One could excuse JT Freels for thinking ahead to the end of football season right now. After all, for this Navy intelligence specialist, the end could mean a trip to the Super Bowl in Dallas.

“It’s hard not to think about going to the Super Bowl — every man’s dream,” Freels told FSB.com this week. “I’ve been to two World Series and Game 7 of last year’s NBA Championship but have not been to a Super Bowl yet. I’d love to be able to take my 14-year-old son. ”

Freels’ thoughts aren’t at all unrealistic, because he heads into the second-to-last week of play for most fantasy football leagues with three of the top five teams in the national competition at MWRFantasySports.com.

The contest there — supported by RapidDraft.com and sponsored by Coors Light — is open to all active or retired military personnel from any branch and their immediate families. It will send one winner and guest to the Super Bowl in February, and entrants are also eligible for the $100,000 grand prize in the overall RapidDraft contest.

John Prue, installation program director for MWR, says that there is no shortage of enthusiasm for fantasy among the military. He adds that even though prizes are great for attracting the attention of the thousands of soldiers who play, fantasy sports carry benefits even for those who don’t win.

“Really its Morale: the ability to have bragging rights with your fellow sailors/soldiers or bragging rights to the next command or buddies that are now located at another duty station — sometimes half way around the world,” Prue said. “Fantasy football is a slice of Americana. Being able to play it in place like Afghanistan or on a ship in the Persian Gulf just makes ‘home’ a little closer to reality.”

Of course, even though fantasy football can serve that purpose, it still centers on a competition, one that can draw new players as well as fantasy veterans. Matt Keifling is an active member of the Navy deployed on the U.S.S. Carl Vinson and greets Week 15 with the second-place team. He has been playing fantasy football since about 1994 but says he was drawn into national competition for the first time by this free MWR offering.

Keifling says that playing while on deployment has brought challenges, from difficulties setting his weekly lineup to sheer Web-surfing limitations keeping him from tracking player news as closely as he might at home. Nevertheless, he takes a Michael Vick-led team into the final two weeks with his eyes on the big prize — whether he’d be able to attend or not.

“I am on deployment, so even if I were to win the trip to the super bowl, I am not sure I would be able to attend,” Keifling said. “I do have to admit that winning the trip to the Super Bowl would be pretty great, even if just for bragging rights.”

In addition to Vick, Keifling credits Arian Foster as a key ingredient to his success so far. Middle-of-the-draft pickup Darren McFadden has no doubt helped, too, along with waiver-wire wonder Steve Johnson of the Bills.

Freels also owns Foster and Vick and has been among those riding the surprise Peyton Hillis train all year. Of course, he points out that the presence of more obvious fantasy factors Andre Johnson and Greg Jennings in his receiver corps haven’t hurt things. Although Foster and Hillis figure to rank among the top Week 15 scorers at their position, the fact that they appear on many an upper-level roster in this contest means that the title could come down to more peripheral players such as Giants tight end Kevin Boss or … (at least for this week) … Adrian Peterson. (That’s fantasy for ya.)

Despite not drawing any points from the Thursday night blowout by his beloved Chargers, Freels — who is currently stationed in Hawaii — certainly feels good about his position. His MWR-leading squad ranks fifth in the overall competition, while Keifling’s top entry ranks 17th.

“I’m not counting on anything until the final game seconds tick off,” Freels said about his title hopes. “Lot’s of football left, but I like my chances.”

A roundup of items recently posted on the FSB News page.

– Could getting fired from his job at Fidelity for running a fantasy football league actually be a good thing for Cameron Pettigrew? Not only have the folks at WCOFF invited him to join the 2010 main event free of charge, they’re treating him as a guest this week at the Super Bowl. He’ll also be blogging on fantasy football for Fanhouse this fall.

– FSB.com told you about Pickemfirst’s cool fantasy-assistance tool back in October, at which point it was only available as a Firefox plug-in. Well, now you can download a toolbar for Internet Explorer. Just like the first offering, this toolbar connects whatever you’re reading on the Web directly to the fantasy leagues you enter, allowing you to see right away if a certain player is available. The toolbar covers NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL formats.

– The $300,000 title check was handed out Thursday afternoon to the WCOFF champions by ESPN’s Suzy Kolber in Miami.

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

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).

In post-season fantasy football, the ability of a player’s team to stick around is just as important as his individual talent. That’s why Aaron Bruski was able to pick up Arizona receiver Larry Fitzgerald with the third selection of Round 2.

Four games later, the wideout’s two-touchdown, 127-yard Super Bowl effort grabbed Bruski the title of Mr. Fantasy Football in SportsBuff.com’s premier salary cap contest, with national champions dating back to its inaugural season in 1993.

Bruski finished fifth in the regular season to join the rest of the top eight finishers and Dave Gawron — who runs the Roto Commando blog and beat 75 fantasy experts in the VIP/Reporters league (finishing three disturbing spots ahead of Yours Truly) — in Vegas for the playoff draft.

Bruski’s Fitzgerald- and Willie Parker-led squad trailed Madonna Montz’s team by 11 heading into the big game but wound up with a comfortable 20-point cushion. Steve Homiak, who was in first place following the regular-season component of the contest, rode Kurt Warner to a third-place finish after using his first playoff pick on DeAngelo Williams.

The group traveled to Las Vegas on Jan. 4 for a three-day stay, conducting its purely serious business at Planet Hollywood. The post-season draft and VIP party took place at the nearby Hawaiian Tropic Bar and Restaurant. Sports Buff has been taking its top finishers on vacation since January 1995, when the first crew took a Carnival Cruise to the Bahamas. (Then again, maybe “vacation” is too favorable a word when you realize that you have to put up with Jeff Thomas the whole time.)

Bruski formerly ran a fantasy site called DreamWired.com and now writes updates for Rotoworld. Had Montz hung on, she would have been Sports Buff’s first Ms. Fantasy Football.

“Madonna’s regular season performance and post-season draft strategy from the sixth spot were extremely impressive, earning the well-deserved respect of the entire Sports Buff Nation,” said Thomas, founder of SportsBuff.com.

Here are the top eight, in order of their regular season finish, along with their first-round picks in the playoff contest:

1. Steve Homiak (Arvada, Colo.) — DeAngelo Williams
2. Rick Adelstein (Solon, Ohio) — Steve Smith
3. Brian Schmidt (Fort Myers, Fla.) — Brian Westbrook
4. Mark Severson (Sleepy Eye, Minn.) — Brandon Jacobs
5. Aaron Bruski (San Jose, Calif.) — Willie Parker
6. Madonna Montz (Belle Chase, La.) — Hines Ward
7. Kerry Bates (Powhatan, Va.) — Chris Johnson
8. Harley Pierce (Paw Paw, Mich.) — Eli Manning

(Note: SportsBuff.com and FantasySportsBusiness.com are owned and operated by World Fantasy Games.)