Manage your Private League's draft

As the commissioner of your league, it's your responsibility to set things up ahead of time and ensure that the draft runs smoothly. Use this guide to prep for and conduct your draft.

Adjust your draft settings and prep for the draft

Change your draft's date or type

  1. From Yahoo Fantasy, mouse over Fantasy | select a sport.
  2. Click the Commissioner tab.
  3. Click the Draft & Keeper tab.
  4. Click Change Draft Type or Change Draft Time.
  5. Make any adjustments you want.

  Instant Draft - For draft times, only select the "As soon as possible" option if your league and draft settings are correct. Also make sure that everyone in your league is ready to begin drafting within the next 10 minutes.

Set position limits for your live draft

  1. From Yahoo Fantasy, mouse over Fantasy | select a sport.
  2. Click the Commissioner tab.
  3. Click the Draft & Keepers tab.
  4. Click Set Draft Positional Limits.
  5. Assign a limit per position between 1-14.
Be sure to account for positions that may overlap. For example, if your roster includes positions for WR, RB, TE and WR/RB/TE Flex, you should set the Flex position limit to a minimum of 4 so that the WR, RB, TE and Flex positions can be filled.

Note - Assigned position limits only apply during the draft and won't apply to rosters post-draft, meaning managers can exceed assigned position limits once the draft is complete.

Change the time between draft picks

  1. From Yahoo Fantasy, mouse over Fantasy | select a sport.
  2. Click the Commissioner tab.
  3. Click the League Settings tab.
  4. Click Edit League Settings.
  5. By "Live Draft Pick Time," select a desired time.
  6. Click Submit.
Note - The time between draft picks can also be changed during a live draft. See the "Change the time between draft picks during a live draft" section below for more information.

Change the draft order of your managers

First step - Finalize your team list to begin (no new managers can join after doing this).

Live Standard Drafts:

  1. From Yahoo Fantasy, mouse over Fantasy | select a sport.
  2. Click the Commissioner tab.
  3. If playing Basketball, Football, or Hockey, click the Draft & Keeper tab.
  4. Click Edit Draft order & Assign Keeper Players.
  5. Select Custom Order and Keeper League Players.
  6. Adjust the order.
  7. Select the round rotation type:
    • Snaking - The manager who drafts last in one round goes first in the next round.
    • Non-Snaking - The draft order stays the same each round.
  8. Click Continue to customize each round or click Done to finish.

Salary Cap Drafts:

  1. From Yahoo Fantasy, mouse over Fantasy | select a sport.
  2. Click the Commissioner tab.
  3. If playing Basketball, Football, or Hockey, click the Draft & Keeper tab.
  4. Click Salary Cap Settings.
  5. Click Custom Order.
  6. Set your preferred nomination order.
  7. Click Submit.

Change your Autopick Draft status to Ready

  1. From Yahoo Fantasy, mouse over Fantasy | select a sport.
  2. Click the Commissioner tab.
  3. Click the Draft & Keepers tab.
  4. Click Change Draft Status.
  5. Click Ready.

Conduct the draft

Run multiple drafts at the same time

If you run or participate in a few leagues and there's some overlap in draft times, you can open the drafts in separate browser windows (like Firefox and Chrome). Each browser operates independently from each other.

Pause a live draft or undo draft picks

If something unexpected comes up and your league needs to take a quick break, you can pause the draft up to 20 times for up to 60 minutes. While paused, you can also undo draft picks.

Pause a draft

  1. From the lower-left, click the Draft Settings icon Image of the live draft settings icon.
  2. Click Pause Draft.
  3. Select a pause length.

Undo a draft pick

While paused, you can check Select All to undo every pick or check the box next to specific players to undo individual picks.

Change the time between draft picks during a live draft

While using the desktop draft client, the commissioner can follow the following steps:

  1. Click the Draft Settings icon.Image of the live draft settings icon.
  2. Click Draft Pick Time Limit.
  3. Select the amount of time between picks.
  4. Click "Set Draft Pick Time Limit."

The draft will pause for 15 seconds before resuming with the updated draft pick time limit.

Reset your fantasy draft and start over

If a manager didn't join the league pre-draft, you need to edit roster positions, your draft switched to autopick, or you need to adjust any "Pre-Draft Only" settings, here is how you can reset the draft.

Are you sure? All results, stats, and transactions from your current draft will be permanently deleted.


To reset while the draft is ongoing or paused:

  1. From the draft room, click Settings Reset Draft.
  2. Click Reset Draft to confirm.
  3. Click Go to commissioner tools to adjust your settings.

If you click Leave Draft then your draft will be automatically rescheduled 7 days out. You can change the draft date, or choose the next available time slot by following the steps in the "Change your draft's date or type" section of this help article.

To reset after the draft is completed:
If your draft has completed, you'll need to allow 90 mins before you can schedule a new draft time after you reset the draft. You can reset a completed draft up to 3 times.
  1. From Yahoo Fantasy, mouse over Fantasy | select a sport.
  2. Click the Commissioner tab.
  3. Click the Draft & Keepers tab.
  4. Click Reset Draft.
  5. Click Reset Draft again twice to confirm.

Launch your draft in Presenter Mode

When conducting a draft party with family and friends you can present the draft to everyone without displaying your personal draft room.

  1. From the lower-left, click the Draft Settings icon.Image of the live draft settings icon.
  2. Click Present Draft.
  3. Open an additional browser window or device to draft for your team.

  Note - You cannot make draft selections from the Presenter Mode window.

Additional draft room setting features

Dark and Light Mode

From the Draft Settings menu you have the ability to toggle the draft to display in Dark Mode or Light Mode. Select your preferred view to help customize your draft to what makes you the most comfortable.

Hide draft picks in chat

Focus your draft chat strictly to the conversation and hide draft pick selection messages. You can enable and disable draft pick selection messages in the Draft Settings menu by checking or unchecking the box provided.