Sadly, the College Football Bowl Season is winding its way down. But, that means the only remaining games are the ones featuring the best teams. If you’ve enjoyed the bowl games until this point, then you won’t want to miss the ones still to come.
These games will feature the best teams in the country and a couple will also help determine who will be crowned the NCAA College Football Champion. As for how to watch these games, below you’ll find info on how to catch them all, even if you don’t have cable.
What You Can Use to Stream the Bowl Games
WatchESPN App: The WatchESPN is one of the top ways to watch ESPN online. Why? It’s free! Of course, there’s a catch. You need to use a cable provider login to gain access. However, in some cases, you can simply use your ISPs login. You can also use the three services listed below to gain access to the app.
Sling TV: Dish Network’s streaming service, Sling TV, starts at a much cheaper price of $20 per month. There’s about 30 channels to live stream including the ESPN family of networks. Between Sling TV and the other options you can easily watch ESPN online. It’s been around for a couple years now and has quickly become one of the top services for cable cutters.
DIRECTV NOW: A streaming service offered by AT&T. DIRECTV NOW starts at $35 per month and delivers more than 100 popular cable channels live streaming. It’s a new service, but the initial feedback has been pretty impressive.
PlayStation Vue: Another streaming service, this one coming from Sony. PlayStation Vue’s starting price falls in the middle of the pack with a $29.99 per month price tag. The channel listing falls in the middle too and includes ESPN networks as well as FOX Sports networks. The inclusion of FOX Sports networks means it can be a great tool to watch other events like UFC fights.
Antenna: A digital antenna will let you watch TV for absolutely free. It picks up the high-definition network broadcasts from channels like ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. The only cost involved is your initial investment in your antenna.
A Look at the Top Bowl Games
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
The Peach Bowl kicks off at 3:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, December 31stbetween the unbeaten Alabama Sooners and the one loss Washington Huskies. This will be one of the two semifinal games that will decide the teams playing in the National Championship. Alabama is locked as a sure favorite, considering they are being touted as the best team in college football history. Washington will play the role of the underdog, but is still a talented enough team to pull off the upset.
Like most of the college football bowl games, the Peach Bowl airs on ESPN. Your options to watch will be Sling TV, DIRECTV NOW, and PlayStation Vue. Sling TV will be the cheapest, but most of the services do offer a free trial, so you could even watch for free!
PlayStation Fiesta Bowl
Another New Year’s Eve game, the Fiesta Bowl starts at 7:00 p.m. ET and will be broadcast by ESPN. Ohio State and Clemson will play for the second spot in the National Championship, but this one isn’t as easy to predict as the Peach Bowl. Some claim Clemson will win, because Ohio State has one a couple nail-biters over the year. But, many others are having a hard time betting against any team coached by Urban Meyer.
Just like the Peach Bowl, you can watch on DIRECTV NOW, Sling TV, or PlayStation Vue. If you sign up for a free trial, both of these games will be free. And, you can use them to watch other bowl games as well.
Outback Bowl
Florida and Iowa play in the Outback Bowl on January 2nd. The game begins at 1:00 p.m. ET. Both teams come into the bowl game with identical records, so it’s tough to really commit to one over the other. Either team will look for a rebound from brutal 30-point losses in their bowl games last year. Neither teams have show stopping offenses, so it might come down a battle of who has a better defense and makes less big mistakes.
This will be the sole ABC broadcast game on this list. Most of the other ones are ESPN, which controls the bowl season broadcasts. You can watch the Outback Bowl easily on an antenna. Or, you can use Sling TV, DIRECTV NOW, or PlayStation Vue to watch the simulcast of the game on ESPN3. Sling TV lets you stream ESPN3 right from its service while the other two let you use your credentials to login to WatchESPN.
Rose Bowl
The Rose Bowl, between Penn State and USC, is also on January 2nd and begins at 5:00 p.m. ET. Penn State could be seen as a clear favorite since many made a push for them to be included in the college football playoff picture. USC strung together an impressive eight-game winning streak, but the difference in legitimate wins makes it hard not to pick Penn State.
The Rose Bowl will be broadcast on ESPN. You can pick up an ESPN stream from Sling TV, DIRECTV NOW, or PlayStation Vue. All three offer free trials as well, so you can test out the service and watch the bowl game for free.
CFP National Championship
The teams in the College Football Playoff National Championship have not yet been determined. But, the game will take place on January 9th and kick off will be at 8:30 p.m. ET. The game will also be broadcast by ESPN, so you can use DIRECTV NOW, Sling TV, or PlayStation Vue. Depending on when you start you free-trial you can potentially watch this and some earlier bowl games free.
Clearly, it’s not too hard to watch the bowl games without cable. The inability to watch sports used to be a big reason people wouldn’t cut cable. Now, it’s barely a concern. Hopefully you can use one of the above recommendations to not miss a second of the best bowl games this season!
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