Come fall, students and teachers alike go about drafting the top NFL players they think will outperform all others in hopes of having a winning fantasy football team.

According to Anson Opara, he begins each season looking at various models to gain insight and make predictions about players who he thinks will make a positive impact on his team.  

“I draft an app called RotoWire, which is like a $5 app, and it organizes everything. I watch sports center like crazy. I do those two things for sure, maybe pick up a magazine,” Opara said.

Determining starting players, according to Opara, can be difficult week by week. He said factors such as who teams are playing makes a difference in his starting lineup.

“I usually go by the match-ups, if they play against really bad defenses. The guys that are super good, my studs, I usually play them no matter what. Obviously look at injuries too,” Opara said.

According to junior Khan, research from week to week can help, but often times predictions can be wrong. He said sometimes there is no way of knowing how a player will perform.

“You could be starting one player who should be doing great but he might put up terrible numbers when another player who you never would expect to do well blows up on your bench, so it really depends,” Khan said.

Khan said playing with friends in leagues adds both to the stakes and excitement of the game.

“In one of my leagues we have a trophy, bragging rights, and it is about a $30 entrance fee. Another league it’s a $5 entrance fee and no one really cares if you win,” Khan said.

According to Opara, playing fantasy football adds to the enjoyment of watching the football games. He said, it adds to the overall experience of playing.

“[Competition] adds more to watching the games on the weekends. You’re like, man I’m so close, I’m going to beat this guy. You definitely talk smack to each other, it’s fun,” Opara said.