2013 College Football Season is here!

Beer flooded basements, empty shelves at Bed, Bath & Beyond and Red Bull’s stock price rising can only mean one thing…college is back in session! With the beginning of college comes the beginning of college football – one of the most anticipated seasons all year, especially for states without an NFL team.

The wonderful thing about college football is that every state has at least two teams that they can root for.  For example, the state of Alabama divides into two different states in the fall; you’re either a ‘Bama fan and  “Roll Tide” runs off your tongue faster than a cheetah looking for it’s next meal, or you’re an Auburn fan and you walk around saying “War Eagle” to anyone with Auburn apparel on because no one else has any idea what you’re referring to. (What are you referring to?) Either way, you feel like you have a purpose in the fall since the NFL forgot about your state when they approved the cities with the 32 football teams.

Anyway, back to college football 2013.  What can we expect this year….

-       No named quarterbacks making a name for themselves - Georgia quarterback, Aaron Murray, named #1 quarterback in pre-season and he’s only been in the media a few times.

-       Ohio State is back in the mix for the BCS Championship and USC is looking to make this year matter. Ohio State and UCS have both been serving NCAA suspensions, and USC struggled last year, which was its' first year back being eligible for the BCS championship.  You can anticipate both teams to come out strong!

-       Continuing conversation of SEC dominance.  An SEC team has won the BCS Championship for the past 7 years.  There are technically 9 other conferences that have a chance to win it as well.

-       Debate over whether college athletes should get paid or not.  Right now college athletes do not make any money from their names being used on paraphernalia, they only have the stipend that the NCAA gives them to live on.  Fair? Or Not? You decide!

-       Saturdays full of fun, competition and student sections filled with drunk college kids wearing blazers and dresses (thank you Southern schools for turning college football games into cocktail parties…blah)

So get your pom-poms ready and welcome in the 2013 college football season aka the last season of the existing BCS system (more to come on that in a later post)! Season starts on Thursday, August 29^th!

Easy guide to participate in Fantasy Football...even your cat can do it!

Sports Summer Slacking (SSS) is over.  It’s time to get serious about fall sports!

Media outlets everywhere are starting to talk NFL, so you know that means one thing is around the corner…Fantasy Football!!! Before you get left out of brunch conversations and crazy chest bumps let me try and help!

This blog post will give you the guts to get involved in the Fantasy Football action and provide a few  pointers on how to pick your team with confidence! Of course, you could always stick with the safe route and have your 6 year old nephew do it, or pick based on the players who have the cutest butts, or players from your favorite cities, but let’s try it my way this year and see how you do, cool?

How do you win fantasy football you ask?  It’s easy – you rack up points based on how well the athletes that you chose to be on your imaginary team do over the course of the season. The players who score the most points for your team are the same players who score the most points on the field, so you’ll want to pick players who tend to have the football a lot and score a high amount of points. All right, let’s get into it…

1.     Take running backs with your 1^st & 2^nd round pick.  They will help get you the most points.

2.     Choose a defensive squad based on a mix of young players and veteran players.  Never chose an all-veteran squad because they might be one step too slow without the energy of the younger guys!

3.     A quarterback can be picked in the 3^rd or 4^th round this year.  There is a large depth chart of quarterbacks who can throw deep, so no need to grab one if there are still good running backs and wide receivers available.

4.     Wide Receivers.  Make sure to grab a couple this year.  No need to focus on getting any Tight Ends (although they tend to have the best asses), Tight Ends are getting stronger and stronger these days on blocking and aren’t seeing as many balls thrown for long yardage.

5.     Pay attention to your roster each week.  Make sure you know if your players actually have a game that week, and if they don’t “bench” them and bring one of your “back ups” in! This is the biggest rookie mistake, don’t make it!

6.     When in doubt, ask any guy who looks completely out of it on Monday mornings.  Chances are they watched every televised game on Sunday while also staring at their computer, so they can rattle off any stat or suggestion for you! 

7.     Or check out these sites for in-depth analysis each week. 

              http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage/football

              http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootball

              http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/

Best of Luck!