The college football season effectively ends today with some big conference championship games. And with playoff berths and bowl bids at stake, you're going to want to tune in to see which teams finish on top.
NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision teams — basically, all of the major conferences — have played a 12-game regular season leading to today's conference title games. (A few games, like Army vs. Navy take place next Saturday.) A steady parade of bowl games will follow, stretching the season into early 2020.
Here's how to watch the remaining games of 2019 NCAA college football season, including where to find live streams of the games and how to use a VPN if you're far from home when your favorite school is taking the field.
Where can I watch 2019 NCAA college football games?
Do you have a TV? Well, when Saturday rolls around, turn on your TV and start channel surfing. There's a pretty good chance you'll find a game airing on some channel starting noon ET and lasting long past midnight.
All the major television networks — ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC — air games on free, over-the-air TV on Saturdays, so all you'll need is an HDTV antenna to watch those broadcasts. ABC features games from a wide selection of conferences, while college football games on Fox primarily feature schools in the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 conferences. CBS specializes in SEC games, while NBC carries all the home games for the University of Notre Dame.
Your options expand considerably if you subscribe to cable. ESPN is generally the place to be on Saturdays, as it airs games across its multiple cable networks. You'll also find games on FS1, Fox's cable sports channel, as well as the NBC Sports and CBS Sports cable channels. Several college football conferences — the ACC, Big 10, Pac-12 and SEC — have their own cable networks, too, that broadcast college football games.
While most college football games kickoff on Saturday, TV's insatiable appetite for live sporting events means that some teams schedule games for Thursday and Friday nights — and some games even air earlier in the week. The bottom line: there's plenty of opportunities to watch college football during the 2019 season.
Canadian college football fans can turn to DAZN, which airs Pac-12 college football games. Other games will be broadcast by TSN north of the border.
What are the best college football games to stream this weekend?
Here's some of the top college football matchups that are kicking off today (Dec. 7), along with where you can watch them.
- Baylor vs. Oklahoma, noon ET on ABC
- Louisiana vs. Appalachian State, noon ET on ESPN
- Miami (OH) vs. Central Michigan, noon ET on ESPN2
- UAB vs. Florida Athletic, 1:30 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network
- Cincinnati vs. Memphis, 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC
- Georgia vs. LSU, 4 p.m. ET on CBS
- Hawaii vs. Boise St., 4 p.m. ET on ESPN
- Virginia vs. Clemson, 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC
- Ohio State vs. Wisconsin, 8 p.m. ET on Fox
How can I use a VPN to watch 2019 college football games?
With the next four months filled with college football games to watch, odds are good that you're going to be traveling at some point during the season. If you find yourself in an area where you don't have access to your normal streaming options, a virtual private network can come in handy. Using a VPN, you can surf the web as if you were at home, with full access to your normal streaming options.
If you need a good VPN service, our pick for the best overall VPN after testing many services is ExpressVPN. You'll get good speeds, thanks to 3,000 servers in 160 locations across 94 countries. And the customer support from ExpressVPN impresses, too. Still, it's not the only option available — here are our top picks.
How can I watch 2019 college football games on a live stream?
Every channel broadcasting college football also lets you live stream the game either over the Web or through a mobile app. For games on ABC and ESPN, go to ESPN's website or download the sport channel's mobile app (Android, iOS) to watch on your smartphone or tablet. That's also true of games on Fox and FS1, which stream on the Fox Sports Go website and are available to go through the Fox Sports Go app (Android, iOS).
Notre Dame's home games stream on the NBC Sports website and mobile app (Android, iOS). The CBS Sports App (Android, iOS) carries the SEC game airing on CBS.
There's a catch to all this, unfortunately. You've got to subscribe to a cable or satellite TV service to use any of these websites or apps, which will ask you to sign in with your TV provider's login data. So cord cutters are mostly out of luck here.
We say "mostly," because you can still watch college football live streaming this season through ESPN+, a $5-a-month subscription service that doesn't require you to sign in via a cable provider. ESPN+ usually doesn't feature top-tier matchups — most of the games are from conferences in the NCAA Division 1 Football Championship Division, though you'll find some games involving teams from the Big 12 and Mid-American conferences on the streaming service, which you can watch through the ESPN website or mobile app.
You'll also find a limited slate of college football games streaming on Facebook this season.
How can I live stream college football games without a cable subscription?
You're still able to watch all the college football you want in the 2019 season without paying for cable TV — but you will need to pay for a standalone streaming service. The trick is to find a service that offers all the channels you want for a monthly price you're willing to pay. Here are your options, which no longer include Playstation Vue, as that service is shutting down.
