We are one week into Fantasy Ethos’ March Madness and promise of 65 posts this month. This marks the twelth post of the month and puts us right around schedule. With that in mind, here are some links to get your brain going this Monday:

• Inaugural FantasyFootball.com Roundtable Discussion (FantasyFootball.com) It is March, and these guys are discussing what the fantasy foootball season will bring. Questions that will not be fully answered until December. Hey, someone has to get the ball rolling on these discussions.
• Do’s and don’ts of fantasy (SI.com) David Sabino provides fantasy baseball drafting tips that are likely to keep you from making any serious mistakes. If still have not hit your stride in fantasy baseball (or even if you have), you might want to check it out. Always good to get back to basics.
• KFFL Reaches Multisport Deal with RotoExperts (Fantasy Sports Business) Matt Schauf has picked up a tip that KFFL will now syndicate RotoExperts’ NASCAR, golf, and soccer content. Since KFFL does not currently have golf or soccer, nor a very robust NASCAR site, this deal allows it to add additional content to its site without too much additional hassle and cost, since syndication is generally a cheaper alternative than producing the content yourself.

Keep on coming back here, because there are always more treats for you on Fantasy Ethos

Note: I previously worked for Fantasy Sports Ventures, the owner of KFFL.com

There are hundreds of places that fantasy football players can get their information from. Sara Holladay has made a name for herself as the Fantasy Football Librarian by helping fantasy players dig out what are the most interesting and relevant articles. With an almost encyclopedic knowledge of everything that is written, Holladay has proven that she is quite the fantasy football player herself when she won the Buffalo Wild Wings Fantasy Football All-Star Bloggers league and a trip to the Super Bowl. I recently got to ask Holladay a few questions:

How did you get involved in fantasy football?
Back in 2004 my husband was looking for an extra person to play in one of his leagues and since I loved college football, I figured it was worth a try. Didn’t take long before I got addicted and suddenly knew a ton about both the NFL and fantasy football.

What is the worst move you ever made as a fantasy football owner?
Worst move I’ve ever made…man, that’s a tough one. I’ve made my fair share of bad moves but I think one that comes to mind, in part thanks to how recent it was, was grabbing LaDainian Tomlinson with the 7th overall pick in a draft this past year. I just wasn’t ready to believe that he was on his way out, and yet I should have paid attention to historical clues about how quickly older RBs can drop off. So right now, LT is feeling kind of raw.

Best piece of advice you ever received about fantasy football?
Best piece of advice has probably been to avoid grabbing players from your real life favorite team. I’m a Broncos fan so the ups and downs are harsh enough – no need to get too wrapped up in the Broncos from a fantasy perspective, too. That said, I still take Broncos if they’re the best value at that point of the draft. I just try to separate my fandom from my fantasy world.

So, who is the better fantasy player, you or your husband?
That all depends on who you ask – I’d say me, I did win us a trip to the Super Bowl in the Buffalo Wild Wings All-Star Blogger League. Meanwhile he would argue that he won 2 of the 3 leagues that we played in together…but then I’d just remind him of all the draft help and weekly advice I gave him. I don’t think either one of us will concede any time soon. Fortunately it’s clearly a friendly household battle.

What’s been your favorite part about becoming a fantasy football expert?
Maybe just getting to own that phrase? I think it’s a combo of having people trust me with their big weekly decisions, but also having the opportunity to network with other FF writers. Both of those are pretty good highs.

Do you ever feel like everyone is gunning for you in your leagues now that you own it?
Yes, there are a few friends that are gunning for me a bit more in leagues, but I love a good competition so I welcome it. Plus they’re the same guys that will happily enjoy a beer with me and talk draft prep for hours – that’s a welcome trade-off.

What do you think is the next big thing in fantasy football?
I think more and more leagues will include individual defensive players, which adds an added layer of complexity. But based on the number of sites that are coming out with daily games and games based on historical players, I think the field is really wide open for fantasy sports. Mainstream players will probably stick with traditional leagues, but there’s a good chance that those new to fantasy sports or just who haven’t played say fantasy baseball or hockey before will turn to some of the daily games first.

