Federal judges in New Jersey made decisions recently with strong repercussions for the fantasy college sports industry. RotoNation reports that a case was thrown out of court that sought to identify fantasy sports as gambling, in this case for the financial gain of the plaintiff.
I write this article to inspire the college sports fan to step outside their comfort zone and check out the websites listed here rather than retreat to the mainstream media sites. You won't find any quality articles or league management sites at Yahoo! or CBS for fantasy college football. All of us here embody what is good about America - the little guy blazing a trail to create a market for fans like you when big business ignores you.
When I first decided to create Fantasy College Blitz most of the writers and business people with whom I wanted to partner felt that the NCAA would quickly strike down the website with a cease-and-desist order since individual names were being used. They feared that my site and others like it would be labeled as gambling sites by the NCAA. I actually had an NCAA official tell me that I would be jeopardizing player eligibility by promoting them as fantasy players.
I am sure my colleagues on this site dealt with the same naysayers. All of those concerns stand no longer valid, at least in the state of New Jersey and as legal precedent.
Recall that Nathan himself stated this in his introduction:
For a variety of reasons, the media companies who host the most popular fantasy leagues for professional sports do not provide fantasy leagues for college sports. This leads many to believe the service doesn't exist.
If you are a fan of college sports and want to take your fandom and interest to a higher level, you have every legal right to do so. Unlike with professional fantasy sports, fans of the college game must embrace the small business owners who create the sites you see here rather than those media behemoths to which you are accustomed.
The reason this hobby fails to exist on most major media outlets (and even worse, on CBS Sportsline you get to play with "Hawaii QB") points right at money. The big networks feel they must protect multi-million dollar TV or online contracts, so if the NCAA finds some "lack of integrity" in their fantasy sports and puts the screws to them you end up with a watered down product.
The vendors affiliated with this site won't settle for watered down fantasy sports. We have no rights fees to protect. We are all just college sports fans who want everyone to enjoy this hobby as we have for years.
Actually, fans today will probably enjoy it more since we have saved you hours of tracking your league with a spreadsheet and the Sunday morning paper. Please take a look at all the sites listed here on College Fantasy Info, and I look forward to sharing ideas with you throughout the year.
If you want to continue the discusion, e-mail me at vince@fantasycollegeblitz.com
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