Fantasy football is always an annual tradition every year once the NFL season starts.

Players get fantasy leagues ready and teams have to be set.

Teams are picked in a simulated draft and the lineup is set before each week of games.

“I play fantasy football because I like the competition and it’s a fun to be with the guys watching games,” said Junior Frank Colaruotolo.

A majority of the players involved in fantasy football are boys playing against each other on an app on their phones. A group of guys pick a league manager to set up and start a league.

The league manager will approve or deny trades, manages waivers and starts the draft.

Drafting day is when everyone has to pick their teams.

Junior Rex Ringer said, “We all go down to Rock n Brews and everyone sets up their computer to draft.”

Usually friends do this for their enjoyment of playing each others teams each week. People in the league obtain points depending on how well their players play throughout the week. Points are given by how many yards players obtain.

For example, one point is given for ten rushed or recieved yards.

Six points are given for rushed or recieved touchdowns.

Defenses however gain their points differently.

One point is given per sack, two for fumble recoveries, and two points for an interception.

Depending on how well the week went players usually get anywhere between zero to fifty points.

Each week teams start the same amount of positions. They all start nine players.

There is one tight end, one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one team defense, and a kicker.

League players can check in on their teams anytime they want. League members play a different person each week that is based off a random schedule.

The people in the league can choose how many teams make the playoffs.

“We have twelve teams in our league and after the thirteenth week you play everyone,” said junior Jake Brusick. “We all decided that the first eight teams make the playoffs.”

Fantasy football is played on and off of campus. The statistical analysis class taught by Alex Broughton utilizes fantasy football as a way to incorporate real and interesting data.

“People might become more interested in statistical analysis when using live data as what we look at,” Broughton said.  

In the beginning they started out with researching players, then they ran a draft for people to pick their teams.

They started off with finding the means and medians of certain football statistics such as points, receptions, and turnovers.  

They will gradually progress throughout the year relating it to math.

As data is collected each week throughout the semester, they will learn to compare and contrast their stats of the teams.

Since this is the first year of doing this assignment Broughton didn’t know how the students would react to it.

“Once we did the draft, I knew we would get good results,” said Broughton.

“Students were more involved to get the players they needed to make their team.”