Monday,
September 6
| by David Gonos, GuestCommentator |
The Idiot and the Odyssey
– 9/6/01
by
David Gonos
of FantasyRef.com
Email
him at Fantasyref@fantasyref.com
I’m
not going to lie.
I
live in Florida. This
past Saturday, the first day of college fantasy football, it
was around 90 degrees outside.
There was no nip in the air.
I didn’t break out any sweaters.
I couldn’t smell football in the air.
In between my hot dips in the pool and my tall glasses
of ice cold Barq’s, I enjoyed, for the first time, College
Fantasy Football.
So
this is the story of my journey into college fantasy football.
There is no
Cyclops in this story, except for Jared Lorenzen with one eye
closed. There are
no singing sirens luring me into certain death, except those
hailing Syracuse’s Troy Nunes as the next Donovan McNabb. And finally, the only similarity is that both stories were
written by a Homer: the epic poet, and homer (me) the guy that
drafted South Florida’s Marquel Blackwell (a fantasy stud
for next year, I promise!)
Like
I said, no lying here. I’m
coming straight at you. I’ve
never played College Fantasy Football before this past
weekend. I’ve always wanted to, never had the chance.
I’ve been playing fantasy sports for 12 years now.
Fantasy football, baseball, basketball, hockey and
NASCAR. I
consider myself one of the few veterans with that much
experience. But
again, NEVER in the college game.
CFFL.com
invited my site to join them in the first College Fantasy
Football Expert’s League and I was immediately intrigued.
Granted, how can I be an expert if I’ve never played
the game? Well,
in the online world, everyone with a site is considered an
expert. Right or
wrong, that’s just how it is.
I confess now, that I am NOT a College Football Expert.
Although, I do consider myself a “fantasy expert”
which is to say that I have played fantasy sports long enough
to recognize certain trends, evaluate talent, understand
systems and finally, I know how to research.
I run a site where I try to convey my experience and
knowledge among those who are interested enough to read it,
which happens to be in the thousands.
So from that aspect, I am an expert.
By no means, do I believe that I can win any league I
join, with or without other experts.
Heck, knowing the fantasy game as I do I realize that
you can’t prepare for another owner’s luck, only your own.
With
my Fantasy Expert Membership Card in hand, worth at least a
plum nickel, I set out on my first venture into College
Fantasy Football. I
had a few obstacles to overcome in preparing for this league:
1.
Opponents
– CFFL.com has pitted some of their past champions against
me in this league. I
envision a roomful of Mel Kiper/Kirk Herbstreit clones with
recruiting reports and reels of game film at their feet.
Not good for me.
2.
My
Knowledge
– As an avid football fan, pro and college, I had to make
sure I didn’t make the mistake of most “fans” and assume
I know enough to get a decent team.
I had to research it as if I knew nothing, then base my
rankings within that.
3.
117
teams as opposed to 31 – Since there are so many Division I teams, and
so many quarterbacks, and so many running backs, and so
many… You get the point. It’s
difficult to determine if a QB throwing for 2000 yards in a
season is a high, average or low point.
4.
The
Troy Aikman Factor – In the NFL, Aikman has long been considered
one of the best quarterbacks of his generation.
But in fantasy terms, he was about as valuable as
expired milk. In
college football, there are a ton of players that have bigger
national names because of the teams they play on and the
exposure they get, yet, they aren’t even in the Top 20 for
college fantasy quarterbacks.
So
with that, I endured a troubling draft where I ended up with
Anquan Boldin as my No. 1 WR only because my rankings went in
the day before his season-ending injury.
That puts a dent in your team right off the bat.
No problem, I said, there are hundreds more players
where he came from… Just not as valuable…
As soon as the draft report came out and I saw who I
ended up with, I immediately began scouring the free agents
and replaced Boldin and filled my bench.
This
past weekend, I finally got a chance to enjoy the fruits of my
hard work. Nick
Maddox scored twice for me on a team he was sharing time at
tailback on. Reche
Caldwell hit the endzone even though he’s playing second
banana to the top WR in college football in my opinion, Jabar
Gaffney at Florida. Even
Freddie Milons broke out against UCLA and ripped up the
“never-was” label placed on him, for a game at least.
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I
had a chance to watch teams this weekend that I normally
wouldn’t care about. I
mean, even in the NFL, an Arizona Cardinals vs. Cincinnati
Bengals game draws some interest.
But now I’m watching Southern Miss awfully close.
I’m wondering if Colorado’s pair of hundred yard
rushers means anything. While
most NFLer’s can’t wait for Eli Manning to hit the pros,
I’m enjoying him now on my team! Xavier Beitia drops seven
PATs and two FGs for a kicker-starved FSU.
Who cares about this stuff but College Fantasy Football
fanatics and FSU alumni and fans?
What’s
that? Lee Suggs
went down? If it
wasn’t for this game, I wouldn’t know that his backup is
freshman Kevin Jones, a recruit out of Philadelphia many
tabbed as the best high school player in the country last
year.
After
one full weekend of College Fantasy Football with CFFL.com,
there is one thing I question: How did I make it 12 years
without playing College Fantasy Football?
I assure you the next 12 years will be entirely
different. Not only was this College Fantasy Football journey
challenging and exciting, it was a whole lot of fun!… And
that’s only Week One!
David Gonos is the editor and owner of FantasyRef.com,
a four-sport fantasy information site with rankings, articles
and advice. Some
have called him Dr. Gonos, just because he went
to college for nine years… Now
THAT’s a college fan!
Email
him at Fantasyref@fantasyref.com
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