CBS Sports NCAA March Madness
on Demand app
Just in time for the first round of the NCAA March Madness tournament, here's a list of iPhone apps—some free, some paid—to help you keep track of scores, stats, your bracket, and your teams' standings while on the go. All are available, with detailed descriptions, at the iTunes store.
1. The official CBS app—CBS Sports NCAA March Madness on Demand—is the priciest of the bunch at $9.99, but shelling out will buy you live, streaming video of each game on your phone, tournament news coverage, scores, team stats, and the ability to access to your bracket manager at CBSSports.com. CBS also offers a free "lite" app that has many of the same features as the for-pay version, excluding the streaming game coverage.
2. Bracket Madness 2010
($0.99) provides you with team stats to help you fill in your bracket,
then lets you email a copy of it to friends in a handy JPEG form. The
app doesn't have real-time scores, but it updates several time per day.
3. PocketBracket ($0.99), an "Apple Staff Favorite" in 2009, lets you create brackets and share them with friends over Facebook or Twitter. It also lets you create and join pools, and automatically scores and ranks your bracket on its network as teams win and lose. A version is also available for Android phones.
4. If you're still creating your bracket and are good with numbers, Hooplytics ($1.99) is the statistical-guru friend everyone wishes they had this time of year. Using statistics from 5000 player profiles, the app runs simulation games between teams to help determine winners and losers.
5. Keeping things simple, College Basketball Bracket Challenge
($0.99) is a no-frills app that lets you create a bracket, track its
progress, and invite friends to compete. Fans might also find simple
apps for their favorite team by entering the school's name into the iTunes
search bar.
6. For those participating in ESPN's Tournament Challenge (First prize: $10,000), it's accompanying free app lets you track your bracket's performance and watch live game updates with ESPN Mobile Gamecast.
7. Last, college hoops know-it-alls can test their mettle with the free Unofficial March Madness Trivia app. (Try this on for size: In 1985, Villanova became the worst seed ever to win the NCAA Championship. What was their seeding—6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th?)
Sorry, Android users. March Madness apps for your phones have proved disappointingly elusive, even as the number of such phones sold continues to grow. If you have an Android phone, have you found a good NCAA application that you like?
—Nick K. Mandle