March Madness Live Streaming Comes to iPad

By Jeremy Repanich
From http://www.wired.com/

From every NCAA men’s basketball tourney game being broadcast in its entirety for the first time, to free live streams of each matchup on the web and iOS devices, the second half of March is pretty much booked for college basketball fans. Hopefully, their loved ones and bosses will understand.

Last year the NCAA signed a new deal with CBS and Turner Sports to share the tournament broadcast rights for the next 14 years. So starting this season, in addition to watching games on CBS, fans can tune in to TBS, TNT or truTV to catch the game they want to see most. Turner Sports also built on the existing March Madness On Demand online platform and Apple’s iTunes Store — to create live streams with enhanced statistics and social media integration for every contest, from the play-in game through the Final Four.

The result is a fan-friendly experience that lets you watch any game anywhere, which means streaming at work for many of us in those first couple days of March Madness. Luckily, the life-saving Boss button (clicked 3.94 million times during the 2010 tournament) is back to hide our viewing from disapproving superiors.

During the 2010 edition, 8.3 million unique viewers watched or listened to 11.7 million hours of online streams of the NCAA tournament. And 575,000 users saw the 2010 Duke-Butler championship online, a meager fraction of the 48.1 million people who caught the game on TV, but still a 70-percent increase compared to 2009. Michael Adamson, vice president of new products and services for Turner Sports, didn’t offer projections for this year to Wired.com, but he does expect an uptick in viewers. That’s why his company been working to reserve backend bandwidth to ensure consistently smooth streaming for fans.

But the online experience wasn’t created just to kill our productivity at work. Turner Sports and the NCAA want you to log on at home, too, so it won’t just be a video stream. “One of our goals for this was to make March Madness On Demand a complement and a companion to watching the games on TV,” said Turner Sports senior VP Matt Hong.

Turner Sports crafted the interface with the knowledge that even when at home watching the games on TV, millions of sports geeks still have their computers Nearby. With MMOD, you’ll be able to queue highlights while the game is still in progress; enter your location and cable/satellite provider to find out which channel each game is on; track stats like team leaders, scoring streaks, biggest lead and foul trouble; and follow the buzz around the bracket with the social media interface, a new feature that Turner is pushing this year.

“There’s no question that the big buzz around the last two big live events — the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards — has been the impact of social media, and we wanted to tap into that,” Adamson said. “We’ll have people scouring social media services, paying attention to hashtags, to posts, to trends and being engaged every day.”

Each game will have a dedicated social media hub accompanying the live stream with producers populating a feed drawing on commentary from the sideline reporters, Twitter, Facebook and the rest of the web. However, users won’t be able to directly input comments into the feed, so you’ll still need to tweet or update your Facebook status and hope the producers see it if you want your two cents added to the conversation.

In Wired.com’s hands-on test of March Madness On Demand on an iPad, a laptop and an iPhone 4, those social media functions weren’t available through iOS apps, but you were able to tweet or post to Facebook without having to leave the app. Additionally, statistics are better integrated into the service’s web-based version, because checking game stats on the mobile apps shuts off the live stream. Then, switching back cues an ad to run before the game resumes and negatively affects the video resolution as the stream re-buffers. Despite these small quibbles, the interfaces work quite well with solid video streaming that looked great — even in full-screen mode.

The best new feature? Unlike last year, the mobile streaming apps are free.

Unfortunately, there’s bad news for Android users: Turner didn’t develop an app for their phones or tablets. Instead, it focused attention on Apple’s iOS and extending to the iPad. But Adamson assured Wired.com that Turner plans to develop for Android in the future, and that because Android supports Flash, you can access the streams through your web browser like you would on a PC.

Now that you know you’ll have every game at your fingertips and on your big screen like never before, you’ve been given the blessing and curse of being even more dialed in to the gut-wrenching ups and downs of your bracket. Just remember the immutable law of the office NCAA pool: The person who knows the least about college basketball will most likely win. So have at it, Bracketologists.

CBS Sports Will Telecast Men's Basketball Final Four Games in 3D

By Chris Littmann

By Eric Fisher, Staff Writer
SportsBusiness Journal

CBS Sports will show the semifinals and championship game of the NCAA men's basketball tournament in 3D, marking the network's first foray into 3D TV and the latest high-profile sports event to be shown in the enhanced format. The network has struck a deal with Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. to show the Final Four games in 100 movie theaters nationwide, with pricing yet to be established. CBS additionally selected Pace, whose 3D involvement includes work with the NBA and the record-setting Hollywood epic "Avatar," to aid with the production, with the choice based significantly on the firm's prior background with shooting basketball in 3D. "This is another experiment. We're looking to learn as much as we can," said CBS Sports Senior VP/Operations & Production Ken Aagaard. Aagaard added the 3D production is a likely forerunner for future such efforts by the network in football.

