Introduction to Campus to Canton Fantasy Football Leagues

What is a Campus to Canton Fantasy Football league? Learn more here.

Author:
Skip Newton
Publish date:
Mar 9, 2021 8:14 AM EST

Campus to Canton is a fantasy football format that is rapidly rising in popularity among fantasy football fanatics. Are you playing in a devy league? Campus to Canton is the next challenge when you feel comfortable playing devy. Every manager controls an NFL and NCAA roster. If you are a fan of both the NFL and college football and want to know what a campus to canton league is all about, this article will tell you all you need to know.

How does it work?

The NFL, or Canton side, is a traditional dynasty league where you keep your players indefinitely. Unlike devy leagues where you draft college players and hold them on your taxi squad, every manager also drafts a full NCAA, or campus-side, roster. Those campus rosters compete in a fantasy season parallel to your canton fantasy season. Therefore every manager is competing in two leagues simultaneously. Similar to devy, the college players become part of your canton team once they transition to the NFL.

Why play in a Campus to Canton League?

There are a few advantages to campus to canton leagues when you compare to devy. First, you have a shot of winning two championships. Twice the titles, twice the opportunity to win a trophy and brag to your league mates! Another benefit is that your college players are scoring points instead of sitting on your taxi squad. Nothing is worse than drafting a college player, waiting one or more years for the prospect to get into the NFL, and then he turns out to be a bust. In a Campus to Canton league, that player would still get the college production to help your NCAA team compete.

The most advantageous reason to play is to learn more about college players. Knowledge is power. Good dynasty managers are familiar with every player. Competing in a college fantasy league will force you to learn about more players as you manage a roster, make lineup decisions, and compete against other teams. This knowledge will make you tough to beat when you play regular dynasty and devy. And finally the most important reason; these leagues are a lot of fun!

Starting and Managing a Campus to Canton League.

You have some flexibility when choosing platforms to host your Campus to Canton leagues. You will need to select a website for your campus league that includes college players. The two leagues do not need to be on the same site since no site will automatically transfer players from your NCAA roster to your NFL roster. Both leagues will need the usual settings like roster size, starting lineup requirements, scoring and waiver wire rules.

Campus to Canton will have two or three startup drafts. The NFL startup usually takes place first. A separate rookie draft would occur after the NFL Draft (usually in may) if you did not include rookies in the canton startup. The startup’s final step is the NCAA draft, which should happen early enough (usually June-July) to ensure it will conclude before the college games begin.

There is a chance that some freshmen might not be loaded into the website when you conduct your campus-side draft. If this happens, the commissioner should create a shareable document to store any missing freshmen drafted. When someone wants to draft a player who is not on the website, the manager can draft a placeholder player and then update the shared document with the actual name. The commissioner can drop the placeholders from rosters and add the correct players once they are available on the website.

Roster sizes are typically larger than a standard dynasty or devy roster. Because every team will have many rookies added each year, you will want a large taxi squad. The larger taxi squad allows managers a chance to keep players while they develop in the NFL.

Once the first season has concluded, there will be three offseason events. First, the commissioner will need to update NFL rosters with any rookies who were on a corresponding campus team. After the NFL Draft, there should be a short rookie draft (usually one or two rounds) for any rookies who were not on a campus roster. Finally, a campus draft will include any NCAA free agents and the incoming freshmen who have committed to a college football program.

Strategy

Campus to Canton offers a variety of strategies. Because the NFL draft is first, managers will know the strengths and weaknesses of their roster. If you lack depth at a position, you could focus on that position early in the NCAA draft. Managers could choose to focus on being more competitive in one league by trading assets from the other. With two full rosters at your disposal, there are numerous ways to build competitive teams.

Regardless of your strategy, knowing a player’s average draft position is useful. Even experienced dynasty managers reference a rankings list for startup dynasty drafts. It is crucial to find college-player rankings when beginning your NCAA draft. Typically, you only need a list of 100 players for most devy leagues. The rankings sheet for a campus to canton league grows to over 400. You will have a better startup draft if you know the average draft position ahead of time.

The best NFL prospects will likely go early in the campus-side draft. You should grab the players who have a higher probability of helping your NFL roster in the future. However, they are not always the top-scoring fantasy players in college. How soon will people start drafting high-scoring players who have little chance of playing in the NFL? Every draft is different. Managers have to learn how to balance their campus roster with promising NFL prospects and high-scoring players. That is just one of the many things you will learn playing Campus to Canton. Good luck!