make the
correction.
ERROR 3: The program reset my auto pick delay to 0 minutes.
SOLUTION: This is not a big deal. It just means your auto pick will fire
quicker than we'd like. We ask that it be set at 15 minutes to help us stay
close to the daily draft schedule. If you notice you're set to 0, simply reset
it to 15 under GM Options.
ERROR 4: If you move punts_inside_20 into your filter
list under GM Options, an error occurs.
SOLUTION: Remove punts_inside_20 from the
filter. Get full stats from the game.
NOT AN ERROR: Someone else who was scheduled before me was on the clock when I
should have been.
SOLUTION: This is NOT an error. When someone UNSKIPS a pick, they temporarily
take over the clock until they make their choice. Your time will resume the
second they are finished.
SALARY COSTS PER ROUND
I want to know how much money I'm spending per
round.
FREE AGENT DRAFT
Round 1: $10m
Rounds 2: $7.5m
Rounds 3-4: $5m *
Rounds 5-6: $4m *
Rounds 7-8: $3m *
Rounds 9-12: $2m **
Rounds 13-16: $1m **
Rounds 17-22: $.5m
Rounds 23-27: $.3m
Rounds 28 - conclusion: $.1m
ROOKIE DRAFT
Round 1: Selections 1-4: $1.5m
Round 1: Selections 5-8: $1.25m
Round 1: Selections 9-12: $1m
Round 1: Selections 13-18: $.8m
Round 1: Selections 19-24: $.7m
Round 2: Selections 25-36: $.6m
Round 2: Selections 37-48: $.5m
Round 3: $.4m
Round 4: $.3m
Round 5: $.2m
Rounds 6 and 7: $.1m
EXTRA DRAFT PICKS (free agent draft
ONLY)
I want an extra pick in a salary round.
* The $5m, $4m, and $3m salary tiers used to have three rounds each. Because
so few picks were made in the third round of each tier, the league has
eliminated those rounds but retained the ability of each team to make an
optional third pick added to the end of the concluding round of each
tier. To obtain an extra pick, contact the Commissioner by email at least
a day in advance and you will be given an extra slot at the end of the second
round.
** The $2m and $1m salary tiers used to have five rounds each. Because so few picks were made in the fifth round of each tier, the league has eliminated those rounds but retained the ability of each team to make an optional fifth pick added to the end of the concluding round of each tier. To obtain an extra pick, contact the Commissioner by email at least a day in advance and you will be given an extra slot at the end of the fourth round.