Quietly and without warning, Yahoo Fantasy pulled the plug on fantasy college football. The shenanigans of the 2020 season meant the company had put it on hiatus, but some people were expecting it to return. Or at least I was.
Alas, it’s not to be. With so much being pumped into Yahoo Fantasy Plus, a service that appears to be targeting marks and other users too dumb to search the internet for free information, some things have fallen by the wayside. One of those is apparently fantasy college football.
Which is a complete shame. It wasn’t a perfect game by any means, but it felt like something that could have been improved upon or even monetized had Yahoo played its cards right. It already has the best fantasy football platform, developing a college football version to utilize this seemed to be a good idea. Then again, Yahoo and good idea don’t exactly go together.
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What was Yahoo fantasy college football like?
I joined the first and only season of Yahoo fantasy college football in 2019. It was flawed yet fun. Even in a public league, you felt like the game had something. I still remember watching Oregon State at Hawaii in one of those midnight EST kickoffs because I was down by 28 and had Jermar Jefferson left to play.
He finished the game with 24.3 points meaning I lost. However, it certainly made a fairly meaningless contest more exciting without needing to straight up bet on it.
Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of Yahoo fantasy college football was just how wide open it was. That is mostly a reflection on the sport itself. Players put up huge numbers which can lead to massive scoring swings. No one is ever out of a game if there are players still to play.
College football also has a little more uncertainty and a deeper pool of players. For example, I picked up both Joe Burrow and Justin Jefferson off waivers during the season. That would be unheard of in NFL fantasy football.
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The downside
There are two negatives which plagued fantasy college football. First, the wonky suspensions and injuries coaches hide meant you’d end up starting guys you weren’t playing. Because there is less information on this stuff at the college level, it was infuriating at times.
The second issue had to do with the player pool. Yahoo only made P5 players eligible meaning you couldn’t roster any G5 guys. Even then, it felt like there were a ton of free agents which was another challenge in and of itself. I’m not sure what the solution is here, and this was an area that needed some refinement.
Please come back
More fantasy football is always better. And having it Saturdays meant double the fun. Cancelling it last year was understandable. But Yahoo pulling the plug on it entirely feels like a missed opportunity. It looks like all we can do is hope for it to come back. I mean the site is still up, so that’s a start.
