On Saturday, April 17th, the NAFC held their annual draft lottery. Unlike previous years, this years draft lottery was streamed live on Twitter, allowing fans and other owners not in attendance to see where their team would be picking in real time. Based on the final 2020 league standings, the Albuquerque Roadrunners began the night with the best odds at landing the #1 overall pick in the 2021 NAFC Draft. The Roadrunners, formally the Los Alamos Atomic Thunder, struggled in their first season in their new city. However, some speculate that midway through the 2020 campaign, the Roadrunners initially tried losing the remainder of their games so that they could have the best odds entering the 2021 Season. Whatever you believed, the league found no ‘real’ evidence of tanking by Albuquerque, thus, allowing the club to remain the favorite to win the lottery. The remaining teams with the best odds were the California Rebels, the Bemidji Bowling Balls, and the Anchorage Commandos.
Commissioner Josh Peter and Assistant Commissioner Hunter Schaal helped conduct the lottery and present the results to the league. Through the help from an independent firm, the league gave each team a certain amount of ping-pong balls based on their finish in the 2020 Season. These balls were then placed into a hopper and the lottery ball that came out first was awarded the first overall pick and so on.
As Commissioner Peter announced the lottery results, the Rebels name kept not appearing. Fans grew anxious wondering where the team would end up. Finally, the commissioner announced that the California Rebels had won the 2021 NAFC Draft Lottery and as a result, would pick first in the upcoming September Draft. In their fourteen-year history, the Rebels drafted as high as second overall (2017 and 2018), but the club had never drafted number one overall. “This is a very exciting time for the fans and the franchise. I know that Dan (Thompson) is happy and he’ll be looking at all options ahead of the draft” Owner Hunter Schaal said following his team’s lottery win. The Rebels are expected to draft consensus number one overall pick RB Christian McCaffery with the first pick, but many expect the Rebels to listen to offers for the pick as well.
The rest of the 2021 Draft Order is listed below:
- California Rebels
- El Paso Red Devils
- Bemidji Bowling Balls
- Albuquerque Roadrunners
- Ottawa Bears
- Montana Wombats
- Las Vegas Razorbacks——>Seattle Leathernecks
- Austin Oilers
- Des Moines Metro Raiders
- Los Angeles USMC
- Anchorage Commandos
- Seattle Leathernecks
