NCAA March Madness Comes to VR

How to get a court side experience during the big tournament.

March Madness is here. While you obsess over your office bracket and get into heated team rivalries with co-workers, you might just want to chill out in VR and experience the tournament in a whole new way.

Thanks to a partnership between Turner Sports, CBS and the NCAA, rabid college basketball fans can dive deeper into the action with a VR experience for Gear VR and Daydream VR owners.

For the third straight year, the NCAA March Madness VR app will immerse you in 21 different games throughout the entire NCAA tournament, starting with week one and leading all the way up to the National Championship on April 2nd.

Once you download the app from the Oculus Store for Gear VR or from Google Play for Daydream – you will then have the option to purchase a “VR Ticket” for a single game at $2.99, or purchase the VR Tournament Pass for $19.99, which gives you access to all 21 games.

During the first and second round of the tournament, each VR experience will include multiple 360° views courtside that you can switch at any point. All the sounds that you would hear if you were actually at the game and commentary from multiple networks such as TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV will scream in your ear. Once you move past the first two rounds and into the Sweet 16 games and beyond, if you’re a subscriber, you’ll then have exclusive commentary from veteran sportscasters; Spero Dedes, Steve Smith, Rich Waltz, and Steve Lavin.

Along with the VR experience, the NCAA March Madness VR app will give you access to a variety of other content like an interactive updated 2D bracket, highlights from other games in both 2D or VR, instant replays, behind-the-scenes, interactive stats, and interviews with coaches and players.

Howard Gersztoff-Testo, a fan of March Madness, and a loyal fan of the Villanova Wildcats told VRScout, “I always wanted to be court side with the Wildcats during their games and be able look at all the people around you as everyone is yelling GO CATS!,” adding, “the entire spectacle would be awesome and it’s cool that VR can make that happen for me.”

The NCAA March Madness VR app is powered by Intel’s Tru VR Technology and is available now on the Oculus and Google Play store.