March Madness starts today

The NCAA men's basketball tournament - better known as March Madness - starts today.

I've been watching the tournament for years any way I could. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I remember driving down to Estevan, in southeastern Saskatchewan, from Regina when I was in high school, so that we could catch some of the games. (They might have been NBA games - but I think they were college.)

We had to drive to Estevan because we didn't have cable TV in Regina at that point and Estevan was close enough to the US border that they were able to pick up signals from North Dakota.

Today, March Madness has become an institution, with every game available on TV -- and now for free on the Internet.

Today's Globe and Mail has a good story on how CBS is making millions of dollars in advertising by letting anyone who wants to watch the games for free on the Internet. (You can sign up yourself here.)

While the picture quality doesn't come close to TV, it's perfect for people at work who want to hunker down and catch all of the 32 games that will be played in the first two days of the tournament.

And if you want to see some great examples of how to enhance the experience using web-based tools, just cruise around the CBSSports.com website.

I've been watching online since the service first started (when you still had to pay to watch.) And today, although I'll probably have my browser pointed to the action, I am lucky enough to have a TV right here in my office, so I'll be able to see it on the big screen too.