Welcome to the FF_Astronauts offseason Campus to Canton series.
@FF_Spotlight uncovers trends about successful players from high school through the NFL. Campus to Canton fantasy leagues draft players coming out of high school and field a college and NFL roster while keeping players year after year through their career
Are you looking to get more involved in fantasy football? Are you interest in college football and professional football? You may be interested in Campus to Canton.
This introductory article will discuss what is a Campus to Canton (C2C) fantasy football league, and a sample format for a specific league. Then we’ll take take a look at the five star recruit ranking system for high school players in the next article.
There are a lot of steps between being in a redraft league and being in a Campus 2 Canton league. It starts with the evolution of fantasy football...
Evolution of Fantasy Football
In order to understand what a Campus to Canton (C2C) league is, it is important to look at the evolution of fantasy football to this point.
The most common fantasy football format is a redraft league which is a good baseline for understanding the evolution of fantasy football. A redraft league has positions for quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, kicker and defense. Points are scored based on player statistics. Fantasy football leagues precede the internet, as you may have heard from Matthew Berry (@MatthewBerryTMR on Twitter). Before the internet, and stat tracking apps like ESPN (@ESPNFantasy), Yahoo (@YahooFantasy), CBS (@CBSFantasy), NFL (@NFLFantasy) and Sleeper (@SleeperHQ), fantasy football managers had to keep track of statistics for their teams by hand while reading out of the newspaper.
With internet access, stats became more easily accessible, and with apps dedicated to fantasy, redraft leagues took off. A typical redraft league has the following roster
QB
RB
RB
WR
WR
TE
DEF
Kicker
This is also referred to as a 1QB league. A standard league is based only on yards gained and touchdowns for the wide receiver and running back. A points per reception league (PPR) allows players to gain a point every time they make a reception.
The more that people played, it seemed that people went away from defenses and kickers, which are not predictable year to year. People grew more interested in dynasty leagues where players were kept year after year and fantasy managers took on the role of General Manager of an NFL team. Focus moved to younger players in order to create teams that would be good for multiple years and build a dynasty.
Scoring systems and active roster composition can vary widely across leagues. To focus on scoring, you can have a 4 point passing score for a thrown touchdown or 6 point passing for a thrown touchdown. The amount of points that a player scores for a catch can be 0.5 points per reception, 1 point per reception, varied based on the length of completed pass (tiered PPR), and extra points can be added for a tight end reception (tight end premium - TEP). Different scoring systems were created to level the importance of each position with respect to other positions. For instance, giving the TE extra points when they make a reception raises their value compared to a wide receiver, giving a wide receiver points for a receptions gives them more value against a running back in a standard league, and having a QB score 6pts for a passing touchdown raises the value of a pocket passing QB versus a rushing QB.
Apps like Sleeper have allowed extensive customization of scoring, roster construction and dynasty formats. Scoring changes have been used to level the value of different positions and roster size increases add more value to scouting and adding depth to a team. Adding more flex positions, more wide receivers, more tight ends, or more quarterbacks to an active roster create scarcity at positions placing a premium on having depth and finding quality players before your competition. The SuperFlex (SF) is the best example of balancing active roster construction to create scarcity of a position.
The Fantasy Footballers (@TheFFBallers), and others, repeatedly discussed in their podcasts about the difference between the top few quarterbacks and the 12th quarterback not being significant. It was widely known that taking a quarterback in the later rounds of a redraft league gave your team an advantage at other positions that had large drop offs in production (like running backs). Adding a second quarterback in a SuperFlex made more quarterbacks relevant and balanced the QB position versus other positions.
Individual Defensive Players (IDP) became a good way to replace an unpredictable team stat with a particular defensive player that scores points based on tackles, sacks, pass breakups, interceptions, etc. can be tracked year over year in a dynasty format. Some leagues have all flex positions for defensive lineman, linebackers, or defensive backs.
Dynasty leagues have rookie drafts that encourage fantasy managers to brush up on college prospects that are about to enter each year’s NFL Draft. A developmental league (devy league), allows college players to enter taxi squads and join fantasy managers teams when they go professional. A taxi squad is a portion of the roster for young players that still need time to be fantasy relevant for whatever format is being used. Taxi squads can also be used in dynasty to further encourage players to scout younger talent to gain an edge over their competition.
What is a Campus to Canton (C2C) league?