CBS, meanwhile, has signed Capital One as the third presenting sponsor of March Madness on Demand, adding to AT&T and Coca-Cola. Capital One also recently signed with the NCAA as the newest corporate champion sponsor, joining AT&T and Coca-Cola. The network continues to project that MMOD advertising sales will finish well north of last year's $30M, though executives declined to disclose specifics.

Posted In: College Basketball

The Hottest Girls of the Final Four

By Phil

The Final Four begins tomorrow, and I am sure all of the pundits will breakdown the game for you. At Gunaxin, we don’t really care about all of that crap, so we just go straight to the babes. Over the last several days we have prepared galleries of each of the teams competing. These aren’t just a collection of Cheerleaders from the schools, we go much further. We include fans, athletes, dancers, sorority girls, and even girls modeling bikinis and lingerie. 775 Photos await you in these galleries, making it the ultimate collection of Final Four Girls that you will see anywhere on the web. So while the games will be settled on the court, check out these young ladies and let us know who you think the real winning school is.

Connecticut Huskie Girls

Michigan State Spartan Girls

North Carolina Tar Heel Girls

Villanova Wildcat Girls

4 Tips For Winning Your Office March Madness Pool

I have four tried and true, nearly infallible rules that will help you win your NCAA pool.

I have four tried and true, nearly infallible rules that will help you win your NCAA pool or bracket contest.

These were posted in a similar column on KING that you can find here

This is a 2009 reboot.

1) Your team must have a head coach who understands the difference between a fast break and a lunch break. Since 1980, Steve Fisher, who led Michigan to the 1989 title with the interim tag, is the only coach not already in the hall of fame—or probably headed there—to win a championship. You could argue the resumes of Tubby Smith, Nolan Richardson and Gary Williams, but I think they’ll eventually be in. The rest of the winners read like a who’s who of college coaches, including names like Crum, Thompson, Dean, Pitino, Calhoun, Tubby, Roy, Coach K, Roy and Donovan. Poor Wake Forest…

2) You must have an animal in the paint that can devour opposing frontlines without regard for his wellbeing or safety. I’ll concede Arizona’s perimeter-oriented team from 1997, UConn’s Richard Hamilton-led upset of Duke in 1999 and the Carmelo Anthony-driven Syracuse triumph in 2003 as rule deviants. You won’t find a team since 1990—outside of those mentioned—that hasn’t had an all-conference caliber post player patrolling the paint. Sorry West Virginia, Boston College, Marquette, Villanova, Marland, Xavier, UCLA, Illinois and Syracuse, all clubs who lack such a big man this season.

3) You must have an experienced point guard–freshman point guards don’t win national championships. Mike Bibby and Gerry McNamara are the only freshman point guards—ever—to lead their teams to a title. The curse struck Memphis hard last season. Despite Derrick Rose’s great play, the freshman missed a couple of free throws and eventually succumbed to this stone-cold rule.

Thanks for playing Washington and Memphis. Kind of sucks for the Tigers—two years in a row that a freshman point guard will keep them from winning the title.

4) An unwritten and very unscientific rule is that you must have three potential NBA players on your roster to compete. Not just guys who might get drafted, but players who will stick in the league. At first glance that might sound a bit farfetched, but again the rule proves to be true. Since 1990, only four teams that went on to win the championship, ’93 UNC, ’95 UCLA, ’99 UConn and ’03 Syracuse, have lacked at least three players to stick in the NBA. They’ve all had two. So, so long to Utah, Cleveland State, Dayton, North Dakota St., Michigan State, BYU, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Missouri, Utah St, Cornell, California, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Butler, Arizona State, Temple and Clemson.

So there you have it. One of the following five teams—Louisville, UConn, Pittsburgh, UNC or Gonzaga—will raise the nets in Detroit in April. I know that’s not exactly going out on a limb, but that is what the rules give us.

Mark it down. Type it. Send it. Fax it. Ship it.

New Dallas Cowboys stadium to host 2014 NCAA Final Four

By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
jmosier@dallasnews.com

ARLINGTON – The Dallas Cowboys’ fortunes have been up and down on the field this year, but their record is perfect at their new stadium in Arlington.

Video

Final Four to be held at Cowboys Stadium

11/19/2008

The $1.1 billion stadium is now 3-for-3 in bids for mega-sporting events after the announcement Wednesday that it would host the 2014 NCAA men’s basketball Final Four. The stadium, which opens in 2009, is already home to the 2010 NBA All-Star Game and the 2011 Super Bowl.

Team owner Jerry Jones initially said he intended the new stadium to be not just a football venue but a showplace for the entire region. He said he’d go after the nation’s biggest events, and he has — with great success.

“Substantive events begat other events,” Mr. Jones said Wednesday at a news conference at the stadium. “You’re passing a lot of scrutiny and a lot of tests. It’s putting a very creditable stamp on the stadium before it even opens.”

Mike Slive, chairman of the NCAA selection committee, said that North Texas made a great bid, but it helped that the stadium already landed two other giant sporting events ahead of the Final Four.

“We’re delighted to let somebody else suffer through learning how to do it just right and getting it ready for us,” Mr. Slive said.

