Why work when you can watch hoops?

Pity the poor soul who is trying to overcome a debilitating case of March Madness.

It was hard enough avoiding the tournament when college basketball games were broadcast on a single TV network.

Starting Thursday, every single matchup over the course of the three-week event will be streamed live over the Internet for free, making it nearly impossible to "Just Say No."

Even worse, the enablers at CBS-Sports.com have included a "boss button" in the software so that employees can quickly conceal their clandestine habits as they view the 64 teams in the tournament.

Simply click the button, and the game is replaced with a spreadsheet, as if you were working all along.

"No one ever knows the better," said Jason Kint, senior vice president and general manager of CBSSports.com.

The man obviously has no shame.

The online broadcasts are just the latest example of how March Madness has become a ubiquitous part of the culture.

"It's huge," said Armand Ausiello, owner of Ausiello's 5th Street Grill in Santa Rosa.

He said customers used to only be interested in the Final Four games.

To meet the demand now, he's had to buy a special package through DirecTV that will allow him to show every game.

"This is the best time of year," said Santa Rosa screen printer Chris Strong as he enjoyed a pint of green beer at the grill Monday.

It didn't matter to Strong that his Cal Bears didn't make the tourney this year. He's still planning to make an annual pilgrimage to Tahoe to watch the Final Four in early April.

Most people will watch the games on TV. But a growing number are taking them in online, hence the decision by CBS to expand the broadcasts.

When CBS introduced live on-demand streaming in 2005, people had to pay for the service and not all of the games were available.

By expanding and dropping the pay model, the company estimates it will double the number of viewers from last year, when 1.4 million people clicked onto a game.

Ad revenues have grown as well, from $250,000 in 2005 to an estimated $21 million this year. At the same time, the service is not costing CBS any more money to produce, company officials said.

CBS also partnered with the online social networking site Facebook this year to create the Web's largest bracket game.

Users of MySpace, ESPN.com and other popular sites also should see easy links to the online broadcasts, which are streamed through Windows Media Player.

CBS acknowledged the quality of the downloads might not be as good for Macintosh users.

Overall, the ad revenue generated from these online partnerships is still a pittance compared to the $450 million the company expects to make from TV advertising during March Madness.

"At the end of the day, it's really common sense that if you have a flat-screen HDTV nearby, that's how you're going to watch," Kint said.

Many employees don't have that luxury, hence the allure of just clicking online to watch.

Kint downplayed concerns that so many people logging on could slow or crash computer systems. He said the CBS Web site has an easy how-to for employers to follow if they want to disable the system. And so far, he's not gotten a single complaint about the downloads.

"We're very friendly to IT managers out there," Kint said.

Samuel Scalise, chief information officer for Sonoma State University, said he's not concerned about the online broadcasts doing harm to the campus network.

He said the system recently underwent a major overhaul that by analogy would be like widening Highway 101 to six lanes.

"If everyone in Santa Rosa was on 101 at the same time, it might clog it up," he said.

Still, employers will be out $237 million in wages for every 13.5 minutes workers spend on the Internet tracking basketball games, according to an estimate by outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas.

These employers might rue the day CBS introduced the online streams and the boss button. But to legions of basketball fans, it's just one more way they can enjoy the game.

"Now that you mention it, I might catch an Oregon game online," said Paul Hoffman, a Santa Rosa carpenter who was with Strong at the 5th Street Grill on Monday.

You can reach Staff Writer Derek J. Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com.