Figuring out how to watch college football can be a bit tough. In 2024, 20 different channels and streaming services will be showing at least one college football game — annoyingly, none of the most popular conferences have all their live streams on a single network.
NCAA CFB live streams: 2024 season cheat sheet
• Next game: Florida State vs. Georgia Tech
• Date and time: Sat., Aug. 24 — 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT/5 p.m. BST/2 a.m. AEST (Aug. 25)
• US channels: Watch on ESPN via Sling or Fubo
• Watch anywhere — try NordVPN 100% risk free
Even more annoyingly, college football live streams haven’t adopted streaming en masse, unlike NFL live streams. That means that if you’re trying to cut the cord and watch college football live streams without cable, you will need a cable TV alternative like Sling, Fubo or YouTube TV.
That doesn’t mean that college football won’t require any of the best streaming services. If you’re looking to watch every college football livestream this year, you’ll definitely need Peacock and ESPN Plus. The good news though is that you won’t need more than that — no need for Netflix or Prime Video for college football fans.
For those abroad, things get a bit easier. In places like Canada, the U.K. and Australia, there’s typically only one home for college football in each country. You won’t have access to every single game, though you could always use a VPN like NordVPN to access all your U.S. streaming services and online live TV providers from anywhere in the world.
So if you’re looking for how to watch college football live streams online without cable from anywhere in the world, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s everything you need to know.
If for some reason you’re not on campus or moved far away from your alma mater and you can’t watch the college football live streams you want, you’re not out of luck. With a virtual private network or VPN, you can appear to be surfing the web from your hometown and access NFL live streams.
We’ve tested many different VPN services and our favorite is NordVPN; it offers superb speeds, excellent customer service and a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it out first to see if it’s right for you. But you’ve got other VPN options too, so check out our full list of the best VPN services.
Using a VPN is incredibly simple.
1. Install the VPN of your choice. As we’ve said, NordVPN is our favorite.
2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN app. For instance if you’re in the U.K. and want to view a U.S. service, you’d select U.K. from the list.
3. Sit back and enjoy the action. Head to Sling, Fubo or another website and watch the game.
What channels have college football livestreams
As mentioned earlier, 20 different channels and streaming services will air at least one college football livestream this year — including 18 that are traditional broadcast or cable TV networks.
The good news is that if you have a cable TV alternative, you can get access to most or all of these channels. The only ones you definitely won’t have access to are ESPN Plus and Peacock, as these are both streaming services. These streaming services must be signed up for separately from any live TV provider, though some Xfinity customers may have Peacock included in their TV or internet subscription.
Here’s the full list of every channel slated to have a college football livestream in 2024:
- ABC
- ACC Network
- Big Ten Network
- CBS
- CBS Sports Network
- ESPN
- ESPN2
- ESPNU
- ESPN Deportes (Spanish language)
- ESPN Plus (streaming service)
- Fox
- Fox Deportes (Spanish language)
- FS1
- FS2
- NBC
- NFL Network
- Peacock (streaming service)
- SEC Network
- The CW
- truTV
College football channels by conference
In NCAA Division I college football, there are two subdivisions: Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
FBS games are the ones most people think of when they think of college football. Teams like Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, USC — the big programs — are all in FBS conferences like the SEC, ACC and Big Ten.
For the purposes of this guide, we’re focusing on FBS games, but if you want to watch FCS games for teams like South Dakota State, Villanova and Harvard, you can typically find FCS games on the ABC/ESPN family of Disney-owned networks: ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN Plus.
Below, you can find a breakdown of which channels air games for the 10 FBS conferences.
American Athletic Conference (AAC)
- ABC
- ESPN
- ESPN2
- ESPNU
- ESPN Plus (streaming service)
- NFL Network
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)
- ABC
- ACC Network
- ESPN
- ESPN2
- ESPNU
- ESPN Plus (streaming service)
- The CW
Big 12 Conference
- ABC
- ESPN
- ESPN2
- ESPNU
- ESPN Plus (streaming service)
- FOX
- FS1
Big Ten Conference
- Big Ten Network
- CBS
- FOX
- FS1
- NBC
- Peacock (streaming service)
Conference USA
- CBS Sports Network
- ESPN
- ESPN2
- ESPNU
- ESPN Plus (streaming service)
- NFL Network
FBS Independent schools (Notre Dame and University of Connecticut)
- CBS Sports Network
- ESPN
- ESPN Plus (streaming service)
- NBC
- Peacock (streaming service)
Mid-American Conference (MAC)
- CBS Sports Network
- ESPN
- ESPN2
- ESPNU
- ESPN Plus (streaming service)
- NFL Network
Mountain West Conference
- CBS
- CBS Sports Network
- FOX
- FS1
- truTV
Southeastern Conference (SEC)
- ABC
- ESPN
- ESPN2
- ESPN2
- ESPNU
- ESPN Plus (streaming service)
- SEC Network
Sun Belt Conference
- ABC
- ESPN
- ESPN2
- ESPNU
- ESPN Plus (streaming service)
- NFL Network
College football live streams by country
If you’ve cut the cord and are looking to watch college football live streams this season, you need a cable TV alternative. So many games are only available on traditional linear TV rather than streaming services, that there’s just no way to go completely away from live TV providers. But even ditching cable for a cable alternative can still save you a lot of money.
There are a few options we recommend. First up is Sling, which is the cheapest cable alternative we recommend.
Sling Orange is $40 a month and gives you ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN 3. Sling Blue starts and $40 a month and gives you local NBC, ABC and Fox affiliates (in select markets) as well as NFL Network. You can combine them both for $55 a month and then also add on the Sports Extras package for $15 a month, which gives you access to ACC Network, Big Ten Network, ESPNU, SEC Network and more.
