DMD

['canes2004]

David, I have a question for you. If it seems likely that there is going to be a lock-out, which according to many there is and it could be prolonged, would you consider adding a college football section to The Huddle for the '11 season? Teams with rosters, player rankings etc... Not every team and player but maybe just the BCS conferences plus a few independents (ND, Boise St.)

 

It is my turn to commish my long time local next year. Already there have been discussions over beers and what not about next year and what will fantasy owners do if the lock-out fist happens and secondly if it's a long term deal. This week I informed all the owners in my league that if the lock-out happens, we are going to switch to college players for '11. Everyone in my league is a football nut and was really enthusiastic about the idea. Since there are so many teams, I am just going to use the BCS conferences and the indy's I mentioned above and run with it. Roster sizes will be the same but the talent pool will increase significantly I know. Since the college season runs so short, basically until the end of Nov., the fantasy season will run quickly as well. Maybe 8 weeks and then playoffs. A lot of things to figure out I know but I'm just in the beginning stages of all this.

 

There are a few million FF players and no NFL next year is going to create a large void in some people's week to week activities next year (not mentioning anyone's name ) that is gonna need to be filled. For my local it will be with college players and I have a feeling I will not be alone. Just wondering if The Huddle might have any plans to add a section for college players just in case.

 

Also I would like to hear from my fellow Huddlers on thoughts on the idea of using college players and the pro's and con's of running a college based ff league. I'm sure I'm gonna need the help with suggestions and all. Give me your thoughts. TIA

[STL Fan]

My first thought is that data would be hard to get to run the league. NCAA would not look very kindly on Money Leagues being based on college games. In my main, guys are really nervous about not having football, but they are actually OK with having a year off of fantasy football. They think we'd all come back with a renewed energy after the lockout and it would be more fun again.

 

Me, I'm not so sure.

[ts]

Maybe the XFL can make a comeback.

[Phazool]

UFL maybe

[Scooby's Hubby]

I played a college fantasy league all the way back in 1998. It has been going on for awhile. I like the idea. My first opinion on College Fantasy is you should limit the player pool to the mid and nig conferences, or maybe even just the biug conferences. There are so many schools the player pool can be enormous.

 

One set back is the conference finals and the schedules of the schools are irrardic, AND the season ends too early. And what do you do during Bowl season?

['canes2004]

I played a college fantasy league all the way back in 1998. It has been going on for awhile. I like the idea. My first opinion on College Fantasy is you should limit the player pool to the mid and nig conferences, or maybe even just the biug conferences. There are so many schools the player pool can be enormous.

 

One set back is the conference finals and the schedules of the schools are irrardic, AND the season ends too early. And what do you do during Bowl season?

 

Yeah, thought about all these. My idea would be to run a short season. 8 weeks and then playoffs. This would be from the first Thur.Fri. Sat of Sept. until the first week of Nov. Then 2 weeks of playoff's and ending everything before Thanksgiving. This would leave out the conference championship games and the Bowls. I would only use the BCS conferences plus a few independents.

[SLAYER]

For QB's I suggest team QB's, just way to many Two QB systems in college.

['canes2004]

For QB's I suggest team QB's, just way to many Two QB systems in college.

 

You know I never thought of that. Excellent suggestion!

[DMD]

David, I have a question for you. If it seems likely that there is going to be a lock-out, which according to many there is and it could be prolonged, would you consider adding a college football section to The Huddle for the '11 season? Teams with rosters, player rankings etc... Not every team and player but maybe just the BCS conferences plus a few independents (ND, Boise St.)

 

It is my turn to commish my long time local next year. Already there have been discussions over beers and what not about next year and what will fantasy owners do if the lock-out fist happens and secondly if it's a long term deal. This week I informed all the owners in my league that if the lock-out happens, we are going to switch to college players for '11. Everyone in my league is a football nut and was really enthusiastic about the idea. Since there are so many teams, I am just going to use the BCS conferences and the indy's I mentioned above and run with it. Roster sizes will be the same but the talent pool will increase significantly I know. Since the college season runs so short, basically until the end of Nov., the fantasy season will run quickly as well. Maybe 8 weeks and then playoffs. A lot of things to figure out I know but I'm just in the beginning stages of all this.

