Alas, summer is coming to a close and it's time again for school to be back in session. From preschool to college, the big yellow buses are back out on the road and that means the morning commute could get a little more hectic.
Well, at least everything about the fall isn't overly depressing. Football is set to resume and that means CBSSports.com is ready to go back to the chalkboard to bring you extensive coverage from the pro ranks all the way down to high school recruiting. The fall also signals the launch of College Fantasy Football.
As it has been well documented over the last few weeks, our new College Fantasy Football product debuted introducing individual players instead of team units. Although the product got a facelift, the strategies pretty much remain the same.
The three main points to remember about College Fantasy Football is that quarterback is king, non-BCS schools are extremely important and the list of skill players is a mile long.
Even though we didn't have individual players last season, if you plugged in 2007's numbers, the top three scorers were quarterbacks. Florida's Tim Tebow, Central Michigan's Dan LeFevour and Texas Tech's Graham Harrell were the only three players to total 500-plus Fantasy points in 2007. The next closest player was Indiana's Kellen Lewis with 410 points and he is also a quarterback.
All but one -- Texas Tech receiver Michael Crabtree -- of the top 20 Fantasy scorers from last season were quarterbacks. In our recent in-house Fantasy draft, five of the top six picks were quarterbacks -- Tebow, Harrell, LeFevour, Missouri's Chase Daniel and West Virginia's Patrick White -- and eight of the top 14 picks were gunslingers.
The spread offense is running rampant in the college game and it makes a difference in Fantasy. That's why drafting quarterbacks are more important in the College Fantasy game as opposed to the pro Fantasy game where running backs are the flavor of the early rounds.
Another reason why elite Fantasy quarterbacks are so valuable is because in the college game there is an overabundance of skills players. Get this -- 57 players in Football Subdivision (formerly Division I) rushed for 1,000-plus yards last season. Three of them -- Central Florida's Kevin Smith, Tulane's Matt Forte and Rutgers' Ray Rice -- rushed for more than 2,000 yards.
The number of wide receivers with 1,000-plus yards was 36. Therefore, you can afford to wait until the second round to nab a starting running back or wide receiver. And even then, you can grab elite Fantasy options in the middle rounds of drafts because most college teams go 80-deep on rosters and the playmakers are everywhere.
It's vitally important that Fantasy owners research the non-BCS schools before heading into a college draft. There are 120 FBS teams, unlike the NFL which has just 32 teams. There are plenty more able bodies to pick from in the college game and the lesser known conferences don't exactly have stellar defenses.
A little more than 1/3 of the projected top 30 Fantasy scorers for 2008 come from non-BCS schools. Thirteen of the top 30 Fantasy scorers from last season were also non-BCS affiliated.
The media does extensive coverage on the fight for BCS supremacy throughout the season and rightfully so. However, stats are stats as far as Fantasy is concerned and guys like Rice's Chase Clement, New Mexico State's Chase Holbrook, Southern Miss' Damion Fletcherand Boise State's Ian Johnson are extremely valuable.
Do yourself a favor and crack the book before heading into your Fantasy draft. You'll chances at achieving Fantasy glory will greatly increase.
