Fantasy Football 101

... or, Introduction to Fantasy Football.  (Whichever is more acceptable to our new search engine overloards.)

With the Premier League season set to kick off tomorrow, Spurs/Everton notwithstanding, a lot of us are head down, surfing the web for news, chopping and changing our team line-ups, and basically doing everything we can to be ready.  Those of us who have been playing the game for a while sometimes forget about someone who is new to fantasy football or who are asking themselves, "How do I play fantasy football?"  I think with ESPN and Fox Soccer covering the sport and raising its profile here in the United States, there are a lot of Americans asking that question.

So for you, the newbie fantasy manager, I present our two-part introduction to fantasy Premier League.  This is especially relevant to the Yahoo! Fantasy Football game, but the measures and guidelines are relevant across all competitions.

• The Rules. Here is the latest incarnation of this post, written two years ago so forgive some of the outdated references.  If you are interested, here is the original incarnation.  This post will give you my fantasy football strategy advice.  This is pretty big-picture stuff, and especially relevant to the Yahoo! Fantasy Football game's unique scoring system. 
• Mo Rules. This post is Neal's breakdown of a top-10 fantasy team over the course of yet another successful seasaon.  The analysis is a little more detailed, and I think adds some nuance to the broader advice given above.

Some other quick resources would include:

• Complete, club-by-club season previews
• Focused look at the Premier League's opening weekend, in two parts,
  • Part 1, a look at the schedules and a big announcement, and
  • Part 2, player picks
• "Who is K2?", our (hopefully) handy guide to the nicknames and jargon we've established on the blog after writing about fantasy and the Premier League for seven years.

Whatever your level, good luck this season. Don't hesitate to post questions in the comments, or over in the Facebook group (of which you should become a fan).