Each week fantasy football players update their
rosters in anticipation of the weeks match-up
Esteban Cortez / The Collegian

With the National Football League season about to begin, football fans are already showing their excitement.

At Fresno State many students, employees and even professors are talking football. The reason they are talking about football is not just because the football season is around the corner, but because of all the great things that come with it. One of those great things is fantasy football.

Fantasy football is a game where you have an imaginary team with real life players and you get your score based on the performance of these players in their respective games. There is just so many things you can do in fantasy football that it will require you to spend many hours each week to be successful. Some of the things players can do in fantasy football are to have a draft, create a team name and logo, revise standings, check statistics of every player in the league and view expected projections.

Every year more students are turning to these games for many various reasons and they are taking valuable study time away from their schedules. Some people do not consider it an addiction, but to some extent these cyber games do contribute to procrastination. For Fresno State senior Rosendo Iniguez, fantasy football is not an addicting game, at least not yet.

“Last year I used to be viewing my fantasy football roster during class. It depends on time management, but if you let it consume your time you can get in trouble,” Iniguez said.

Procrastination may lead to low grades because students spend drastic amounts of time revising their fantasy teams instead of studying for upcoming tests. As the semester progresses, fantasy players become more competitive because there are fewer remaining games to play and everyone wants to get to the playoffs. The games will require more attention as the semester continues and it will get to a point where the grades may fall too low that students will have a few weeks left of school. By that time in the semester it might be too late to bring those grades up. Fantasy football may not only lead to procrastination, but it also can affect social skills.

For Soua Xiong, a Fresno State alumnus in psychology, fantasy football can hinder a students social atmosphere.

“Online games limit that face-to-face interaction where you can see the other person’s body, language, nonverbal behaviors and facial expressions,” Xiong said.

Some of the things students can do to manage their time better is to schedule some time for fantasy football. Have certain amount of time schedule for fantasy football and do not spend too much time on any given day. They will be able to make changes before the weekend comes and will have enough time to dedicate to their studies.