Animal Planet introduces fantasy puppy football for Puppy Bowl X

A month away from Puppy Bowl X, and there's just one question remaining: have you drafted your fantasy squad yet? Better hurry, you'll need a winning squad before Feb. 2 because, contrary to popular belief, we aren't all winners—not even at the Puppy Bowl.

This year's Puppy Bowl is Animal Planet's tenth, which naturally called for a bit of a script-flip in the event's production. The answer for Puppy Bowl planners was the addition of a fantasy puppy football component, which allows users to draft a cuddly squad of cute from some 66 "players." From there, the whole thing is a lot like regular old fantasy football:

"Fantasy Puppy League: Later this month at AnimalPlanet.com/PuppyBowl, the network will launch a fantasy draft, where fans can see profiles of all 66 players and create their team of competitors before the big game. On game day, you can keep track of how your players perform via stats on the screen." 

Cool, but what will we rank the pups on in terms of statistics? Well, that part isn't exactly clear, but the Puppy Bowl does routinely count touchdowns and penalties. Besides that, though, the stats might run a little thin, providing we don't see some new measures like "number of 'awws' inspired" or "cuteness quotient." Which, to be fair, doesn't sound half-bad.

So, come for the puppies, stay for the more-improvisational-than-usual statistics. And if that doesn't grab you, there are penguin cheerleaders.

Everyone likes penguin cheerleaders.

[Deadspin]