Here are all of the finalists for the Fantasy Sports Trade Association’s 2008 Industry Recognition Awards. Only FSTA members are eligible to win, and the membership selects the winners (in bold below) from the final candidates.

Commissioner Product
CBSSports.com Commissioner
ESPN Fantasy League Manager
Fanball.com Football Commissioner
Fantrax
MyFantasyLeague.com (FB)
RealTime Fantasy Sports (FB)

Draft-Style Tool
CBSSports.com Live Draft Room
Mock Draft Central

Draft-Style Contest
CBSSports.com Free Fantasy Football
FanaticFantasyFootball.com LLC (FB)
Fanball Draft and Play MLB (NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR
Head2Head The Draft 2008
PASPN.Net Mock GM Offseason & Real-time Fantasy Basketball
U-Sports (College FB, BB)

Salary Cap Contest
Fanball Challenge Games
Head2Head Salary Cap Football
PASPN.Net Mock GM Offseason & Real-time Fantasy Basketball
Sports Buff Salary Cap Style Football

Live Event or Contest
AOL Sports (FB)
ESPN Fantasy Football Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (FB)
FLW Fantasy Fishing

Unique Contest
Alma Mater Football League
ESPN Streak for the Cash
FLW Fantasy Fishing
Head2Head Match Play Madness
PASPN.Net Mock GM Offseason & Real-time Fantasy Basketball
Pay The Fan Fantasy Sports (FB,Racing)

Innovation
CBSSports.com User Generated Player Updates
ESPN Streak for the Cash
Accuscore.com GMC Fantasy Scout
LeagueSafe.com
Rosterdilemma.com

Draft Kit
CBSSports.com Fantasy Football Downloadable Draft Kit
The Huddle Fantasy Football Draft Kit
ESPN Fantasy Football/Baseball Draft Kit
RotoExperts
RotoWire Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit
KFFL.com’s Fantasy Football Draft Guide

Draft Assistance Tool
CBSSports.com Mock Drafts
Draft Dynamix Draft Analyzer
Mock Draft Central
RotoLab, DraftLab, HoopLab

Print Ad
CBSSports.com FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY
Fantrax
Fanball - Gatefold (4 Page) Ad in Fantasy Football Index & Fanball Cheat Sheets
LeagueSafe.com
MyFantasyLeague.com
RotoWire 2008 Fantasy Football print ad
U-Sports (College FB, BB)

Magazine
Athlon/Grogan’s Fantasy Football Analyst
Baseball HQ - Baseball Forecaster
CBSSports.com FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY
ESPN The Magazine Fantasy Football Draft Guide (FB)
Fanball Fantasy Football Draft Issue
RotoWire 2008 Fantasy Baseball Guide
Rotoworld/NBC Sports (FB, Baseball)

New Website or Site Update
AOL Sports (FB) Fanhouse
CBSSports.com College Fantasy Football
FantasySportsBusiness.com
FantasySportsGirl.com
LeagueSafe.com
One Season Fantasy sports stock market
RotoExperts
Sports Data Hub

Specialty Products or Services
BlogTalkRadio: The Fantasy Sports Channel (FB,BB,Baseball,H)
FantasyDispute.com
Fantasy Trophies LLC
LeagueSafe.com
Sports Data Hub
Titlecraft Inc.

Online Content Service
BaseballHQ.com
CBSSports.com Fantasy News Site
ESPN Insider Answer Guys
Fanball - Owner’s Edge NFL
The Huddle Fantasy Football Service
KFFL Hot off the Wire
RotoWire.com
Rotoworld/NBC Sports (All Sports)

Blog
AOL Sports (FB)
ESPN Stephania Bell’s Injury Blog (FB)
Fanball - Godfather of Fantasy Sports Blog
The Fantasy Baseball Sherpa’s Blog
Fantasy Football Sherpa’s Blog
RotoWire’s blog area, also called RotoSynthesis
Sporting News Fantasy Source Blitz blog (FB)
William Del Pilar’s Locker Room Buzz

