While technically the football season started last weekend with “Week Zero” the fact that it was called Week Zero sort of made it feel as though it didn’t count as the beginning of the season. Unfortunately for playoff-hopeful Florida State, the dud performance in Ireland does count.
But for the rest of the millions of College football fans, this weekend is the beginning of the season with tons of inter-conference matchups dotting the TV schedule. If you are someone who dropped cable over the summer but now realize “Oh no I don’t have sports channels anymore” we will let you know how to take in the games without crawling back to the cable and satellite companies and paying 200 dollars for the privilege.
First things first, Yes the ESPN family of networks; ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, The SEC Network, The ACC Network and more deliver a lot of action every week and weekend. But so do free over-the-air networks. That’s why it would be a big mistake not to get an antenna if you want to see games without adding to the budget. College football can be found all over the place now even on CW. Free over-the-air channels, which can be brought in for free in full HD include, ABC, NBC, FOX, CW and CBS. All of which carry college football matchups throughout the day. You will not have as many choices but a big game will be on all day from 12:00 pm to 11:00 pm or later depending on how things go. If you can be satisfied with a game on TV and highlights you can be all set for college football all season for nothing more than the cost of an antenna. That will run between $40.00-$100.00 dollars depending on whether you are looking for an indoor model, which work well, if within 40-50 miles of broadcast towers or an outdoor mounted model that will give you an even wider range.
Still miss cable channels?
If the big networks can’t give you your fill there are ways to add traditional cable sports channels we will start with the least expensive way to add the ESPN Family.
Sling TV is a streaming option that has three different tiers of service offering packages starting at $40.00 that includes ESPN and ESPN2 as base channels, the entire lineup of ESPN Networks, and for an upgrade you can add FS1 and FS2 in a jumbo package.
Just adding ESPN and ESPN2 adds a great deal of football every week as ESPN typically has games on Thursday and Friday nights as well as al day on Saturday. The Sling Orange package starts at $20.00 during the first month of service and jumps to $40.00 afterwards and aside from ESPN also features 50 other popular cable channels including the Turner Networks (TNT, TBS, CNN and True TV), which is developing as a sports-based channel and more. If users want to throw more money out to get the SEC Network, ACC Network, and others, a $15.00 upgrade will get you all that as well.
So for $55.00 per month you get 5 college football hubs as well as all of the channels that will carry the college football playoffs. If your favorite team tends to play on FS1 or FS2 you can bump up the package to include those channels and a cart full of other non-sports options. That would put you at $70.00 for the whole pot.
What Sling TV does not include is broadcast channels. If you are using an antenna already that doesn’t matter. The strength of the service is that it is modular so that customers have relatively cheap options with solid content and the ability to add and subtract things depending on the need. If you want to go for a more one-size-fits-all all setup there are options including…
Hulu with Live TV
Hulu with live TV, which costs $77.00 per month provides access to all of the major broadcast networks, the full suite of ESPN networks (ESPN, ESPNU etc), the FOX sports networks and more. It is a pretty complete package of channels yet still a lot cheaper than a cable or satellite package costs once intro deals run out. As part of the package users also get access to ESPN+, Hulu’s full-on-demand service, and Disney+.
YouTube TV
YouTube TV is another all-hands-on-deck option. $72.00 per month delivers all of the ESPN channels, the FOX Sports channels, the major broadcast networks and more with a lineup of around 100 channels. Users can access YTTV on a separate app from the regular YouTube app, but if for some reason you do not have it available as a standalone app you can also access the service through the standard YouTube app. YouTube TV customers also get a discounted rate on NFL Sunday Ticket.
More Limited Options
Paramount+
Paramount Plus gives users access to a live feed of CBS as part of the monthly subscription fee of $9.99. Paramount+ also includes the entire history of CBS-owned shows, Paramount Studious hits, and can be upgraded to include Showtime as well.
Peacock
Peacock features NBC sports content and some Peacock-exclusive games during the season. NBC sports is the home of Notre Dame Football home games and Big Ten Saturday Night, the new Big Ten package that started with NBC last season. Peacock starts at $6.99 and includes movies TV shows and WWE live premium events along with the WWE library.
All of these options besides the antenna suggestion are available on any mainstream smart TV platform including LG, Samsung, Roku, Fire TV, Google TV and Apple TV.
