Apple and March Madness. What's the Connection? Edit

Apple Computer is to bring condensed versions—we’re assuming this means “the best bits”—of all the 2006 NCAA Division I Basketball championship games to the iTunes Music Store. The college ball games will be available for $1.99 apiece the day after they air on CBS’ College Sports TV—a channel that’s heavy on howling university entourages, clamorous cheerleaders and tussling wunderkinds.

Yet it looks as though the tech bellwether would prefer customers to splash out on a “Season Pass” feature on iTunes for $19.99, thereby receiving condensed versions of all 63 games the day after they are played for viewing on a computer or a video iPod. Much like a podcast, every game will automatically be placed in a customer’s download queue the day after it airs on CBS, and will be available for download once a user logs into iTunes.