==This is the first year that CBSSports.com allows Final Four viewing on its "March Madness on Demand" video stream format. Fact is, this is the first time a major U.S. sporting event has been shown live and in its entirety on the Internet.
"It's a testament to the vision that the NCAA and CBS had for NCAA March Madness on Demand that we're continuing to make history around this event," said Jason Kint, the website's Senior VP and GM. "The consumer and advertising success story we've written by being the first to offer a live online broadcast of a major sporting event and on a complementary platform to television is surely something that other leagues and networks will look to replicate in the future."
By the numbers, there have been 4,333,207 total unique visitors to the NCAA "MMOD" video player, up 147% increase over 2007 (1,753,192), with the simple reason being it's easier access, through links on ESPN.com, SI.com and Facebook.com, for example.
Total hours of consumption for the 2008 Sweet 16 (March 27 and 28) were up 111 percent over last year (589,308 vs. 278,810). The average stream time for the Elite Eight (March 29 and 30) was over 32 minutes.
There were 571,297 VIP registrants (versus 468,720 last year).
And nearly 3.7 million people are playing in CBSSports.com bracket games (including one on Facebook). That's up 65 percent from last year. For the record, the 500,000 playing in the CBSSports Bracket Challenge, more than 51,000 had the Final Four picked right.

Asked if this Kevin Love-led UCLA team draws any kind of comparisons to the Walton Gang or Lew Alcindor's teams of the '60s and '70s -- a large post-man as the focus of the offense -- Packer didn't need much time to shoot that one down.

"When (Ben Howland) took over at UCLA, he basically inherited, I’ll say, a program that was relativey soft in the way they approached the game, and he has imposed his will and style on it and has recruited around that, and the kids they have now are really tough and play tough. Moreso than having a big man -- and eveyone would love to have Love as their center -- the main thing is that their intensity and physical nature of how they play, and not stepping back in any phase of the game, is what I think about when I see them as oppose to finess and incredible flexability of a team under coach Wooden. Not to say those teams didn't play good defense, but they had a different style with a large postman. And you never saw Kareem (or Alcindor) or Wooden step outside to take a jump shot."

As for the notion that just making it to three consecutive Final Fours may constitute some kind of dynasty in today's college basketball world, Packer wasn't buying that either.

"You can't consider it a dynasty if you've never won a championship," he said.

==By the numbers: CBS is averaging a 5.2/11 fast-national Nielsen rating through 60 games, down more than seven percent from last year. It did benefit from the Davidson-Kansas game running over the start of "60 Minutes" in the East on Sunday.

==CBS starts Saturday's college basketball programming with one of them "Road To The Final Four: Outside The Games" special (12:30 to 1 p.m.) as Seth Davis talks to NCAA chief Myles Brand and NBA commissioner David Stern about the state of youth basketball.
Says Brand: "(Youth basketball) is a chaotic situation; actually, worse than that. It’s a perverse situation once you get below the college level, and sometimes the high school level. And, what can we do jointly, NBA, and indeed all our partners, to really deal with the challenges we find in youth basketball? I think that’s what drove us together, a common love of the game, a common interest in the game and an agreement about where the real challenges are."
That leads into the Final Four preview show (1 to 3 p.m.), which includes a Dick Enberg-narrated feature on the 40th anniversary of the UCLA-Houston game (where the Cougars broke the Bruins' 47-game win streak). Enberg, then the UCLA play-by-play man for KTLA-Channel 5, called that game fromthe Houston Astrodome on Jan. 20, 1968. The pregame show also has a piece scheduled on UCLA's Kevin Love, as well as Kansas' Brandon Rush, the younger brother of former UCLA standout Kareem Rush.

==CBS' College Sports Network (formerly CSTV) carries the Final Four team practices today (10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.), hosted by Carter Blackburn from San Antonio along with analysts Greg Anthony, Jay Williams, Steve Lappas and Tracy Wolfson.

