A Fantasy Football Unit Study - San Antonio Home EducationSan Antonio Home Education

Part I: What is Fantasy Football

Research the game of fantasy football. Be sure you understand the difference between point, performance, and keeper leagues. Learn different draft methods.

Reading List:

“What is Fantasy Football” and the rules section at Fantasy Insights.
“Frequently Used Fantasy Football Terminology” at the Fantasy Football Toolbox.
How to Play Fantasy Football, at Pro Fantasy Sports.
Fantasy Football University at Fantasy Asylum Fantasy Football

Activities:

Define your league

Learning Opportunities: reading, note taking, compare and contrast skills

Part II: Get ready for the draft

Rank your picks by your league’s scoring system. Find “cheatsheets” that rank players and compare them to your own rankings. Research “sleeper” opportunities. See if drafting positions in different orders provides you with more fantasy points. Explore how the position you draft in affects player availability.

Reading List:

Fantasy how-to: draft strategies at NFL.com.
FF Today Draft Plan at Fantasy Football Today.
Drafting Tips at Fantasy Football Toolbox

Activities:

Get a copy of team schedules and bye weeks.
Get team depth charts.
Get or design a team rooster draft sheet.
Create your own custom cheatsheet based on your leagues scoring system at OneWeekWonder, ProFantasySports, or Fantasy Football Toolbox.
Compare your custom cheatsheet to other available on the web.
Identify potential sleeper picks.
Conduct a mock draft varying the order of the positions you draft and the position you draft in.
Download the complete draft kit at Ask the Commish

Learning Opportunities: Charting and graphing skills, learn to use a spreadsheet, compare different valuation systems, organizational skills, record keeping skills.

Part III: The Season

Each week you’ll need to decide which players to start and which to bench. Team schedules, bye weeks, and injuries are some of the factors that will affect your decision. You will also want to record how many points a player has scored for each game and look for trade opportunities.

Reading:

“So Your Player is Listed as Questionable” at www.draftguide.com

Activities:

Create a spreadsheet to track player’s points.
Complete the Weekly Fantasy Football Starters Worksheet by ranking your players opponents using NFL.com.
Check for injuries and trade opportunities

Learning Opportunities: Planning and management skills, data analysis, compare and contrast, ranking evaluation, graphing, prediction.

Additional Activities:

Map player locations each week.
Analyze player performances by varying the scoring system.
Develop your own projections/ranking algorithms.
Discuss controversy of team names and mascots.
Discuss role of football stadiums in communities.
Discuss role of sports in education

Links to other lesson plans:

Fun Fantasy Football for the Elementary Class
Football Fever Fun Lesson Plan

Resources:

These sites provide the following free:

	Cheat sheets	Sleepers	How To’s/ FAQs	Work-sheets Schedules	Mock Draft	?! Ads
NFL www.NFL.com			y	y
Fantasy Football Today www.fftoday.com	y		y	y	y	y
Fantasy Insights www.fantasyinsights.com	y		y
Fantasy Football Toolbox www.fftoolbox.com	y		y	y	y	y
Yahoo Fantasy Football http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/research	y	y	y	y	y	y
The Huddle http://www.thehuddle.com/	y	y			y
Fantasy Pros http://www.fantasypros.com/	y		y		y	y
Draft Guide www.draftguide.com	y		y	y	y	y
Fantasy Football Cafe www.fantasyfootballcafe.com	y	y				y