Fantasy Football

In spite of writing a fantasy football blog, our heart is truly devoted to Saturdays (we’ve hinted at this before). Growing up in a city (Columbus) with an overly-rabid fan base for “their team” can leave you contemplating a bell tower like incident most of the time, but while it borders on hysteria (and often succumbs to it, regrettably) it can certainly be intoxicating. The atmosphere, the inclusiveness, the history, the rivalries and the “pageantry” (in quotes because we fucking hate that word) all trump that of the NFL. Which generally doesn’t have a team that goes back past the 50’s, about 90% of game attendees are single, white men ranging from twenty-five to forty-five; the only thing that could be deemed “pageantry” at an NFL game would be scantily clad cheerleaders, and rivalries come and go with the success of the given teams.

Then again, as an Eagles fan, I can categorically state that this is the only reason attending their home games is even tolerable.

Every year before the start of the two seasons, someone writes a column comparing the merits of Saturdays and Sundays; and while we admire the NFL’s logic in implementing a playoff (something that is required in college football more than any other major American sport, but ironically is the only one without a playoff) as opposed to randomly assigned and typically meaningless bowl games, college football trumps the NFL in every other conceivable way.

Well, and there is fantasy football. Not something I am sure the NFL can take credit for, but it is commonplace amongst its spectators. the same can’t be said for the college game. And I don’t know if that is a testament to the strength of the game itself, or a glaring oversight that could bring in even more fans. Because while we find it interesting on several levels, our interest in the pro game would certainly wane if it wasn’t for various forms of gambling.

So what would a fantasy football league look like for college? Would you include every conference? Every division? Surely you would limit it to one division 1-A or whatever it is called now, right? Do you adjust scoring to reflect the different pace of game? Are conference title games included? Given the shorter season, do you keep it in tune with the nature of the sport itself and forgo a playoff?

This has been an ongoing conversation between me and the two friends I have that could actually tolerate a conversation like this. Instead of finding a website that offers such a service or creating one ourselves, we endlessly speculate on what it might look like. This is the amalgamation we came up with.

-It can only consist of three conferences, in order to limit the talent pool (so the waiver wire and free agency doesn’t have enough depth for ten more leagues). This can vary with the number of participants. You could even do a league where you only draft players from a specific conference, and your opponents do the same from a rival conference. But with the chosen format, three conferences would roughly equal the number of available players for an NFL league.

-Amongst the three conferences, the only one excluded from consideration is the Big 12, given the Texas Tech effect that makes their quarterback infinitely more valuable than any other player in college football (Note: If it isn’t just Tim Tebow, this might have to eventually include any Urban Meyer coached team if things keep up at this rate).

-The conference containing the league consensus favorite team should be barred from consideration as well, to avoid any conflict of interests. Since we are Ohio State fans, the league in question is the Big Ten.

-Basically leaves us with Pac-10, SEC & Big East. I’d rather get the Clockwork Orange treatment than have to sit through an ACC football game.

-The draft would be conducted the same way (standard snake format), roster size and spots would be virtually identical to that of any NFL fantasy league, given the number of teams made available by the three chosen conferences.

-The fantasy season ends with the regular season. This means neither bowl games nor conference title games will factor into the league result.

-Given that the season is only thirteen weeks and a playoff in NFL fantasy football is tedious and rarely reflects who had the best season, much like the college presidents, we ruled against a playoff.

Again, there are sites that offer this, that is hardly the problem. The problem is finding enough participants so that a league is actually possible. For now the games themselves and our parlays are keeping us interested, but when we hit forty, maybe thirty-five, this might have to be part of the zeitgeist for us to keep devoting every fall Saturday solely to staring at a box with moving images. One thing about the NFL, is while we decidedly prefer college football, we never envision our dedication to watching their product being an issue.