==ESPN Classic reairs North Carolina State's upset of Houston in the 1983 title game (25 years ago this month) today at 3 p.m., followed by a tribute show to Jim Valvano at 5 p.m.

==And about Memphis being the Cinderella story of the final four survivors:

Memphis Players Have Long, Complicated Explanation Of How They Are This Year's 'Rumpelstiltzkin' Story

## BASEBALL ##

==FSN Prime Ticket is participating in a Website link with the Dodgers and MLB.com to allow fans to submit a 500-word-or-less story to share with viewers about their experience with the team. The current spot running is on a fan named Neil Adams, who talks about watching the stadium’s construction in Chavez Ravine with his dad. Head over to the link: www.dodgers.com/yourstory.

==Matt Vasgersian and Eric Karros call Saturday's Dodgers-Padres game from San Diego as Fox starts its "Saturday Game of the Week" package (12:30 p.m.)

==Ed Goren, Fox Sports’ president and executive producer, admitted this week as the network prepares for the first of its "Saturday Game of the Week" schedule that he feels the sport “has probably never been healthier." Fox's coverage hasn’t eroded as much as viewership for any other sport in the last 14 years, he notes. “I think you’re really seeing this tremendous growth and appetite for the game of baseball today, whether it’s the FSN regionals, on the Fox network, in corporate sales for MLB, in the channel they are going to launch next year with 50 million homes, or more. We are very grateful to have the package we have.”

==TBS starts its Sunday package of afternoon games with Boston (and Josh Beckett) at Toronto (and Roy Halladay), 10 a.m., with Chip Caray and Buck Martinez.

==And in case you hadn't heard:

MLB To Have Four More Opening Days This Season

## NHL ##

==Kings fans who feel lucky no doubt know that Versus and the NHL Network are your best bets to watch the NFL Draft Drawing -- Monday, 5 p.m.. It's also streamed on NHL.com. This is the second time the lottery has been broadcast live, following the 2005 draft that gave Pittsburgh the rights to Sidney Crosby.

==NBC's final regular-season NHL contest puts Chicago, three points out of a playoff spot, at Western Conference leader Detroit (Sunday, 9:30 a.m.), with Mike Emrick, Eddie Oczyk and Pierre McGuire.

## NFL ##

For those who tried to ignore it:
-Thursday, Sept. 4: New York Giants vs. Washington, NBC, 4 p.m. (90 minutes earlier than previous years because of network coverage from the Republican National Convention).
-Sunday, Sept. 7: Indianapolis vs. Chicago, NBC, 5:15 p.m.
-Monday, Sept. 8: Green Bay vs. Minnesota, ESPN, 4 p.m.; Oakland vs. Denver, ESPN, 7:15 p.m.
You may tune into the NFL Network for a continual scroll of this information throughout the next four months.

## GOLF ##

==ESPN steps up coverage of the Masters for the first time next week, with the Par 3 Tournament on Wednesday (noon to 2 p.m.), plus rounds one and two on Thursday and Friday (1 to 4 p.m., replayed from 5 to 8 p.m. each day). Mike Tirico hosts it, but CBS will produce the telecasts using Jim Nantz, Nick Faldo, Peter Oosterhuis, Verne Lundquist, David Feherty, Bill Macatee, Peter Kostis and Ian Baker-Finch. Also: live streaming of “Amen Corner" on www.masters.org. Futher details as the event nears.

==Listen to this clip for the exchange between Bubba Watson and Steve Elkington during the Golf Channel's second round coverage of the PGA's Zurich Classic of New Orleans last Friday. Watson backs off a shot and vents at Elkington: "Tell you what, veterans can kiss my ass," he says another naughty word under his breath. The response from Roger Maltbie: "Obviously there's a little history we're not privy to." The Golf Channel not only aired it live, but left it in when it re-aired the round later that night.
Even funnier may have been Watson's apology for the "misunderstanding" via the PGA's Website.

