When the Pittsburgh Steelers play the Carolina Panthers on Thursday, it will officially mark the beginning of Week 16 of the NFL season. Or, to most of the approximately 30 million people who play fantasy football, championship week.

Buoyed by the Internet, fantasy football has become wildly popular -- so much so that the record television ratings the NFL is putting up in 2010 are being attributed to all the folks who have themselves a fake football team.

Fantasy football has clearly passed fantasy baseball -- the original fantasy sport -- in the hearts and minds of the typical sports fan.

However, just because something is more popular doesn't means it is superior. Most serious fantasy players will tell you baseball, the more stats-based sport, lends itself far better to the fantasy form.

What do you think? Read on for arguments as to why each fake sport is better than the other. Also, if you can make a cogent argument for why fantasy basketball, hockey, golf, whatever, is the best, by all means have at it in the comments section.

Which fantasy sport is better?
Baseball -- Fantasy football is for children110 (13.3%)
Football -- Fantasy baseball is boring421 (50.8%)
Neither -- Fantasy sports make you a bad real-life fan298 (35.9%)


Fantasy Baseball Is Better
• Fantasy football is so structurally flawed that ESPN personality and longtime fantasy football player Bill Simmons was able to knock out a 5,000-word manifesto on how to fix the game.

• Fantasy baseball almost always enhances the real sport, whereas fantasy football can turn Sunday into a bit of an overly cluttered mind mess, especially if you manage more than one team (with players who are racking up points against your real-life favorite team) and also like to gamble.

• Fantasy baseball is an intricate game that requires skill and preparation; fantasy football is largely based on luck.

Fantasy Football Is Where It's At
• Since you tend to watch the actual games with the other members of your league -- or are at least watching the games at the same time -- fantasy football provides much better venue for trash talking.

• There's a show about fantasy football, and it's actually pretty good.

• If you start talking to a woman about your fantasy football team, there is an outside chance she plays in her office's league and might actually know who Ryan Torain is. If you bring up your fantasy baseball team in the presence of a female, you're just a huge geek.