About Us

Welcome to College Fantasy Football Insider. We are dedicated to bringing you the best college fantasy football information, stats, draft kit and more. We hope you enjoy our site. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions feel free to email us at info@cffinsider.com or on our Contact page.

Quotes and Notables:

"Remember the name Michael Crabtree" - Brian McDonald April 2007

"Freshman Mark Ingram. He has the power to run between the tackles, a trait that Nick Saban craves about as much as cash. If you can find room in a keeper league, take a stab at him." - Alex Esselink June 2008

"I’m predicting that (Case Keenum) will triple, yes triple, his 14 touchdowns of a year ago. By the time this Cougar is done playing the likes of Rice, Tulsa, SMU and other defensive lightweights he’ll have over 40 touchdowns on the season" - Brian McDonald May 2008

"Chris Markey will be the top running back in 2006" - unnamed/fired author June 2006

Nominated for Best Football Draft Kit by FSTA - 2009

2007 Athlon Expert League Champ, 2007 Athlon Expert League Runner-up, 2007 Fantasy College Football Invitational Runner-up, 2007 PFS Leauge Champ, 2008 Fantasy College Football Invitational Runner-up, 2009 Fantasy Oasis Expert League Runner-up

"I finished in first place prize in the Athlon Sports Fantasy Bowl challenge. I don't know how you guys did it, but your player predictions were extremely on target for the bowl season." - site user 2010

Meet our Team:

Brian McDonald - brian@cffinsider.com


Brian is one of the co-founders and the lead editor at CFFInsider.com. He holds an English degree from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in Education from the University of Detroit-Mercy. His first foray into fantasy sports began with a five-team NFL draft held in his parents’ backyard in 1989, when he shocked everyone and selected Jim Everett first overall, leading to a fifth-place finish. Convinced NFL fantasy mediocrity was too easily attained, Brian ditched the pros and began his illustrious college fantasy football career in 2005, and he hasn’t looked back. His work has been published in USAToday.com, CBSSportsline.com, Rotoworld.com, various NBC affiliates, Athlon College Football Magazine and in Lindy’s College Football Magazine. He loves to golf, run, go to minor league baseball games and attend as many college football games as possible. His favorite road venue is Notre Dame, though Blacksburg and Lincoln hold a special place in his heart. Brian and his family reside in Ann Arbor…a mere 64 miles from East Lansing.

Alex Esselink - alex@cffinsider.com


Alex is one of the co-founders of CFFInsider and has played college fantasy football since 2000. A math geek with an engineering degree from Michigan State University, he has never found a stat or tailgate he didn’t like. Despite his grammar optional writing style, his work has appeared in USAToday.com, USA Today NFL Presason Magazine, Athlon College Football Preseason Magazine, CBSSportsline.com, Rotoworld.com and various NBC affiliates. He's the host of CFFinsider Live!, a weekly radio show on The Fantasy Sports Channel which has hosted guests from ESPN, national beat writers and Phil Steele. Alex is also an avid tournament angler and when not spending time with his family or thinking about college football, he is on the water. He lists Michigan State's win over then #1 Ohio State in 1998 as his favorite game witnessed in-person, and looks forward to a Spartan trip to Pasadena sometime in is his lifetime. He enjoys the smell of morning dew and the sound of cracking Labatt Blue Lights on tailgate mornings.

Jim Belanger - jim@cffinsider.com


Jim is one of the co-founders of CFFInsider.com. As our chief accountant, Jim is often seen collecting empty returnables at the CFFinsider tailgates to pay for server fees. Another stat geek, Jim prefers to use the term normalize, which no one has ever heard of, instead of just saying the word average. A master at the haiku and chief contributor to the Ask the Insider forum, Jim once answered 52 ATI questions in one hour. While there are no official stats on such things, we are pretty sure this is a Guinness Book World Record.

Randy Burgess - randy@cffinsider.com


Randy has long been a go-to for fantasy tech advice from his previous days hosting college fantasy football leagues, and he recently joined the CFFInsider team in early 2009 during his off-hours from the real job. His first task was to implement the MyInsider player trackers, custom scoring systems, and a new content management system for the writers. Randy hails from Chicago, but is a graduate of the University of Georgia and still a Dawg fan--despite being surrounded by Big 10 stooges. He’s been known to yell “HARD REFRESH” throughout the office at his less tech-savvy cohorts.

Kevin Albanese - kevin.albanese@cffinsider.com


Kevin has been involved in several sports journalism ventures since 1995, originally starting with a Cincinnati Bengals e-newsletter. Since then, he’s written articles for a well-known Boston Red Sox website, Rotowire, and most recently joined CFFinsider in 2009. After beginning to play College Fantasy Football in 2001, the game as a whole struck an immediate interest level that can't be described, and he’s been consumed ever since. A Ohio State and Big Ten homer, he looks forward to contributing information that will (hopefully) be very useful to every college fantasy owner out there!

Chris Bennett - chris.bennett@cffinsider.com


Chris has worked in scouting/player development for the Atlanta Braves and Montreal Expos, the Sports Information Deparment at South Carolina and has done work for CarolinaBlue.com, a Rivals affiliate. But he can't escape his main passion, which is college fantasy football. Chris began writing for CFFinsider during the 2009 season. He's a graduate of South Carolina, but oddly has a bigger passion for the ACC. Chris also writes for our sister site CollegeFantasyHoopsInsider.com.

Andy Bottoms


Over the years, Andy has provided fantasy football, basketball and baseball advice for various websites, including RotoExperts.com and CollegeFantasyHoopsInsider.com where his articles have been syndicated on SI.com and Yahoo.

Tyler Holmes - tyler.holmes@cffinsider.com


Tyler loves college football, and as he will freely admit, almost to a fault. He can't stand the BCS and believes National Signing Day should be a holiday. While he currently resides in The Big Apple, he's a former West Coaster that also spent three years recently in SEC country. Having lived in the West, South, and Northeast gives him a unique perspective on how college football is viewed in different parts of the country, but his passion resides in the Pac-10. He looks forward to the day when every team will have a rightful shot to win the National Championship via a playoff. He knew his wife was the one when she got him Rose Bowl tickets for Christmas in 2006. Tyler also writes for our sister site CollegeFantasyHoopsInsider.com.

John Leichtman


John is a freelancer who once wrote full-time but has long since sold out to Corporate America. An avid college football fan, John joined CFFinsider in early 2010. John earned an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Detroit-Mercy, where he was a sub-par member of a lousy D-I baseball team. He spends his free time hanging out with his wife and daughter."

Erik Tjaden


Pronounced "Jaden", Erik came to CFFinsider in early 2010 after dabbling with his own blog. He comes from the land of the Fightin' Irish but graduated from Purdue. He loves dominating his fantasy football league and keeping up on all 120 Division I-A teams. Some important facts are that he drafts for consistency which means he stays away from dual-threat quarterbacks and pass-catching backs.