This year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has seen half-court buzzer beaters, 15-point comebacks and more tears than sweat on the court. Now, you can get up, close, and virtual with all of the madness. For the first time in history, the NCAA’s illustrious Final Four tournament, including the national championship game, will be live streamed in virtual reality (VR) on the Samsung Gear VR via the NCAA March Madness Live VR app.
In the app, you will be able to watch a 180-degree live stream of the big games, and you will be able to check highlights from each game after they stream in the “replay” tab. Even though you can not watch the games until Saturday night, recaps from all of the previous games from the wild, unpredictable 2016 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament are currently available to view in VR inside the “brackets” tab.
Virtual reality company VOKE is producing the live stream in partnership with Oculus and Turner Sports, parent company of TBS, which will broadcast the Final Four. This year will also mark the first time in the 78 year history of the tournament that the national championship game will be broadcasted on cable. If you don’t have cable or VR capabilities, the NCAA March Madness Live app will provide a 2-D live stream of the games on desktops.
March Madness has seen a big push in the VR realm for this year’s tournament. Earlier this month, VR company NextVR and Fox live streamed the quarterfinal, semifinal and championship games of the three-day 2016 Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament in virtual reality.
The semi-final games will be available to watch in VR this Saturday starting at 6 P.M. when No. 2 Villanova Wildcats face off against No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners. The stream will end at the conclusion of the No. 10 Syracuse Orange vs. No. 1 University of North Carolina Tar Heels game at 8:49 P.M.
The NCAA March Madness Live VR app is available now in the Oculus Store.
To watch the Final Four games:
- Download NCAA March Madness Live VR from Oculus Store.
- Click on “Live Game.”
- Select the game you wish to watch.
To watch recaps of every game from the 2016 NCAA Tournament:
- Go to Main Menu screen.
- Click on “Brackets.”
- Point cursor at and click on the game you wish to watch the recap of.
