It's here! The 2016 league banner! It's bigger and badder than ever before! It is, of course, based on the classic SNES video game boxes of the early-mid 90s. Kong's Banana Hoard is ready to avalanche, a StarWars rebel soldier sports some Washington football feathers, Boo the ghost is channeling his inner Andrew Luck, and Wario shows off his championship rings! Princess Peach sits seductively on a pipe, Link leaps forward ready to slash his foes, N'Donkey Kong Suh performs a swim move to beat his competition, a Fire Sage swings his warhammer, a small, unsuspecting Pikmin stands innocently in the foreground, and the Duck Hunt dog laughs as he prepares to tell his opponents, "GAME OVER!" The three most recent league champions also have their pictures proudly displayed! Gentlemen (and lady), FantasyMania VIII is here!!!
I have a few announcements to make, but first, enjoy this clip of the AVGN ranting about football.
2016 Draft Day
The draft is scheduled for Saturday, August 27th at 8PM ET. Click here to see the event page on Facebook. There are 19 rounds.
Here is the roster breakdown:
| POSITION | STARTERS | MAXIMUM |
| Quarterback (QB) | 2 | 3 |
| Running Back (RB) | 2 | 8 |
| Wide Receiver (WR) | 3 | 8 |
| Tight End (TE) | 1 | 3 |
| Flex (RB/WR/TE) | 2 | N/A |
| Team Defense/Special Teams (D/ST) | 1 | 2 |
| Bench (BE) | 8 | N/A |
| Injured Reserve (IR) | 2 | N/A |
Some resources:
100 Facts by Matthew Berry
DraftWizard by FantasyPros
Top 300 PPR Cheat Sheet by Mike Clay
Christmas Awards Party
Scheduling talks will begin in September, after the draft. My house is an option and open for overnight guests (oh, and Bluffton has a Wings Etc. now!). We could also meet in Indianapolis, which may be a good middle point since Tim and Sarah have moved to Bloomington.
Regular Season Schedule & Rivalry Week
Just like last year, the 2016 season will feature a Rivalry Week! Rivalry trophies are up for grabs only during Rivalry Week. Rivalry games which take place outside of Rivalry Week are considered "non-title games," though the results are still recorded in the record book. Corey is tasked with putting together the schedule. It'll be done before the season starts.
FantasyMania Survey
It's only 3 questions! Please click here to take a survey I've put together! You can select multiple answers (but please don't contradict yourself). It'll help me know where we want the league to go!
$3 League Fee & the NEW Championship Shirt Tradition - click here to pay using PayPal
In case you missed it, we have instituted a modest $3 league membership fee. The fee will go towards designing and ordering a customized championship shirt which will be mailed directly to the league champion. This way, each year's winner will be sure to get something they can take home to celebrate their hard-earned FantasyMania championship (since folks can't always make the Christmas Awards Party). Whoever wins the title this year, just tell me your preferred size and what you'd like on your shirt and I'll make a design using Photoshop (the image has to be a certain size to make sure it's clean on the shirt). I'll send you a finished graphic to get your final approval before I place the order. I will, of course, post a reminder after the season. This is going to be a totally bodacious addition to our league! If we want to get really crazy, we can always add these to the tradition! (this would bump the fee to $9 or $10)
Some examples:
In 2011, I had my Macho Madness championship shirt made locally, and it didn't turn out very well (it was okay, but very homemade looking):
So this year I used VistaPrint and I was totally impressed with the job they did. It's like a shirt you'd buy from the mall:
And don't forget! "You play to win the game!" All roads lead to the...
