College Links Explained: The Secret Shortcut
Published 2026-10-21
Team rosters are the obvious way to connect two players, but they are not the only one. In the NFL and NBA editions of The Chains, two players who attended the same college are linked, even if they never played in the same city. Learning to see the college graph is a real skill, and it rewards fans who follow the draft as much as the games.
What counts as a college link
Two players are linked by college if the data lists the same school for both. They do not need to have overlapped on campus, and it does not matter which decade each played in. A running back from the 1990s and a rookie from last year are linked if they both came out of the same program.
That makes college a wide, forgiving link. It also means a large school is a hub: programs that send many players to the pros connect huge parts of the league that would otherwise be several steps apart.
Why college hops shorten chains
Imagine you need to get from a Packers receiver to a Cowboys linebacker. The team graph might require two or three connectors. A college hop can skip that: if the receiver and a mid-career safety share a school, and that safety later played for Dallas, you have turned a long route into a short one.
Because a school's alumni scatter across every franchise, a college is effectively a free teleporter to any team that has taken one of its players. Strong solvers keep a mental list of schools that feed many pro rosters.
Alternation puzzles and the college requirement
Some daily objectives force the issue. An alternation objective says links must alternate between a shared team and a shared college. You cannot lean on team rosters alone, so you have to plan two moves ahead: a player who connects by team to the previous pick must also have a useful college for the next one.
A live indicator above the search box shows what the next link needs. Use it, and think about each pick as having two sides, the team you came in on and the college you will leave on.
Players with no college on record
Not every player has a college listed, particularly some older or international entries. Those players can only link by team. If a route needs a college hop, check that the player on each side actually has a school in the data, because you cannot use a link that is not there.