How To Watch As Much March Madness As Possible
It's March Madness, AKA the NCAA tournament AKA the best month in sports AKA basketball for people who got into sports before the NBA had infiltrated every aspect of American life. If you want to watch your bracket crumble in real time, it's never been easier to do so. All 67 games of the tournament will be broadcast in glorious HD for your viewing pleasure.
Unfortunately, if you want to watch basketball but you don't want to shell out and effectively pad both Big Cable's and Big College Sports' bottom lines, things get a bit trickier.
You see, the tournament's broadcast schedule has largely been planned out ahead of time. Everything except for the third weekend (the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight rounds on March 28 through March 31) are all listed by the minute, along with the network they will be broadcast on, on the NCAA's official schedule.
Of the 55 games in the tournament, just 19 games will be shown on CBS. Watching those games is easy and as free as can be. Catching the rest of the tournament, however, is a little more complicated. You can still do it, you just have to be strategic about it. Which is why we present you with the following options:
The Lawful Good Option — Paying For Cable
If you already pay for cable, download the March Madness Live app on iPhone or Android. It's also available for Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Xbox One and Apple TV if any of those are your thing, but it's best to avoid these platforms with this app, and I'll explain why a little later.
After downloading, simply sign into the app with your cable provider info and voilà, you're watching basketball.
This is obviously the simplest solution, but it's also fairly foolproof. I should also mention the options I'm going to talk about next don't necessarily grant you access to the NCAA women's basketball tournament, which is broadcast in its entirety on ESPN 2.
The Neutral Good Option— Using Someone Else's Cable Login
Again, this is obvious but if you know anyone rich enough to pay for cable, asking them nicely for their cable login so you can watch some basketball is a tried and true method of enjoying March Madness, and has been for years. This is another great way to get every game. Simply plug your cable-friendly friend's info into the March Madness Live app. Very easy.
The Chaotic Good Option — Hack Your March Madness Experience Together With Free Trials
Here we go. First thing's first: download that March Madness Live app, preferably on iPhone or Android. For those 19 games that CBS broadcasts, you can just start up the app near tipoff and hit play. No login necessary, provided you're not using Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Xbox One or Apple TV. The best news is the Final Four and national championship are included here.
For the other 48 games, things are slightly more complex. With the March Madness Live app, every new user gets a three hour trial period. Use that to either watch one and a half games you really care about or the last few minutes of a bunch of games you only sort of care about.
To watch the non-CBS games your three hours don't cover, consider starting up a free trial with a streaming service. Or maybe two. Some options:
- Sling's Blue package ($15/month, one-week free trial)
- Hulu Live ($44.99/month, one-week free trial)
- PlayStation Vue's Access plan ($44.99/month, 5-day free trial)
- YouTube TV ($40/month, one-week free trial)
All of these include TNT, TruTV, TBS and ESPN2 (for the women's tournament.) If you can remember to cancel your subscriptions, you're watching free basketball, baby.
The Chaotic Neutral Option — Go Out To A Sports Bar
This is another one that might sound fairly obvious, but I'll be damned if it doesn't work. Nearly every sports bar in the nation will be playing college basketball this month, but if you walk into a bar with TVs on the wall and they're not playing the game you want to watch, grab a server or bartender and ask politely if they can switch it. No lie, I did this for the first time this year and it's great. A higher standard of living. Plus you're not paying for Big Cable… just likely Big Beer.
The Chaotic Evil Option — The Cord Cutter's Dark Arts
The real stuff for those who hate big cable exactly as much as they love basketball. If you're down with a little bit of unpredictability and a weird pop-up advertisement or two, this could very well be your jam. We won't link to the them here, but for those dedicated to the dark arts, this brief section should be enough, provided you Reddit carefully.
That's it. Choose wisely. Happy Madness, folks.
