Those who have March Madness can use the Net for constant fixes.
Super Bowl Sunday may be the biggest single day in sports -- the NFL's official site drew more than 500,000 people on that day.
But millions of fans are expected to click to sites such as ESPNET SportsZone, USA TODAY and the recently renamed CBS SportsLine during three weeks of fanaticism over the NCAA men's basketball tournament -- and the women's tournament -- now under way.
The sites have contests, the scoop on Cinderella teams such as Fairfield and Long Island universities, and up-to-the minute scores.
``This is the ideal application of (Web) technology,'' says Geoff Reiss of Starwave, which helps ESPN produce its site (http:// espnet.sportszone.com). ``When you're stuck in your office, this is a great way to find out what's going on.''
Last year, that site got 120,000 separate entries in its Tournament Challenge, in which fans can fill out tournament brackets on line to compete for prizes. Reiss expects that this year's contest, sponsored by Pizza Hut and DoubleTree Hotels, will get twice as many entries. Registration ends Thursday at 11 a.m. ET/8 PT; there's a women's tournament contest, too. SportsZone also has commentary from Dick Vitale, plus game flow graphs.
Other NCAA tipoffs
The NCAA's official site plans cybercasts of games including the men's championship; also a mascot-matching game, NCAA history, stats, a scoreboard and information on 1998 Final Four tickets.
http://www.finalfour.net
CBS SportsLine promises plenty of coverage, including audio and video clips, a desktop scoreboard, a Java chat room, printable brackets, contests, e-mail news, and full coverage of the women's tournament.
http://CBS.sportsline.com
USA TODAY has a ``Big Dance'' Web page for every tournament team (men and women), with in-depth statistics and information. Regular updates will be posted. Fans can print out tourney brackets and participate in quizzes and trivia contests. Some coaches, including Fresno State's Jerry Tarkanian and Stanford's Tara VanDerveer, will take fans' questions.
http://www.usatoday.com
Mindscape's Final Four site tests your college basketball trivia skills for more than $10,000 in prizes.
http://www.finalfour97.com
FANSonly has Web sites for schools including Kentucky, Maryland, Clemson and Virginia.
http://www.fansonly.com
Not all sites come from media giants and sports associations. Fan Dave Sieverling has created one of the several devoted to the No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks.
http://members.aol.com/sieverling/private/index.html
Nike sponsors Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski's site.
http://www.coachk.com
Not as slick, but more enthusiastic, is University of North Carolina junior Seth Fleishman's pages devoted to UNC players such as Antawn Jamison.
http://www.unc.edu/antawn33/