Regarding sports, it depends greatly on what sport it is. NFL is easy, since there are lots of games on free tv, and if you must search the internet for a live stream, they are easy to find and of decent quality. You can also watch NFL at any sports bar without pestering some teenager 18 times to get them to change the channel.
NCAAF is also relatively easy. OTA plus Sling TV from August until January(6 months, $20 a month for $120 a year /12 = $10 a month). You will get 75% of the games, including almost every bowl game and the playoffs.
MLB is also very easy if you have some technical skill. Google unlocator, read, and go from there. MLB.tv premium is $25 a month for roughly 6 months, and if you have a roku or similar device, or even just a long cable you can connect directly to a TV, you can see every game(including local ones) for roughly $30 a month during the season($30 * 6 / 12 = $15/month). In fact, if you like baseball, then MLB.tv is far superior to cable since you get every game and can choose which broadcast to watch, can pause tv mid-game, and can watch any replay. You can also choose to start watching a game at any half-inning, so if you catch the first five innings while out, then you come home and go to sleep. The next day you can turn on MLB.tv and start last night's game at the top of the 6th without a hassle.
NBA - This is the tricky one. Watching the local team on my big screen without buying cable is very difficult. You can do it, but it requires some work and NBALP is not cheap($35/month for one team, like $50 a month for every team.) Alternatives to LP and cable would be OTA plus sling TV, where you can get ABC/ESPN and TNT games, but not much else. If you *need* NBA then probably go with cable.
For anything else, I don't know because I don't watch it.