New Orleans, Atlanta, Houston and Indianapolis also were awarded Final Fours.

Cowboys officials have said from the beginning that their goal was to become regular hosts of these mega-events, including Final Fours and Super Bowls. The stadium will also host an NCAA regional tournament a year before the Final Four, in 2013.

Houston is hosting a Final Four in 2011 in addition to the one in 2016 it was awarded Wednesday. The other three host cities also have had this event on a frequent basis.

The Final Four games in Arlington — to be held on April 5 and 7 — also have the potential to accommodate 93,000 fans and shatter the NCAA’s attendance record. The current record of 64,959 was set in 1987 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans when Indiana defeated Syracuse with a now legendary last-second shot.

This fits neatly with Mr. Jones’ stated goal of also breaking the Super Bowl attendance record. NBA Commissioner David Stern also said in recent weeks that there was a possibility that 100,000 tickets could be sold to his league’s All-Star Game in Arlington, which would be a record crowd to see a basketball game in the U.S.

The art of the deal

While the Cowboys’ new glass and steel home was the basis for the bid, it turned out to be just part of the appeal to the NCAA. Bill Lively, who worked on the region’s “Athletes and Arts” themed presentation, said the 10-member selection committee was told to think of the proposal as a barbell.

At one end was the new Cowboys stadium, and at the other end was the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts.

“Bring your basketball teams and their coaches and alumni and fans, and they will play in the greatest arena for the biggest audience ever to see a basketball game,” Mr. Lively said.

That was the obvious part of the pitch. Besides that, Mr. Lively said, regional officials told the NCAA to have those teams bring their glee clubs, chorales, bands and orchestras to perform in Dallas’s expanding Arts District.

The $338 million Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, which also opens in 2009, will include an opera house, theater, performance hall and performance park.

Tim Allen, senior associate commissioner of the Big 12 Conference, said the downtown Dallas Arts District could be home for many of the tournament’s signature off-the-court events, such as the Big Dance and Hoop City.

“The Jones family and the people that are building the performing arts center appreciate both areas,” Mr. Lively said. “We appreciate athletics and entertainment, and we appreciate the arts. When we made this extraordinary bid, we decided that one of the best ways to do it was to portray Dallas and region for all of what it represents.”

John Scovell, who led the 1986 Final Four host committee, said that tournament was an important moment in Dallas history. Professional basketball was just starting to gain a toehold in an area steeped more in the traditions of the gridiron than the hardwood.

“It’s always said our two biggest sports are football and spring football,” Mr. Scovell joked.

He said that weekend at Reunion Arena stirred enthusiasm for basketball and signaled that North Texas would become a diverse sports region, eventually creating a fan base for all four major team sports.

“It’s just the confirmation of the sports legacy that exists here in North Texas,” he said about the new Final Four. “That’s a reputation that we have been building, and it was the ’86 games that put us on the map.”

'Major renaissance'

Philip Jones, president and CEO of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, said that landing the Final Four as well as the other events is pushing the region into a different category.

“It puts us on a list of a select few key cities in America that host signature events of this size,” he said, specifically mentioning New Orleans, Atlanta and South Florida. “That’s not something that Dallas could have done in the past without the investment that’s been made in the stadium and the regional collaboration and cooperation.”

He said the buzz generated by these announcements makes people look at his city with a fresh perspective and notice what he calls a “major renaissance.”

“A lot of times, we talk to clients who haven’t been to Dallas in several years and they still think of Dallas from that 1970s, ’80s J.R. Ewing image,” he said.

Now, Philip Jones said, the bureau has booked about a dozen groups that chose Dallas for a meeting at least partially because the region was hosting Super Bowl XLV. Also, he said that the 2007-08 fiscal year was the bureau’s best ever for future bookings, and the Super Bowl has been one of his best selling points.

The timing of the Final Four announcement couldn’t be better for him, he said, noting that the bureau is hosting a two-day gathering for 40 major meeting and convention planners.

He said he knows what his opening pitch will be at 8:30 a.m. Thursday: “We’ve got great news. Since you were last here, we booked the NBA All-Star Game and the men’s Final Four.”

Staff writer Brandon George contributed to this report.

COMING TO COWBOYS STADIUM

Confirmed sporting events at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington

Oct. 3, 2009: Texas A&M vs. Arkansas football game (10-year contract with options of up to 20 more years)

Dec. 5, 2009: Big 12 football championship

Jan. 2, 2010: AT&T Cotton Bowl (10 year contract with options of up to 25 more years)

Feb. 14, 2010: NBA All-Star game

Dec. 4, 2010: Big 12 football championship

Feb. 6, 2011: Super Bowl XLV

Oct. 5, 2013: Notre Dame vs. Arizona State football

April 5 and 7, 2014: NCAA Final Four

IN THE WORKS

Possible events at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington

Undetermined date: Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma State football

Dec. 19, 2009: Texas vs. North Carolina basketball

Undetermined date: NCAA Lacrosse Final Four