College Fantasy Football King's Classic 2024: Draft Recap

As I wrote in my preview article, the CFF King's Classic is one of the most prestigious expert leagues, taking place live at the Pro Football Hall of Fame as one of the marquee events at the Fantasy Football Expo. Though not all 14 drafters were able to attend in person, the atmosphere was electric, as the room was full of drafters, additional industry content creators, and occasionally, random football fans stopping by to check out the scene. (The draft room was literally just a few paces away from the Hall of Fame Gallery, where the walls are lined with hundreds of bronze busts of the greatest professional football players of all time.)

Draft Recap

Heading into the draft I had hopes that I'd be able to stack Oregon's quarterback and top wide receiver, as I did in my run to the playoffs in last year's RotoWire Staff CFF league. However, this year, Tommy Harvey of Total Apex Fantasy Sports had the same idea, and he drafted QB Dillon Gabriel long before I had the opportunity. I shifted my sights to Kansas RB Devin Neal, but he, too, was selected before my first pick at the 14th slot. I still went ahead and drafted Ducks top WR Tez Johnson and opted to go with Cal RB Jaydn Ott with my other pick at the turn. Tommy later completed his Oregon stack with WR Evan Stewart with his second-round pick.

While I had to adjust my plans in the first two rounds, my next two picks went exactly as I envisioned. With the next two players at the top of my queue still available, I stood up from my chair, slowly took off my RotoWire-branded hat to cause some suspense and confusion among my fellow drafters, and then I removed my Wisconsin Badgers polo to reveal a Memphis Tigers t-shirt. After submitting my pick of Memphis QB Seth Henigan, other drafters encouraged me to make my next pick of Memphis WR Roc Taylor to complete the stack that I had planned all along. Eric Froton of NBC Sports applauded my "pageantry," which meant a lot coming from a guy who brought a luchador mask to the draft and carried around a wiffle ball bat all weekend.

With my next two picks, I selected Washington State's Kyle Williams and Appalachian State's Kaedin Robinson. With four strong wide receivers now rostered, I shifted my focus to filling my other starting positions with a homer pick in Wisconsin RB Chez Mellusi, followed by Arizona QB Noah Fifita in the eighth round, Cincinnati RB Corey Kiner in the ninth and Ole Miss TE Caden Prieskorn in the tenth. 

In the second half of the draft, I filled up my bench with QBs Brayden Schager and Cameron Rising, RBs Marion Lukes, Ayo Adeyi and Micah Bernard, WRs Jeremiah Hunter, Anthony Simpson and Corey Rucker, and TE Garrett Oakley.

Here are the draft results for the first 10 rounds:

View full draft results here.

Analyzing My Draft

In fantasy football, they say you can't win your league with a good draft, but you can lose your league with a bad draft. When it comes to college fantasy football, there's always hope, even if you have a bad draft because the large player pool will offer opportunities if you're willing to work the waiver wire all season.

I'm extremely happy with my wide receiver group, where it wouldn't surprise me if my top five players each top 1,000 receiving yards.

Henigan and Rising bring some rushing potential along with what should be a good group of high-volume passing quarterbacks who should thrive in the 6-point passing TD format.

Only taking one RB in the first six rounds paid off, as I was able to get five more who I really liked later in the draft. Corey Kiner, in particular, is a player who I was thankful was still available in round nine. He is a player who topped 1,000 yards rushing last season and will run it back with the same group of offensive linemen this year.

The tight end position is the only one that I have regrets about. While I believe Caden Prieskorn is one of the most talented tight ends in the country, he was limited to just 30 receptions on 35 targets. Picking a tight end in the tenth turned out to be a smart pick, as a run of three others got drafted later that round. However, I think any of those three would have been safer picks than Prieskorn. Kansas State's TE Garrett Oakley was also a questionable pick, as more proven tight ends were still available.

The Final Word

There is no doubt that this will be an incredibly competitive league, and the RotoWire MyLeagues Power Rankings confirm that. After syncing the league with MyLeagues, JD Yonke's team tops the Power Rankings (based on RotoWire's projections), followed by Eric Froton, Tommy Harvey and Matt Hicks. The next eight are bunched up together in the rankings, while the past two champions of the CFF King's Classic, John Laub and Shane Hallam trail.

For full draft coverage and interviews and analysis with each participant, check out Saturday's livestream on the Rookie Big Board.