Column: Drafting an Ivy League fantasy team

This summer, the owners of the National Football League and the National Football League Players Association left football fans in limbo. The lockout lasted seemingly forever while we waited and waited for the owners and players (but mostly the owners) to come to their senses and finish the new collective bargaining agreement so that no games would be lost in the 2011-12 football season. True, some changes needed to take place, such as the new wage scale for rookies (we’ll call this the preventing-another-JaMarcus-Russell wage scale), but the NFL is making entirely too much money for anyone profiting off it to sacrifice games for a slightly larger piece of a would-be-dwindling pie.

While the end of the lockout means that I can look forward to an exciting football season, it also means the start of a brand new fantasy football season. The Daily Princetonian sports section put together a small fantasy football league for the season, and I’m proud to say that I have Adrian Peterson, Michael Turner, Calvin Johnson, the Green Bay Packers defense and (the surprise performer of the year) Matthew Stafford on the team HobbesElTigre.

Fantasy football is a fun way to make games not involving the football team you support interesting, but it also allows those of us who like to delve deeper into the intricacies and statistics to try to secure an advantage for draft day. Still riding the high of the NFL fantasy draft, I decided to apply the same rules to the Ivy League and determine the first round draft picks for an eight-team fantasy league, drafting only players in the Ivy League. The scoring is standard fantasy football scoring: six points for rushing/receiving touchdowns, four points for passing touchdowns, one point for every 10 rushing/receiving yards, and one point for every 25 passing yards.

Round 1, Pick 1: Nick Schwieger, Running Back, Dartmouth

Last year, Schwieger easily ran away with the title of Best Fantasy Running Back of the Year, garnering 218.3 fantasy points, roughly 53 more than any other running back in the league. The co-Ivy League Player of the Year scored 14 touchdowns and amassed 1,195 total yards throughout the year. Nick is returning to Dartmouth, one of the more rush-geared offenses in the Ivy League, as the main weapon in a ground assault and looks poised again to have a solid year.

Pick 2: Sean Brackett, Quarterback, Columbia

While Schwieger put up some amazing numbers in fantasy by rushing, Brackett put up some amazing fantasy numbers in general by throwing for 19 touchdowns, rushing for three more and amassing a total of 2,588 offensive yards. The total damage done by Brackett was about 228 fantasy points, making him the best fantasy producer of 2010, but repeating this stellar year will not be an easy task. Brackett rounds out the top tier of truly elite fantasy players in the Ivy League and arguably could go number one.

Pick 3: Brandon Colavita, Running Back, Penn

Last year Colavita was second behind Schweiger in rushing touchdowns with 12. Penn splits up its rushes between different rushers and its quarterback, but they also led the league in rushing attempts last year. With a heavily geared rushing offense, taking the number one running back on the best offense in the Ivy League last year seems to be a safe bet.

Pick 4: Billy Ragone, Quarterback, Penn

Penn split up the running game and the passing game among several athletes, but Billy Ragone was the one player to do it all. Billy threw for six touchdowns, and added another seven on the ground making him good for roughly 154 fantasy points last year. By retaining its number one rusher and quarterback, the Penn offense is poised to put up big fantasy numbers like it did last year.

Pick 5: Alex Tounkara, Wide Receiver, Brown

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Tounkara’s total of 842 receiving yards was only behind Princeton’s Trey Peacock ’11 in total receiving yards last year. With four touchdowns, Tounkara put together a solid fantasy season that looks easily repeatable in the league’s best passing offense.

Pick 6: Kyle Newhall-Cabellero, Quarterback, Brown

Newhall was limited by injury last year, but the Bears still topped the Ivy League in passing by throwing for 2,443 yards. With the power and knowledge of being a game into the 2011 season, Newhall’s three touchdown passes suggest that he has returned to the helm of the best passing offense in the Ivy League.

Pick 7: Mordecai Cargill, Running Back, Yale

Cargill also did not start for his team last year, but Yale produced a solid fantasy rusher last year in Alex Thomas and Cargill looks poised to continue in Thomas’ footsteps with a good game against Georgetown. There might be some concern about drafting him in the first round because Yale has other rushers getting into the endzone, but if Cargill’s number keeps getting called he will have a good fantasy year.

Pick 8: Mike Stephens, Wide Receiver, Columbia

See quarterback Sean Brackett (pick two). With a quarterback throwing for 19 touchdowns the previous year, fantasy football general managers have to like his number one target this year so far. In his first game, Stephens was hit eight times for a total of 105 yards and one touchdown. If he can stay on the same page as Brackett, Stephens could be a sleeper at the eighth pick.