One of the best times of the year for any sports fan is almost upon us. The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, known to sports nuts as March Madness, features the 65 best college basketball teams as they square up in one big bracket-style tournament to determine a national college champion. And while our UT Vols are on the outside looking in, mostly after a nasty loss to Kentucky this weekend, it doesn’t mean that we won’t be watching the as many games as we can.
Whether you’re a fan of basketball or not, the odds are you’re gonna be filling out a bracket [available here when the selections are final] with your best guess on who’s gonna win. Don’t think about it too much. You’re gonna loose to that one person who hates sports and just fills it in based on the random guesses.
There’s a few things that have changed this year in watching the event so pay attention. The games will not be featured just on CBS this year. Instead, the games will be split up on different networks and if you don’t have cable or satellite you might miss out on the action.
This year’s tournament’s games will be broadcast on four networks: TBS, TNT, TruTV and CBS. Don’t know what TruTV is? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. TruTV is one of those small channels lost on your TV schedule but owned by the Turner Broadcasting Network. It used to be Court TV and specializes in criminal trials and shows like Cops. Guess that makes a great marriage for college basketball players.
The new networks allow for every game to be broadcast on TV, no matter which area of the country games are viewed in. Selection Sunday is March 13 and the games begin March 15-16. But if you’re trying to keep up with NCAA basketball news and scores online you’ll be happy to hear there are a lot of ways to keep up with the games.
Streaming games are available online at MMOD but if you’re stuck at work or school or on the road you can hook up your mobile device for free.
The NCAA will offer free online video streaming for its men’s basketball national championship tournament on iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch via Wi-Fi and 3G. Called March Madness on Demand (MMOD) the app will be available in the iTunes Store starting March 10 (the day before iPad 2 comes out). MMOD lets you watch every tournament game on your iOS mobile device from the opening whistle on March 15 through the finals on April 4. [via PC World]
