Sports

How to watch NCAA college football with a VPN

The regular week season of the NCAA college football is over. We are now in bowl season, and we are looking forward to so much fun than we can handle. If you had missed the regular season for one reason or the other, that should not be the same for bowl season.

We know missing the games might not have been your fault too. How about we look at some of the common viewing obstacles and how you can overcome them?

Spoiler alert: A VPN is your best bet here.

Common Viewing Problems

Cable TV is the oldest channel through which college football games were broadcasted. It is thus not surprising that it brings the most inconveniences with it too.

For many, it is the sheer price of keeping cable running just for the comfort of grabbing some college football on the weekend. For those who don’t even see the price as an issue, they still have to deal with game blackouts from time to time. That means no game for them, even though they had a subscription running.

Many have found out the hard way that geo-blocking does work. If you are one of such people who find themselves outside the US at this time, you will agree that accessing the games is about impossible.

It does not even help if you have a cable subscription running back home.

Getting around the problems

The truth is that you don’t have to ever let any of these problems stand in your way anymore. For those who are worried about cutting cable, the three top options for streaming remain:

  • Sling TV: Sling offers the cheapest of all plans, allowing you stream college football on ESPN for just $25 a month. That is in addition to other channels which are present on the streaming platform under the same pricing package
  • YouTube TV: Although it costs slightly more (at $40/ month), YouTube TV offers you access to all of FS1 and FS2, BTN, Pac-12 and the SEC network. ESPN and CBS Sports are also made available under the same streaming package, so you never have to miss any game anymore.
  • PlayStation Vue: The Sony platform costs the highest (at $45 per month). You should go for it if you like the offering of NBC, FOX, CBS and ESPN in one place. You should also note that you get to spend the first 7 days under the free trial package before committing to the full service.
  • WatchESPN: This app will give you access to all three ESPN networks. The only way you’ll be able to use this without cable, though, is if you are a student/ military person.

You can also get on the network for free if you’re on a supported cellular network. Otherwise, you would have to authenticate your app with an active cable TV subscription.

Streaming from other countries

One thing with all the above methods is that even though they allow you stream without cable, they are only for US residents. To stream the content from another country like you were in the US:

  • Get a VPN
  • Connect to the preferred server location in the US
  • Sign up to a suitable streaming platform from the ones mentioned above
  • Start streaming the games as they happen live.

To be fair, not only those in other countries can enjoy the games with a VPN. Even if you were in the US, a VPN will help you beat game blackouts when they are happening in your region. You would simply have to connected to another server location from where the game is being aired.

Now that you know how to watch NCAA college football with a VPN, how about you never miss any game in this current bowl season?