 

There are a few million FF players and no NFL next year is going to create a large void in some people's week to week activities next year (not mentioning anyone's name ) that is gonna need to be filled. For my local it will be with college players and I have a feeling I will not be alone. Just wondering if The Huddle might have any plans to add a section for college players just in case.

 

Also I would like to hear from my fellow Huddlers on thoughts on the idea of using college players and the pro's and con's of running a college based ff league. I'm sure I'm gonna need the help with suggestions and all. Give me your thoughts. TIA

 

To be honest with you, we have not yet really discussed what we would do in that case. Starting in about July there is no time to focus on anything but the immediate. When we meet for our State of The Huddle in February is when we discuss the coming year and create all of our plans. You bring up an interesting "replacement" though as mentioned before college football has so many players and it is such a different animal than the NFL that it is a challenge to do well or comprehensively.

 

Other alternatives could be the UFL where you can once again see players like Jeff Garcia, Daunte Culpepper, Dominic Rhodes, etc. They would be partially familiar names and more like the NFL than college.

 

If it happens - and I still do not think it will since everyone is posturing now - there will be something to fill the void. Guaranteed that if the NFL did not happen or only partially happened there would be someone to take the opportunity in a different league.

 

We will decide what to do in a few months as a contigency. The NCAA will be one of the options we will consider but I am not sure if it is the best option but we will see.

['canes2004]

The one problem with the UFL is currently there are only 4 teams. I know they want to expand but I'm not sure that it is gonna happen soon if ever. People would have to share players. In a 12 or 14 team league, this could be an issue.

 

I still believe that college players is really the only alternative, other than the CFL, to not having NFL players to pick from. Yeah, I think the casual fantasy owner would probably pass, but I truly believe that the die hards i.e. Huddlers would be able to make the switch and adapt their research to the college ranks. In my local league I'm even considering using only 3 conferences (Pac 10, Big 10, SEC) or another variation, so that there are only 36 or so teams to pull players from.

 

Added to edit:

 

I see there are currently 6 teams in the UFL. Still an issue with the amount of players vs. the number of owners.

Edited December 5, 2010 by 'canes2004

[skylive5]

If you are using MFL and you take the survey they have up at this time...the last question they ask is if there is no NFL in 2011 would you be interested in a College Football Fantasy League.

['canes2004]

If you are using MFL and you take the survey they have up at this time...the last question they ask is if there is no NFL in 2011 would you be interested in a College Football Fantasy League.

 

Thanks for the heads up on that Sky. I usually disregard the announcements on the MFL homepage. I bet MFL will load the college roster into their system sometime this summer in preparation for the lock out possibility. Gonna go look now.

[Trojanmojo]

David, I have a question for you. If it seems likely that there is going to be a lock-out, which according to many there is and it could be prolonged, would you consider adding a college football section to The Huddle for the '11 season? Teams with rosters, player rankings etc... Not every team and player but maybe just the BCS conferences plus a few independents (ND, Boise St.)

 

It is my turn to commish my long time local next year. Already there have been discussions over beers and what not about next year and what will fantasy owners do if the lock-out fist happens and secondly if it's a long term deal. This week I informed all the owners in my league that if the lock-out happens, we are going to switch to college players for '11. Everyone in my league is a football nut and was really enthusiastic about the idea. Since there are so many teams, I am just going to use the BCS conferences and the indy's I mentioned above and run with it. Roster sizes will be the same but the talent pool will increase significantly I know. Since the college season runs so short, basically until the end of Nov., the fantasy season will run quickly as well. Maybe 8 weeks and then playoffs. A lot of things to figure out I know but I'm just in the beginning stages of all this.

 

There are a few million FF players and no NFL next year is going to create a large void in some people's week to week activities next year (not mentioning anyone's name ) that is gonna need to be filled. For my local it will be with college players and I have a feeling I will not be alone. Just wondering if The Huddle might have any plans to add a section for college players just in case.

 

Also I would like to hear from my fellow Huddlers on thoughts on the idea of using college players and the pro's and con's of running a college based ff league. I'm sure I'm gonna need the help with suggestions and all. Give me your thoughts. TIA

 

Heya Canes. I've commished a college fantasy league for peeps at work for the last 3 years and it's been a blast! Here are my thoughts on College fantasy football:

 

PROS

1) It gives you a reason to watch games you'd otherwise not care about.

2) You'll gain knowledge of all the incoming rookies in the pro FF leagues several-fold. This is tremendously helpful

3) It's a great challenge. In my BCS league, there are twice as many players to keep up on and there are far fewer sites dedicated to college fantasy football.

