Madness With No Cover

While it’s a tradition to belly up to a bar and a longneck to enjoy the upcoming college basketball tournament, there are plenty of other ways to watch the games if you haven’t reached 21 before the NCAA Tournament 2014 gets underway. And it won’t require coughing up your book money to get scalped tickets.

Here are some choices for taking in the games in a better way.

In The Stands, But Better

You may already know that your school is planning to air the games in your arena, but you’ve written it off as a madhouse with no real benefit over watching it in your own dorm room. Although the crowds may not number what they do for an in-person game, you can rest assured that there will be many of your classmates in attendance. And the experience will be better in many ways.

Who hasn’t watched a game in person and missed a key event, wishing they could run back the DVR and view it again? And wouldn’t you love to hear what the national TV announcers are saying about your players and your school? By watching the broadcast in the arena, you get the shoulder-to-screaming-shoulder experience of a home game with all the benefits of TV coverage. There won’t be any pesky opposing fans tying up the bathrooms, either.

Photo via acidpix on flickr.com

Homemade Watch Party

Technology is everywhere these days. It’s no longer necessary to track down a huge TV to see the players in full size (or bigger). With the widespread use of LCD projectors, you have the ability to throw the game on the screen in an amazingly sharp–and amazingly big–improvised setup of your choosing.

Got cable in your dorm room? Connect the projector there, point it out the window, and shine it onto a collage of bedsheets hanging in courtyard trees or on an adjacent building. You may even have an amphitheater on campus with perfect elevated seating for a couple hundred of your closest friends. And you can cut both ways by making it into a fundraiser for your club, Greek organization, or charity by offering concessions. (Just don’t charge admission to watch the game; it’s illegal and makes for a real bummer when the FCC comes by for a serious chat.)

The commons area in a student center, an auditorium, Sorority row … you name it, and it can become your personal sports broadcast mecca.

ROAD TRIP!

Just because you aren’t packing up and heading to the actual game doesn’t mean you can’t travel for the game. Maybe you’re enrolled at Underdog A & M and your next game pits you against Dominant State, which just happens to be only 100 miles away. And just maybe DSU is having the aforementioned arena viewing party. Crash it. Dress in their colors (with yours underneath), work your way into the bleachers, and make yourself at home. Be as loud and obnoxious as you have the nerve to be. You will be talking about the experience for years.

The tournament will come and go. Half the teams will be back to their campuses by the time the first weekend wraps up. Your team is in it, do or die, like everybody else. Will you see the moment with only what 32″ of diagonal viewing offers you, or will you make it an experience as dramatic and exciting as the shot that almost went in? There’s no reason to wait and watch it with 100 booze-soaked strangers. You can make the tournament epic this season. Go crazy. Show some madness.