College football draft results/preemption tomorrow

Last Thursday night on THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER, we held a college football team draft. Here's a recap of the format and the guidelines. By the way, we will not be on this Thursday night from 9-11 PM EDT as per usual on SportsTalkNetwork.com due to programming that will coincide with the final Cleveland Browns preseason game and due to a Rush concert that I will be attending AND covering for our new sister blog, The FDH Lounge blog.

Here's how everything shook out. The first pick went to STN President Paul Belfi, with STN show host Tony Mazur picking second, STN show host/producer Anthony Petrone selecting third, FDH football analyst Mike Vili in the fourth spot, I, Rick Morris, picking fifth and my FDH partner Jason Jones picking sixth. This was a standard serpentine draft.

ROUND ONE
1. Paul: USC
2. Tony: West Virginia (NOTE: Slight surprise here, as Tony chooses the Mountaineers over LSU due to the gaping difference in schedule strength.)
3. Anthony: LSU
4. Mike: Michigan
5. Rick: Virginia Tech
6. Jason: Wisconsin

ROUND TWO (NOTE: Whether as a matter of conscious strategy or not, Jason, Anthony, Paul and I ended up doubling up on teams from the same conference with our first two picks.)
1. Jason: Ohio State
2. Rick: Louisville
3. Mike: Texas
4. Anthony: Florida
5. Tony: Oklahoma
6. Paul: California

ROUND THREE
1. Paul: Penn State
2. Tony: Auburn
3. Anthony: Rutgers
4. Mike: Georgia
5. Rick: Tennessee
6. Jason: Arkansas

ROUND FOUR
1. Jason: Nebraska
2. Rick: Boise State
3. Mike: UCLA
4. Anthony: TCU
5. Tony: Hawaii (NOTE: Tony feels that the Rainbows' always strong offense will be absolutely unbeatable this year.)
6. Paul: Florida State

ROUND FIVE
1. Paul: Alabama (NOTE: Paul goes "name brand" on football programs for the fourth time in five rounds)
2. Tony: Texas A&M
3. Anthony: Boston College
4. Mike: South Carolina
5. Rick: South Florida (NOTE: With three Big East teams, I should at least lead the league in wins!)
6. Jason: Wake Forest

ROUND SIX
1. Jason: Oregon State
2. Rick: Texas Tech
3. Mike: Southern Miss
4. Anthony: Kentucky
5. Tony: BYU
6. Paul: Arizona State

ROUND SEVEN
1. Paul: Notre Dame (NOTE: Another "name value" program for Belfi -- too bad this is the year they actually have a tough schedule!)
2. Tony: Clemson
3. Anthony: Georgia Tech
4. Mike: Miami
5. Rick: Western Michigan (NOTE: Before anyone labels me a "MAC homer," note that I did not take my Bobcats!)
6. Jason: Iowa

Much fantasy football fun Thursday night!

On THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER on SportsTalkNetwork.com Thursday night (9-11 PM EDT), we will bring you our college football team draft (details in the entry immediately below) and then we will compare our FDH/STN mock draft with the significantly less helpful one foisted on the public by ESPN this week. Join us for a jam-packed, all football edition of The Insider this Thursday night live from Shula's 2 in Independence, OH!

2007 College Football Team Draft

We will be holding our College Football Team Draft on THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER program (9-11 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com) this Thursday night. We're going to provide you with our suggested league guidelines and our draft board as well.

First, the suggested guidelines. Take 6 owners and conduct a 7-round standard draft. Points will be assigned at four intervals: when the September 30 Associated Press poll is released, when the October 28 Associated Press poll is released, when the December 2 Associated Press poll is released and when the final BCS poll is released after the national championship game. The September 30 poll accounts for 20% of the total score (with the exception of the bonus points, which are mentioned below), the October 28 poll accounts for 20% of the total score, the December 2 poll accounts for 20% of the total score and the final BCS poll accounts for 40% of the total score.

For the first three polls, scoring is as follows: 1st place (50 points), 2nd place (45 points), 3rd place (43 points), 4th place (42 points), 5th place (41 points), 6th place (38 points), 7th place (37 points), 8th place (36 points), 9th place (35 points), 10th place (34 points), 11th place (30 points), 12th place (29 points), 13th place (28 points), 14th place (27 points), 15th place (26 points), 16th place (22 points), 17th place (21 points), 18th place (20 points), 19th place (19 points), 20th place (18 points), 21st place (13 points), 22nd place (12 points), 23rd place (11 points), 24th place (10 points), 25th place (9 points). Points are doubled in the final poll, since it accounts for twice the point total of each of the three previous ones.

Additional bonuses are awarded for the following accomplishments: 25 points for winning the BCS Title Game, 10 points for earning a spot in the BCS Title Game, 12 points for winning a BCS Bowl Game, 6 points for earning a spot in a BCS Bowl Game, 5 points for winning a non-BCS bowl game, 10 points for having the Heisman Trophy winner on one of your teams.

