College Fantasy Info

Plenty Of Options At Running Back

Just like NFL fantasy football, NCAA fantasy football requires you to have top fantasy backs on your roster. It's hard to win any league without a top back, but the good news is you can find plenty of options in 2007.

How about Steve Slaton from West Virginia? If you miss out on Colt Brennan, Chase Holbrook, Pat White or Graham Harrell, Slaton could be your next pick. Ian Johnson of Boise State, Yvenson Bernard of Oregon State, Darren McFadden of Arkansas and Ray Rice of Rutgers are just a sample of the backs you could grab.

Keep in mind running backs often get you the most points every week. Unless you have one of the top fantasy quarterbacks, this is your ticket to the top. Don't reach for running backs, but with so many talented options in a full 119 league, you can stockpile some in the middle rounds for depth. Having depth will allow you to mix and match backs for favorable matchups, as well as fill a flex spot if your league uses them.

Plenty of options are there to pick from, but don't wait too long before selecting your starters - it could mean the difference between winning and losing.

Fantasy Sports is not gambling

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 All of those concerns stand no longer valid, at least in the state of New Jersey and as legal precedent.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

Continuing The Quarterback Theme

As Ryan discussed in our last post, Pat White is an excellent pick for fantasy owners at the number one spot for quarterbacks. But, what if you play in a league with all 119 teams? Would White be worth the number one pick? If you play in a league with all 119 teams, you can still consider White for the top spot, but the top college fantasy quarterback resides in the WAC - Colt Brennan of Hawaii and Chase Holbrook of New Mexico State should get consideration for a spot in the top three.

Last season, Brennan tossed a whopping 58 touchdowns (a NCAA record) and 5549 yards. Holbrook threw for 4619 yards and 34 touchdowns in his first season on the I-A level. There's little doubt that Brennan is the top fantasy player if you play in a league with all 119 teams. Brennan will likely top the 50 touchdown mark once again and should have no trouble throwing for more than 5000 yards. The Warrior schedule contains games against Northern Colorado, Charleston Southern, Louisiana Tech, UNLV, Utah State and New Mexico State - all teams that were horrible on the defensive side of the ball last year.

I think Holbrook will top 40 touchdowns in 2007, as he's had another year in Hal Mumme's complicated offensive scheme and the rest of the Aggies should be more familiar with him this year as well. You have to remember Holbrook was at SE Louisiana before coming to Las Cruces and last year was his first real action on the field.

As mentioned previously, the debate for the top fantasy player in all Division I-A league should be zero. Brennan is by far the best pick in that situation and then you would have to consider Holbrook and White the contenders for the second spot in that same league setup. If your league uses only BCS Conferences, then as Ryan discussed in the last article, your debate should be between Pat White and Graham Harrell.

Why Pat White is the #1 pick in your draft.

 

Graham Harrell is not the best QB in this draft...and it's not even close. Okay, that might be a little far-fetched but it's very possible that West Virginia's Pat White will produce numbers that could exceed the Texas Tech QB. To come to this conclusion, look no further than gradual improvement of Vince Young as a comparison.

VY's 2003 and 2004 look very similar to White's 2005 and 2006 production. Both QBs are dynamic runners who run for both yards and touchdowns.  Both QBs also appear to be adequate passers, at best. While his rushing numbers were pretty flat from season to season, it was Vince Young's improved passing skills that launched him into dominance. It will take this type of improvement in passing for Pat White to overtake Graham Harrell as the top fantasy QB this season. However, there are clues that White is on the right path, one being the 90% increase in fantasy points from 2005 to 2006 based on passing numbers alone.

Vince Young

Year	Passing Yards	Passing Touchdowns	INTs	Rushing Yards	Rushing Touchdowns	Total Fantasy Points	% Change
2003	1155	6	7	998	11	223.6	-
2004	1849	12	11	1079	14	295.4	+ 31.7%
2005	3036	26	10	1050	12	384.8	+ 30.3%

Pat White

Year	Passing Yards	Passing Touchdowns	INTs	Rushing Yards	Rushing Touchdowns	Total Fantasy Points	% Change
2005	828	8	5	952	7	190.6	-
2006	1655	13	7	1219	18	326.7	+ 71.4%

So what can we expect from Pat White in 2007?

For starters, we need to understand that if White's passing numbers increase his running numbers most likely will decrease. While White's rushing yards might be close to 1,200 yards, it will be quite difficult to duplicate 18 rushing touchdowns for a QB. For the sake of this analysis, we are going to assume a decrease in rushing touchdowns from 18 to 13.

How far will Pat White's passing progress in 2007? CFB ran three scenarios using the standard scoring system to gauge what type of output to expect from White. Under our Conservative scenario, White could marginally improve his passing and his rushing touchdowns could go down.  While this would be a decrease in fantasy numbers from last year, it still puts White as the #2 QB in your draft.

Under the Moderate scenario, we have White pushing his passing numbers from 1,655 yards with 13 touchdowns to 2,400 yards and 20 touchdowns. This would be significant progress in Pat White's maturation as a true QB and would put his numbers essentially neck-in-neck with Graham Harrell.   

What about a Vince Young ascension? Under the Vince Young scenario, White throws for 2,900 yards with 23 passing touchdowns. These types of numbers would make Pat White a no-brainer as the #1 pick. Is this possible? White plays in the Big East with a non-conference schedule tickled with the likes of Western Michigan, Marshall and East Carolina. It is very possible. Now all you have to do is pull the trigger with the 1st pick and take Pat White of West Virginia.   

