Editor's Note:The five reader contestants in the alligatorSports Fantasy Challenge have been selected. Read each challenger's 100-word entry below and check back from time to time for updates on the league's progress.
Ben Volin, Palm Beach Post beat writer (Team Name: Rollin' with Volin): OK children, everyone out of the pool. It's adult swim time in this little fantasy football league of yours. I'm sure Bobby Callovi has spent the last four days of his life crunching the numbers in his basement, but guess what, kid - Texas A&M's third-string tight end isn't going to have a break-out year. Phil Kegler will construct the first-ever fantasy team consisting entirely of players from the Tampa/St. Pete area. And if there's one thing I know in this world, it's this: Kyle Maistri, who tapes a Jonathan Phillips poster to his ceiling so it is the last image he sees at night before falling asleep, will draft the Florida kicker about eight rounds too high.
Joshua Levy (Joshua Levy): As competitors, my colleges and I decide to battle each other through their fantasies every baseball season. Every year every one of them seem to dream of failing miserably in the face of the number one fantasy player of all time. From every surprise, to devastating injury, it seems as though that person holds the itinerary the sports gods as they pull the strings of the worlds most talented athletes displaying their abilities. It does not make sense to this man among children. "Why" he asks himself, "Why would these so-called competitors call this game "fantasy" when all they ever do is fail?" Yet they still keep asking him to participate in their unfulfilled fantasies year after year. This football fantasy of theirs shall be no different.
David Medoff (Fourth & Short):As a senior at the University of Florida, I have read my fair share of your writer's columns over at the Alligator. You guys can get it right most of the time. However, there are just way too many instances I can think of where I question whether or not you guys have been trading in your Red Bull and cereal for Mike's Hard and Toaster Strudels. Your probably thinking why this guy thinks he knows more than a few experienced writers, but I'm confident I'll be able to prove myself week in and week out during this 2009 college football season. I'll see you on the field.
Zachary Rogan (FBS Zach): I need to be in your fantasy challenge. Matter of fact, you need me in your challenge. Here's why: Average players spend 9 hours a week on fantasy sports, that's how I start my day. I have been playing fantasy sports longer than you've been writing newspaper articles. My UFL webmail is forwarded to my fantasysports account, and my TV only gets ESPN. So unless you want to beat up on FCS caliber players all year, print my entry in the paper. It won't be the last thing I write for the sports section of the Alligator.
Randall Abbott (Dead RAbbotts): Today I made the mistake of picking up The Alligator instead of a real newspaper, and I noticed the ad for your fantasy challenge. While I appreciate your boldness and confidence, I can't say that a handful of freshmen/sophomore journalism "majors" would stand a chance in a fantasy league against somebody with functioning a brain like me. While you guys get your sports digs from ESPN's bottom line, real men like myself who have been in the game for several years know the ropes and laugh at your faux fantasy "knowledge." Bring it on.
