By Andrew J. Barnes ’12
THE ROUNDUP

When fall comes around, a widespread feeling is the beginning of another busy school year, but fall is also the time for fantasy football to start gloriously intruding on Sundays otherwise filled with homework.

For those who don’t know the rules, fantasy football is a game where participants draft their own football team consisting of major positional players, which typically includes a quarterback, two or more running backs, two or more wide receivers, a tight end, a team defense/special teams and a kicker.

A team’s performance depends on how well each individual player does statistically in their respective games across the NFL.

Scoring can vary, but in a standard league quarterbacks receive one point for every 20 passing yards, four points for every touchdown pass and six points for every rushing touchdown.

If they throw an interception or fumble the ball, it is a deduction of two points per turnover.

For example, if Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers were to throw for 300 passing yards and toss two touchdown passes, he would score 23 points for the week.

For running backs, wide receivers and tight ends, every 10 yards they gain will get one point and every touchdown they score will earn six points.

A penalty pertains to fumbling the ball, which is a loss of two points.

Team defenses/special teams gain or lose points based on factors such as how many points they give up to the other team, how many turnovers they force, and how many sacks they get.

Also, points can be gained in this section for kick-off and punt return touchdowns.

Kickers receive between three and five points for a field goal depending on the distance of it and one point for extra points.

Whoever has the most points that week in the head-to-head matchup wins their game.

These matchups are what make fantasy football fans so giddy and crazy because their team performance depends on how well the players do statistically in their particular NFL matchups.

For many months, there was a chance that there would be no NFL season this year, which would mean no fantasy football.

On the day the lockout was lifted, fantasy football fans around the country rejoiced because this guaranteed another season of fantasy madness.

The only negative that could be said about the end of the lockout would be that students, like me, will be distracted from doing homework on Sundays due to the plethora of football games on television that take attention away from homework.

The homework does get done eventually, but completing it doesn’t come without its trials and tribulations due to watching football and constantly getting statistics about how well my fantasy team is doing.

Surprisingly, playing fantasy football does have benefits pertaining to school work.

In Probability and Statistics class, students were required to fill out a fantasy football roster to do weekly calculations on team performances.

Wait, what?

I get to do what I love to do on Sundays, and it’s also part of a class project for school?

You bet.

Some may say that fantasy football distracts you from doing homework, but I have the satisfaction of knowing that playing it is part of my weekly homework.

Oh, the joy of fantasy football.