Here in Lexington, Rivals is a very popular site for fans of Kentucky basketball. Its forums have been ablaze ever since the abrupt departure of former head coach Tubby Smith and stayed hot throughout the entire search process which eventually landed Billy Gillispie at the helm of the program.

That community is just a small sampling of the large audience that comprises Rivals, which no doubt got the attention of Yahoo and prompted these acquisition talks. Rafat Ali at Paid Content first broke the story:

The price could reach around $100 million, which some we’ve spoken to say is overpriced, and that’s why the traditional sports media buyers are sitting out on this one. One exec involved in online sports acquisitions told us $50-75 million would be more realistic given a model that can—and has been—replicated and described the reaction to what Rivals was asking—$100 million—as “sticker shock.”