Has anyone ever run an expansion draft in a progressive league? In a progressive that I'm in, we're coming up to 1969 and our owners have voted to expand much like in real life. However, we're not sure how to handle the expansion draft. We plan on expanding from 16 to 20 teams. If anyone has any experience, please share.

I'venever been in one but I think I would do something along the lines of a two phase process.

Phase 1

1. First each owner protects say x number of players (should be a relatively low number say 10). Nobody losing their stud but still some decent players out there.

2. Expansion teams are allowed to draft 15 players from the group of "unprotected players.

3. Each time someone is taken off a roster that owner is allowed to add one more player back to his protected list. Suggest having owners list their unprotected/cuts in order they want them reprotected as part of step 1

Phase 2

Normal rookie draft with two expansion teams picking 1st in each round.

Work the numbers a little bit looking at your league to see whether protecting 10 seems like right number for protecting, but this should give the expansion teams a reasonable start at being competitive without crippling or hurting the already weak teams in your league. Basically will improve overall competitiveness which at the end of the day is what keeps progressives going and healthy.

FYI, I would be interested in taking one of the expansion teams in a situation like this.