It might not be the ultimate measure of who can offer you the best fantasy advice, but with so many “experts” floating around the industry these days, it’s always interesting to see how they (or we) fare in direct competition. Share your “expert” league/contest results with us, and we just might pass them along to our readership.

These items (and others) can also be found on the FSB News page.

– What did your last victory in an “expert” league (or home league, for that matter) get you? Pride? Some online publicity? A little money? Well, Sara Holladay — better known as the FF Librarian — will be heading to the Super Bowl next month thanks to her win in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bloggers League.

– Jeff Thitoff of 411Fantasy.com has put the wraps on another season of the Experts Contest that be brought from his days with The Columbus Dispatch. The 2009 title went to Thitoff’s 411Fantasy colleague and fellow Dispatch veteran Adam Conn. Although you’ll find my name tied for second in the Week 17 rankings, you’ll have to scroll down farther in the full season edition to find me at 12th. (That’s no place to boast about, but I will at least say that I know of some prominent competitors who finished lower.) A lesser man might call shenanigans on a contest won by one of the hosts. Fortunately, I’m above that.

– The fantasy football draft that opened last June’s Fantasy Sports Trade Association summer conference filled three leagues, which were won by Fantazzle’s Ryan Parr, a RotoWorld team represented by Rick Wolf and lawyer Glenn Colton and Team RapidDraft, piloted by Yours Truly (with draft help from former colleague Caitlin Morrall). The most surprising note, however, has to be that none of the three championship squads sported Tennessee’s Chris Johnson.

As always, send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to FantasySportsBusiness@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).

“It will be hard to ever replicate the feeling again when it comes to fantasy football.”

Most (all?) of us play fantasy football each year, whether it be with a group of friends, some co-workers or a faceless online community of folks you know only by their message-board handles. Some of us even win some money from time to time.

We probably won’t come close to $250,000, though, which is the amount that caused David Girard to utter the quote at the beginning of this article.

“After 17 years of participating in fantasy football I feel as though I’ve reached my pinnacle and its only downhill from here,” Girard said after winning the inaugural grand prize at RapidDraft.com.

Of course, Girard has no plans to quit playing fantasy football, a hobby in which he has participated since 1993, when he was a junior at Kansas State and scoring was done by hand with the sports page and a notebook. He, like most fantasy players, said that the joy of winning and the bragging rights held over leaguemates are the real motivators for competing in fantasy. Girard even said that his experience of once finishing second in a $250-entry, winner-take-all league soured him on the “big-money” format.

“I’ve learned that playing fantasy football for the thrill of the win and the bragging rights, not the money, is what drives me,” Girard said. “When I entered the RapidDraft contest, I saw it as a cool way to play fantasy football. I never dreamed it would turn into a ‘big-money’ ordeal.”

Girard, who sat in second place by a mere half-point heading into the NFL’s just-completed Week 16, said he couldn’t even bear to watch the afternoon contests this past Sunday.

“I checked the stats often and even ruled myself out of the contest when I saw (Chad) Ochocinco and (Jermichael) Finley had one catch between them heading into halftime of the early games,” he said. “The only game I watched that day was the Sunday night game with Dallas. At that point I didn’t know exactly what Romo needed for me to win, but I knew it was well within reason that he could score enough to do the job. Obviously at this point I feel inclined to join a Tony Romo fan club or something.”

Girard, who co-owns a small grocery store in Kansas with his brother, said that Finley was a key player in his title run and that some early-round luck paid off as well.

“Going into the draft I remember thinking I wanted to land two top wide receivers with my first two picks considering it was a ppr league,” he said. “My hope was that they would be Fitzgerald and Andre Johnson and Moss as the next choice. As destiny would have it Fitz went (one slot before mine), so I went with Johnson and then Moss went shortly after that leaving me staring at Chris Johnson in the second round. Luckily I didn’t pass him up.

Girard, like many a fantasy owner playing in point-per-reception formats this season, said that Ray Rice was another central piece of his championship.

“To get an everyweek stud running back in round 6 doesn’t happen very often,” he said. “The other pick that stands out to me was getting Finley in the 19th round. Most of the year he floundered around on my bench. Thankfully I held onto him and that led to probably the one lineup decision that won the contest for me.”

Girard said the victory is too fresh for him to have made plans for the money yet but that most of it will probably wind up in college funds for his four children. He also said he might try to leverage this win into some involvement with the fantasy sports industry.

Whatever happens on those fronts, though, the one thing that Girard can count on is his wife’s “new appreciation” for the hobby.

“Something makes me think that fantasy football won’t be such a ‘waste of time’ from now on.”

(Note: World Fantasy Games owns and operates RapidDraft and FSB.com.)

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

– The Fantasy Lunch crew on The Fantasy Sports Channel interviewed Todd Infield on Thursday, the leader in the race for RapidDraft’s initial $250,000 prize.

– Do you share Larry David’s dream of selling cars for a living? Well, this may not be the ideal time to go searching for an actual job as a car salesman, but you can take control of your own dealership with Fantasy Showroom.

– Rotoplay recently opened a weekly fantasy hockey game.

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to FantasySportsBusiness@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).

With the third full slate of NFL exhibition games upon us, it’s serious fantasy football draft time everywhere. As Nando Di Fino points out in his Wall Street Journal column this week, the explosion of fantasy means you have to do a little more to be prepared these days.

Di Fino gives us five quick ways to make sure that we’re ready …

1. Lobby for an auction draft – Many fantasy veterans will agree with this one for the same reason Di Fino states: It puts every player in play for every participant. You’re not limited by your draft spot. Of course, navigating this style likely takes experience and/or some serious preparatory studying.

2. Decide between analog and digital — OK, so this serves to point out the options available now whether you have a tech-savvy group or folks who prefer the simple things. Pretty cool to see what’s out there, though.

3. Read ESPN.com’s Stephania Bell — There’s no arguing that this injury guru provides some valuable analysis for fantasy players.

4. Learn how to make “queso fundido” — I tried to type out the full recipe for this cheesy, spicy dip from chef Tim Spinner of Distrito in Philadelphia, but my drool shorted out the keyboard. Check it out for yourself (even if you’re a vegetarian and would like to leave out the sausage).

5. Practice against the RapidDraft pros — Di Fino sees value in drafting against 11 experts (a group that includes Yours Truly) before squaring off with your friends. Who are we to argue?