As the glamor and novelty of returning to campus dissipates, it is replaced with grueling hours of homework and studying, and many students may feel a longing for home. Certainly, homesickness is not a unique problem for any college student.
Last year, I packed up my entire life in Seattle and drove four and a half hours to the cramped confines of DeSmet Hall: my home for the next eight months. I immediately took to the rhythm of college. Living in a dorm with all of my friends is still a memory I look back on fondly today. However, there were certainly moments throughout the school year when I missed my life back home.
As absurd as it sounds, fantasy football ended up being the most successful way for me to stay in contact with my friends from home. For readers unfamiliar with fantasy football, the concept is simple: you manage a team of NFL players, competing against your friends’ teams every week based on how your players perform in real life. Whichever team scores the most points in each matchup wins that respective week. Playoffs are determined based on each team’s regular season record. The winner of the single-elimination playoff format will often take home some combination of money and bragging rights, while the manager of the team with the worst record could face some form of embarrassing punishment.
Since I was in middle school, fantasy football has been one of my favorite fall pastimes. In high school, my friends and I set up a 12-man fantasy league. Although the first year was marked by plenty of chaos, I ended up winning my first (and admittedly only) league championship. Since then, I’ve played in multiple leagues with different groups of friends. Some of them have ended quite well, while some have been a brutal slog to the finish. In one notable example, I forgot to check on my team and ended up having to make 30 days of TikToks, all chosen by my friends. Suffice to say, I hope to never repeat that miserable experience.
In college, the hectic pace of classes, work, and social responsibilities can get the best of anyone. Finding time to connect with friends, especially friends living thousands of miles away, can prove to be difficult. The hands-on format of fantasy football requires one to reach out to the rest of their league, whether that be through trading players, discussing NFL games or simply talking trash. From Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to New Brunswick, New Jersey and Bozeman, Montana, I’m grateful for the connections fantasy football has helped me maintain with my hometown friends spread across the country.
As I prepared to make the lengthy drive down I-90 to return to Spokane this August, I had one last important commitment waiting for me at home. I donned my full suit, washed my hair, charged my computer and made the three-block trek to my high school best friend’s house. Even with all of my responsibilities of college waiting, there was no way I’d miss this year’s fantasy draft.
Nick Babington is a sports editor.
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