Saturday to Sunday: Drafting Dreams

College Life Meets Fantasy Football

As a college student here at Ball State, I can personally tell you that there isn’t much that beats a relaxing Sunday filled with NFL football. This is the best way to take the edge off after a long, stressful week of school.When talking about the NFL, you can’t forget the fun behind fantasy football. Fantasy football is a way to bring a group of friends together to fight for the best NFL roster. Fantasy has grown in popularity every year as more and more people understand the fun behind it. This is a way to enjoy watching the NFL even more because you can root for the players on your roster while they play in the game.

The Bigger Picture:

Fantasy football is a way for friends and family to come together and compete in a fun virtual game. College students are the highest percentage of fantasy football players and it's for an obvious reason. College students have more down time than most, especially on a Sunday which is action packed with NFL games. The social connection behind fantasy football is bigger than most people might imagine. Each week of games brings new relationships through shared interests, weekly discussions, and friendly competition. Believe it or not, fantasy football is actually great for college students because it helps build your critical thinking skills. In order to manage a fantasy football team, you must have strategic decision-making skills which involves drafting players, starting players, and managing trades.

What Exactly is Fantasy Football:

Fantasy Football is a way to create your own virtual NFL roster by drafting players in a draft full of other players in your league. The performance of the players you drafted is directly related to how they perform in real life. The point of fantasy football is to score more points than the person you play each week. You want to draft a team full of players that can score the most points.Depending on how you set up your league, the draft could be set up in a random order, or however you would like to set it up.

For a better understanding of the basics of fantasy football, head over to https://football.pitcherlist.com/fantasy-101-what-is-fantasy-football/#:~:text=Fantasy%20football%20is%20a%20game,in%20real%20NFL%20football%20games.

to learn more.

League Format and Drafting Strategy:

The most common league format used within Fantasy Football is the “PPR” which stands for Points Per Reception. Which as you can assume, this means that whenever a player catches a pass, they will receive a point. This can also be any position on your roster, not just a skilled player such as a wide receiver or tight end. This means that a quarterback or running back will also get a point if they were to catch a pass. This style of play is a much different format and it puts a lot more emphasis on the passing game. A good strategy to use while drafting your players is to draft running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends that should get a lot of passes thrown to them. This adds plenty of value to your draft picks as it should result in a higher amount of points scored each week. As mentioned earlier, the quarterback position is also a highly valuable position. You want to draft a quarterback that can complete lots of passes and also be mobile enough to get rushing yards and/or rushing touchdowns.

Each team consists of sixteen players with one position being open to an injured player that was added to the injured reserve list, which means they are not playing for a minimum of four games. Everybody has a starting roster that consists of nine players and a bench roster that consists of seven players and the injured reserve player. The starting roster has one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, one kicker, one team’s defense, and a flex position. The defense position is unique because you pick an entire team’s defense. The flex position is also unique because you can play a running back, wide receiver, or tight end at this position.

In-Season Management:

After your fantasy draft and as you get into the fantasy football season, there are many ways to improve your team including the waiver wire and trades. The waiver wire in fantasy football is a system that allows fantasy team owners to add, drop, or replace players on their roster throughout the season. It is a fundamental part of fantasy football that adds an element of strategy and competition. The players available on the waiver wire are the ones not selected during the league’s draft. To maintain fairness in the league so the better teams cannot add the best available waiver players, league’s have a waiver priority system which gives the worst teams the first claim at the available players. In most leagues the claim order is usually the reverse standings. The waiver wire system maintains competitive balance in the league as it gives the lesser teams an opportunity to compete with the better teams in the league.

Another way to improve a roster in fantasy football is trading with other teams. Trades in fantasy football involve the exchange of players between two or more teams in a fantasy football league. This allows owners to customize their rosters by acquiring players that they believe will improve their team more than the players they already have. In order to initiate a trade, one team must offer a proposal to another team in the league. Both teams will be able to review the trade and see if it is the right fit for their team. The owner that received the trade will have the ability to accept or reject the trade offer. If the offer is accepted, the other members in the league can vote to veto the trade or let it go through. The veto system in trades allows for the league to prevent cheating and maintain proper competitive balance.

Standings and Playoffs:

Fantasy football seasons are 14 games and 3 playoff games to decide the winner of the league. The creator of the league can adjust the settings and set how many teams make the playoffs (leagues are very customizable). In order to make the playoffs in your league, you typically have to be in the top third of the league in regards to wins and losses. The playoffs consist of 2 rounds, the semi-finals, and the championship. The team that scores the most points in the championship game wins the league.

To sum things up, fantasy football is a great opportunity to bring a group of people closer by just enjoying some good football. It is a great pastime and a good way to enjoy a stress-free weekend after a long week of work and class. There is a lot that goes into knowing how fantasy football works, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature and a lot of fun. Next time you are feeling stressed out and need a good way to wind down from the week, tune into some football and think about joining a fantasy football league.