if you're deadset on doing a draft of years, then you could split it up by conference. 12 teams from the east have a separate team than the 12 teams in the west. That way, there will be a maximum of 2 of the same season in the league, and the teams will only play each other twice unless they meet in the finals. We've done this sort of thing before, except we drafted players, not years (the original DDL - Double Draft League), and it worked out really, really well.
But unless you just really, really want the season exclusiveness factor, I'd say forgo a draft and just open it up with something similar to what I posted above. Drafts are fun, but they slow things down immensely.