If you want certain channels though, you’ll want Fubo.
Unlike Sling, Fubo offers CBS as well as NBC, ABC and Fox regardless of your media market. It also offers CBS Sports Network, along with every other channel you could want for watching college football. The only things you’ll still need are Peacock and ESPN Plus.
These channels come with a cost though. Fubo starts at $79.99 a month plus taxes and fees for the Pro plan and SEC Network and ACC Network are not offered as part of your plan in all regions. If these two channels aren’t part of you’re plan, you’ll need to pay $7.99 extra a month for the Fubo Extra add-on, which will also give you access to ESPNU.
If you don’t need the CBS channels Fubo offers, Sling might be the better choice.
Aside from these two, there are two other cable alternatives worth considering. YouTube TV is great for watching sports and offers features like catching up with key plays and multiview. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer the SEC Network, and that could be a dealbreaker for a lot of college football fans.
There’s also Hulu + Live TV. This cable TV alternative offers all the channels you need and gives you an ESPN Plus subscription — which is great. However, at $83 a month (starting October 17), it’s pricey. You might be better off choosing Sling or Fubo and combining it with ESPN Plus a la carte or through the Disney Bundle, which would also give you Disney Plus and Hulu.
NFL live streams in US via streaming services
Aside from these cable alternatives, you’ll need two streaming services to watch every 2024 college football live stream.
Peacock has some exclusive games this college football season, but it also offers NBC college football live streams as a simulcast if you sign up for the $13.99 per month Premium Plus tier. If you opt for Sling, that could be a major perk, since not all Sling markets offer local NBC channels.
Plus, Peacock also has the NFL’s first game in Brazil, between the Green Bay Packers versus the Philadelphia Eagles in Sao Paulo in Week 1 of the regular season. There are tons of other live sports too, including the Premier League, in addition to hundreds of shows and movies. Peacock starts at just $7.99 per month.
You’ll also need ESPN Plus, which has a ton of college football live streams that you can’t watch anywhere else.
If you’re a fan of a big program — particularly ACC, SEC, and Big Ten schools — you might be able to skip ESPN Plus, as these conferences have their own networks. But fans of the Big 12 or any of the smaller conferences will definitely need ESPN to watch college football this season.
ESPN Plus starts at $10.99 per month, though a price hike is coming in October. We recommend signing up for the Disney Bundle Trio, which gives you Hulu and Disney Plus for just $4 a month more, which is better value for your money.
Finally, Paramount Plus shows select CBS college football live streams. You need to opt for the pricier plan though, as the live local CBS feed is only available if you have Paramount Plus with Showtime. Unless you have Sling, this probably won’t be worth it just for college football.
Paramount Plus with Showtime starts at $11.99 per month and gives you a ton of shows and movies in addition to live sports. It even ditches ads for the most part, aside from live TV and a few shows.
With one of our best TV antenna picks you can watch select college football live streams over the air for free. Or, you could make your own stream, with a service such as Channel Master or Tablo, connected to your antenna and a DVR box. This allows you to broadcast the stream — either live or recorded — to a set-top box, mobile device or computer just about anywhere in the world.
The cost of this method varies depending on the HD antenna you get and the service you use, but the local channels themselves are free..
Sky Sports is the exclusive home of college football live streams in the U.K. Sky Sports NFL offers three games a week this year, in addition to airing the popular analyst show “ESPN College GameDay Live” before the first game’s kickoff. Later in the year, you’ll also get access to the live stream for every college football bowl game.
Of course, that’s not all you get with Sky Sports NFL — you also get NFL live streams. Sky Sports NFL offers at least five live NFL games per week along with every Thursday, Sunday and Monday Night Football game. It also offers NFL RedZone, and NFL Network programming, including Good Morning Football and Total Access.
To get access to Sky Sports NFL, you’ll need to sign up for a Sky Stream subscription for £26 per month (for 24 months) with a 24-month contract or £29 per month (for 24 months) as a 31-day rolling subscription that can be canceled with a month’s notice.
Of course, if you’re in the U.K., you can always use NordVPN to watch your U.S. streaming services abroad.
Unfortunately for Canadian football fans, ESPN has a monopoly on college football games. That means you can only watch ESPN college football live streams up north, with TSN offering ESPN games in English and RDS offering games in French. Games can also be watched via TSN Direct and ESPN Player, both of which are Canada-only streaming services.
Among the best streaming services we’ve tested, the only one that may offer games is Fubo, which has a pretty deep live sports selection and operates in Canada. Unfortunately, at this time we cannot confirm that Fubo will offer any college football live streams in Canada like it does in the U.S.
Of course, if you’re in Canada, you can always use NordVPN to watch your U.S. streaming services abroad.
Aussies will find college live streams on Kayo Sports. Kayo Sports will give you ESPN coverage of both college football and NFL live streams, with a few games on offer each week.
Of course, if you’re in Australia, you can always use NordVPN to watch your U.S. streaming services abroad.
Key college football live streams this week
If you haven’t noticed by now — and I’m sure you have — there are a ton of college football live streams each week. Honestly, with 134 schools in the FBS alone, it’s borderline unwieldy.
So below you’ll find a selection of the biggest games in a given week, along with when and where to watch them.
All games in Eastern Time
Saturday, August 24
- Florida State vs. Georgia Tech @ 12 p.m. (ESPN)
- Montana State vs. New Mexico @ 4 p.m. (FS1)
- SMU vs. Nevada @ 8 p.m. (CBS Sports Network)
