2011 POD Community Mock Draft Rules/Schedule

The general managers have been selected for the 2011 Pride of Detroit Community Mock Draft, which will officially get started later this week. You can find the table of GMs and who is representing which team after the jump. Also after the jump is a list of important rules and other information about the draft (how to make your pick, for example), so make sure to read through everything carefully so we can try to get through this thing with as few speed bumps as possible.

Rules/guidelines:

• When you make your pick, e-mail it to me at syblogs@yahoo.com along with your write-up. The write-up should be at least a paragraph explaining why you made the pick. It can be as long as you want, but try to make it a paragraph at minimum. Also, please proofread the write-up to make sure it doesn't have any spelling/grammatical errors. Obviously no one's perfect, including myself, but I don't want it to be written like a text message or something. Even though it's not my work, I want it to look professional since it will reflect on the quality of POD. If I see a typo or something I will fix it, but please look it over before you send it to me so there aren't a bunch of mistakes to correct.
  
• As for when your pick should be made, check out the schedule below to see when your deadline is. The pick and write-up need to be sent by the date and time in the deadline column. I can be somewhat flexible with the write-up (if you're an hour or two late or something it's no big deal), but to keep this moving you need to have your pick in before the deadline. If you miss it I may be forced to go to an alternate, because the next GM won't be able to make his team's selection until all of the previous picks are in. If one person misses the deadline it will slow down this whole thing.
  
  Keeping that in mind, I would prefer it if you send in your pick as soon as you decide it. The write-up can wait until the deadline, but the earlier you get your pick in, the quicker I can let the next GM know who is still available. If we can do that then this thing will move very efficiently, which I would appreciate.
  
• Make sure to look at the schedule right now and make note of when your pick will be due. If there is a conflict or something like that, let me know as soon as possible so we can get it worked out.
• When a pick is e-mailed to me, I will e-mail the next GM to let him know he is on the clock. I will include an updated list of picks in my e-mail so the GM knows who is still available. My e-mail is going to be sent to whatever address is listed on your SB Nation account. If you want it to be sent to a different one for whatever reason, let me know right now by sending an e-mail to syblogs@yahoo.com.
  
• Due to time restrictions, there will be no trades.
• After your pick is posted, make sure to defend it in the comments section if there are any naysayers (don't forget: attack the opinion, not the person). Each pick will get a separate post so it can be discussed. There will also be an approval poll to get an exact idea of what readers of the site think of the pick.
• Please do not talk about picks that haven't been posted on the site until they are actually posted. That way we can make sure the reveal of each pick is somewhat exciting. Comments about picks that haven't already been posted will be deleted.
• Perhaps the most important rule of all is to DO RESEARCH. I can't stress this one enough. Don't wait until the last minute to get an idea of what your team's needs are. Check out the SB Nation blog for your team, go to draft websites or whatever; just make sure to do research. That way you can put together a list of a few players you have in mind and won't go past the deadline for when your pick is due. Also, that way you can be prepared for when the team right before you takes the player you want. Trust me; it will happen to some of you.
  
• As far as draft strategy goes, it is really up to you. You can go with the player you think should be picked or you can go with the player you think will actually be picked. Obviously I would like you to keep it realistic and not go off the wall or pull a Matt Millen, but at the end of the day you're the GM for your team in this draft.
  
• The last two things I will mention are to have fun with this and try to be efficient with your picks. Like I said, if you already know what your pick is going to be, then I'd appreciate it if you can send it to me right away. You can wait to get me the write-up until the deadline if you want, but the earlier the better for your picks. That way we can get ahead of schedule, making life easier on all of the GMs who are waiting around to see who has been selected before they make their pick.

Below is the order/schedule of picks. If alternates are needed, I will consult the sign-up post and choose someone that wanted to be involved but didn't get selected.