By Alex B. Leeman
To all those fans who think they know more than the coach, can play better than all the players and are certain every official has a personal vendetta for BYU: there''s a place for you.
Every day, thousands of Cougar fans around the world log into Internet-based message boards and chat rooms and rant and rave long into the night.
These open forums provide a place where fans share excitement, vent frustration and most of all - feed that never-ending hunger for more BYU sports.
Two of the most popular BYU sports message boards are found at CougarBlue.com, and CougarFan.com.
At CougarBlue.com, a sports web site maintained by Provo''s Daily Herald newspaper, users can read breaking stories on BYU sports the day before they show up in the paper, and then post their own commentary.
Dick Harmon, a BYU graduate, is one of several Daily Herald writers that maintain CougarBlue.
'The Internet is such a dynamic information delivery process that it begs to have late-breaking posts supercede the printed word,' Harmon said. 'Because we''ve tried to bridge this challenge and provide a lot of minute-by-minute details of stories, it has become extremely popular among Cougar fans, not only in the United States, but across the world.'
Harmon said CougarBlue was viewed 350,000 times in just it''s first month of operation last August.
Brandon Gurney, a law student at the University of Utah, frequents CougarBlue to recharge his BYU spirit.
'I''m a huge BYU fan,' said Gurney, who is known as 'Gman' to other CougarBlue users. 'Having such a ready and frequently updated source such as CougarBlue.com is a dream come true for such a fanatic as myself.'
Gurney said he''s addicted to CougarBlue, and visits it multiple times a day.
According to Gurney, the breaking information from people close to BYU sports is the most valuable aspect of CougarBlue.
But CougarBlue by no means has a monopoly.
CougarFan.com also is a haven for BYU sports information.
Different from CougarBlue, CougarFan does not primarily rely on original content from its own writers.
Instead, CougarFan is a single resource where users can link to BYU sports related stories found all over the Internet.
CougarFan also has message boards, and offers users their own email address @BYUFans.com.
According to John Ahlander, a BYU alumnus and co-founder of CougarFan, the site''s email newsletter has more subscribers than any other BYU sports newsletter on the Internet.