  Projected 2007                                                                                                                                                               

Player	Passing Yards	Passing Touchdowns	INTs	Rushing Yards	Rushing Touchdowns	Total Fantasy Points
Graham Harrell	4876	43	16	-	1	361.8
Pat White (conservative)	1850	16	8	1200	13	317.5
Pat White (moderate)	2400	20	9	1200	13	356.0
Pat White (Vince Young)	2900	23	11	1200	13	388.0

You've Got Your League Started...Now What?

You've decided on the settings for your league and have it all ready to go, but what do you do next?  After deciding on how many members you want to have in it, you need to recruit them to fill out your league.  Rounding up your friends and the college football fans you know to play is the best option to fill out your league, but make sure they are committed to playing in the league.  Otherwise, you will end up with a league full of stale owners, which will probably make for a long and boring season.  Any players you invite to the league need to know the settings up front and as an owner, you need to let them know that college fantasy football is just like pro fantasy football, but you may have more players to keep up with.

When the league members are all rounded up - it's time to think about the draft.  When preparing for the draft, the owner should try and set up a date that works for all players in the league.  Setting a date for a couple of weeks in advance is the best route to take, as it will give everyone in the league a chance to research and plan to have that time for the draft.

Preparing for the draft is a task that any player or owner should give plenty of time to.  If you use a league where all 119 teams are involved, there is a lot of ground to cover.  A BCS only league doesn't have the large amount of players, but still requires a lot of time.  Research should start in the spring when teams release their spring prospectus.  You could research and prepare year round, but this is the prime time to get started.  Reading the spring guides and looking at the stats from the previous year is a good way to start your preparation.  Additionally, you will want to stay on top of the recent college football news.  There's nothing more disappointing taking a player in the draft only to found out he's no longer on the team.

It's always good to do your own research and to make your own rankings based upon your feelings of players.  However, as you can see by the panel of experts gathered in this blog, there are plenty of choices to look at for another opinion. 

Preparing for the draft is probably the most important aspect of the league after you have it set up.  It's impossible to show up for the draft with no research and end up winning your league!

How to start your Fantasy College Football League

So you want to start a college fantasy football league. Wise decision. You will find by season's end that fantasy college football is much more addicting than fantasy NFL. But how do you go about starting your new league? These 8 steps should get you on your way.

1. How many people will be in your league: 10-12 is desireable. The key in these leagues are quality over quantity. If you can get 12 solid owners...great, otherwise stick with 10.
2. What conferences will you use: This will be debated, however you will find that if you stick with BCS-only conferences 1) your life will be much easier to manage and 2) you will have just the right amount of available talent for your 10-12 teams. There are so many quality fantasy starters that if you were to go with all conferences, you'd need about 30 owners to have a solid league.
3. How many players on a roster: This number can be adjusted, however, we recommend using 15 players on your roster. This gives you plenty of talent on your roster and the waiver wire all while not stifling any trades in your league. If you want more trading in your league, increase your rosters...if you want less, decreasing your roster will put more roster-quality players on the waiver wire.
4. How many players should be in your starting lineup: One of the beauties of the college game is seeing a team that runs 5 wide on offense matching up against a wishbone running team. Fantasy college football can mimic just that. We suggest starting 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 Flex (RB or WR), 1 DEF and 1 K. To create greater offensive flexibility, you could start 1 RB and 2 Flex instead.
5. How do free agent pickups work: Once a week, owners will submit FA requests to you (the commish). Based on a priority scale, the owners will be awarded their player. We suggest having a 2 round limit for FA pickups each week.
6. How should scoring be implemented: This topic alone is the subject of one of our articles. Check it out.
7. Who is the champion: What side of the college football fence do you sit on? Are you a fan of the BCS or a fan of playoffs? With fantasy college football, you can go about it both ways. A BCS scoring system could pit the top rated teams in a championship game at season's end. You could divide your league into conferences and hold conference championships with the winners squaring off in the title game. You have many options. If you'd like more info on how a BCS score could be implemented, Ask The Dude.
8. Is there a service to help me with everything: There are not a lot of options in this arena. The market leader is U-Sports. They will allow you to do pretty much anything you can imagine and are very flexible to the needs of your league.

Choosing College Fantasy Football

The biggest question I get from friends, family or readers is how do you play college fantasy football....does it differ from fantasy leagues revolving around the NFL? College football isn't much different from NFL fantasy leagues, but you have more players, teams and injuries to keep track of. Can it be hard? Yes - but don't let that deter you from starting a league. Leagues can consistent of any conferences you want - I know people who play with leagues just involving with the SEC and Big 12, others use all of the I-A teams, while some have a dynasty mode and draft players while they are in high school and hope they pay off when they reach I-A.

There are a ton of options for the type of league, but most importantly, you have to make it fun. Don't overwhelm yourself with 119 teams if you can't keep up with scoring or just want to play with leagues you are most familiar with. If you have a hard time keeping up with the scoring, consider playing at U-Sports and they will take care of the scoring for you. Just like the NFL, you can have an array of scoring options for your league. Most leagues use something similar to the NFL's system, but if you want to add more points for running backs and downgrade the value of a quarterback, you have that ability.

As with the NFL, it's important to always do your research on the players - but you have to know NCAA teams don't always disclose injuries and most times won't. When making your lineup each week, injury risks are an even bigger concern with the NCAA than in the NFL, especially since you don't really have a lot to go off of.

Why play college fantasy football? Simply - it's fun! What's better than beating your friends in a college fantasy league and holding bragging rights for the entire offseason? Not to mention, if you are the resident college guru who knows the ins and outs of the entire Sun Belt Conference, this is where you get to shine.