Give your rivals piece of your mind on this Web site

When Kevin Jones, one of the most sought-after high school football players in the country, was nearing his announcement on national signing day Feb. 7, the Rivals.com chat room was as lively as a frat house on a Friday night.

"Before he made his decision, we already had 100 people in the chat room waiting for us to type on the message board," said Jeremy Crabtree, Web site director of college football recruiting.

When Jones, a running back from outside Philly, dissed Penn State in favor of Virginia Tech, Rivals.com went into server overload.

When another national signing day was in the books, Rivals.com had 30,881,008 million page views, an increase of more than 20 million from last year's national signing day.

Yes, business is brisk at Rivals.com, a Seattle-based company that was launched in August 1999 and has put every diehard college fan in heaven. The site has the usual newsy articles and scores found on hundreds of sports Web sites, but what sets Rivals.com apart is its information on recruiting. Of the network's 600 sites, 85 percent are devoted to the topic. Posting opinions on the message boards also is a popular pastime.

"The recruiting and the message boards are the two things that other people can't cover," said 26-year-old Crabtree, who is based in Austin, Texas, and constantly works the phones for recruiting nuggets. "We kind of consider that our secret sauce for any fan from any school."

Washington State Cougars supporter? The quickest path to your rival site is by clicking on washingtonstate.rivals.com. Just about every major university has a site that is easy to find because of the obvious URLs. Although the home pages look like something churned out by the schools' sports information departments - with the school colors and in some cases, logos - don't be fooled. The message board is really a place to vent with the likes of vandalviewer at idaho.rivals.com or dish with eastsidedawg at washington.rivals.com..

For those who want a broader view, there's Rivals100.com. There also are regional sites such as nwcruiting.com and the most active of them all, borderwars.com. The opportunities to spread rumors, call for a coach's head and cheer on your team seem endless.

Copyright 2001 Cowles Publishing Company
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