4) College games are more and plentiful..they start Thursday night, run Friday night often, and start at 9am EST Saturday and go continuously up until about 11pm PST. That's a lot of football.

5) Leagues can scale well. There are plenty of good players available even in a BCS-only league. I could easily scale my 12 team league into 16-24 teams and it wouldn't be a big deal. If it ever became an issue, we could expand the pool to all D1.

 

CONS

1) Information is murky on college players and players are sat in college for reasons you'll never see in the pros (i.e. suspended for missing class, suspended for raping a co-ed, agents contact, etc). The NFL gives better clarity if players aren't going to be playing but the NCAA doesn't need to give that clarity. I've started guys in my lineup a couple times that didn't end up playing and only found out after the game why they were benched.

2) This is also a positive..there are not many sites dedicated to college fantasy football, though they are growing in number. Those that do exist aren't that great. I like the challenge that this presents.

3) There are only 2 services that offer league management that I know of: CBSsports and usports. CBS is free and usports (now athlon) is paid. CBS is getting better every year and until MFL offers the service, I would recommend CBS.

4) Live scoring is not as good as in the Pro leagues...it can be spotty. I would imagine this will improve next year on CBS.

5) The scoring is higher but often times good players will get benched after their team has run up a 52-0 score in the 3rd quarter...something to be aware of

6) Bye weeks...more depth is required on each team as there are 2-3 bye weeks per player to contend with, as opposed to 1 in the NFL.

 

FWIW, my league is a hybrid homer/keeper league but keeper is a relative term...Players are usually only good for 2-3 years before they graduate. I love the homer aspect, especially for college.

 

Overall, I find the pros vastly outweight the cons and definitely recommend doing it. I'd love to start a BOTH college league so if you'd be down for that, let me know. If you have any other questions, PM me or post here.

Edited December 5, 2010 by Trojanmojo

['canes2004]

Heya Canes. I've commished a college fantasy league for peeps at work for the last 3 years and it's been a blast! Here are my thoughts on College fantasy football:

 

PROS

1) It gives you a reason to watch games you'd otherwise not care about.

2) You'll gain knowledge of all the incoming rookies in the pro FF leagues several-fold. This is tremendously helpful

3) It's a great challenge. In my BCS league, there are twice as many players to keep up on and there are far fewer sites dedicated to college fantasy football.

4) College games are more and plentiful..they start Thursday night, run Friday night often, and start at 9am EST Saturday and go continuously up until about 11pm PST. That's a lot of football.

5) Leagues can scale well. There are plenty of good players available even in a BCS-only league. I could easily scale my 12 team league into 16-24 teams and it wouldn't be a big deal. If it ever became an issue, we could expand the pool to all D1.

 

CONS

1) Information is murky on college players and players are sat in college for reasons you'll never see in the pros (i.e. suspended for missing class, suspended for raping a co-ed, agents contact, etc). The NFL gives better clarity if players aren't going to be playing but the NCAA doesn't need to give that clarity. I've started guys in my lineup a couple times that didn't end up playing and only found out after the game why they were benched.

2) This is also a positive..there are not many sites dedicated to college fantasy football, though they are growing in number. Those that do exist aren't that great. I like the challenge that this presents.

3) There are only 2 services that offer league management that I know of: CBSsports and usports. CBS is free and usports (now athlon) is paid. CBS is getting better every year and until MFL offers the service, I would recommend CBS.

4) Live scoring is not as good as in the Pro leagues...it can be spotty. I would imagine this will improve next year on CBS.

5) The scoring is higher but often times good players will get benched after their team has run up a 52-0 score in the 3rd quarter...something to be aware of

6) Bye weeks...more depth is required on each team as there are 2-3 bye weeks per player to contend with, as opposed to 1 in the NFL.

 

FWIW, my league is a hybrid homer/keeper league but keeper is a relative term...Players are usually only good for 2-3 years before they graduate. I love the homer aspect, especially for college.

 

Overall, I find the pros vastly outweight the cons and definitely recommend doing it. I'd love to start a BOTH college league so if you'd be down for that, let me know. If you have any other questions, PM me or post here.

 

Wow, some great insight! Thanks man. I have a feeling in the coming weeks/months I'll have a ton of questions. Please bear with me.