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The other big contest has announced the creation of it's satellites. It will be running drafts starting on 6/25 and continuing through the summer.

I suspect this will attract many, many players. Satellites are one reason the WSOP has grown so large.

Will NFFC be running satellites this year? If so, it's time to share the details.

We have the online draft software in place to do NFFC satellite leagues and we did run three satellite leagues after Draft Day last year. Two non-NFFC members won those leagues and it has helped us bring in new players who used our site for the first time. So I certainly have interest in doing these, but I don't have anything planned at this time before the live events. I still need to work with STATS on a few things.

JerseyPaul, here's an update on the satellite league concept. I wanted to wait until we finished the NFBC Mid-Season Leagues before announcing anything, but I'm ready to now. We have agreed to work with STATS to provide NFFC Satellite Leagues before the live event. We will offer an array of price points and dates, which I'll announce shortly. But we are shooting for the week of Aug. 15-19 and Aug. 22-26 to host the online drafts. I'm not saying we will do them every night, but those are the target dates.

As I stated above, I was intrigued by the satellite league concept after last season when we ran three mid-season leagues and two of them were won by non-NFFC players, thus drawing new entries into this year's concept easily. Some of the participants from last year's mid-season league that weren't in the NFFC last year have already signed up for this year's main event, again proving to me that this was a great promotional vehicle. I am not a poker player, but I certainly know about the WSOP satellite tournaments and how that feeder program is ideal for its big event.

I commend the WCOFF for their satellite program and they are doing very well with that, even scrapping the Fantasy Football Masters online game to concentrate on their satellite leagues. By me offering NFFC Satellite Leagues, it can appear that I'm stealing a good idea, but this was already in the works for baseball long before they did this and I wanted to do it in football as well. I just had to feel comfortable that our online software with STATS was strong enough to support this and I feel confident enough about it now that the baseball events have concluded.

I am meeting with STATS later this month to finalize this, but here's the quick details now:

NFFC Satellite Leagues

1) All online drafts using the exact same NFFC rules, scoring format and league setup.

2) Price structure may be anywhere from $100 entry fees to $1,000 entry fees. All leagues will contain only league prizes, thus we could have payouts for the top three finishers and anywhere from a winner-take-all league for a free 2006 NFFC entry. More details on all of that soon.

3) All of the online drafts will be held during weekdays in August. We are looking at Monday through Friday, Aug. 15-19, and/or Monday through Friday, Aug. 22-26. We can't do them on the weekends in August, so I apologize. But there are enough evenings to satisfy East Coast and West Coast players who want to participate.

4) NFFC members and non-NFFC members are eligible to participate. Again, this is a great promotional vehicle for the NFFC and can be a feeder program for our big event. The wide range of price levels will help us there. But this can also be a great test run for NFFC guys who need some practice before the main event.

5) It is possible to do satellite leagues for the Draft Champions League and even the Auction League. We'd do the Draft Champions League draft on this site and the actual auction on FantasyAuctioneer.com. George del Prado has a sweet auction site and it works great for football. So even those are possible.

6) All of these leagues will show up under your "My Teams" link when you log into the NFFC and you'll have easy access to all of them. You can enter as many satellite leagues as you'd like on all of the different nights.

That's it for now. I'll continue to update this as we move forward. But let's get it going.

Are you ready for some football?

Oh, I forgot to mention that we'll pay back 80 percent of entry fees in prizes for these satellite leagues. Again, for most of them we'll pay for first place, second place and third place. We'll offer a few $100 entry fee leagues where the winner will win a free entry into the 2006 NFFC. Those will likely be the only winner-take-all leagues.

There is no added expense for co-managers if two of you want to own a satellite league team. Feel free to ask questions here if there's anything I missed.

GREAT IDEA!

I'm already commited to WCOFF 2005, but wanted to show my support for Greg and the NFFC, as I see it is run well, and by good people.

I (being married with children, and in the construction business...summers are big money makers)...I had a rough go of trying to get to Vegas on back to back weekends.

The higher staked online draft would fit me to a tee! Hope they are up and running soon.

~Lance

Greg, Sign me up now! If you have the $100 entry tournaments with the winner getting a free entry into next year's NFFC main event, allow me to be the 1st official sign up...Once you announce definite dates and league fees for all other online events, I will pick and see what fits me best. I am positive I will be joining more than one.

Marc Q.

Thanks Lance and Marc. We'll have something for everyone. As we found out in baseball, our $1,000 online leagues drew the most entries, yet a lot of guys liked the $100 leagues for a shot at a free entry. We'll have a mix of everything and use this as a recruiting tool, a practice tool and a very tough online league contest. More details to come.

Maybe I'll have a beer tonight and all the good ideas will flow to my brain. Gotta figure out prize structure.

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:


Maybe I'll have a beer tonight and all the good ideas will flow to my brain. *snicker*

Where exactly are those brains??

Dyv

Greg...my suggestion...Tequilla and Orange Juice!

The beers are just making you happy and tired!

Let's get excited!

~Lance