As a new Barclays Premier League season slowly gets underway, and the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL) begin to start, students around the world will be signing up for fantasy sports. In the midsts of entering high school, dealing with college decisions and prepping for the college exams, fantasy sports provides a relief from the stress students face.
From reading fantasy reports about players prior to preparing for a draft with friends, to ensuring your lineup is set every week, fantasy sports should, and in some cases are, regarded as a constant in students’ lives, providing a break from academics.
With a high percentage of the school participating in a sport at some point during the year, the interest is clearly there, and the application of fantasy sports only furthers that connection. But for students like me, the ones who don’t participate in a sport, interest can stem from various outlets. I began to divulge myself in the sports culture partially due to familial ties and as an escape from the trials of school, leading me into the direction of fantasy sports. For students across the board, fantasy sports act as a relief from school, as well as an external connection to a sport one participates in.
Acting as a £47 billion enterprise, fantasy sports takes the joy of watching to game and finds a way to apply it to a large group as your favorite players are competing for you to earn points against your friend of families favorite players in a battle for who can outlast who over the course of a season.
But for me, fantasy sports is a must for any student that follows or participates sports solely for the camaraderie it builds. Obviously entailing the basic reasoning that you would be a sports fan, fantasy sports illustrates understanding, friendship as well as that competitive spirit.
From competing on a week to week basis, you find yourself dedicating time towards the thrill fantasy sports brings on a consistent basis during the week and through that, one suddenly finds something you used to just watch on television, becomes an aspect of your life that develops an understanding of a sport and a focal point of discussions with friends.
For me, Sunday’s consist of football with my family and a large part of that is tracking fantasy football. Regardless of who I support, my affiliations to fantasy football consist with leagues at school, leagues with friends overseaseas, and a league with my family.
Not only is fantasy sports a talking point amongst myself, friends and family but it has built a connection through sports that I know has brought us closer together. Whether it be through messaging one another regarding trades, or who we should acquire for the following week, fantasy sports is the constant thrill ride that gets me closer to the people I know, and closer to the sports I follow.
Through everything students go through, spending that time to tactically go through, analyze players and pick the lineup you best see fit in order to get the upperhand on your friends or family and have “bragging rights”, it truly is a feat many fans are proud of.
For me, fantasy sports is a constant, and I believe that that should act as a constant in any sports fan’s busy life solely for the real life connections it holds both to sports and as well with your friends and family.
