How To Stream The 2016 College Football Season: Your Ultimate Guide

If you’re a diehard college football fan, you need ESPN. Approximately 50% of all college football games that come on TV are aired on the ESPN family of networks. This includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNU, ESPNews, SEC Network, Goal Line, Campus Insiders Network, and the flagship ABC network. ESPN coverage spans nearly every conference, from SEC to Big Ten to Pac-12.

The WatchESPN app is the easiest way to stream ESPN’s football coverage. All you need to do is log in with your pay-TV provider credentials, and you gain access to ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3. ESPN3 will also simulcast any matchups being broadcast over the air nationally by ABC.

If your cable TV plan includes any of the other aforementioned networks like ESPNU or SEC Network, you’ll also be able to stream the college games from those channels. If you don’t have cable, you’ll want to check this list of affiliated providers to see if you can gain access to WatchESPN using your ISP’s credentials.

No cable? No problem. You can access the entire ESPN family of channel, and gain access to WatchESPN, with either Sling TV or PlayStation Vue, both of which are live streaming services that don’t require a cable contract.

If you opt for Sling TV, you’ll need the Sling Orange package, which will come with ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3 for $20 per month. You can gain access to the other channels mentioned with the Sports Extra add-on that’s an additional $5 per month.

PlayStation Vue starts out at $29.99 in most locations with access to ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3. For an additional $5 per month, you can climb a tier and receive most of the others. Both Sling and Vue are available with a 7-day free trial.

Each week, ABC will air a Saturday evening primetime game under the ESPN on ABC name. The easiest way to gain access to this is through the WatchESPN app, as most of these games are simulcast on ESPN3.

ABC also has its own app, ABC Go, which offers live streams in select markets (Chicago, Fresno, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham and San Francisco). If you happen to live in one of those markets, you should be able to log in with your provider credentials and watch.

Keep in mind that both Sling TV and PlayStation Vue offer local ABC affiliates live in select markets. For Sling TV, you have to add the broadcast extra add-on to your Sling Orange package for $5 per month. If you live in a market where locals are available with Vue, your base package will start off at $39.99 per month instead of $29.99.

CBS shares rights to SEC with ESPN, which allows them to air some of the top SEC matchups. It also has rights to a few other games throughout the season such as the Army-Navy game.

CBS offers you two ways to stream its network directly through them. The first is through its TV Everywhere link. Unfortunately, this only works if you log in with an approved provider, and it appears that Optimum is the only one at this time.

The other way is to sign up for its streaming subscription service, CBS All Access. All Access will run you $5.99 per month for a live stream of your local CBS affiliate (in most markets) and a catalogue of CBS shows on demand. You can check it out with a free trial here.

The only non-CBS-owned method for live streaming the network is with PlayStation Vue. While Vue has CBS locals in quite a few markets, it’s not available everywhere. So you’ll need to visit their site to find out if it’s available in your Zip Code.

If you’re a Notre Dame fan, then you’ll need to tune into NBC, as the network owns rights to all Notre Dame’s home games. The easiest way to get NBC is to log in to the NBC Sports app with your pay-TV provider’s credentials.

Don’t have cable? If you sign up for PlayStation Vue, you can get a live stream of NBC in select markets. However, even if you don’t get NBC live, you can use your Vue credentials to gain access to the NBC Sports app.

Sling TV does not allow you to authenticate the NBC app. However, it does offer NBC live in several markets as part of the Sling Blue plan, which starts at $25 per month.

FOX holds rights to games from the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and Conference USA. It spreads its games across its family of networks, which primarily include FOX, FS1, FX, and FOX Regional Sports Networks. This allows it to air multiple college football games each week.

Similar to NBC, FOX has its own app, FOX Sports Go, which requires that you log in with a participating pay-TV provider’s credentials to access. Once you gain access, you can live stream FOX’s college matchups.

Sling TV’s Blue package offers FOX in select markets, FS1, FX, and FOX Regional Sports Networks for $25 per month. However, it does not offer app authentication for FOX Sports Go.

PlayStation Vue offers the same, but you need to bump up to the second tier package to get the FOX Sports Regional networks. However, as with NBC, Vue offers app authentication for FOX Sports Go.

While a lot of Big Ten action is currently on ESPN and FOX, Big Ten fans can watch around 40 games a season on the Big Ten Network. The games can be accessed via the BTN2Go app with your cable provider’s credentials.

If you don’t have cable, PlayStation Vue is your only other option. Make sure you sign up for the mid-tier package, as Big Ten Network is not available in its base plan.

Chris Brantner is the co-founder of CutCableToday.com, the #1 site in the cord cutting niche. He also seeks to share his blogging knowledge on his newest site, Scribblrs.com.