Out of all the athletes in the world, less than 1 percent of people make it to the pros in their respected sport. So where do all the other people go? They turn to the computer to join in the phenomenon known as fantasy sports.

Playing fantasy sports gives people the opportunity to be in the game without physically being in the game. The idea of playing fantasy is to be the coach of a team of professional athletes and you go week to week in order to become a champion of the league.

It all begins with the naming of the team. All bets are off here when it comes to picking the name. Like in Over the Line, team names can be as raunchy as you want or they can be creative. The best team names involve the actual professional athletes’ names. Favre Dollar Footlong and Corn on the Kolb are examples where the players name is included into the team name.

After the registration process of picking the name and what league to join, the draft arrives. Drafts are where a person wins or loses their league, as well as a forum for major trash talk. Whether you get the first or last pick of the round, you must make smart decisions as to how you want to build your team. Most drafts are in snake format meaning the last pick of the first round gets the first pick of the second round, which is my personal favorite position to be in a fantasy draft.

The team is now set and ready to win a championship, but wait; players get hurt and go on bye weeks. Free agency becomes a big factor in winning the league title. Paying attention to who is playing under the radar and snatching them up before the opponents is a sound strategy that gives you the edge.

All of this can hopefully lead to a championship winning team.

Fantasy sports have been so popular recently that there are many sites that offer leagues. Yahoo, ESPN and CBS sports are a few of the more popular websites to start a league. There are also TV shows such as “Fantasy Football Now” on ESPN2 and the “NFL Redzone” is a great place to see every scoring play in the NFL.

There are many sports that are a part of the fantasy universe. Football, baseball and basketball are the big three sports that have the largest population of fantasy owners. Fans are stuck to their television sets every game day hoping their players score big points.

That can also be the problem with fantasy sports. Fans stop rooting for teams and start rooting for individual players to do either good or bad. Often times, they root against their own team just because their fantasy opponent has the quarterback of the team they usually cheer for. This needs to stop.

Fantasy is just that, a fantasy. Its fake, nothing real comes out of it. Have fun and enjoy creating teams of all-star caliber players but in the end, don’t hope for injuries or even you’re own team losing.

Playing fantasy sports is a great way to be involved with the sport you love and the players you idolize.  It will hopefully evolve to bigger and better things in the future.

If you like the idea of fantasy sports and would like to be involved with a league that involves students at Mesa either creating a league that involves a Mesa athletics team or being part of a normal fantasy league involving professionals of any sport, contact mesapresssports@gmail.com or comment on this article on our website mesapress.com.