We should note, not in our role as Ohio State fans, but in our role as your ultimate fantasy resource, that Bucknuts.com has an outstanding "consensus poll" similar to what we use on our FantasyDrafthelp.com draft boards for the major sports. They have averaged together every major poll from magazines, news services and other credible outlets and arrived at a consensus ranking for this year's teams. Check it out.

Without further ado, our 2007 draft board:

FIRST TIER
1. USC
2. LSU
3. West Virginia

SECOND TIER
4. Virginia Tech
5. Michigan
6. Wisconsin
7. Louisville
8. Oklahoma
9. Texas
10. Florida

THIRD TIER
11. Ohio State
12. Rutgers
13. California
14. Penn State
15. Auburn
16. Tennessee
17. Georgia
18. Arkansas
19. Boise State

FOURTH TIER
20. TCU
21. UCLA
22. Nebraska
23. Florida State
24. Hawaii
25. Texas A&M

FIFTH TIER
26. Boston College
27. South Carolina
28. Alabama
29. South Florida
30. Texas Tech
31. Oregon State
32. Wake Forest
33. Southern Miss
34. BYU
35. Arizona State
36. Georgia Tech
37. Notre Dame
38. Clemson
39. Kentucky
40. Western Michigan
41. Miami
42. Iowa
43. Oklahoma State

Earlier timeslot, special show this Thursday!

This Thursday, on “a very special episode of THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER on SportsTalkCleveland.com,” we will be broadcasting two hours earlier than usual as we flip-flop with our Thursday night neighbors THE ORANGE AND BROWN REPORT. Both shows will be emanating live from Shula’s 2 in Independence, OH, which will be our home for the rest of the football season. For this week only, we will forego our 9-11 PM EDT timeslot to go on from 7-9 PM EDT as we bring you a special fantasy football workshop edition of The Insider.

We’re breaking our usual format of covering the entire world of fantasy sports (the big sports and the niche ones) to focus exclusively on football during this show. It will be an in-depth look at how to succeed at fantasy football, with many themes culled from our forthcoming DVD project REAL SUCCESS AT FANTASY SPORTS.

We’ll break down easy-to-understand organizational concepts for you that will help you to be more efficient in your league play. Then, we’ll go roundtable-style with some of FDH’s best football minds as we examine specific issues relating to the 2007 fantasy football season. We’ll be taking questions by email and live from the crowd at Shula’s, so we urge you to turn out if you are within driving distance of the Greater Cleveland area – and we’ll be happy to talk off-air when the program is done. Admission is free, so come on out! Shula’s 2 is first-class all the way, and there will be some great deals and PRIZES, so we can’t wait to bring this special program to you!

A new edition to the FDH Media Family!

On Tuesday night, we added The FDH Lounge blog to the FDH media family. It’s the blog “where nothing is off-topic,” a perfect blogosphere representation of the show “where nothing is off-topic.” THE FDH LOUNGE airs live every other Sunday night from 8-11 PM EDT on SportsTalkCleveland.com. As those who watched or heard any of our first 14 episodes can attest, the Dignitaries of The FDH Lounge hold court on the widest array of subject matter anywhere: sports, politics, music, geopolitics, movies, more sports, ‘rasslin, celebrity news and so much more. Now, we can deliver the exact same content to your eyeballs – and we will do so with a vengeance!

FDH Lounge Show #14: August 12, 2007

On Show #14 for THE FDH LOUNGE (Sunday evening from 8-11 PM EDT on SportsTalkCleveland.com), your Dignitaries will again break down anything and everything going on in the world today on the show "where nothing is off topic."

In Hour One, after the Dignitaries have made their opening statements, we examine the political "silly season" that has gripped the presidential race. All of a sudden, absurd irrelevancies about the candidates and their families are all the rage. From the Washington Post covering Hillary's alleged "cleavage" on the Senate floor to Rudy's daughter allegedly wanting to become an "Obama Girl" to Joe Scarborough wondering aloud if Fred Thompson's wife has ever "worked the pole," we are waist-deep in titillating if meaningless dribble of an "infotainment" nature (and let's not forget Nancy Pelosi being rated as the 4th-hottest person on Capitol Hill!). It's not like we've got nothing better to analyze, right? We've only got gazillions of jihad-monsters after us world-wide, the Chinese threatening to sink our currency, debt up to our eyeballs that is going to get worse when Social Security and Medicare sink under the weight of the Baby Boomers and a government in hock to every special interest and earmark gravy-trainer under the sun -- but let's worry about Fred Thompson having a hot wife and every other stupid story under the sun!

