The Daily Hat Trick: The 20 Coolest Smartphone Apps in College Sports

If you are reading this blog, you are probably on the Internet. But if you are on the Internet, I cannot predict how you are accessing it. You could be on a PC, a laptop, a tablet, or a smartphone. The later is exploding is market penetration for the purposes of Internet access.

With college football in full swing, I thought you readers could benefit from the following, submitted by Claudia Frederick of The Best Colleges. Another way to enhance your experience as a sports fan with your smartphone.... The original piece can be found at the blog at http://www.thebestcolleges.org.

The 20 Coolest Smartphone Apps in College Sports

You say you want sports, and you want them now? Then navigate thine iPhone, Android phone, Windows phone, or Blackberry to your app market and start downloading. No matter where you go, you’ll never be more than an arm’s length away from news, scores, highlight reels, talk, and more regarding your favorite college sports teams. These are our picks for the coolest cats of the bunch.

Tablegaters:
For those times when you can’t be at the stadium to tailgate, you can still meet up with fellow alums to eat, drink, and cheer on your team. No matter where you go, you never have to miss another tablegate thanks to this app and its “Find Your Fans” feature.
ScoreMobile:
Also freely available on Android, iPhones, and Windows phones, ScoreMobile is a consistent college sports fan favorite. If you’re busy, set the app to text you when someone scores, when a quarter ends, or just at key moments in the game. It also sports immediately updated stats, betting odds, league leaders, and more.
Sporting News NCAA Basketball:
ESPN may be the news leader, but Sporting News trumps them when it comes to apps. For all your men’s college hoops scores, videos, and news, including the ability to customize your feed to news from your favorite teams and conferences, this app’s where it’s at.
College Baseball Tracker:
Use your Android text-to-speech functionality to turn a college baseball gamecast into a live play-by-play audio broadcast with this cool app. If you’re more concerned with what’s going on across the conference, set the app to a league scoreboard and receive notifications when a game you’re interested in starts, ends, or changes score.
NCAA Football by EA Sports:
Play music from your iTunes library while you lead your alma mater to victory with this popular video game-cum-mobile app. Go head-to-head with a friend via Bluetooth or tackle the computer in season mode on your way to the BCS title game.
Yahoo! Sportacular Pro:
Most fans of college sports also follow the pros, which is why Sportacular is so cool. When you’ve caught up on NCAA football or basketball updates, you can switch over to NASCAR results, the LGPA leader board, LA Liga soccer standings, and basically everything else.
College SuperFans:
The CSF app adds some fun features to the scoreboard app like the ability to share scores to Facebook and Twitter without leaving the app, and previews of upcoming games. Track up to 10 of your favorite teams at a time, and find scores from across the conference while viewing your teams.
SEC Football Breaking News:
Originally made for coaches and sports journalists, die-hard fans of the best league in NCAA football can use this killer app to find updated injury reports, recruiting news, videos, and game previews. No sports fan in the Southeast should be caught dead without it.
Kentucky Sports Radio:
If their 2012 men’s basketball championship has you on the fan bandwagon, you’ll want to download this app. It connects you with Kentucky sports radio podcasts and posts that you can share with your friends, and lets you join the conversation with other UK fans.
Hudl:
College coaches already know about Hudl, the web service that allows them to upload and view game video from their own teams and from opponents. Now they can view “tape” on their smartphones from the bus thanks to this great app. If you’re a superfan, set up an account and check it out.
iScore Baseball Scorekeeper:
With this app, your iPhone becomes a scorecard for tracking every play your favorite college baseball or softball team makes. Track hit locations with the batting spray chart and pitch locations with the pitch tracker, and Twittercast the plays to your followers who couldn’t make it out to the ballpark.
Team Stream:
Sports blog Bleacher Report brings you this app that allows you to pick your favorite sports team and follow everything that happens to it. You’ll also get easy access to the entertaining articles posted on the blog, from “15 Sports Couples Both Past Their Prime” to “40 Guys Caught Staring at Cheerleaders.”
College Football Scoreboard:
For up-to-the-minute D1 football news, scores, and highlight videos, this app is a no-brainer. It’s easy to use, has a smooth interface, and gets great update support from the developers. If you’ll be working or studying on Saturdays come September, you’ll want to have this app in your pocket.
Jack’s Rosters:
Assuming its 10-year-old creator is not too busy with homework to update it for 2012, this app is your go-to source for every team roster in Division I football. And don’t worry about trying to get a signal to connect inside a stadium crammed with 80,000 other football fans: once the app downloads, all the rosters are there.
College Designs and Fight Songs:
Show your school spirit on your phone by downloading this app that connects you with live wallpapers of your team’s logo and the school fight song for your ringtone. Users say if your alma mater isn’t listed, drop the designers a line and they’ll have it added quickly.
Sports Eye – NCAA:
The coolest feature of this app is the ability to follow the Facebook and Twitter feeds of some of the best or most promising players in college basketball, like Jared Sullinger, Adonis Thomas, and Shabazz Muhammad, all in one place. There’s also score updates, news alerts, and the ability to customize posts from your favorite college hoops blogs.
PlayUp: The
tagline for this free app is “Where Sports Get Social.” College and pro teams are using the app more and more to reach their fans via the new medium of mobile apps. Sign into Facebook and join public conversations about your team, or start private ones with friends, plus get live scores and stats for thousands of games in a variety of sports.
ESPN Bowl Bound 2011:
ESPN cracks our top 20 with this offering that keeps you up to speed on the college football teams headed for bowl glory. Experts Brad Edwards and Mark Schlabach bring you their weekly predictions in the Bowl Central feature. You can also track the race to the big awards like the Heisman, and view all the tweets pertinent to your favorite team.
Football Radio:
Don’t knock radio; you’ll be glad to have this app when the power goes out during the game. Delivering hundreds of radio broadcasts of both college and pro football games across the country, Football Radio includes a game schedule so you’ll never miss a down. You can let it run in the background on your phone while you text or surf the web.
CFStats:
Stats junkies, listen up. This is your best option for viewing stats for college football teams, conferences, and individual players going all the way back to 2003. Win/loss records, passing and rushing numbers, even video highlights are all here. And the coolest part of all is it’s free!