Football season is officially back, and so is fantasy football! With a new season comes new rules, some that could up the stakes to those who play the popular online competition, including Stan State students.

Fantasy football is a game in which individuals can serve as owners and general managers of their own virtual National Football League teams. Those competing in fantasy football select their rosters by drafting from a pool of all active NFL players in their respective fantasy leagues, which are assembled either randomly online or between groups of friends. The owners in these leagues face-off with one another throughout the football season. Weekly and yearly winners are decided by head to head matchups, where fantasy points are awarded in matchups based on the real-time performances of selected NFL players in their live NFL competitions.

Over the course of the NFL offseason, fantasy football players kept track of players injuries, contracts, future game schedules, and have selected their teams for the year.

Anyone who has played fantasy football understands there is a lot more to setting up a week’s line up than meets the eye. This year, much like last season, has had an unexpected challenge for team owners: COVID-19. 

Those who played in fantasy football last year understand how COVID-19 can be disruptive, but there is one major change to this year’s rules.

Last year, the NFL decided to reschedule games whenever teams experiences outbreaks, which resulted in multiple games being played throughout the week on atypical days, such as when the Buffalo Bills played the Tennessee Titans on a Tuesday in Week 5.  

This year, however, the NFL has decided to change the rules and is making teams forfeit their matchup for the week if they cause a cancellation due to an outbreak among unvaccinated players, creating an incentive for teams and their players to get the shot.

With these new rules in place, fantasy owners must be cautious when starting players who are not on fully vaccinated clubs or have chosen to not be vaccinated. Players such as Cole Beasley have openly stated they are not vaccinated and continue to support their stance. 

Derek Anderson, a former NFL quarterback tweeted, “Not Anti vax.. just not this vax. So many unknowns,” which was then retweeted by Beasley.

Beasley is just one of many stars in the NFL that have decided not to vaccinate themselves and are against the policy the NFL has set in place. Players such as DeAndre Hopkins and Jalen Ramsey have also expressed they are not in agreement with the NFL’s policy. These are high round fantasy draft picks that could potentially alter someone’s fantasy season.

Many leagues require “buy-ins,” which is when individuals pay to participate. At the end of the year, the winner of the league wins all of the buy-in money or another agreed upon prize. When a fantasy owner’s top players miss out on games, the chances of missing out on money and other prizes may increase.

Students across campus participate in fantasy football leagues that require buy-ins. Some leagues will start out with a five dollar buy-in while others can reach up to one hundreds or thousands of dollars. Regardless of the amount, those who participate in these leagues are there to win it all. Keeping up with the new rules of the NFL can provide participants with an advantage to reaching that end goal.  

Kaleb Welch (senior, Kinesiology), has has been a part of multiple fantasy leagues, including one last season.

“Last year was a mess with rescheduling all of the games throughout the week.” Welch said. “This year, I was worried about picking players that weren’t vaccinated or on fully vaccinated teams.”  

Welch added that he would have to keep an eye out on any updates regarding these players’ status on a weekly or even day-to day-basis.