Campus to Canton Leagues: Supplemental Drafts

Here at DLF, we strive to evolve and grow with the game of dynasty fantasy football. In that spirit, we have started a new article series, introducing the latest dynasty craze – campus-to-canton leagues. My goal is to start off focusing on the basics while establishing an understanding of how everything works. As we progress through the series, I aim to dive into strategies, player values, buys and sells, and more! If you’re new to C2C and missed part one or two of this series, make sure to go back and check them out.

Now that we have covered both the canton and the campus parts of a C2C startup draft, I think it’s time to talk about quite possibly the most important part of any campus-to-canton league, the supplemental drafts.

Each year, the campus side of the league will have a draft as you look to supplement your squad to replace the campus players you lost to the canton side(the goal is for there to be a lot!). Supplemental drafts can be anywhere from 10-20 rounds, with a lot being right in the middle, at 15. This kind of depth is where having a solid process and/or finding someone else that does can substantially increase your odds of hitting on the players you’ve drafted. With an additional 180 players being drafted on top of the roughly 400-500 players already on teams from the startup draft, simply throwing darts isn’t going to work here.

Early Round Strategy

The rules for the early rounds of supplemental drafts are basically the same as in the campus startup.

1. The focus of the early rounds should be on devy players; players that we expect to contribute to your canton team at some point.

2. Outliers exist, but generally speaking, we want players that hit certain thresholds of height and weight.

3. Recruit rating matters. It’s not the end all, but the star rating that scouting services give to players does give us a great starting point. Roughly 60% of five-star prospects end up in the NFL, compared to 23% of four-stars and 5% of three-star players.

In a 15-round draft, there are plenty of chances to add that college fantasy football savant, but as the feeder system to your canton squad, you need to get as many potential NFL studs as possible. While there is no perfect system for figuring out who the NFL will covet, there are some clues a prospect’s profile can give us. In part two of this series, I discussed using services like 247Sports, On3, and Campus2Canton.com to figure out which players you should focus on in your drafts, and it’s no different here.

While I enjoy using their services and will continue to utilize them for my own research, I think it’s finally time that we start getting into some player analysis of our own!

Undervalued C2C Supplemental players

Bucky Irving, RB ORE

Mar’Keise “Bucky” Irving is easily one of the most underrated C2C players that is routinely available in supplemental drafts. Irving was originally 175 lbs as a four-star recruit, so I understand the hesitancy his freshman season, he’s now listed at 5’10 194 lbs going into his junior season. It may not be ideal NFL size, but his sophomore season proved he is a high-end rusher with a quality receiving profile, tallying 1,357 scrimmage yards and eight touchdowns.

Dorian Singer, WR USC

Dorian Singer was just a three-star prospect as a recruit, so people were understandably lower on him, and he got left off most draft boards. Everything changed in his sophomore season, as he overshadowed a well-hyped teammate in Jacob Cowing. Singer put up 1,105 receiving yards and six touchdowns in that season and parlayed that into transferring to a coveted spot at USC. Normally, a transfer like that would get the hype train rolling, but some top-tier freshmen recruits in Zachariah Branch and Makai Lemon have quelched that for most, and I disagree. While I agree that those players will eventually likely be great contributors, we’ve seen time and time again that teams like the Trojans like to rely on veterans first and foremost. Singer could easily put up a similar season to last year’s, but on a bigger stage, and be given quality draft capital by the NFL.

Jordyn Tyson, WR COL

Tyson is a bit of a conundrum at this point. He broke out in a big way on a terrible Colorado team but then had a major leg injury(ACL is the speculation). With Deion Sanders taking over as head coach, major changes have come to the program, with most of the 2022 squad transferring to other teams. Tyson followed suit and transferred to Arizona State earlier this month. Tyson’s new squad has some exciting pieces, with new coaches and a high-end four-star QB. The question now turns to Tyson’s health, as we have very few updates. The 2023 season could have a slow start for Tyson, but you’ll be happy that he’s on your campus squad!

Noah Kim, QB MSU

Kim was just a three-star prospect as a recruit, but he has clearly spent the last three seasons learning and growing as a player. A few weeks ago, I was hesitant to get too hyped about Kim because while he has looked great on the field, he’s barely played. Kim’s only stats from the past three seasons are from last year, and it’s a grand total of 19 attempts, 14 completions, 174 yards, and three touchdowns. Obviously, the efficiency is through the roof, but it’s difficult to trust such a small sample. What changed is last year’s starter, Payton Thorne, transferred out of Michigan State after it started to seem more and more realistic that Kim might take his starting job anyway. With such a sample size, Noah Kim is far from a guarantee, but at least up until this point, he’s barely getting any recognition in the C2C streets. Grab him late in your drafts and profit!

There are so many other players that we could get into today, but then what would I write about next time? Stick to the script in your supplemental drafts, focusing on devy players with NFL upside early on, and then fill campus gaps in the later rounds. Supplemental drafts can be a lot of fun, with the ability to trade around the board like a dynasty rookie draft and the excitement of what’s to come. I hope you all are enjoying this series, and I’m excited to start jumping into the player values! Make sure you check back in two weeks for the next article, and as always, I’m here to help if you have any Campus-to-Canton questions.