The million dollar question is “What is fantasy football?”

Fantasy football is one of the fastest growing segments of the entire sports industry, and has become a billion $$$ industry. It has brought football fans' interaction with the sport they love to a whole new level that has never been achieved before by any other professional sports league in the world. And it all comes down to getting the right cheat sheets to be successful.

Fantasy football’s popularity is exploding into the mainstream, and if you’re not in a league, then you just don’t know what you’re missing out on.

In short: it’s fun, it’s competitive, it’s addictive, and it’s here to stay.

All of you veteran fantasy players know what I'm talking about. There's nothing quite like those big fantasy draft parties! Everyone else is just catching on, or catching up to what we've already known for years. But who's counting? There's always plenty of room at the table for more!

So What's All the Buzz About?

Well for starters, fantasy football is an interactive online/offline game that puts a person in control of his own simulated football team. They are considered a fantasy football “owner.”

These owners manage teams that are part of fantasy football leagues that can be formed and run/commissioned with groups of friends or entered individually. Almost all leagues are now run exclusively through the internet.

When someone joins a league, they form their team by drafting actual NFL players before the season begins. Drafts mostly occur during the month of August, at the tail-end of the preseason. This insures that owners have the latest roster changes, injury updates, and team/player analysis available to them.

LaDainian Tomlinson remains one of the premier players in fantasy football.

Win Your Weekly Head-To-Head Match-Up

Once the regular season gets underway, owners receive points in accordance with how well their players are actually performing on the field during their games.

Although there are several types of league rules and point systems (see our scoring/point system), the basic object of fantasy football is to accumulate enough points that allow you to win your weekly head-to-head match-up versus another owner, or Team (owners usually name their teams), within your league.

Stats = Points = Winning

Every week, owners must make weekly decisions as to which players on their roster will be starting and which players will be benched. This is done by determining many factors such as, who has favorable match-ups, who’s been producing, who’s injured, who’s getting playing time, etc.

Only the players who are selected to start that week can accumulate points. So for instance, an owner has both Brett Favre and Tom Brady on their roster. They select Favre to start for them over Brady. When Favre throws a TD in his game, the owner gets 4 points (example, all leagues scoring is different, check with your league manage for your specifics). At the end of Favre’s game, all his statistics are converted into fantasy football Points (FFP). However, any TDs that Brady throws do not count towards that owner’s final score (FFP).

The match-up winner is determined by total FFP, so if the owner of Team #1 has 85 total points for that week and the owner of Team #2 has 78 points, then Team #1 wins. Their record is now 1-0, while Team #2 is 0-1. The next week, this happens all over again- against a different owner/team.

Owners Play the Role of a GM

During the course of the season, owners can also add and subtract players from their roster via trades with other teams and/or free agency pick-ups of players who are not currently on any team. This is a major part of managing your team.

Situations that would call for this would be for players who get lost to season ending injuries, players who are not performing well and have lost their starting job, players who are suddenly playing well and are now starting, etc.

So in essence, owners are much like General Managers and Head Coaches of actual sports teams/franchises by managing their fantasy football teams on a weekly and season-long basis.

Leagues Work Just Like the Pros

There is anywhere between 8-14 teams per fantasy football League. Usually the teams are broken up into divisions, just like the NFL. All the team records are based on wins-losses (straight total FFP are recorded for tie-breakers), and at the end of the fantasy football regular season (about week 14), the teams with the best records go into their league’s Playoffs. Again, this is run just like the NFL runs their Playoffs, with head-to-head, single elimination match-ups.

The ultimate goal is to play and win in the league’s fantasy Bowl Championship. To the victor goes the spoils, and depending on the league, cash, prizes, trips, and most importantly, bragging rights are awarded to the fantasy Bowl Champion. High-stakes fantasy football leagues have upped the ante and have become very popular where winners can receive as much as $200,000.

That’s the easy part. The tough part is repeating….and that’s what "Fantasy Football 101.net" is here for!

Want to learn more and continue to get that edge in Fantasy Football, do so by reading "Draft Tips"