Most everyone can watch the NCAA Tournament on their TV sets these days thanks to their local CBS channel. But what if you want to watch the game that isn’t being “focused on” by the CBS affiliate in your area? Well one choice is to fire up the laptop and watch it on CBSOnline.com and choose the game of your choice to stream to the computer. But what if you want to pick and choose the game for your TV set? Well that’s possible with three of the leading HTPC software programs.
SageTV
SageTV has a very nice PlayOn add-on that gives you access to all of the online content available to PlayOn including the NCAA Tournament games. You’ll need to get your free trial of PlayOn or purchase it, then install the free, SageTV PlayOn plugin and your set.
For more about the latest update to the PlayOn Plugin for SageTV head to the SageTV Forums.
Windows MediaCenter
Windows MediaCenter also has a PlayOn plugin you can use VMCPlayit or tubecentric.tv to stream to your MediaCenter powered TV. You can also use the “On Now” feature of Media Center with the “Sports Strip” described on Pete’s Windows Live Blog to check out the game scores.
Boxee & Plex
As of this month, Boxee has March Madness Live content streaming available as well. Plex has had NCAA Tournament streaming since last year.
After witnessing thousands of readers interested in the NCAA Tournament Excel download, I have a feeling these HTPC March Madness features will be pretty popular as well. Go Mizzou!
For all of the HD sports I consume over the year, one of my very favorite sporting events is the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Even if you don't have a favorite team in the tournament this year, you can follow along by making your picks for the bracket. To help you along in that process, I've updated the excel spreadsheet I use each year (suitable for any Basketball Geek) that lets you select your picks from a drop-down and easily print & save your picks. It's free, easy and will soon be pre-filled with all of the teams in the 2010 NCAA Tournament bracket.