Fantasy College Football Gets Naming Rights

Major college sports have remained the last in America's sports landscape to find themselves unattached to similarly popular fantasy games. Such games allow fans at home to play simulated games based on the statistics of actual players. But thanks in part to a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, CBSSports.com is banking on becoming the first major fantasy provider to enter the industry's last major, unexplored sports frontier.

The Web site, a subsidiary of CBS Corp., announced Tuesday a plan to host a fantasy college football game using the names and statistics of college athletes for the upcoming 2008 season. The Web site also plans to launch a similar college basketball game later this year.

A fantasy college game has never been widely accepted or attempted before because of a reluctance to utilize anything but broad signifiers in identifying college athletes. CBSSports.com had previously developed a game using generic terms including only a team and a position, like "SYRACUSE RB" and "MICHIGAN WR," instead of players' names. But it never caught on with users, due mainly to the disconnect between the robotic names and the fantasy audience, according to senior vice president and general manager Jason Kint.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door to this college football game with a decision involving fantasy baseball. The Court refused on June 2 to hear a case brought by Major League Baseball Advanced Media against CDM Fantasy Sports Corp., a refusal which essentially said that an entity does not own the rights to statistics and names that are in the public domain. That allowed for other fantasy companies to use real names and statistics without fearing retribution by major sports entities like Major League Baseball or the National Football League. This season, that means turning "FLORIDA QB" into the more familiar Tim Tebow, last year's Heisman Trophy winner as college football's top player.

Fantasy Gets Names