Watch March Madness On Your iPhone

NCAA's computer stream moves to mobile devices

The art of watching college basketball's first two days, which take place during work hours on a Thursday and Friday each year, has evolved more rapidly than the tournament itself. Sneaking to a bar during work used to be the best solution. Then came live streams of the games. Now, the next step: streaming hoops action, all from your iPhone or iPod touch.

It's CBS and the NCAA's move to capture the Apple device's huge audience, and here's how it works:

Like any other application, you download CBS Sports' March Madness On Demand app from the iTunes store. (It costs $4.99.) Then, so long as your phone is tethered to a wireless network, you can watch live games, get scores, and basically do all of the fun stuff you would rather be doing from your couch. (Stupid boss with his stupid rules. As if work is more important than basketball.)

It sounds pretty awesome in theory. There are some flaws. For one, the wireless network requirement makes the whole enterprise sort of superfluous. If you're near an accessible wireless connection, you're probably not too far from your laptop, and if you want to watch college basketball, why not just use it? Same goes for the picture. If you have the chance to watch the tournament, do you really want to see a grainy feed from on tiny iPhone screen?

Still, it's college basketball, and it's your iPhone, which means it'll get the job done in a pinch. And it means you have yet another way to waste time at work next week. Isn't the future great?

Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger still misses his original iPod. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, FanHouse, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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