First, the news, for those who haven’t heard it: OPEN Sports is apparently no longer operating. Navigating to OpenSports.com will deliver you to a Network Solutions “under construction” page. Attempting to visit FantasyLive.com, which OPEN Sports rolled out for the start of football season, won’t take you anywhere.

Many of our readers are probably already aware of this development, and we have been as well since last month. Frankly, there are two reasons that FSB.com has not mentioned the change at OPEN before now:

1) At the time we found out, it appeared that the situation had reached this point long enough prior that many within the fantasy sports industry knew. It seemed like one of those things that we failed to notice in the crunch of football season.

2) We haven’t been able to track down any specific information on what transpired.

OPEN Sports drew immediate attention because it was created by Sportsline founder Mike Levy. It further made a splash by landing a deal to provide fantasy games for FOXSports.com.

FSB.com has yet to inquire with FOX about its plans for 2011 fantasy baseball, and a message on the site’s landing page for that game (as of Sunday night) says: “We are currently preparing FOX Fantasy Baseball for the 2011 season. Please check back in mid-February to join or create a league.”

This update comes as a result of the trickle of e-mails we’ve been receiving over the past month as more fantasy folks become aware of the OPEN situation. We’ll share any further information that might become available.