For years, those who wanted exposure to college players for fantasy football have been limited in their choices.
Now, there is a revolution happening.
With Yahoo entering the arena, you can expect true college fantasy football to go mainstream and explode in popularity.
So what is college fantasy football, and how does it differ from devy or Campus to Canton?
Devy
Devy is short for “developmental”. In this format, the college players do not accumulate points for your lineup. They are stashed as part of your dynasty roster and will accumulate points for your team only once they are drafted into the NFL. You manage one continuous roster over the years. It does not reset in the off-season. You have a devy draft each off-season where college players not currently rostered (including incoming freshmen) are selected. There is also an NFL rookie draft to add players now in the NFL that were unrostered. Some devy leagues have one supplemental draft each off-season, where unrostered NFL and college players are available to draft in one pool.
Campus to Canton
In this format, you manage a college roster and an NFL roster. Both rosters accumulate points. The college side plays against the other college sides in your league. The NFL side plays against the other NFL sides in your league. There are two championships to be won each year: the Campus side (college) and the Canton side (NFL). Similar to devy and dynasty, you manage one continuous roster over the years. It does not reset in the off-season. You hold a freshman and college free agent draft to add players to your Campus roster each year, as well as a separate NFL rookie draft to address any players still “not rostered”.
College Fantasy Football
College fantasy football avoids the NFL side altogether. It is not one continuous roster through the years. In this format, the roster “resets” every off-season. You are playing for one season only, very similar in format to traditional NFL fantasy football. You hold a draft each off-season to draft from the entire pool of college players.
Full disclosure: I have been slow to dip my foot into the waters of college fantasy football in all iterations. I take my fantasy football seriously and always considered that adding college (another entirely different player pool to research) would spread myself too thin. College coverage isn’t like the NFL. Player information is much harder to research.
I know it’s not cool to praise “Big Fantasy,” but Yahoo’s approach to college fantasy is unique and makes it more accessible to people like me. My apologies if this article comes off sounding like an ad for Yahoo’s version. It is not intended to be, and I am receiving no compensation from Yahoo. But if someone comes out with a good product, regardless of whether they are an industry giant, they deserve credit.
Yahoo focuses only on the Power 4 conferences. Plus Notre Dame. This makes the player pool significantly more manageable to research. You are only choosing players from the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, and ACC. Older versions of college fantasy included over 130 Division 1 FBS schools. That is a massively overwhelming player pool for the casual fan to track on waiver wires. It favors only the true degenerates, and if that is the only person you appeal to, you are bound to alienate the casual fan.
College fantasy football is not new. It has been tried. But that was mostly pre-NIL, and it became so complex with massive player pools, roster sizes, and player licensing issues. Yahoo’s version is the iPhone of College Fantasy Football. Simple, intuitive, accessible to a wide audience.
It operates exactly like NFL Redraft Fantasy Football. One season. Head-to-head matchups. No keepers from year to year. You play purely for that season, no long-term management.
I hope you enjoyed reading my article. All of my articles have one goal in common. That goal is to provide you, our member, with actionable advice that can improve your Dynasty team. You can follow me on Twitter @force_fantasy. #DFFArmy #FantasyFootball #AlwaysBeBuilding #NFL #NFLDraft
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