When senior Alec Macklis got some friends together and started a fantasy football league two years ago, he couldn’t have anticipated the popularity that was to come. What started out as a few friends and a semi-competitive fantasy football league has developed into a 16 team organization that goes by the name “The BHS League of Studs.”

According to senior Bennett Levine, the 16 league members are the cream of the crop and were hand-picked by Macklis and fellow senior and league member Arjun Mahadevan. The league members compete for, among other things, bragging rights and their league’s championship trophy, The “Dr. Bob.”

“The trophy is going to be a wooden cowboy boot,” said Levine. “But it hasn’t been made yet. We’ll pay someone $20 to make it for us in wood shop.”

The season kicked off a week before school started with the annual draft at Buffalo Wildwings.

The draft is the most pivotal event in the fantasy football season. At the draft, the league members pick the NFL players they want to have on their own personal team.

The scoring system for a fantasy football game functions on a point system, where players earn points by gaining yards and scoring touchdowns in real-life NFL games. Kickers, defensive players and offensive players earn a fantasy football team points based on their accomplishments each week.

“Every six or seven yards is worth 1 point, and every touchdown is worth six or seven points. It’s not split up into categories, but total points. Each week you play one quarterback, three wide receivers, two running backs, a tight end, a kicker, and a defense,” said senior and league member Ollie Banton.

According to Banton, the League of Studs is undoubtedly the best league at the high school.

“Everyone takes it extremely seriously,” said Banton. “The one thing that sets us apart from any other league is the power rankings every three weeks.”

The power rankings discuss transactions, performances and other league news. The rankings are posted on Facebook for all the league members to see.

Since it is taken so seriously, it should be no surprise that fantasy football is very time-consuming and difficult.

Banton spends around four to five hours a week on fantasy football, researching players and his opponents, negotiating with other teams, talking smack and eating lots of snacks.

Banton says the time is well worth it.

“I love being in charge of a team and trying to make deals with my friends, scout players, and do whatever is necessary to construct a great team,” said Banton.

Levine said that negotiating is key to being good at fantasy football.

“You have to be somewhat persuasive and aggressive.  But this aggression has led to scandal within our league,” said Levine.

Levine attributes scandals such as Quesadilla-gate, in which senior and league member Miles Rubin tried to trade players for quesadillas, to the competitive nature of the league.

The competition within the league definitely leads to a good amount of trash talk, though all in good fun.

“Your manhood is sort of on the line,” said Mahadevan. “It’s not just about the points on the scoreboard. If you beat someone, you have trash talking rights for the rest of the week.”

Banton likes to celebrate his victories with a nice Facebook message talking tons of smack.

According to Banton, he is not alone in trashtalking because everyone takes fantasy football so seriously.

However, being able to dish and take in harsh words from opponents isn’t the only requirement for a good team manager.

According to Levine, to have success in fantasy football you need to make moves that are right for your team, even though these moves might be criticized.

The realness is not lost on Banton, even though his team is not doing so well.

Banton said, “I feel like a real sports manager, even though my team kind of sucks this year!”

Evan Sternstein can be contacted at [email protected].