## HORSE RACING ##

==Tom Hammond hosts the Santa Anita Derby coverage that NBC will bring along Saturday (2 to 3 p.m.). Race analyst Gary Stevens who in 1988 won the Santa Anita Derby atop Winning Colors for the first of his record nine Santa Anita Derby wins, is joined by Bob Neumeier, Mike Battaglia and Donna Barton Brothers. Kenny Rice will be live at Aqueduct to report on the Wood Memorial.

## MOTORSPORTS ##

==The Indy Racing League has brought DirecTV on board as the "premiere official sponsor," for somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million a year for six years, the league announced Thursday. "IndyCar Series in DirecTV HD" is how it will look in the logo, starting with Sunday's event.
even though the circuit still searches for a title sponsor. The deal also gives DirecTV a presence on the IndyCar website (www.indycar.com) including, branding on the
IndyCar Race Control feature, the daily poll, and IndyCar Fantasy Racing.

## CREEPY STUFF ##

==Not all that enamored with the second annual Under Armour All-America High School Football Game, which ESPN owns along with a company called Intersport. It has already set the date of Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009 for its event. The first game was on a Saturday afternoon, on ABC, for two hours. This time, it goes three hours, in EDT prime time (8 to 11 p.m.) on ESPN. But here's the weird part: They've already got commitments from high school players. Of the 80 kids who'll be invited, 47 have signed up, including USC incoming recruits like quarterback Matt Barkley (Mater Dei) and center Kevin Graf (Agoura Hills High). The attempt is to keep them from getting to other high school televised all-star games that compete with this one, such as NBC's U.S. Army All-American Bowl, set to air on Jan. 3, and already boasting the fact it has eight of Rivals.com's top 10 recruits committed. Last year, the Army game had a 1.8 rating, with 36,534 to the Alamodome in San Antonio. The Under Armour game has a 1.1 rating and 4,734 at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla.

## MISC. MEDIA ##

==HBO's "Real Sports" on April 15 will include an interview Bryant Gumbel has done with Democratic presidental candidate Barack Obama, focusing on how "the importance of basketball" was in "shaping his identity." Wonder where Gumbel got that idea ....

==Coming in September: Victor Conte's new book: "BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and What We Can Do To Save Sports," co-authored by Nathan Jendrick, according to the New York Daily News, via the Sports Business Daily. Jendrick, a noted author of fitness books, published one in 2006 called "Dunks, Doubles, Doping: How Steroids are Killing American Athletics."

==ESPN's Kenny Mayne, who has sort of been chronicling the progress of his book since last July, notes in his latest entry on his website, www.kennymayneiswritingabook.com, that its due date is set for April 22. We also note, from another site that focuses on celebrity book signings, that Mayne will be signing his book, "An Incomplete and Inaccurate History of Sport," two days later at the Grove in L.A.
That's Mayne on the cover, acting as a quarterback. Which he was, incidentally, at UNLV in the early 1980s (ahead of Randall Cunningham on the depth chart).
Just to get ready for it, Mayne allowed Jimmy Kimmel to read an excerpt:

==It was noted in a story from Cablefax.com this week, and confirmed on a blog at Adweek.com, in a story about the name-brand appeal of ESPN, that someone actually has the company logo engraved on their tombstone. The story goes, according to ESPN executive VP of sales and marketing Sean Bratches who was at the Advertising Research Foundation's annual event in N.Y., that a man died while watching a Sunday Night baseball game on ESPN and his family put the ESPN logo on his tombstone ... but they asked the family if the word "fan" be placed after it "so there's no confusion over the cause of death."

==Nice cut taken by the Orlando Sentinel's Dave Darling in today's media column: "Memo to the fine folks at The Big Lead: Seeing as you’ve been running a '2008 Culture Tournament' this month featuring head-to-head matchups of celebrities and athletes such as LeBron James, Erin Andrews and someone called “Tyra from Friday Night Lights,” we assume you no longer will spend a whole lot of space criticizing ESPN’s 'Who’s Now.'"

## AND FINALLY ... ##

You think this could have been Gary Thorne's resume tape at ESPN?