A Campus 2 Canton (C2C) league can use any scoring system, acts as a dynasty league for the NFL side, involves current college players and drafts players coming out of high school. The portion of the league in the NFL acts in the same way as a typical dynasty team. It has an active roster, bench and taxi squad. The number of players at positions can vary, offensive and defensive players can be incorporated in the same way that SuperFlex (SF) and Individual Defensive Player (IDP) leagues operate.
The biggest difference between devy leagues and C2C is that a C2C league fields a college roster that scores points. There are two fantasy leagues running parallel: one for college and one for the NFL. According to Brandon Lejeune (@DevyDeepDive), known for the Devy Dashboard, the best application for running a college fantasy football league is FanTrax (@Fantrax). He is in seven C2C leagues. He suggests using My Fantasy League "MFL" (@MyFantasyLeague) because you can create custom players.
He notes that there is a big jump between redraft and C2C and even from dynasty to C2C. If you are excited about C2C try adding a separate devy draft with college players for a taxi squad after the NFL rookie draft. He says you can feel free to reach out to him on Twitter with questions.
I'm in a C2C league commissioned by @VoiceEnFuego called "Ultimate Devy" that I'll use as the sample C2C league, and it also uses Fantrax. Players scouted in high school get drafted when they enter NCAA Division I and move to the college rosters. Then if they make it to the NFL they are added to that fantasy owner's NFL team where they can stay for their whole career if they are not traded to another fantasy team.
The "Ultimate Devy" C2C league for this sample has a team on Sleeper for the NFL side and a team on Fantrax for the college side. If you’re thinking about making a C2C league and you do not know where to begin, this is a sample league. It's a 12-Team Dynasty PPR...
NFL Side of C2C Settings
App: Sleeper
Passing Scoring:
0.04 points per yard thrown (25 yards thrown = 1 point)
6 points for a passing touchdown
0.5 points for a passing first down
1 point bonus for a 40+ yard completion
2 point bonus for a 40+ yard passing touchdown
-1 point for an intercepted pass
2 points for a thrown 2 point conversion
Rushing Scoring:
0.1 points per rushing yard (10 yards rushing = 1 point)
6 points for a rushing touchdown
0.5 points for a rushing first down
1 point bonus for a 40+ yard rush
2 point bonus for a 40+ yard rushing touchdown
2 points for a rushing 2 point conversion
Receiving Scoring:
0.1 points per receiving yard (10 receiving yards = 1 point)
6 points for a rushing touchdown
0.5 points for a receiving first down
2 points for a rushing 2 point conversion
1 point bonus for a reception for a tight end
Fumbles:
-1 point for fumbling the ball
-2 points for fumbling the ball and turning it over to the other team
Waiver Order:
Free Agent Acquisition Budget "FAAB" Bidding
Trade Deadline:
None
Playoff Teams:
6
Roster Construction:
Active Roster
QB
RB
WR
TE
WR/RB/TE “Flex”
WR/RB/TE “Flex”
WR/RB/TE “Flex”
QB/WR/RB/TE “SuperFlex”
Bench: 17 spots
Injured Reserve: 10 spots
Taxi Squad: 10 spots
Grab a 10% off discount on FTN's stellar set of tools to get you the edge and help you win big money all season long. Use our promo code: ASTRO
College Side of C2C Settings
App: Fantrax
Active Roster:
Matches NFL roster (see above section)
and photo below
Scoring:
Matches NFL scoring (see above section)
Player Pool:
All Division I - Football Sub Division League Miscellaneous Settings and Information:
League starts early September
Drafts in early August
Slow draft, 12 hours per pick
10 rounds in draft for the college side
Draft order is fixed (not a snake draft)
Undrafted players go to free agent pool
No trade deadlines
Free agents on first come first serve basis
Keeper league setting: Dynasty
Playoff Tie Breaker: Highest Seed
Summary
If you’re interested in deeper leagues, college fantasy football, high school scouting, or trying new things, consider Campus to Canton leagues. Now you know how fantasy football has evolved to C2C, what C2C is all about, and a sample league set up that can be used to create your own C2C league. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @FF_Spotlight. For more information on other aspects of fantasy football, check out the @FF_Astronauts on Twitter.
This is the first part of a series during the 2021 offseason. The next part will cover all the five star rivals recruits since 2003 and success rates. The third article will be all about analytics applied to the five star recruits. Then there will be a Clubhouse forum followed up by a college player draft guide. Stay tuned!
