Will sex be passed by Fantasy Football in men’s minds in 2009?
RapidDraft.com is putting up a $250,000 Grand Prize and free entries to move fantasy football ahead of sex
How often do men think of sex? The infamous Kinsey studies show 54 percent of men think about sex every day, several times a day(1). Another fantasy is ready to move ahead of sex – fantasy football.
The challenge. “If you play fantasy football or have a spouse or friend that plays, you know first-hand that men will think more about fantasy football than sex this year, especially in September. Millions of American men are researching players, poring over stats, studying depth charts and drafting their fantasy teams right now. With RapidDraft Fantasy Football, we’re offering the largest prize, $250,000, in fantasy sports history for a free game. Although both will get plenty of play, our goal is to move fantasy ahead of sex in men’s minds,” said Jeff Thomas, CEO of World Fantasy Games, and former Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) President.
The research. According to FSTA research from the University of Mississippi’s Dr. Kim Beason, fantasy sports consumers think about fantasy sports, on average, 41 to 42 minutes per day, with increased time during the pre-season. That’s almost two minutes per hour – or nearly two seconds per minute. “Any leisure experience that the player immerses into will involve increased time thinking or daydreaming about that leisure experience. Because fantasy football information is so persuasive in the media from August-December, it has to kick-start the mind into meandering about playing fantasy sport,” explained Beason. “Leisure is defined as time involved in activity, money spent on activity, and the state of mind of the person experiencing the leisure activity. Clearly, men who play fantasy sport are much more likely to involve all three of these areas – time, money, state of mind. Sex may barely be winning the time category, but not the money or state of mind.”
The solution. “Men can jump online at any time of day or night and play RapidDraft alone in the privacy of their living room. No coordinating others. No dead teams. No dealing with clueless buddies that pick a Defense in Round Three. Consumers compete against 11 fantasy experts represented online by life-like avatars backed with artificial intelligence. Our patent-pending technology is incredible and the online sports bar user experience is second to none. I’ve met a lot of guys that think they can beat the pros. Now they can prove it and help us officially move fantasy football ahead of sex once and for all,” Thomas offers.
RapidDraft is free to play until Labor Day by going to this link or by using Promo Code = go4it via the home page.
A woman’s view. “One of the age old stereotypes is that the only thing men think about is sex. But I think most women would agree, this time of year, men are living and breathing fantasy football,” said Fantasy Lunch co-host Caitlin “The Sports Blonde” Morrall, whose blog-talk radio show debuted in July where she shares insight with thousands of listeners. “Besides in RapidDraft the winner walks away with $250,000. Wives, girlfriends, and moms will be very happy if the fantasy thoughts of their ‘boys’ turn into a quarter of a million dollars.”
Vote Now. “To help us with the sex vs. fantasy challenge, we are conducting an online survey during the month of September – please vote by going to RapidDraft.com,” adds The Sports Blonde. “Do men think more about fantasy football or sex this time of year? The results will be distributed in October.”
RapidDraft and WFG are working with more than 50 marketing partners this year to get the word out. The target is the core fantasy demographic, the 18 to 49 year old male. And the tool is ‘the draft’ in the form of the most innovative, virtual live draft room ever seen, avatar-based play, and artificial intelligence rolled into games for the masses. FSTA research shows that the draft is the most popular time of the fantasy season. And it attracts extremely engaged fantasy consumers, spending at least five to six hours per week following their fantasy football teams. Our bet is that those numbers sky rocket in September, leading fantasy football to pass sex in the minds of millions of men.
Study of Scholarship Shortfall Numbers Reveal College Athletes Pay to Play
‘Full scholarship’ can leave college athletes with as much as $30,000 in expenses
With the 2009 NCAA men’s basketball tournament heating up, the National College Players Association (NCPA), formerly known as the Collegiate Athletes Coalition (CAC), released results of another significant study revealing the estimated shortfall between college athletes’ full scholarships and the actual cost of attendance at each Division I university.
