Football-loving Mustachians: frugal ways to watch football without cable

[thefisherwoman]

My favorite season -- full of college football games -- is coming up! I don't have cable so I'll need to head to a bar to watch the games.

What's the cheapest way to do this? Cable-loving friends are all traveling, and I wish some place like Ikea had TVs so I could buy a piece of cake and watch the game!

What frugal options do I have? Looking for something that doesn't involve buying overpriced drinks/food in order to watch the games.

[NoVa]

Many, many games are broadcast over the air and can be watched for free with an antenna.

[secondcor521]

Frequently you can sign up for a free trial of Fubo or TNT or whatever, watch the game, then cancel within 7 days and not be charged.

[sonofsven]

I put an antenna up on my roof years ago to watch my local pro team (and PBS ) because every Sunday game is broadcast OTA. If they play on Monday or Thursday nights I can't watch and I've used up my share of free promo sign ups, so I miss those games.

Something happened and my antenna set up quit working, and since I'm recovering from injury/surgery I haven't been able to climb up and troubleshoot, so I signed up for YouTube TV, which is essentially streaming cable with a DVR for $73/mo. You can pay month to month and cancel anytime. I just saw it's going to $83/mo in January, and I'm choking on that price a bit and also wondering about cheaper options.

The only thing I watch on YTTV is a few football games. I tried, but "normal" TV is so horrible, plus commercials! I like to DVR the game and start watching an hour after start time, then zip through all the ads and catch up to live action in the second half.

I know there are ways to illegally stream games but I don't know the details, I'm not the most computer savvy person. If anyone has tips I'm all ears (and sworn to secrecy!).

[jrhampt]

We/'ve tried various antennas and just can't get OTA reception here, so we wait until the dark times when we actually watch sports in the evenings and get a month to month subscription for a few months.  Usually have hulu live for about 3 months out of the year and then cancel when it starts to get light again and NCAA tournament is over.  It's currently $83/month, ugh.  Couldn't find anything for less this year.

[Morning Glory]

Gym memberships can be cheaper than cable, and they usually have individual TVs on the cardio machines.  It's a great way to get in your steps, and much healthier than eating bar food.

[Greystache]

I can't stand spending over three hours of my life watching mostly commercials and listing to inane drivel from the announcers. I just wait until after the game and watch the highlights on YouTube. you can watch every significant play and spend no more than 10 or 15 minutes.

[HPstache]

Gym memberships can be cheaper than cable, and they usually have individual TVs on the cardio machines.  It's a great way to get in your steps, and much healthier than eating bar food.

Ha!  I actually love this one

[Scandium]

I can't stand spending over three hours of my life watching mostly commercials and listing to inane drivel from the announcers. I just wait until after the game and watch the highlights on YouTube. you can watch every significant play and spend no more than 10 or 15 minutes.

I occasionally watch "not-US" football, AKA soccer, and do the same. I got a peacock trial to watch premier league, but found that there's no way I can watch even a single, 90-min game every week! Who has time for that?? Let alone more than one. On my precious saturday no less.. The feeling of neglecting my family, chores, projects, or anything else more productive was so bad I gave up after one week. Now I catch a 12 min highlights recap on youtube the next day during lunch. The perfect amount, I can watch whenever I want, and free!

[Arbitrage]

We used to live somewhere an OTA antenna work, but in our new area we're too far and geographically constrained (read: mountains in the way) to get much.  I'm a much bigger pro football fan than college, so I use NFL+ on an iPad to watch my team play their games - it does require waiting until after the game completes when the game isn't being shown locally.  Inconvenient at times, but affordable.

For college, these strategies are going to be salient shortly as we have visitors over the holidays for whom these games are important.  Sports bars are an option if there's one particular game, but not the best if you're interested in casually watching a bunch of games while still seeing your family.  We may employ the free trial strategy. 

One thing I'll have to be on the lookout for is streaming in 4k, as sometimes that is offered for sports.  Unlike most, I have zero interest in 4k streaming, since it eats through my stupid data cap far too quickly. 

[Mustache ride]

Gym memberships can be cheaper than cable, and they usually have individual TVs on the cardio machines.  It's a great way to get in your steps, and much healthier than eating bar food.

Second this.

[LifeHappens]

My favorite season -- full of college football games -- is coming up! I don't have cable so I'll need to head to a bar to watch the games.

OP, everyone seems to have missed you specifically want to watch college games. Unfortunately, ESPN pretty much has a monopoly on the college playoffs. If that is what you want to watch, you basically have 3 options:
1) go somewhere to watch - the gym idea is kinda brilliant, but your mileage may vary
2) pay for 1 month of streaming service to watch - Sling Orange is available for $20 for the first month
3) find an illegal stream. I have done this periodically. Make sure you have virus protection. It's a dirty world out there.

[MMMarbleheader]

I think Sling has the most limited channel lineup and therefore the cheapest. So Antenna + Sling would probably be the cheapest

[jrhampt]

Does sling have NCAA women's basketball too?

[MMMarbleheader]

Does sling have NCAA women's basketball too?

Depends on the network.

Connecticut loves their women's basketball.

[jrhampt]

Does sling have NCAA women's basketball too?

Depends on the network.

Connecticut loves their women's basketball.

Yes, we do!

[Scandium]

My favorite season -- full of college football games -- is coming up! I don't have cable so I'll need to head to a bar to watch the games.

OP, everyone seems to have missed you specifically want to watch college games. Unfortunately, ESPN pretty much has a monopoly on the college playoffs. If that is what you want to watch, you basically have 3 options:
1) go somewhere to watch - the gym idea is kinda brilliant, but your mileage may vary
2) pay for 1 month of streaming service to watch - Sling Orange is available for $20 for the first month
3) find an illegal stream. I have done this periodically. Make sure you have virus protection. It's a dirty world out there.

Just FYI, I maintain that youtube is still valid. I searched and clicked a random game, and looks like this highlight was posted a few hours after the game was played? Might even be the same evening?
https://youtu.be/R6bbHHhiMxk?si=Lg41bBwUuNMINi6b
And it's only 14 min long, much more manageable that watching a whole game!
(when I see other dads who watch full sports games I honestly don't understand how the do it..)

[slackmax]

Same here! 

I only have the lower tier of cable, so no espn for me.  I do get ABC, NBC, and CBS and they show lots of college football. I am a Penn State fan, and their next game is this Sat on TNT, which I do not get.  :(

I also have some TVs set up on antenna only, but get no abc, cbs, or nbc, so no football except local high school games, sometimes a college game.

I may go to a bar to watch the second half of the Penn State game.  Much prefer to watch at home. 

Years ago, you could go to Walmart or Sears and watch football games on cable on their TV's. Have done that before, lol !
 

[sonofsven]

Good news! My team was eliminated from the playoffs, so I canceled YTTV.
Yay. Boo.

[slackmax]

Here's how I 'watched' the fiesta bowl (Penn State).   It was on local radio, so I listened to the radio announcers, while I also watched a website that carried still pics of recently completed significant plays.  A few days later I watched highlights of the game on Youtube.   Preferable to going to a bar and seeing it on ESPN.

[twinstudy]

There are plenty of streaming sites that offer cable sports for free. Install a good ad blocker and you don't even have to deal with ads and messy pop ups.

[41_swish]

I will sound like a broken record, but an OTA Antenna is pretty darn good for locals. Local radio is also solid. If you have SiriusXM that is great for out of market games, but it's only audio. A sneaky good option is going to the gym to watch games. When I was in college I would go and walk on the treadmill and watch games while I was there because I didn't have cable.