One of the more exciting, unique and strategic features of Franchise League Football is the university farm system. Now that it’s about to hit the app, FLF players will want to dive deeper into optimizing their picks.
First, a quick summary of how the university farm system works. Every year a college farm draft takes place where franchises select a college player. Alternatively, if they have a player from the previous year who remained in college, they may choose before the draft to keep that player in lieu of (or in addition to) selecting a new one. Except in the first season of a competition, when the order is random, the order is based on a two-tier system. Last year’s play-off teams pick last, and in reverse order of the play-off finish – so the champion picks last. The non-playoff teams participate in an elimination tournament during the playoff weeks in which the winner gets the first pick, the runner-up gets the second pick, and so on – giving those teams at least some incentive to play until the end of the season.
The value of a college farm player can be enormous. When they enter the NFL, their contract is $2 million in the first year (the league minimum), $4 million in the second year, and then they become a restricted free agent in the third year, with a base salary of $6 million. Those who just started FLF this year may have noticed Sesame Robinson And Jahmyr Gibbs in the RFA round. That’s because in a seasoned league they would have been on a college farm three seasons ago, and a franchise would have drafted them for $2 million and $4 million the last two seasons.
In the league I have played in for over twenty years, The League of Minerva (on which FLF is based), the team with Robinson as a college player won the championship the past two seasons. By having him at that extremely low price, they could focus their money on other top talent. Think of it like an NFL franchise building their roster around a great QB on a rookie contract. It may be a short period of time, but it is very valuable. In year 3, the player is again put on the market in the RFA auction, but the franchise that drafted him can still match and retain his rights.
As you might expect, picking the optimal college player can be difficult early in the season. Last year, Ashon jeans was the fourth choice. It’s typically later in the college season that NFL performance becomes most predictable. Even then, there’s still the variable of landing spot, as well as how even a superstar college player will adjust to the NFL. Another X-factor has emerged recently: Players getting paid in college incentivizes them to stay another year. TreVeyon Henderson would likely have been the first running back selected in the 2024 draft. But he was given the incentive to stay at Ohio State through his senior season. His FLF franchise had to keep him for another year.
Considering all these factors makes the design of a university farm fascinating. The key is to optimize for value potential.
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