Christmas isn’t the only deadline sneaking up on us.

For any fantasy sports writers out there, the Fantasy Sports Writers Association is taking nominations for 2009 awards up until the end of this month (via this online form).

According to FSWA president Mike Beacom, all submissions will be screened by the FSWA’s board of directors, with finalists passing on to an “independent panel of judges.”

Nominees must be members of the FSWA, which you can join before the end of the year to become eligible. The awards presentation — in its sixth year — will take place at next month’s Fantasy Sports Trade Association conference in Las Vegas.

The categories include …

Football Writer of the Year
Football Article of the Year, Web
Football Article of the Year, Print
Football On-Going Series

Baseball Writer of the Year
Baseball Article of the Year, Web
Baseball Article of the Year, Print
Baseball On-Going Series

Basketball Writer of the Year
Hockey Writer of the Year
Golf Writer of the Year
Racing Writer of the Year
College Sports Writer of the Year
Fantasy Humor Article of the Year, Print or Web

Check out FSB.com coverage of last year’s winners:

• Rotowire Dominates FSWA Awards
• The Rest of the FSWA Winners

The Fantasy Sports Writers Association gave out its 2008 honors on Tuesday at the FSTA winter business conference, and a third of them went to RotoWire.

Repeat victories in the categories of best baseball print publication and best baseball writer (Jeff Erickson) led an effort that garnered six plaques in all for the company. It was the second straight year that RotoWire claimed six awards. No other company earned more than three this time around.

This year’s haul also included writer of the year nods in golf, racing and college sports — the first time that last category has been included in the FSWA program. The lone surprise might have been that RotoWire’s Janet Eagleson ceded the award for top hockey writer to someone else (ESPN’s Sean Allen) for the first time in the category’s three-year existence.

“I’m shocked and surprised since it was a very strong field with a lot of outstanding writers,” RotoWire president Peter Schoenke told FSB.com on Wednesday. “I’m very happy for the first-time winners on our staff and proud that both our top editors for MLB and NFL won awards.”

The FSWA has been giving out awards since 2004. Entries are whittled down to finalists by the board of directors, with winners determined by a panel of three independent judges. This year, that panel included Wisconsin-Stevens Point journalism professor Dr. Steven Hill, Ithaca College journalism professor and Society of Professional Journalists board member Mead Loop, and longtime sports columnist for the Washington Post Len Shapiro.

Here is a full list of Rotowire’s 2008 honors and the finalists in each category:

Baseball Print Publication
CBS Sports
RotoWire
Rotoworld

Baseball Writer
Tristan Cockcroft, ESPN
Jeff Erickson, RotoWire
Scott Pianowski, Yahoo

Football Web Article
Greg Kellogg, Fantasy Sharks
Chris Liss, RotoWire
Jeff Pasquino, Footballguys.com

Golf Writer
Ross Devonport, CBS Sports
John McNamara, RotoWire
Greg Vara, RotoWire

Racing Writer
Natalie Anthony, Football Diehards
Scott Engel, RotoExperts
Mark Taylor, RotoWire

College Writer
John Baker, SportsBuff.com
Will Harris, ESPN
Adam Mankuta, RotoWire

Fantasy college sports have grabbed a lot of attention over the past few months, following the announcement from CBSSports.com that it would give names to the players in its college football game.

Because of the growing interest in college fantasy contests, the Fantasy Sports Writers Association is recognizing a top college writer for the first time in the five-year history of its writer awards.

John Baker, who spent his first season handling college football for SportsBuff.com in 2008, is competing with ESPN’s Will Harris and RotoWire’s Adam Mankuta for the inaugural trophy. SportsBuff.com, of course, is part of the company that also owns this site.

The FSWA will announce the winners on the first day of next week’s FSTA winter business conference. The association also plans to begin naming a college football fantasy player of the year in 2009.

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

– FLW Fantasy Fishing is growing an already-record prize pool for its second year of competition.

– A panel on Wednesday at the IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum actually discussed the possibility of using fantasy leagues to generate some funding for colleges and universities dealing with the tough economy. The USA Today article only brings it up at the end, and then only mentions the already-public opposition of Knight Commission executive director Amy Perko to all things college fantasy, so it’s evident that little if anything came from it. Nevertheless, such a public discussion is interesting in its mere existence.