Thanks again, Sara, for your time, and good luck defending your title in 2010!

In honor of the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament, Fantasy Ethos will publish 65 posts in the month of March, one for every team in the tournament. This is part of a greater effort to bring you (our beloved reader) much more regular content, because I know you want it. To get to the 65 posts, I will be throwing out a few new features, some interviews, maybe a contest or two, and few more tricks that I have up my sleeve.

This post is officially the first post of the 65. While some may consider this cheating to get, I ask how many of us consider the NCAA tournament to truly consist of 65 teams. Other than the two teams involved, no one cares about the play-in game. Therefore, just as March Madness starts with a teaser of the whole tournament, as will I.

Just in case, I do not want to leave you without something to challenge your mind, so here is a nugget of interest for you–the National Football League is looking at changing its overtime format. The new format would create a higher level of fairness of the current system, and would result in more scoring for overtime games. For fantasy football, this means more points from players in overtime!

What are your thoughts on the proposed format?

For the longest time, Yahoo! Fantasy Sports charged for its Stat Tracker. This little feature sucked you in during Week 1 of your fantasy football season. Week 1 was free, but if you wanted that hit for the rest of the season, you would have to pay Yahoo! a measly $10. While Yahoo! Fantasy Football was “free,” I knew very few players that actually paid nothing to the site. Alternatively, leagues could sign up for a Fantasy Football Plus account for $125, which gave every team member Stat Tracker, plus a few other minor bells and whistles. But, things are different now, and as a result of its actions, it is possible that Yahoo! may have destroyed the paid fantasy commissioner market.

For the 2009 fantasy football season, Yahoo! made Stat Tracker available for free. In addition, Free Agent Acquisition Budgets became available for use on the waiver wire. Both of these features were previously premium options. The biggest change was that Fantasy Football Plus was now only $30, which mainly covered the costs of the championship trophy and the draft guides that it provided its players. For the 2010 fantasy baseball season, Yahoo! has gone one step further and got rid of the Plus package all together, made Stat Tracker free, and added auction drafts to the site. It is a much better product than the previous version.

In other words, the reasons that would often cause fantasy leagues to want to move to a “better” paid fantasy commissioner site are quickly going away. Why would you pay $75 to $175 (or more) for a commissioner service when your league can get almost all of the features you need out of Yahoo?

In the past, with its clean interfaces, Yahoo! was great for new leagues or leagues looking to keep it simple and casual. Leagues would normally graduate from Yahoo! to a much more premium service. But now, with these premium features, Yahoo! is speaking to the experienced leagues that want a little more intense fantasy experience.

ESPN Fantasy helped put fantasy down this very free path over the last few years as it made has made a big push, leading by making fantasy football and fantasy baseball free and adding premium options for free. Now, it appears Yahoo! is slowly, but surely, following suit. Yahoo! is the clear leader in the fantasy sports market, so when it shifts strategy, everyone should take note. The emphasis on a free, ad-supported revenue model by the Top two fantasy sites is not a good sign for the paid guys.

Does this mean paid commissioner products are going to completely disappear and suffer? No, I don’t believe that for a second. According to Kevin Austin of MyFantasyLeague, “We still grew at a very good clip this year over last, in spite of Yahoo and ESPN both having increasingly good, free products, and in spite of the country-wide economic situation.” Many of the leagues that the paid commissioner services cater to have special or unique rules that sites like MyFantasyLeague cater too. The ability for this to be a continuing trend is what worries me most.

What is your take? Do you think Yahoo!’s completely free move will hurt paid commissioner services?

The concept of simulated fantasy games is new, but Yesteryear Fantasy Sports has put a new twist on the game. To play, draft a roster of historical players and play head-to-head like regular fantasy football game. However, for your players’ game statistics, YesterYear’s Fantasy Football’s system will randomly select real statistics from a three-year window of that player’s career. The game is free to play if you want an autodrafted team, or $3.99 if you would like to select your own team. Currently, YesterYear is hosting a challenge in which the top teams will get a chance to compete NFL greats like Mike Ditka (Da Bears!), Tony Dorsett and Dwight Clark.

