By Peyton Gigante
The NFL has quite a few connections to Miami University. Sean McVay, Joe Novak, and John Harbaugh are only a few of the numerous coaches from Miami with success in the NFL. But a new connection the NFL has made at Miami is that of the Fantasy Football League at Miami (FFAM).
Fantasy football swept the nation after its creation in the 1960’s, and has since kept football fans entertained and engrossed in the NFL’s draft and games. With its comradery, public and private made leagues, and prizes, it has inspired football fans all over the country to participate in the NFL in a way they never could before.
FFAM had its start as a regular fantasy football league, but has grown over the past few years. What started out as a mission to unite Miami students with a common interest in fantasy football, has become something even larger.
When juniors Adam Wise and Ben Rinsma arrived at Miami as freshmen, they had a goal: start a Fantasy Football club. With the help of their friend, junior Marc Davis, the three friends have built their club from the ground up.
“We started off as a club to bring together people on campus that have a common interest in fantasy football,” says Adam Wise, President of FFAM.
The first step for Wise, Rinsma and Davis was to establish the club. But that goal of just starting a club has now morphed into something much larger.
The club started off using ESPN’s fantasy leagues to host their games, and divided students into different leagues based on their football knowledge and skill level. After a while though, they realized that it was time to try something different. Though they kept holding weekly meetings, they decided to change one key thing about their club.
The three founders realized that there was a need in their club for more interactions among members, and that more relationships could be made. But they also realized that that need had to be filled by a new platform and a new place to build leagues.
“It got to the point where Adam realized that it wasn’t working, and wanted to build his own platform,” says Rinsma, FFAM’s Vice President of Operations.
And that’s what he did.
“We had a meeting I’ll never forget, December of sophomore year,” said Wise. “One night at club, we realized that ESPN wasn’t working. So, we were like, what if we just made a website?”
This meeting snowballed into Wise’s development of the FFAM’s brand new website, “Banter.” At banterfootball.co, a progressive web app, members of the club have access to their fantasy players, can alter their team, make trades, and see and communicate with the other students that they’re in the club with.
“My freshman year, I took Business 104, the coding class, and realized that was my passion and through that learned web development on the side,” says Wise.
He took that knowledge and passion and used it to create the new site for FFAM.
Wise woke up at 5 A.M. every morning this past summer, just to work and code Banter for the upcoming school year. With the help and guidance of his friends, Davis and Rinsma, they were able to complete the website for the enjoyment of their club members.
“This is my motivator,” says Wise. “I’m pretty obsessed with it. The fantasy football market right now is lacking, and we’re fixing that problem. The idea that I could have an impact – that the website could have an impact – makes me so excited because maybe we could change Fantasy Football and make it better.”
Building and implementing a website successfully is a challenge on its own. But the fact that it’s proven to be better and even more enjoyable for their club members is something that could change their club forever.
“We weren’t really bringing people together. In one sense, we were through the leagues,” says Davis, FFAM’s Vice President of Recruitment. “But friendships weren’t being built through the NFL’s old style of league. This new platform, you’re face to face to the kids every week, seeing their names.”
Since the club’s start two years ago, the following and participation in fantasy football at Miami has grown immensely. There are now 139 students using the new website, which has made it easier for the club to be more social and has opened up a better way for club members to get to know one another.
Rinsma, Davis, and Wise see an opportunity to bring Banter to other schools, which could then expand their website and allow different schools to have different Banter leagues.
“What we’ve discovered is that what we’ve built here, can really be transferred and implemented into other schools,” says Rinsma. “We’ve looked it up, they don’t exist.”
And why the name “Banter?”
“The idea with Banter came because it’s light, it’s witty, and it’s back and forth discussion,” says Rinsma, who came up with the name. “We talked about it this summer and it was one of the first things we came up with.”
The three friends did all they could at the beginning to grow FFAM, which entailed telling everyone they knew about their club, and establishing relationships with other organizations on campus.
“Freshman year, in my business frat, I would put our fliers for our B-Dubs watch parties every week in our Facebook group,” says Davis. “We would get like 30 kids maybe. Bothering people and putting them in our ESPN leagues has taught us so much. Now, I’m looking up things about investors and copyright.”
From weekly watch parties and a partnership with Buffalo Wild Wings Uptown, to their annual “NFL on the Lawn,” at Oxford Memorial Park, the club and the men in charge have hustled to grow their meetings to now accommodate more than 50 students.
“We’ve realized that what we do outside of the coding, takes really no skill,” says Davis. “Anyone can do it, they just have to grind. We hang up two posters outside of every dorm each week. It takes hours, but we get it done.”
So, what’s next for Davis, Wise, and Rinsma? They are shifting their focus to what’s going to happen to their club after they graduate in 2021. Growing and improving their club, finding people to take care of it after they’re gone, and leaving a lasting legacy are just some of the things on their goal list.
“Freshman year, we wanted to build this community,” says Wise. “Which has really come to fruition this fall. We’ve gotten to know the guys, hang out with them outside of club, and now we’re trying to find people passionate about FFAM who can carry on what we built.”
One of the most important things? Finding students who are serious about fantasy football, who are passionate about it, and who can take over their positions and keep it running after they’re graduated.
“It’s about us showing them how serious we are about it,” says Rinsma. “If we show them how much we love it, they’re going to have more of an obligation to keep it going. We want to be able to keep what we’ve built and give other people the opportunity to enjoy it and grow it.”