Fantasy football draft season is nearly here in 2025.

You’re running through your checklist you go through every year, particularly if you’re running a league: Looking into the best fantasy football team names for your squad, coming up with the perfect last-place punishment, and beginning to craft your spreadsheet with sleepers, busts and breakouts.

Now, it’s a good time to think about how to determine the draft order. And, yes, that could be done by taking all your fellow managers’ names, writing them on slips of paper and pulling them out of a hat. But you know you could do something better, more fun and definitely good for content.

Thanks to social media, we’ve got the 2025 edition of our now-annual list:

1. Do a combine

It’s a classic for a reason.

2. Do a creative race or physical challenge

This is sort of like the combine but sort of not.

3. Get an animal to do it4. Order a Cameo to get a celebrity to do it

A worthy, memorable investment of money.

5. Use a video game (specifically, a WWE title)

Best way to determine fantasy football draft order!😂 WWE Royal Rumble! Check it out ⬇️
Fantasy Football Royal Rumble – WWE 2K24 https://t.co/35NUhjvKSn via @YouTube

— Blaze Dayton🔥 (@blaze_dayton) July 21, 20256. Turn the last place punishment as a way to determine the draft order

Our fantasy football last place punishment is a beer mile.

– 4 quarter-mile laps
– One beer before each lap
– Everyone else bets on finishing time
– Draft order is determined by closest bets

League record: 9 minutes 37 seconds

What’s your league’s punishment?

— Mark Palmer (@MarketPalmer_) July 10, 2024

This is a way to connect last season to this one.

7. Use a competition that’s based on an random luck event

From Reddit:

I actually got this idea from a thread on this topic 6+ years ago. We had 12 teams. We all arrived at noon. First thing did was partner up based on pulling names. So 6 pairings. Each pair then pulled out of hats the name of a pizza delivery place and a type of pizza (pepperoni, meat lovers etc). Then at same time we all ordered off Uber eats. It was amazing to have 12 grown men standing on the curb shouting as we saw the first delivery guy round the corner. So the first pair got picks 1 and 2 then each pair just flipped a coin to see who got first or second. You could do 12 pizza orders and avoid pairing up but that seems excessive.

8. Let people pick their draft spot

I’ve heard of this one for years, and I love it, so here it goes: You have a hat full of names and when you pick one out, that person gets to pick WHICH selection they get. So if you get picked first, you could take the No. 3 pick if you choose. So much drama!

9. Use a fun random generator

I like the one at DraftOrders.com.

A few years ago, on a Saturday I decided to whip up a website to generate my Fantasy Football League’s draft order with a fun little race. This year I decided to circle back and rebuild it in 3D with @threejs. pic.twitter.com/ajaPb09CUQ

— James O’Halloran (@jamespohalloran) April 5, 2024