If you haven"t heard of ESPN.com, you either don"t know the meaning of the word "sport" or are so socially inept that you don"t have any friends who would tell you about it. With that said, ESPN.com has taken the gold in the Olympics of online that is the Best of Ann Arbor.

Arguably the most perused website on any college campus, ESPN.com houses a fountain of knowledge, past and present about sports, culture, and current headlines about every major sport out there.

"I primarily use ESPN.com for it"s up-to-date scores and box scores," said LSA senior Kush Goyal, a frequent user of the site.

He added that ESPN.com is the place to turn to when looking for more specific information, particularly on less high profile sports. Even if you"re wondering about Mark Lisi"s game-winning goal against the Kansas City Wizards, ESPN.com got it.

In addition to simple information, ESPN.com gets the viewer involved. For the latest NCAA tournament they offered a free pool system. By simply filling out an online form, users could set up their own pools, receive printouts of their teams and get updated accounts of who in the pool was winning. Keeping in that tradition, they"ve implemented online fantasy baseball, football, basketball and hockey leagues.

The nice thing about the fantasy sports is that there are several different games in each sport, so you"re not confined to just the league. For example, one game allows you to be a basketball team"s general manager. Best of all, it"s all automated, allowing the average viewer to do more important stuff like, well, watch more sports.

Since the ESPN network is famous for its world-class sports reporting, they have a huge amount of material, video and audio, which is never broadcast to the public at large. This is where ESPN.com comes in. Many press conferences videos and audio clips are handed over to the website so the public can access it.

Another part of the web of sports that ESPN.com has its claws over is EXPN.com. This extreme sporting portal is one of the best places to go to on the web to get information about skateboarding, snowboarding, BMX and a wide variety of other extreme sports. One of the cooler aspects is the link on the front page with a site solely dedicated to news about Tony Hawk and his achievements.

A less tangible part of the site is its die-hard fan base. Many sports fans go to this site right after watching a game.

LSA junior Ali Saksouk said he goes to the site immediately after most sporting events "to see the immediate reaction of the players and the media.

As a source of instant headlines, ESPN.com is incomparable. Their accompanying Insider section gives hardcore fans even more SportsCenter promos and ESPN the Magazine exclusives for a small fee.

Many have confessed to having this site as their homepage, for obvious reasons: Its reliability, ease of use and functionality all make it the number one website for sports hungry college students. ESPN.com is more than an online sports magazine. It"s a sporting culture phenomenon.