Sports fans will soon have a new reason to love their phones. George Mason University Athletics is releasing a smart phone application called GoMason Mobile, available by Jan. 1.

Developed by Octagon, in tangent with the smart phone company XCO Sportslink, the app will feature live radio broadcasts of all Patriots basketball games for the men’s team, and all home games for the women’s team, in addition to pregame and postgame shows.

With the app’s release, George Mason University is one of the first universities to provide live streaming radio broadcasts of its men’s and women’s basketball games.

“Identifying new opportunities to communicate and interact with our students, alumni, season ticket holders, corporate partners and university community is a priority for our organization,” said Tom O’Connor, athletic director at Mason. “GoMason Mobile will make it easy and convenient for our fans around the globe to stay connected to their favorite Patriots teams and provide them exclusive content. The app will also allow us to enhance the in-arena experience at basketball contests and connect with fans, both during and outside of games, in new and innovative ways.”

GoMason Mobile will present a slew of exclusive content from the Mason Athletics department, such as interactive social media tools, in-depth information on all Mason teams, rosters, live stats and game schedules. The app is free and is designed specifically for iPhone, Android and Blackberry smart phones.

The app will also be available as a wireless application protocol, a service available for people who have phones with Internet access, but not application services.

“When we made the decision to move away from traditional radio, we wanted to make sure that we were providing fans with something that was better than what our capabilities were,” said Senior Associate Athletic Director Adam Brick, who has been working on the project since the start of last summer.

He further clarified that the decision was made to steer away from traditional radio because there was no set channel for the basketball games. In the past, Mason games have been hosted by ESPN radio, 570 and various other radio outlets.

By abandoning this old method, there is no longer an issue as to what channel will broadcast the game, or in the case of out-of-state fans, if the game will even be broadcasted. The GoMason Mobile app guarantees that the game will always be on and always in the same location.

GoMason Mobile will be available for free from the iTunes Store, Android Marketplace and BlackBerry App World.