Spin the Names

Fantasy sports leagues run on two things: strategy and fairness. You can’t do much about the strategy (that’s on the players), but fairness is entirely in your control as a commissioner — and a random wheel is one of the best tools you have.

Here’s how to use one across the league calendar, from draft day to the playoffs.

Draft Order: The Most Important Random Draw

Draft order matters enormously in fantasy football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. The first overall pick has a real advantage, especially in snake drafts. Getting the order right — and getting everyone to believe it’s right — is the commissioner’s first test.

The problem with private draws: If you determine draft order off-screen and just announce results, someone will always wonder. Did the commissioner give themselves a favorable pick? Did they give their buddy the first slot?

The fix: Do the draw live, in your league’s group chat or during your draft day call. Open the wheel, add every manager’s name, and spin with everyone watching. The order is the order the wheel gives you, read out as they land.

This takes about two minutes and eliminates every complaint before it starts.

Determining Playoff Seeding Tiebreakers

Halfway through the season, three teams are tied for the last playoff spot with identical records. How do you decide who’s in?

Most leagues have tiebreaker rules (total points for, head-to-head records, etc.), and you should use those first. But when the tiebreakers themselves tie? A random draw is the fairest possible outcome.

Spin the wheel with the tied teams, spin publicly in your group chat, and apply the result. Document it. Move on.

Scheduling Byes and Divisions

At the start of the season, leagues with uneven divisions or irregular schedules sometimes need to assign byes or determine division placement. A random wheel handles this cleanly:

Add team names to the wheel
Assign them to divisions or bye weeks as they’re drawn
The process is defensible because it was public and random

Trade Dispute Resolution

Most trades don’t need intervention. But when two managers can’t agree on a value dispute, or a trade protest comes in and the manager vote is deadlocked, someone has to break the tie. A wheel spin is blunt, fair, and quick.

More commonly: when multiple managers want the same waiver priority and the rules allow for a random tiebreak, spin for it.

Rivalry Week Assignment

If your league runs a rivalry week (where head-to-head matchups are hand-picked instead of following the normal schedule), random assignment makes the rivalry pairings feel exciting and unpredictable. Spin to pair teams, spin to determine home/away, spin to pick the stakes.

League Award Categories

End-of-season awards — most points scored, best trade of the year, most heartbreaking loss — are fun additions to league culture. When the award is subjective (best team name, best trash talk), spin to pick the winner from a shortlist the league voted into consideration. It adds stakes to the nomination process.

Draft Day Rituals

The random wheel isn’t just a decision tool — it’s entertainment. Some commissioners build an entire draft day ritual around the order reveal:

Announce that draft order will be determined live
Build up the spin with commentary (“Who’s going to get the coveted #1?”)
Spin for each slot, first pick to last
Let the tension build as people land in later slots or clutch the early ones

It’s ten minutes of genuine excitement that sets the tone for the whole season.

Keeping Records

For any consequential league decision made by random draw, document it:

Screenshot the wheel before the spin
Record or screenshot the result
Post it in your league chat

This creates an undeniable record that the draw was fair. It also helps if anyone disputes the result later (they won’t, because they saw it happen, but having the receipt doesn’t hurt).

Other Uses During the Season

Once your league gets comfortable with the wheel, you’ll find other uses for it:

Picking the weekly pick’em game tiebreaker — who guesses total points for the championship game
Choosing between multiple trade packages when a manager is fielding multiple offers simultaneously
Settling side bets between league members
Randomly assigning “punishment” tasks for the last-place team at the end of the season

The last-place punishment spin is particularly fun: add a list of agreed-upon punishments to the wheel and let the loser spin their own fate. There’s a kind of poetic justice in having the wheel decide whether they have to post a video, wear a jersey, or buy the trophy.

Try Spin the Names for your fantasy league — add your managers, spin for draft order, and start the season on a level playing field.

Using a Random Wheel for Fantasy Sports Drafts and League Decisions