My name is Bob, and I’m addicted to fantasy sports.

I’m one of those online sports junkies that keep the same name (Southern Comfort), and play in the same leagues year in and year out. It’s a second life to us, one that puts the most avid sports fans in the seat of a General Manager.

We wake up and go to sleep with our teams, making the slightest alterations in hopes of achieving any cyber-GM’s dream, a championship and the ultimate bragging rights.

As technology increases so does the virtual reality of fantasy sports. It has gotten to the point where we are so involved with how our teams are chosen, that when it is all said and done we feel like these players are actually ours.

The interactive online draft has added a whole new angle to the majesty that is fantasy. Members of the league know the day of the draft like it’s their birthday; we cancel appointments and put a hold on our outside lives for the hour or so that it takes to build our franchise.

When the day comes we talk about the potential picks, ameliorating certain player’s abilities, hoping to sway the opinion of one of the rival GMs. We lie with a straight face normally reserved for an intense poker match, deep down we think we know what the others are thinking.

Then it begins.

The away messages go up and all programs are shut down, aside from the small manila drafting screen and the stat page you’re using to cram. You see where you’re team’s pick is in relation to the others and then the paranoia begins to set in.

You wonder who is going to pick whom, and the clicking of your roommate’s keyboard sounds so devious. You know he’s working on something, he sees something that you didn’t, there is some tiny fact, stat, or injury that was overlooked and now … it’s too late.

First pick goes, it’s a gimme, then again so are most of the first round picks. Then it’s your turn, the clock on the top left of the draft board turns yellow and your name sits atop a timer, ticking down second by pressure-building second.

The first pick seems obvious, the player you hoped would fall has fallen, and now he sits there on your screen begging to be picked. To click and move on would be so easy, but you begin to wonder why he fell to you, why he wasn’t someone else’s priority. Then you think, “Is this the one that is going to carry my team?”

The chat room that is part of the draft board begins to light up with two-faced encouragement, and the others begin to push for a move. You ignore and highlight that certain someone that, with the click of the mouse, immediately becomes one of your favorite players.

It’s done, you got him and now the team has its mighty captain. Switching your attention down to the GM chatter, there is a slew of comments varying from, “nice pick bro,” to, “no! That’s who I wanted.” The draft goes on and you’re off the hot seat for the moment, there is a little more time for analysis before round two.

Each round brings a different set of variables, a new position to fill with a candidate surrounded by self-imposed question marks. Every time the yellow box beckons the anxiety sets in, it’s crunch time all over again.

You go up and down your lineup, looking at the starting team, checking out the potential stars, and it looks good. The names just seem to jump off the screen as, “your,” players seem to have that special virtual chemistry that champions are made of.

After the final pick there is silence in the chat room and cautiously you put the mouse over the X in the top right corner of the draft board. One last glance, then it’s gone, the season has officially begun and its time to set up the roster.

The roommates emerge from their offices, gather in the small college apartment living room (which is the main forum for sports talk), and discuss. Everyone has a good team on paper, but the question that arises is whether or not it is a good fantasy team.

The difference between the two is so vast that it can be confusing to the non-experienced GM. If you were told that Andrei Kirilenko was better than either Vince Carter or Kobe Bryant, you would have to laugh. In the world of fantasy, Kirilenko is king, and players like Carter and Bryant are good, but should be second options.

To explain this would be another column in and of itself but to those that play, you understand.

Well it looks like TJ Ford had another good night; I better pick him up before someone else does. Maybe after I’ll post a message because I’m beating Scotty this week, and man it feels good.

Bob McGovern is a Collegian columnist.