Watch College Football Online 2018

Here are all your options to watch college football online during the 2018 season — including ways to watch without cable and for free.

This year, fans looking to live stream NCAA football games online have more options than ever, even if you don’t have cable.

Here are all the options watch college football online during the 2018 season, from the first kickoff to the championship.

College Football Streaming Overview

*All services available without a cable/satellite TV subscription. If you can’t get access to a game or channel because it’s blocked in your location, see how to get access.

	Service	Streaming	Coverage	Try It Free
		Live & On-demand	Games on NBC, NBC Sports, CBS, CBS Sports, FOX, FS1, FS2, FOX College Sports, BTN, Pac-12 Networks, beIN Sports, CSN, YES	Watch Now
		Live & On-demand	Games on ABC, NBC, FOX, FS1, CBS Sports, ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN2, BTN, SECN	Watch Now
		Live & On-demand	Games on CBS Sports	Watch Now
		Live	Games on FS1, CBS Sports, ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN2, BTN, SECN	Watch Now
		Live	ABC, NBC, FOX, FS1, ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN2, BTN, SECN; Location restrictions apply	Watch Now
		Live	Games on ABC, NBC, FOX, FS1, ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN2, SECN; Location restrictions apply	Watch Now
		Live	Games on ABC, NBC, FOX, FS1, ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN2, SECN; Location restrictions apply	Watch Now
	Service	Streaming	Coverage	Try It Free

If you can’t get a channel or game in your area due to location restrictions, or if you’re outside the US and want to sign up for a streaming service, see how to get access.

Watch College Football Online This Season

FuboTV

Subscription service (7-day free trial); Apps available; Visit website

FuboTV is a great service with a lot of flexibility — and a bunch of channels that stream college football. You can stream live NCAA football games on NBC, FOX, CBS, CBS Sports, FS1, FOX College Sports, BTN, Pac-12 Networks, and other channels. You can watch any device without the restrictions and limitations of other services. If you can’t watch a game live, you can DVR it to watch later.

FuboTV has lots of other sports coverage as well, including MLB, NBA, NHL, and soccer. Dozens of popular entertainment channels round out the package for a great, all-around streaming service.

YouTube TV

Subscription service (30-day free trial); Apps available; Visit website; How to get YouTube TV in any location

YouTube TV is the new live TV streaming service from YouTube. It’s a great option to watch college football online because you can live stream games on FOX, NBC, CBS, and ESPN. YouTube TV also has a generous 1-month free trial and excellent DVR features.

The downside is that YouTube TV only available in a handful of cities: Chicago, LA, New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. That leaves a lot of people in the lurch — which is a shame because YouTube TV does a lot of things right.

If YouTube TV isn’t available where you are, don’t fret. There’s a simple workaround. See how to get YouTube TV in any city — either within the US or in another country. Then, sign up for a free trial and start live streaming NFL games.

CBS All Access 

Subscription service (7-day free trial); Apps available; Visit website

CBS All Access is CBS’s main streaming service. It’s available as a standalone subscription (no other pay-TV service needed) for $6/month. Live streams of college football games will only be available in certain markets, however. And, even in those markets, it’s only the Saturday games that will be streamed.

⊕ Ultimate Guide To Stream Live Sports

CBS College Sports Live

Subscription service; Apps available; Visit website

This is a college sports streaming service from CBS. It features coverage of more than 50 schools and works on multiple devices and displays. This is a solid option to watch college football online, but it doesn’t cover every school so check their list before you buy.

DirecTV Now

Subscription service (7-day free trial); Apps available; Visit website

With DirecTV Now, you can watch college football online on FOX, NBC, ESPN, and some other channels — but there are restrictions for customers in certain markets. Which markets? That’s a great question, and DirecTV Now doesn’t make it easy to find the answer.

Hulu Live

Subscription service (7-day free trial); Apps available; Visit website

Hulu’s new live TV streaming service is still sorting out its kinks, but looks like it will be a great option to live stream NCAA football this year.

Sling TV

Subscription service (7-day free trial); Apps available; Visit website

You’ve probably heard of Sling TV by now if you do a lot of looking for live sports streams. It’s a subscription Internet TV service from DISH Corp. The basic ‘Orange’ package, $20/month, gets you ESPN and ESPN2. The $25/month ‘Blue’ package gets you Fox Sports, FS1, FS1, NBC Sports. It goes up to $40/month to get the full set (Orange + Blue), and you still don’t get CBS, which pretty well sucks. Another drawback — if you can’t watch a game live you need a separate DVR in order to record it on Sling TV to watch later.

⊕ Watch NFL Football Online 2018

PlayStation Vue

Subscription service (7-day free trial); Apps available; Visit website

PlayStation Vue is Sony’s TV streaming service, with live and on-demand access. For $29.99/month you can get a package with ESPN, ESPN2, FOX Sports 1, and FOX Sports 2. (Broadcast networks ABC, NBC, and FOX are also included — but not live, only on-demand.) PS Vue works on PlayStation consoles, Roku, Amazon Fire TV/Stick, and Android and iOS devices.

WatchESPN / ESPN Go

Pay-TV subscription needed; Apps available; Visit website

The vast majority of the articles you’ll see plugging live streaming of college football games will simply be directing you to ESPN mobile and online streaming. It’s a terrific service — if you have a pay-TV subscription that includes ESPN, such as cable, satellite, or Sling TV. If you don’t, you’re out of luck. There’s currently no (legal) way to stream ESPN without a TV provider. Even the illegal ways (ahem, certain Kodi add-ons) are pretty unreliable, since ESPN is constantly changing its streaming set-up in order to evade the bootleggers.

FOX Sports

Pay-TV subscription needed; Apps available; Visit website

This is the FOX Sports Network’s streaming service. It’s free through participating TV providers (Xfinity, DirecTV, DISH, AT&T Uverse, Verizon, etc).

NBC Sports

Pay-TV subscription needed; Apps available; Visit website

NBC Sports Live and NBC Sports Live Extra live streams every NCAAF game broadcast on NBC and NBC Sports Network. You need to sign in with a TV provider to access the live streams.

Independent NCAAF Conference Live Streams

Some of the college football conferences live stream games online — sometimes for free and sometimes requiring login with a TV provider. Here are the ones that offer live streaming:

Pac-12: Check out the Pacific-12 Conference site for live streaming of NCAAF games in their division. Website: http://pac-12.com/live

Big 10: Big 10 Network live streams college football games on BTN2GO. TV provider credentials are required. Website: http://www.btn2go.com/

Mountain West: The Mountain West Network covers the MW Conference and live streams some games. Website: http://www.themw.com/page/watch-live

Twitter

Lastly, Twitter has reportedly inked a deal to live stream a college football game or two this season, with free access. Those details are TBA, so check back here for updates as more info becomes available.

Live Stream College Football From Outside The U.S.

If you’re currently abroad, you can still watch some NCAA football games live online.

U.S. citizens currently overseas can use USTVNow to live stream TV from all the major U.S. broadcast networks for free, as well as ESPN with the $19/month package. It’s a great service for Americans currently living abroad. Note that if you try to use USTVNow from inside the U.S., you will be blocked and won’t be able to stream any content (at least, not without using a workaround).

⊕ How To Stream Blocked Content In Any Region

ESPN, CBS, NBC, SlingTV, and the others also block users outside the U.S. So to get access, you’ll need to use a VPN to route your connection through a U.S. server. This goes for getting access to live sports streams on Twitter from outside the U.S. as well.

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