Yahoo released major news on Thursday that will add yet another wrinkle to the Buckeyes' season.
One of the biggest reasons for the growing popularity of NFL football over the past 15 years has been the rise of NFL fantasy football.
On Thursday, Yahoo announced that they are bringing it down one level, and they are creating a fantasy football ecosystem for college football.
Yahoo did a full press release that explains the game, what is different, what is the same, and some strategy for what to expect with this new gameplay. Now, with that said, this adds yet another element to what these players are dealing with every week.
Fantasy football is the closest equivalent to individual parlays that people place that put the players in the crosshairs. Just as people get upset when their parlay misses because of a catch, or dropping a touchdown, or not hitting their yard mark.
The same negative energy is now going to apply to college players because of fantasy football. Now, I am definitely in the camp that the more things that can be created to drive interest the better. I think that the unfortunate side of these guys being legitimate superstars is that they have to deal with stuff like this.
In terms of the Buckeyes, this is going to be a very relevant topic in Columbus because just about every player on the Buckeyes' offense is going to be on the majority of teams. I'd go as far as to even say that their offense will be fully represented in likely 95 percent of leagues that are made.
Jeremiah Smith is going to be in 100 percent of leagues, Julian Sayin is going to be a starter in more than 95 percent of leagues, along with Bo Jackson.
The Buckeyes are loaded, and there is going to be a lot of chatter around this throughout the season.
The major rule of fantasy football is that it just involves the Power Four schools. This is a major positive as the general feel of who is competing is going to be of similar skill levels across the board.
One of the major positives about this is that it will absolutely extend the knowledge base for fans across America. Teams cannot be made with just the top talent in the league; fans will have to get deep into the rosters of every program, which will create another level of interest.
Some elements of this are positive, and others are negative. A lot of the storylines will be happening in Columbus, and we will see if fans can handle it, or if it becomes a negative impact on the game on a weekly basis.
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