Podcast
BlogTalkRadio: The Fantasy Sports Channel (FB,BB,Baseball,H)
CBSSports.com FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY(FB)
ESPN Fantasy Focus Baseball
ESPN Fantasy Focus Football
FantasySportsGirl.com
RotoExperts.com Start em and Sit em Sunday

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association will dole out its annual industry awards later this month at its winter business conference. Among the categories to be recognized is Print or Magazine Ad. Voting ends Monday, Jan. 5, and the finalists are as follows:

• CBSSports.com Fantasy Football Today
• Fantrax
• Fanball
• LeagueSafe.com
• MyFantasyLeague.com
• Rotowire fantasy football
• U-Sports

 The Fantasy Sports Trade Association will dole out its annual industry awards later this month at its winter business conference. Among the categories to be recognized is Draft Style Contest, in which the host site serves as league manager. Voting ends Monday, Jan. 5, and the finalists are as follows:

• CBSSports.com Free Fantasy Football
• Fanatic Fantasy Football
• Fanball Draft and Play
• Head2Head The Draft 2008
• PASPN.net Offseason & Real-Time Fantasy Basketball
• U-Sports

Fantasy sports are good for your league.

It doesn’t take an advanced degree or in-depth research to determine that. It’s common sense. Look around.

The NFL has exploded over the past five years or so, at the same time as fantasy participation has been growing by about 25 percent a year. Every outlet for football content has begun to cater its coverage to fantasy players. The NFL itself was the first of the major sports leagues to host fantasy leagues on its website.

Or check out baseball highlights on ESPNews. The “Fantasy Impact” box might not always present a stat that is actually relevant to fantasy owners, but the box is always there when they display the final score. Meanwhile, baseball continues to set attendance records and make a ton of money from broadcast rights.

The NBA and NHL now run fantasy games through their official websites, too. It’s just a good idea. It engages your fans, gives them an increased stake in the results of your events, and offers a potential entry point for new followers. Fantasy not only appeals to fans of a sport, but it can welcome in new consumers who might have no rooting interest in a particular team or might not have paid much attention to a particular league in the past.

I can’t help but wonder if that’s why the NCAA’s objections to fantasy haven’t made their way to the level of legal action.

Major League Baseball and now the NFL have taken fantasy providers to court over access to their athletes, and those two entities exist for the sole purpose of profiting from athletic contests. The NCAA, meanwhile, has stuck to writing op-ed newspaper pieces and sending letters to about how it doesn’t like the use of athletes’ names or the attachment of prizes to the college fantasy contests.

As we’ve pointed out here before, U-Sports has been running college fantasy games with player names included for more than 10 years. Obviously, CBS’ decision to name the players in its college football game this season put the issue on a much larger scale, but are we really expected to believe that no one in the NCAA was aware of U-Sports or any of a few other providers before? The governing body of college sports is simply too large an organization with too much concern for player eligibility to have not come across the games until this year. It seems far more likely that the CBS hoopla finally generated the kind of publicity that required an official response.

It does make some sense for the NCAA to come out against fantasy games publicly. As the official website states: “The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a voluntary organization through which the nation’s colleges and universities govern their athletics programs. It is comprised of institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals committed to the best interests, education and athletics participation of student-athletes.” From an academic standpoint, fantasy games offer no redeeming value to student athletes.

Of course, as stated here in the past, neither do a three-week championship basketball tournament, bowl games over winter break, Thursday night games on ESPN or baseball championships that stretch well past the end of classes in the spring.

That’s why it also makes sense for the NCAA to mount no formal challenge to fantasy sports. Fantasy offers free-of-charge marketing exposure and consumer engagement for college sports — the same sports that generate millions from broadcasting rights for the “voluntary” governing body and many member institutions.

Will the public push between the NCAA and fantasy providers take on a more official capacity at some point? Maybe. It would be hard to make much sense of such action, though.