I am not sure what I think about this game, since you know exactly how well your players will perform. The more I think about it, while in theory you will know, it is possible that a player will have all of his big games in one season or could have all of his bad games in a season. In other words, your players could still be total studs or duds, just like regular fantasy football.

Simulated games are not a new concept. YesterYear competes with other simulated games like WhatIfSports, which has been offering siumulated games for a number of years. Heck, simulated games go way back to the card and dice game with things like APBA Baseball and Strat-O-Matic. Personally, I am a fan of simulated games.

The best thing that YesterYear Fantasy Sports has done is framed this as a continuation of fantasy football season. In fact, it seems to avoid words likes “simulated,” as they imply something much geekier and less cool.

Good news is that a part of the proceeds go to the Gridiron Greats fund, which supports retired football players from when football players did not make mountains of money.

Additional Information

http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/64861/
• YesterYear Fantasy Challenge Kicks Off New Season in Fantasy Sports (Press Release)

How is your Friday going? Mine has been quite delightful so far, to be honest. I have been catching up on reading today, and I came across a few articles that you may just enjoy:

• Things to Watch for the 2010 Fantasy Football Season, Part One (Fantasy Football) – If you thought it was too early to start thinking about the 2010 fantasy football season, you are sorely mistaken. Not only are some fantasy players contemplating who they might want to draft, there is at least one player out there is developing strategies and determining trends.
• Rating the Rankings in Fantasy Football: CBSSports.com Is the 2009 Winner (New York Times) – Determining which rankings to pay attention may be one of the hardest things that fantasy players have to decide before the season. Sara Holladay, aka the Fantasy Football Librarian, painstakingly rated 48 different sets of rankings.
• Darius Rucker is Obsessed with Football (ESPN) – This is mainly just a random reference about fantasy football, but Darius Rucker plays fantasy football. He also sports a Fantasy Football Legend T-Shirt. Too bad he’s a Dolphins fan in real life.

I hope you had a good day. Keep checking back here for some big news next week.

It’s been a long while since the last edition of the Fantasy Factoids, but that does not mean I stopped loving you. Getting you some quality fantasy sports news has always been on my mind.

Just today, I was thinking, “Wow! My readers would really want to check out these articles. I should do something about it!” Here is me doing something about it. Check these out:

• Fantasy football pays off for area men (Chronicle-Telegram) – A local new article about the team that won the 2009 World Championship of Fantasy Football . Although newspapers are having financial issues, local press can have a great impact in terms of drumming up interest.
• The rise and rise of fantasy sports (CNN) This is actually written from an international perspective and discusses that the international fantasy sports market, particularly fantasy soccer, may be the biggest fantasy market of all of them.
• ESPN Mobile Thrives Despite No Ties To Ad Networks Or Android (Just Another Mobile Phone Blog) It looks like ESPN found a mobile strategy that works for it. After famously fumbling with ESPN Mobile phones, by refocusing on distributing its sports content (content is ESPN’s core competency) in the mobile arena.
• Greene still going strong in postseason (Sporting News) – Shonn Greene may have officially obtained 2010 fantasy football sleeper pick of the year that everyone knows about. Do not be surprised if someone grabs Greene in the second round of your draft next season regardless of how his training camp goes.

I hope you enjoyed these articles. Keep checking back here regularly for additional and, I dare say, awesome fantasy sports news.

I received an email this week from a reader Dennis as to what the proper amount to give your fantasy football commissioner as a thank you for running the league. Unfortunately, in my over twenty years of playing fantasy sports, I have never heard of a commissioner getting tipped out for all the crap he puts up with all season. I say unfortunately because this is a trend that is overdue, and I would not mind seeing grow. Dennis you are a better man than 99 percent of fantasy players.

For leagues for which I have been the commissioner, I usually consider myself lucky if I finish the season with as many friends as I had at the start of the season. Countless relationships have been damaged because of a trade gone wrong or waiver wire bids. Remember, it this is just a game and is not worth losing friendships over.