The NCPA asserts that, by and large, universities have been deceiving recruits, many of whom are under the age of 18 and from disadvantaged backgrounds, into unknowingly being responsible for paying thousands of dollars while on “full” athletic scholarship.
“The fact is, coaches fill high school recruits’ heads with promises of free rides and full scholarships, when in fact no such things exist. The NCAA designs full scholarships to fall short of the advertised price tag of a school, leaving recruits scrambling to make ends meet,” stated United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard.
NCAA rules prohibit universities from providing athletic scholarships that equal the cost of attendance. That means that a full scholarship athlete is expected to pay out of pocket for expenses that are not covered by a full scholarship.
“It’s deceptive to call it a ‘full’ athletics scholarship when it doesn’t fully pay for a university’s estimated price tag. These same universities offer ‘full’ academic scholarships that do cover the price tag of a school. This appears to be a deliberate attempt at misleading young high school student-athletes, their parents, and current college athletes,” stated NCPA President Ramogi Huma.
The NCPA partnered with Ellen J. Staurowsky, a professor of sport management and graduate chair of the department at Ithaca College in New York, to calculate the estimated scholarship shortfall at every Division I university that offers athletic scholarships.
Staurowsky stated, “The mythology that college athletes receive a free education in exchange for their athletic labor is a powerful one, fueled in part, by a public perception that athletes have an easy path to being admitted into college and a privileged path through school once in. The database we’ve compiled begins to debunk this myth and serves as an important public disclosure mechanism to aid athletes as they consider their scholarship offers. Athletes and their families should know that this gap exists and that their expenses will be greater than the promise a free ride suggests.”
The data revealed that NCAA scholarship limitations can leave a full scholarship athlete with expenses ranging from as low as $200 per year up to more than $6,000 per year. That means that, NCAA rules mandate a “full” scholarship athlete to pay up to $30,000 over the course of five years.
The average amount an athlete on “full scholarship” would be required to pay out of pocket amounted to $2,763 per year, or more than $13,800 over the course of five years. Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis had the highest scholarship shortfall, amounting to over $6,000 per year, followed closely by the University of Missouri-Kansas City, East Tennessee State University, Saint Louis University, University of Louisville and Charleston Southern University, all with a greater than $5,000 per year estimated shortfall.
The University of South Carolina Upstate recorded the smallest scholarship shortfall at $200 per year. Other universities with the smallest scholarship shortfalls include: Gardner-Webb University; Colgate University; College of the Holy Cross; Providence College and Tulane University, ranging from a $700 to over $900 per year shortfall.
As a service to high school recruits, their parents, and college athletes, the NCPA made all 336 schools’ estimated scholarship shortfalls available on its web site at www.ncpanow.org.
“Every college athlete, recruit and parent should go to the NCPA web site and look closely at these shortfall numbers. Otherwise, they will find that their ‘full’ scholarship is leaving them buried in unexpected expenses,” said Huma.
With the $6 billion that the NCAA is receiving from CBS alone, there is more than enough new money to eliminate these scholarship shortfalls for the players who generate over $4 billion each year.
NCAA rules mandate a scholarship shortfall at every school that offers athletic scholarships in Divisions I and II. “With hundreds of thousands of athletes participating in NCAA sports, how many athletes have been unfairly burdened with debt in the last few decades due to the misinformation that they have received?” asked Gerard. “How much debt have they put on high interest credit cards that will take many years to pay off?”
Because there is such a wide range of scholarship shortfalls among schools across the nation ($200/yr – $6000/yr), the results from this study give schools with lower scholarship shortfalls an enormous recruiting advantage among recruits who want to avoid higher out-of-pocket expenses.
The NCAA’s position is clear. Although it is supposed to eliminate recruiting advantages, it has fought tooth and nail to subject unsuspecting players to scholarship shortfalls. “If I was a coach or fan of a school with a large scholarship shortfall, I’d be very worried about the future of my athletic program,” Huma stated.
