In addition to being a banner year for gridiron rookies, 2010 is also shaping up to be a tremendous year for Upper Deck’s partnership with the NCAA. As many of you are aware, all of this year’s football products will be branded with collector’s favorite college teams, which presents a very unique opportunity for people who love Saturdays as much as they love Sundays.

The kickoff product for Upper Deck this year is 2010 NCAA Sweet Spot Football, a product that has been extremely popular with collectors since 2003. This time, the product has a new twist including the first autographs of superstar veteran pro players like Drew Brees (Purdue) sporting their college uniforms. When you also factor in that the 2010 rookie draft class features some of the most famous and infamous college players in recent memory, it becomes even more enticing of a product to buy. Sweet Spot is one of the only places where players like Tim Tebow (Florida) and Sam Bradford (Oklahoma) will be featured in their collegiate garb that made them household names, and that’s only part of it.

Tim Tebow still needs some time to make his presence felt in Denver.

Tebow and Bradford, as well as guys like top picks Jimmy Clausen (Notre Dame) and Ndamukong Suh (Nebraska), made history during their college careers, and that is why it these cards are so desirable to many collectors. Bradford may be tearing it up in St. Louis, but he’s still better known as the Sooners QB to many of his biggest fans. That’s not to say his pro career won’t factor into the value of his card, but it adds to the allure to have one of the unique pieces that Sweet Spot is own for like an autographed Sooner helmet card.

Sweet Spot also offers the only autographed card of Max Hall, the current starter in Arizona who signed as a free agent out of BYU. Hall was a great player during his time in Utah, and many of the BYU collectors chase his cards with extreme fervor. Because he wasn’t featured as a part of the 2010 draft, his cards weren’t produced with as much frequency as players like fellow rookies Ryan Mathews (Fresno State) or Dez Bryant (Oklahoma State). However, because Sweet Spot is just as focused on the players before turning pro, Hall is a part of the product that isn’t available anywhere else.

Jimmy Clausen has already started in the professional ranks for Carolina.

On top of all the previous reasons, Sweet Spot brings new cards to the market that have seldom been produced before. It is truly rare that players like Dan Marino and Brett Favre have cards that celebrate their terrific accomplishments at Pittsburgh and Southern Miss. That is where player-focused collectors will love Sweet Spot because of how rare these cards are in the general scheme of things. Both Favre and Marino have been part of Upper Deck’s products for years, but they have yet to be featured the way they are in Sweet Spot. The product offers both autographs and memorabilia cards of them and also guys like Hall of Famers Alan Page (Notre Dame) and Jack Youngblood (Florida).

For the same reason that college cards of superstar players are so awesome, having a product like this presents the opportunity to include college players that may have been overlooked in most pro-focused sets. Herman Moore (Virginia) and Christian Okoye (Azusa Pacific) dominated in college, but are more known for their professional careers with Detroit and Kansas City. Their autographs are hard to come by, despite being fan favorites. In Upper Deck’s 2010 NCAA Sweet Spot Football they are able to share the spotlight with the rookie class, and that is a big reason why so many people love this product.

Sweet Spot is available at your local hobby shop today, and much to the delight of collectors everywhere, each of the six packs per box features either an autograph or memorabilia card!

Adam Gellman runs the collecting blog Sports Cards Uncensored, and has been a collector of all things sports for over 15 years. To see more of his work, visit www.sportscardsuncensored.com (warning: strong language!)