It's Time To Begin College Fantasy Pigskin Ain't It?

It's not a traditional way of playing, but this time of the year, this blog is very, very … very slow for quality updates that I feel it's time to make some homer-ized fantasy football picks Wildcat Blog style.

Normally fantasy football consists of picking from a pool of players and based on certain conditioned stats your team of players scores points as a collective team. Well if you know me at all, you should know I like to try and do things differently, so it shouldn't surprise you that when I say fantasy football, it ain't gonna be the way you might think, but feel free to play along with me.

Kentucky has 12 games this season, 8 of which are at home. Starting today, each Wednesday, The Wildcat Blog will offer its own unique way of fantasy picking Kentucky's schedule, and by August 15th, we should have the whole schedule completed for our readers to mull over with the understanding our predictions are just that. Predictions that don't really matter and are stupid to make this early on. We're cool like that (I know that phrase is probably getting old now).

So this is how it's gonna work: each week we pick players at key positions on Kentucky (likely will be the same each week) and predict their stats as it pertains to our Fantasy Football guidelines.

We Pick:
QB
RB
TE
2 WR
K
DEF
ST

Guidelines:
Passing/Rushing/Receiving: 1 pt per yd
TD: 6 pts each
FG: 3 pts each
Defense: 2 pts per Int and fumble recovery
Points Allowed: shutout= 10 pts, 1-6= 8 pts, 7-13= 5 pts, 14-20= 3 pts, 21+= no points
Special Teams: 5 pts bonus for kickoff/punt return TD (not including points for the TD), Blocked FG/Punt & onside kick recovery (offensive or defensive)= 2 pts each
2 pt conversion= 2 pts

All Offensive Turnovers= -2 pts (all turnovers will count against me).

Here's where it gets a little tricky though. If I predict a players stats higher than what he actually recorded in a game in any category then I receive no points from that player even though I might have received points from him in other areas. I must predict as close to or right on to what each player is going to record - going over or over indulging my prediction to be “safe” will not benefit me. For example …

If I predict Andre Woodson to post 250 yds, 2 TDs and 30 yds rushing and he really only records 233 yds, TD, 2 INTs, and 12 yds rushing then the only points I would get from him would be from his interceptions which would equal -4 pts because I predicted he'd throw more yardage and throw for more TDs and rush for more yardage than he really did and all offensive turnovers count against me. The goal is to predict as closely as possible without going over what each player will post in his stat column.

Then, I'll have a percentage number to compare what the players actually did to what I earned based on what I predicted they would do. In Woodson's case, he earned 233 pts for passing, 6 pts for a TD, 12 pts for rushing, and -4 pts for his INTs which equals A Total Possible Fantasy score of 247 pts. The 247 pts compared to what I actually scored, -4, would give me a total percentage number of about -2%, which basically means I suck. Again, the goal is to predict as closely as possible what each player will post up in his stats without going over, and predicting a too high of a number will essentially take points away from me. I'll add these numbers just like this for each player in my lineup and then come to a final game fantasy score. 100% would be the ideal number I'm hoping for - as close to 100% as I can. Then after all the games are played, since I could go into more detail but I don't want to, I'll just add up my percentages from each game and divide them by 12 to give me my fantasy football season score - you know, cause I'm cool like that - and I'm not a mathematician so I don't want to burst a vein in my head. Sound cool? Cool.

By August 15th, I'll be done with my predictions for each game (laying down my predictions for a different game on Kentucky's schedule here once a week) and by that time it will give me a couple weeks to tweak my predictions based on depth charts, injuries or whatever before the season starts. By Game Day time, I'll post my Official Predictions right before each game as they approach so as there won't be any controversy over what I predicted and it will also give me time again to tweak my predictions based on any late breaking news as it relates to the game. Enjoy the read, here are my early predictions, remember I only get points for the stats I predict without going over …

September 1 vs Eastern Kentucky

QB Woodson: 235 yds, TD
RB Little: 67 yds rushing, 45 yds receiving, TD
WR Lyons: 65 yds receiving
WR Burton: 107 yds receiving, 2 TD
TE Tamme: 35 yds, TD
K Seiber: 2 FGs

Defense: 7-13 pts allowed, fumble recovery, interception

Final Score: 34-10 Kentucky

Basically I'm saying these kids will at least do this much against Eastern Kentucky, and if any of them fall short in any category I predicted for them, I earn no points from them at all, and if they actually did more or score more than I predicted well then I still only earn what I predicted they would do. It sounds fun. Complicated. And weird. But we'll see how this works out, I've never played it this way before. Do you wanna play along each week? Well leave me a comment with your predictions or email me. It's getting close to football time ain't it? I know, not really.

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