The Sandspur

Issue date: 10/14/05 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Sam Riche/KRT CAMPUS CAN HE DO IT?: Many Fantasy Football teams depend on Peyton Manning maintaining his record number of touchdown passes from last year.

In the weeks and months leading up to the football season, the focus isn't necessarily on what team has the best shot at getting to the Super Bowl or whether your favorite team has a good defense or not.

Rather, the focus is on whether LaDainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers can rush for 2,000 yards or if Peyton Manning can pass for 60 touchdowns. You may call it an anomaly. I simply refer to it as a conflict of interest, or in other words: Fantasy Football.

So what exactly is Fantasy Football? It's an online "sport" in which an average football fan manages their own imaginary team of NFL players based on the statistics they generate in the games.

Fantasy Football works in different ways depending on which league you join. There are free leagues, in which most casual users and some competitive users use. The most popular ones can be found on CBS Sportsline.com, Yahoo! and ESPN.

Many die-hards and competitive users join pay-leagues that can also be found on the following websites. To purchase a team costs $24.99 and a league is about $124.99, which can include up to 20 teams.

It is estimated that $154 per user is spent on fantasy football each year from subscription to maintenance fees. The average player owns two or three teams, which aren't really that hard to keep up with.

All leagues have drafts in which the draft order is selected by the order in which you joined the league or random order. An average fantasy football team has 12 players: one Quarterback, three wide receivers, two running backs, a tight end, a kicker and a defensive team.

Running backs typically generate the most points because they are mostly associated with touchdowns, which are worth the most points in fantasy football. Quarterbacks come next followed by wide receivers, defenses, tight ends and kickers. But it all depends on what player you are, what team you play on, and what kind of offense your team runs.

About 17% of American males, age 18-39 play Fantasy Football. The average male spends four hours per week dedicated to each of his fantasy football teams.

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