Being a fantasy commissioner is on the most thankless jobs I know. The main thing that drives people to actually do it is that they want to play in a fun, familiar fantasy sports league, and that is what it takes to get it done. The upside is, if you are a good fantasy commissioner, you can ensure that people are having fun and that your league will continue for years to come.

In reference to Dennis’ original question, I would recommend around half of the league entry fee for leagues with three or four top prizes and as much as the full entry fee for a league with only one or two top prizes. Other ideas I have heard about are putting some of the winnings towards a league happy hour, or purchasing a championship trophy for the league to pass around to the winner every season.

What are your thoughts on the topic?

With the fantasy football season officially over with the conclusion of the regular season (if you are one of those weird leagues that uses the playoffs, you are truly crazy yet commendable at the same time), you may be looking for things to do to fill the void in your life that fantasy football has left. Because, I care about our readers, I thought I would jot down some things that you may want to dedicate some time to over the next few months. At least until July, when you can reasonably be allowed/expected to spend countless hours on your fantasy football team(s).

1. There used to be a time when your jeans did not require a shoe horn to put-on. When you spend 10 hours a week watching football, checking live scoring, and drinking the beverage of your choice, you are bound to put on a few pounds. Time to get to the gym.
2. Remember in November when you were busy watching the waiver wire and your wife was rushed to the hospital and then came back two days later with a miniature person? That was your new baby. Go meet that little cutie.
3. Speaking of your wife. Remember her? You might want to get back into her good graces. Perhaps start by parrying down your Honey-Do list and take her out to dinner where the television in the bar is not visible from your seats. This applies to girlfriends and various other significant others.
4. Volunteer. Seriously. You have all this free time, and you may actually be able to do some good. Plus, with incentive programs like Give a Day, Get a Disney Day or Give a Day, Get a Night at a Sage Hotel, there is no real reason not to volunteer.
5. Learn to snowboard. Learn to play golf. In other words, learn a sport that requires you to use those muscles in your legs that have atrophied from all of those hours sitting at your computer.
6. Get that degree in economics. Far-fetched? With your new ability to divide by 25 and 10 in your head combined with your ability to determine undervalued and overvalued players based on each player’s ADP, you are already half-way there. You’re so money!
7. The last time you read something that did not contain the words “flex slot” or “sleeper pick” was probably in June of last year. Time for you to catch up on the news of the world. Start with the Balloon Boy Hoax. That might be a good puff piece to get you back in the flow.
8. Now that you have run the 10K of fantasy football, time for you to complete in the marathon that is fantasy baseball. Just for kicks, make sure it is a daily moves league. After watching you get involved in just one fantasy baseball season, your wife will beg you to play fantasy football only.
9. Plan an elaborate revenge against the Colts’ Jim Caldwell for benching Peyton Manning during your fantasy football championship game. Actually, after watching Wes Welker tear his ACL and MCL in a mostly meaningless game, Caldwell made the right decision.
10. You could just decide there is no-offseason and monitor every bit of fantasy football news for the next few months while the slackers focus on all of the rest of the items on this list.

If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to share them below.

Your fantasy season has been over since Michael Turner’s sprained ankle ruined your season. You could not even persuade your friends to form a free playoff league at MyFantasyLeague. Well, there is still the NFL’s free fantasy football Playoff Challenge 2009. It’s a free game and offers some big prizes.

To play, all you have to do is select eight players for each round of the playoffs. Players accumulate fantasy points like any other fantasy football league. The team with the most points win. Win what you ask? An all-expense paid trip for two to Super Bowl XLV in 2011. Not too shabby. But, if you fall short of the top prize, you will have settle for one of ten NFL.com gift cards (5-$100 and 5-$50 for first and second place). Hey, it’s a free game, so something is always better than nothing.

By the way, if the playoffs are being played entirely in in 2009, why is this the 2009 Playoff Challenge? Just seems a bit backward thinking and a bit of poor marketing by the NFL.

Monster is the main sponsor for the game. The game is built by Sports Technologies, the guys who started FanNation a few years ago, which was subsequently purchased by Sports Illustrated a few years ago.