Fantasy Football for Dummies

Ask any guy how many Fantasy Football leagues they belong to and you'll be surprised by the answer. I try to limit myself to two teams a season to make it manageable. A few friends have as many as 10 teams with different scoring formats (head to head, rotisserie, keeper leagues, salary cap, etc) and smack talking opponents (coworkers, ex-coworkers, friends, etc). Keeping up with their schedule of live drafts in August and September is a part-time job in itself.

The best way to prepare for "Draft Day" is to have a cheat sheet (ranked by position and average draft position), knowing key news (like which player is suspended for 3 games: Marshawn Lynch), and having a strategy (I live by: "2 Running Backs as your first two picks" and "Kickers in the last round" mantras). Here's a tip that will help you easily import and organize fantasy football stats into an Excel spreadsheet:

1) Go to your Fantasy Football provider's (Yahoo, CBS.Sportsline, or ESPN) players stats page. Copy the URL.
2) Open an Excel Spreadsheet. Click on Data -> Get External Data -> New Web Query. Paste the URL and click OK.

All of the players' stats should neatly populate onto the spreadsheet for easy sorting. Keep repeating the steps until you get all of the players you want to rank (you can only get 25 at a time on Yahoo). I keep three tabs for Offensive players (QB, WR, RB, TE), Defenses, and Kickers. Enjoy this time saving tip and feel free to pass it onto friends (non-opponents in your league).