ELITE PLAYERS ONLY LEAGUE

The Elite Players Only League began in 2024 with a simple idea: fantasy football could be more than a draft, a lineup, and a group chat.

Nick Troyano had already experienced how much personality a good commissioner could bring to a league. A close friend of his ran another league where even something as simple as an active group chat made the season feel bigger, more personal, and more memorable. When Nick decided to create a league of his own, he wanted to take that feeling and push it further.

EPOL was built around the people closest to him who shared the same obsession with football and the same appetite for competition. The name was intentional from the beginning. Elite Players Only was meant to set the standard: bring together people who knew the game, cared about winning, could handle the trash talk, and wanted the league to feel like something worth coming back to every year.

The original group included Nick Troyano, Juwan Foster, Mo Shaw, Matt Chancey, and Shawn Redmond. From the first season, the league was organized, competitive, and loud. The trash talk did not need time to develop. It started immediately.

Season I was also a learning experience. As Commissioner, Nick began figuring out which settings worked, which ones needed to change, and what kind of league EPOL was going to become. The membership itself evolved as well. Nick became increasingly selective about who remained and who joined. Chemistry mattered. Buy-in mattered. The goal was never simply to fill ten spots; it was to build a league of people who actually knew one another, enjoyed competing with one another, and would make the season more fun because of it.

The inaugural championship established the competitive standard quickly. Matt Chancey and Taking Chances won the 2024 title behind a dominant roster and an exceptional draft. Chancey was already one of the most experienced fantasy players in the league, regularly competing across roughly a dozen leagues each year, and his championship roster benefited heavily from players connected to a dominant Detroit Lions offense. His first EPOL title was no fluke. It was the result of experience, preparation, and a roster that was difficult to match.

What happened after that first season may have mattered even more than the championship itself: people wanted to come back.

That return for Season II was the first real sign that EPOL had begun turning into a tradition.

In 2025, the league's presentation and personality took another step forward. Ryan March joined the league, while Chris Shaver helped bring additional youth and character into the group through his ASU connections, including Finn Carlisle-Patton. The league became more organized, more competitive, and increasingly social outside the fantasy app itself.

There were side conversations, emerging side bets, relentless trash talk, and even real football experiences together. In 2025, Nick and Chris attended the Bears–Giants game at Soldier Field, representing the two NFL teams they support and taking a league relationship that had largely lived through fantasy football into an actual NFL stadium.

But the moment that truly announced what EPOL wanted to become came before the 2025 draft.

Nick arranged for Jon Gruden to personally determine the EPOL draft order in a roughly seven-minute video made specifically for the league.

The reaction was immediate. The league loved it. What had once been a fun fantasy competition suddenly had something that felt uniquely its own. The Gruden video became one of the league's first real traditions and set a new standard for how Draft Night could feel.

Season II belonged to Shawn Redmond and LOVE HURTS.

There was no Cinderella run and no late-season miracle. LOVE HURTS was simply loaded. Shawn assembled one of the strongest rosters EPOL had seen, lost only a handful of games, and spent much of the season making sure everyone else knew exactly how good his team was. Humility was not part of the championship formula.

By the end of 2025, EPOL had established something bigger than a yearly fantasy buy-in. The managers were treating the league like a real competition. Jokes carried from week to week. Matchups developed history. The group talked about the league as if it were its own sports organization.

That energy pushed Season III even further.

For 2026, the league added Sameer Somal and co-manager Matt Stumpf, while Jake Voegtle joined the growing ASU contingent. The current league now reflects exactly what EPOL was intended to become: ten franchises connected through real relationships, with every manager knowing multiple people in the league before ever setting a lineup.

And the presentation has continued to grow with the competition.

Season III brings the launch of the official EPOL website, complete with franchise pages, league standings, the EPOL Network newsroom, Draft Center, Hall of Champions, League HQ, and a growing media archive. What began as a fantasy league group chat now has its own visual identity, history, championship records, franchise branding, and league headquarters.

The draft tradition has grown with it. Following Jon Gruden's appearance in 2025, former New York Giants running back and Doak Walker Award winner Andre Williams was selected to reveal the complete 2026 EPOL draft order.

None of it exists simply for presentation.

The goal has always been to make the people in the league feel that being part of EPOL means something.

The long-term vision is even bigger. Ten years from now, the hope is that EPOL will be entering Season XIII with years of history behind it, higher stakes, championship trophies or rings, established rivalries and traditions, and an annual Draft Order Reveal featuring an NFL coach, current player, or former player.

The players will change. The matchups will change. Champions will come and go.

But the ambition behind EPOL remains the same as it was in 2024:

build the best fantasy football experience possible for the people who make the league worth having.

And keep giving them a reason to come back next season.

NICK TROYANO COMMISSIONER COACH TROYANO →

FROM THE COMMISSIONER “EPOL was built to be more than another fantasy league. My goal is to create a tradition defined by competition, personality, and an experience worth coming back to every season. I’m grateful to every manager who helps make this league what it is.” — NICK TROYANO, COMMISSIONER