I just spoke with Jason Pliml of Mock Draft Central, and he told me that Mock Draft Central is officially on the market. Mock Draft Central has carved out a very strong niche for itself as THE place to go to for fantasy football / baseball / basketball / everything mock drafts. The site has a loyal following of dedicated fantasy players in the tens of thousands of users.

For interested buyers, the sale process is simple – Mock Draft Central will be placed up for auction on October 30, 2009 with a starting bid of $195,000. The auction will held on eBay.com with a tentative end date of November 12, 2009.

Mock Draft Central is a profitable company that sustains itself through subscription, licensing, and advertising revenue.

Pliml started Mock Draft Central in 2001 as a means to improve his own fantasy baseball drafting skills. Mock Draft Central has since grown to be the leader in mock drafts and powers a number of other fantasy sites’ drafts.

While Pliml’s role with the company is to be determined, it is more than likely that Manager of Operations Geoff Stein will stay on after Mock Draft Central is purchased.

Mock Draft Central is willing to provide company details, including financial, traffic, advertising metrics, etc to parties with a bona-fide interest, and you can contact MDC at (616) 363-6306.

Jason, Geoff, and Mock Draft Central provide one of the highest-quality services on the web, and whoever acquires them will definitely be picking up a valuable asset.

While ESPN consistently promotes its free fantasy football games, it has not completely abandoned the pay model. Fanball and ESPN just unveiled their new $50,000 Fantasy Football game. It is a pay-to-play salary cap game with point-style scoring, where the winner will take home a cool $50,000. Not too shabby for a $39.95 entry fee.

More importantly, the fact that two of the major players in the fantasy industry are teaming together on a game should make you take note. ESPN has become the number two player (behind Yahoo!) by offering completely free fantasy games. Fanball is the leader in pay-to-play games under its own brand, and hosting white-label games, such as the Fantasy Football Open Championship. According to Ryan Houson, Fanball’s Vice-President of Business Development, that this game came about through, “Lots of discussions. We discussed this a lot and we are excited it finally got done.” It is a win-win deal for both sides. It allows ESPN to tap into the pay-to-play market, while giving Fanball another game to market to its existing customer base, and more importantly, the ability to market to the millions of fantasy players that play at ESPN.

Congratulations to both sides on the deal, and I look forward to see how this relationship develops. If this is successful, you better expect to see something come fantasy baseball season.

With just weeks to go before the start of the fantasy football season, fantasy players have had plenty of time to prepare for the tough decisions: who to pick in the first round, what websites to trust for fantasy information, and most importantly, what should they name their fantasy football team. With obvious Brett Favre, Michael Vick, and Michael Jackson (too soon?) themed team names sure to permeate throughout the world of fantasy football, fantasy players should have plenty of fodder to get their creative juices going.

With that in mind, I am pleased to announce that Fantasy Ethos and The Big Lead are sponsoring a Best Fantasy Football Team Name Contest 2009. All you have to do to enter is submit your best fantasy football team names in the comment field below. There is a limit of three fantasy football team names per person per day. If inspiration strikes you in the middle of the night, feel free to come back the next day and enter three more names. You must fill-out your email in the comment form so that I can contact you if you have won. The contest closes on August 11th, 2009 at 11:59pm, and the winner will be announced on August 12th. Due to some unexpected website downtime, the contest deadline has been extended until August 17th, 2009 at 11:59pm EDT to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to enter ithe best fantasy football team name contest.

While it is fun to think and to share favorite fantasy football team names, it would be best to incentive everyone with prizes. Advanced Sports Media is stepping up and is offering the top five fantasy football team names a complimentary copy of its 2009 Draft Analyzer Ultimate Package, which retails for $44.95. Draft Analyzer evaluates the picks in your draft and makes pick recommendations for you. Draft Analyzer is available on the web or your desktop, and it features rankings and cheatsheets from ESPN Fantasy, CBS Sports, Fanball, Accuscore, and RT Sports. This is a tool I have personally used (and paid for myself) the past two seasons, and it has provided me with phenomenal results. If you have the best fantasy football team name, you will get it for free this year!

Do not delay, enter now!

Fantasy Football Team Names Resources:

• Lester’s Legends Best Fantasy Football Team Name Contest
• Fantasy Team Name’s Fantasy Football Team Names
• About.com’s Funny Fantasy Football Team Names