Once we've vented our spleen in Hour One, it's time to take the edge off in Hour Two with a look at the movies. Our Chief Entertainment Dignitary Samantha Schiedemantle breaks down the Simpsons flick and so much more. From there: sports entertainment runs into the real world. Vince McMahon escalated his feud with Congress' self-appointed watchdog Henry Waxman in an incredibly self-destructive performance on national TV Monday night and Waxman quickly tightened the noose. Where is this train wreck headed for Vinny Mac and the industry as a whole? Plus, the buffoons at TNA are blocked by court order from having everyone's favorite thug and degenerate Pacman Jones participate on their aptly-named Hard Justice pay-per-view. Cue the usual idiots in the media saying, "I thought wrestling was fake; how could he get hurt?"

In Hour Three, the apex of the steroid era in baseball crested when Barry Bonds hit Home Run #756 -- right on the heels of this year's Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony, an event that did not include Mark McGwire in his first year of eligibility. Of this era's roid monsters, who gets in and who does not and why? Also, the ESPN Super-Mega Monster Hype Machine proudly boasted that they televised the final 300th win last Sunday night when Tom Glavine hit the magic number. But we will see pitchers win 300 games in the future, although not for awhile. Why? Because of something the media is not telling you -- and you can only hear it on THE FDH LOUNGE this Sunday night!

Jason Jones 2007 Football Rankings

Our Senior Editor Jason Jones has some rankings by position that we will be sharing with you below. A quick note: these rankings should not be confused with a draft board -- our draft board for 2007 is contained here, in our draft guide. Rather, they are a projected order of finish in terms of fantasy production at each position in 2007. The reason that these rankings should not be used in place of a draft board is that they do not take into account value. Some of these players, such as Matt Leinart, can certainly be obtained cheaper in a fantasy draft or auction. When used as a tool to help you in a draft, these rankings can certainly be a prime tool for identifying value as certain players fall to you.

QB
1. P. Manning
2. Brady
3. Palmer
4. Brees
5. McNabb
6. Leinart
7. Cutler
8. Bulger
9. Hasselbeck
10. Rivers
11. Romo
12. Kitna
13. A. Smith
14. V. Young
15. Pennington
16. Favre
17. Grossman
18. E. Manning
19. Culpepper
20. Schaub

RB
1. Tomlinson
2. L. Johnson
3. S. Jackson
4. Gore
5. E. James
6. Alexander
7. Westbrook
8. Addai
9. T. Henry
10. J. Lewis
11. Maroney
12. McGahee
13. R. Bush
14. T. Jones
15. W. Parker
16. R. Johnson
17. Jones-Drew
18. A. Peterson
19. D. Williams
20. Norwood

WR
1. C. Johnson
2. Owens
3. Harrison
4. Holt
5. R. Moss
6. S. Smith
7. Fitzgerald
8. Boldin
9. J. Walker
10. Wayne
11. Cal. Johnson
12. Houshmandzadeh
13. Colston
14. B. Edwards
15. A. Johnson
16. R. Williams
17. K. Curtis
18. Porter
19. H. Ward
20. D. Jackson

TE
1. Winslow
2. Gates
3. T. Gonzalez
4. V. Davis
5. G. Olsen
6. Heap
7. Cooley
8. L.J. Smith
9. Watson
10. Crumpler

K
1. Vinatieri
2. Kaeding
3. Rackers
4. S. Graham
5. J. Wilkins
6. Gould
7. Elam
8. Akers
9. Hanson
10. Gostkowski

D/ST
1. Chicago
2. San Diego
3. Baltimore
4. Miami
5. New England
6. Philadelphia
7. Pittsburgh
8. Denver
9. Carolina
10. Jacksonville
11. Dallas
12. San Francisco
13. Seattle
14. Oakland
15. Minnesota

It's the most wonderful night of the year!

We're doing our 4th annual fantasy football mock draft this Thursday, August 9 on THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER on SportsTalkCleveland.com. Don't miss all the fun. Part I takes place from 5:30 to 7 PM EDT, before STC's flagship football program THE ORANGE AND BROWN REPORT. Part II resumes in our normal timeslot of 9-11 PM EDT. This is always our highest-rated program of the year; make sure you find out who the FDH and STC All-Stars select where in the summer's greatest mock draft!

FDH Insider coming your way tonight!

Tonight, on THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER on SportsTalkCleveland.com (9-11 PM EDT), we bring you once again the fastest-paced two hours per week on STC:

9:00 PM: We announce a further expansion of our niche sports coverage in 2008, as well as following up on last week's ginormous announcement about our forthcoming fantasy sports instructional DVD.

9:10 PM: Our friend Ray Flowers from BaseballGuys.com joins us for our weekly fantasy baseball segment as we peruse the MLB landscape post-trading deadline.

9:45 PM: College football is coming soon, and we review with you how to play fantasy team college football, as well as previewing the 2008 landscape.

10:05 PM: We have our biggest program of the year coming up next week when we hold our fantasy football mock draft. We'll preview the strategy involved, as well as giving you more insight about our fantasy football guide, available here for free through STC.