While those around me are merry and bright with the arrival of the holiday season, I’m feeling a bit doleful and glum about the end of the college football season — my favorite time of the year. We have arrived at the final week of college football’s regular season. The conference title games will not only crown the conference champions this weekend but also will help set the field for college football’s four-team playoff. Here’s what you need to know about how to stream the conference title games and the College Football Playoff selection show.
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Power 5 conference title game schedule
Three of the playoff teams will almost certainly come from a Power 5 conference — Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, Pac 12 and ACC — with independent and undefeated Notre Dame completing the four-team field. (The University of Central Florida of the American Athletic Conference has the slimmest of chances of crashing the party.)
Here’s the schedule of the five conference title games:
- Pac 12: Washington vs. Utah 8 p.m. ET Friday, Fox
- Big 12: Oklahoma vs. Texas 12 p.m. ET Saturday, ABC
- SEC: Alabama vs. Georgia 4 p.m. ET Saturday, CBS
- Big Ten: Ohio State vs. Northwestern 8 p.m. ET Saturday, Fox
- ACC: Pitt vs. Clemson 8 p.m. ET Saturday, ABC
College football livestreaming options
If you don’t have a cable or satellite subscription, you can use a streaming service such as PlayStation Vue, Sling TV, DirectTV Now, Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV or FuboTV— to watch the games on ABC, CBS and Fox, but channel lineups vary by service. For example, Sling TV doesn’t offer CBS. Also, live local programming is not available on all channels in all markets.
You can also use CBS All Access to livestream the SEC title game. CBS’s streaming service costs $6 a month with commercial breaks or $10 for no commercials. For the Big 12 and ACC title games, you can livestream on ABC.com or the ABC app, and for the Pac 12 and Big Ten title games, you can livestream on Fox Sports Go or the Fox Sports Go app, but in both cases you will need to authorize via a pay TV subscription.
Disclosure: CBS is CNET’s parent company.
If you live in an area with good reception, you can get football games for free on over-the-air broadcast channels just by attaching an affordable (under $30) indoor antenna to nearly any TV.
College Football Playoff picture
The current College Football Playoff rankings look like this:
- Alabama 12-0
- Clemson 12-0
- Notre Dame 12-0
- Georgia 11-1
- Oklahoma 11-1
- Ohio State 11-1
- Michigan 10-2
- Central Florida 11-0
Alabama has likely locked up a spot, whether it beats Georgia or not in the SEC title game on Saturday. If Georgia wins, it’s in.
Clemson is a huge favorite against Pitt and is expected to coast to another ACC title and lock up the #2 seed in the playoff.
Notre Dame doesn’t play in a conference, so its regular season is complete. It is assured a playoff spot.
Oklahoma and Ohio State are favored to win their respective conferences, and the selection committee will have a difficult decision should both finish the year at 12-1 with the fourth and final playoff spot open (assuming Georgia loses to Alabama and falls to 11-2).
Selection show streaming
After the games finish on Saturday, the 14-member selection committee will begin debating who gets in and who gets left out. The committee’s decision will be revealed Sunday afternoon. The selection show starts at 12 p.m. ET on ESPN, which you can livestream on PlayStation Vue, Sling TV, DirectTV Now, Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV but not FuboTV. You can also livestream on WatchESPN or the WatchESPN app if you have a pay TV subscription.
More of a fan of pro football? Check out our guide to watching NFL games if you don’t have cable.
The cheapest live TV streamer heads to Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV