The NCAA for the first time next year will use a mobile application to communicate with the players and coaches participating in its men’s basketball tournament.
Teamworks, a Durham, N.C., software firm founded by a former Duke University football player, will implement the app for the NCAA and the 68 teams in the field come March.
Through the app, NCAA staff will coordinate travel and logistics with the teams and game officials. The software also will alleviate much of the paperwork for teams in the tournament. Teams now will fill out forms electronically on the Teamworks app instead of manually filling out forms and scanning them to send them back to the NCAA.
Ron English, director of the NCAA tournament, said managing all of the moving parts associated with March Madness — including 68 teams and 14 host sites — is one of his primary challenges. By hiring Teamworks, English said, the NCAA will be able to “communicate and organize those moving parts cohesively while increasing our internal efficiency.”
Teamworks will establish a password-protected website where NCAA officials will post information about travel, practice and other logistics. That information will then flow through the specially created app to the teams in the tournament.
It’s a communication method that Teamworks’ founder and president, Zach Maurides, started developing in 2004, when he played for the Blue Devils. He turned the concept into a company after graduating from Duke, and now Teamworks is the official team collaboration and communication software provider for the College Football Playoff and 48 of the 65 schools in the power five conferences, as well as the San Francisco 49ers.
