Is there a way for teams to set their contingency lists before the draft starts or is that option only available after the draft has begun?

You can only set you contingencies once your commissioner has closed your league and finalized the scoring.

There is a window of time to put in contingencies after they "Set Up the Draft" (step 2 in the commissioner control panel). The clock will not have started but the order will be set. You'll have full access to edit your contingency list.

Why not let mgrs set their contingency list any time up until the clock starts? I've had mgrs miss this window and it slows down the draft until they can get in and set it up.