Fantasy Football is authentic, hands-on computing and mathematical problem-solving that is engaging, student-centered, and an awful lot of fun.  It is an iconic, pop-cultural hobby that is an innovative way to address a number of Common Core math standards while practicing mental math.  Students add, subtract, and continually adjust numbers while examining place value, base-ten patterns, number relationships and patterns, and skip counting.  Their work in calculating scores can also be represented with numerical expressions, and simple ratios can be introduced since they are ingrained within the scoring system.  

Football Fanatics is a week-to-week pursuit for students in grades 4-6 during the NFL season.  Students create a roster of NFL players each week, keeping within a “salary cap,” and each of their players earns them points in a head-to-head contest.  Points are earned based on yardage gained and touchdowns scored.  Familiarity with factors, statistics, data and trend analysis, graphing, probability, and projecting are also math skills and concepts that students can engage in.  Statistical variability, outliers, and distributions can be discussed for older students, as can sampling, extrapolation, and authenticity of data conversations.  It is a real statistical hobby some adults spend many hours on.  

Students do not need to be overly knowledgeable about the NFL to be successful, but it does help to enjoy the sport.  This will be laid-back, with personal challenge and accountability built into the activity. We will spend two to three weeks practicing the ins and outs of lineup creation and calculation, moving toward more of a friendly competition where it does not actually matter who has more points than another.  It is possible, however, to engage in light, appropriate, friendly “smack talk” from time to time; it is part of the hobby.  I hope to have fun and sociable conversation while we are working and examining the statistics.  

I will use the Canvas platform for students to turn in their lineups to me and to post spreadsheets with necessary data and information.  

This is not a draft-and-hold league.  This is weekly lineup construction which is more accessible to a casual hobbyist.  It facilitates concentrating on the mathematics of fantasy football and eliminates the worries over injuries, roster management, bye weeks, drop/adds, etc.