Information cascades at sports drafts

http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/cornell-info204/2009/04/12/athletic-scouts/

Its definitely possible that a lot of major NFL draft busts are started by cascades - ie one scout raves about a particular player to his colleagues, causing them all to go see that player in action, and causing a lot of undeserved buzz, causing scouts to overlook other potentially great players (like Tom brady setting records at michigan and being drafted in the 7th round).

On the other hand sometimes it'll work out a lot better if a team listens to all the information around them. Consider the oakland raiders, who had the worst first day at the draft in recent history, because their owner won't listen to anyone else.

http://www.mantecabulletin.com/news/article/3372/

Looking at this year's draft, the one cascade beneficiary was USC's Mark Sanchez. Leading up to and through the combine, he was considered to be more or less on par with Kansas State's John Freeman. But then Sanchez's pro day in LA was above expectations and people started fawning over this kid like he was the Messiah. It's almost embarrassing how much ass-kissing there was for this kid. Don't get me wrong, he may turn out to be a great football player, but he doesn't have the game-play credentials to justify such an outpouring of affection. Projections had him going in the teens and then on draft day the Jets moved up to #5 to make sure they got him, mortgaging their future in the process (given up 3 players and 2 draft picks). I trust Rex Ryan's decision making, but this is case and point of what Kevin was talking about.

Another fun little draft cascade we see is position runs. That's when a team takes a player of a certain position and creates a run over the next few picks where you'll see the same position being taken. This year there were a few offensive tackle runs and even some wide receiver runs outside the first round.
Another place this happens is in drafts for fantasy teams. Midway down the page herehttp://www.fantasyfootballmanifesto.com/Draft-Strategy.htm is a quick explanation of what goes on in the drafter's mind when a run occurs. Basically they get scared that other drafters are playing something they know. Mainly this happens in lower level fantasy leagues where the managers are prone to follow decisions of the other league members because they assume everyone else knows more than they do about positional value.