The United Steelworkers have helped back the NCPA since 2001. The NCPA has established itself as the voice for college athletes, and has helped bring forth important reforms including:
- Helped establish a $10 million fund to assist former athletes who wish to complete their undergraduate degree or attend a graduate program
- Elimination of limits on health care for college athletes
- Increase in the NCAA death benefit from $10,000 to $25,000
- Expansion of the NCAA Catastrophic Injury Insurance Policy so that college athletes who suffer permanent, debilitating injuries can receive adequate home health care
- Implementation of key safety guidelines to help prevent deaths during workouts
Complete NCPA study results and additional studies are available on the NCPA web site: www.ncpanow.org
Shortfall estimates are the sum of expenses that cannot be covered in a full grant in aid athletic scholarship per NCAA rules. The data used to calculate shortfall numbers was taken from information published by the schools in the study as well as information made available by the US Department of Education. The NCPA says actual shortfall numbers will vary according to each individual student. The NCPA reached out to all 336 colleges and universities to offer an opportunity to provide any data disputing their school’s scholarship shortfall calculation. Of the 11 athletic programs that contacted the NCPA about their shortfall estimates, four had general inquiries, four had their concerns resolved, two did not respond to NCPA clarifications, and one wrote a letter disagreeing with their school’s estimate without providing any supporting data.
Source: United Steelworkers (USW); National College Players Association
Think You Can Set the Field of 65? NCAA.com Offers Selection Sunday Challenge
Unique challenge gives fans a chance to be the NCAA(R) Division I Men’s Basketball Selection Committee
NCAA.com, the official home of NCAA sports on the Web, is offering fans of NCAA basketball a unique opportunity as Selection Sunday approaches: Become a one-person Division I Men’s Basketball Selection Committee.
Located at ncaa.com/games/selectionchallenge, “Selection Sunday Challenge” provides fans with an interactive Web application that allows them to choose the 65 teams they think will make it into the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. Designed to teach the fan the selection process and get inside the minds of the Selection Committee, the game allows fans to create their own bracket of 65 teams, or join groups so they can play against their friends.
With NCAA.com’s “Selection Sunday Challenge,” fans use a highly interactive online application to stack the field with their favorite teams, randomly choose from all 330 eligible Division I men’s basketball programs or use the research and tools that the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee puts to use such as RPI, schedules, recent results and more.
“For years, NCAA Basketball fans have wanted a chance to set the field of 65 and ‘Selection Sunday Challenge’ gives them admission to their own selection room,” said Greg Shaheen, NCAA, senior vice president for basketball and business strategies. “Time and pressure from all directions will make for a realistic experience for fans to set their own field – and compare it with the actual bracket once announced.”
Fans have until 6:00 PM ET Sunday, March 15, to submit their predictions for the field of 65, which will include 31 conference champions and 34 at-large teams. At that time, the official field of 65 will be unveiled by the Division I Men’s Basketball Selection Committee on CBS and fans can compare their predictions to the real results.
Participants receive points based on correctly selecting teams that make the Tournament, seeding the teams, and placing them in the correct region. A leaderboard displays who is the best at predicting the bracket.
CBS Interactive is the official Online Interactive sports partner of the NCAA and produces NCAA.com.
NCAA
The NCAA is a membership-led nonprofit association of colleges and universities committed to supporting academic and athletics opportunities for more than 400,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member colleges and universities. Each year, more than 54,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA championships in Divisions I, II and III sports. Visit www.NCAA.org and www.NCAA.com for more details about the Association, its goals and members and corporate partnerships that help support programs for student-athletes. The NCAA is proud to have the following elite companies as official Corporate Champions – AT&T, Coca-Cola and Pontiac –and the following elite companies as official Corporate Partners – Enterprise, Hershey’s, The Hartford, Lowe’s, Sheraton and State Farm.
NCAA and Selection Sunday are trademarks owned or licensed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.