A few years after the American Civil War, the New Jersey Tigers and the Rutgers Queensmen played the first college American football game. After almost 40 years, athletic enthusiasts founded the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to protect student-athletes from the dangerous and exploitive athletics tactics of the time. As the sport grew and formed a professional league, it stayed extremely popular. Almost 150 years later, many things have changed in the sport. From the first 100 people in attendance to the mega stadiums that hold more than 100k people, college football is bigger than ever. If you are a fan of the sport or you want to start watching, there are many ways to watch online. Of course, that depends on the teams you want to watch. Most of them, however, you will need to be in the US to watch. If you will be abroad, we can show you how to watch NCAA football outside the US with a VPN.
Quickstart Guide for Using a VPN with NCAA Football Games
If you are going to watch any of the college football games, here is one of the ways.
- Find the schedule for your favorite team or choose the team(s) you want to follow.
- Determine the American broadcast channels the games will be on.
- Sign up for ExpressVPN (includes a 30-day money back guarantee).
- Once you have opened the client, locate a server in the United States.
- Open a browser and go to the corresponding network website. Keep in mind you will need to enter the credentials from your cable/satellite/streaming service account to be able to watch them. If you don’t have access to one of them, you can sign up for one of the premium streaming services like Fubo or Sling TV.
- Watch and enjoy the NCAA Football Games.
How to Watch NCAA Football with ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is the best choice for unblocking popular streaming services and live sporting events. The ExpressVPN team has combined their VPN service with a Smart DNS feature called MediaStreamer. The combination will protect your privacy and unblock access to a wide range of content all over the world. You can run the ExpressVPN app on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV, and router. The MediaStreamer service extends support to streaming media devices (Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Kodi boxes, etc.), Smart TVs, gaming consoles (PS4, Xbox One, Switch), and more.
The team at ExpressVPN is currently offering our visitors a discount on their all-inclusive VPN service. You can enjoy unlimited access to both their VPN network and MediaStreamer service for 49% off with 3 months free. In addition, they are offering a 30-day money back guarantee to all new members so you won’t feel rushed while testing the service. You’ll have a month to watch live events, unblock streaming services, and fully experience the advantages of ExpressVPN. You can expect to be quite impressed with the service.
How to Watch NCAA Football with NordVPN
NordVPN is a good choice for unblocking live sporting events and streaming services. The VPN will help you unblock Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and many more channels. You still need a subscription for paid services like CBS All Access but NordVPN will help you unblock the geo-restrictions. They are one of the few VPNs that can still access Netflix US from outside the United States. This makes NordVPN a great choice for those who want to stream content from other regions of the world.
As you can see, the NordVPN app is easy to use. You can select a server location from the map or from a list of countries. Unfortunately, NordVPN doesn’t let you choose a specific city in locations like the United States. However, it will pick a server based on your current location. We found this to result in slower speeds than ExpressVPN. At times we had to try a few different servers to find one that offered the performance we desired. Otherwise, NordVPN offers everything you need to unblock your favorite websites.
How to Watch NCAA Football with PIA VPN
Private Internet Access, often referred to as PIA, is one of the most popular VPN services in the world. They are headquartered in Silicon Valley and have contributed heavily to the privacy community. You have likely seen PIA in the news as they support a wide range of privacy-related campaigns. From full-page ads to promote privacy bills to support of the open source community, the PIA team is a strong privacy advocate. You will find the VPN service offers everything you need to encrypt your connection and unblock access to many of your favorite web sites.
We have experienced positive results when trying to access Netflix through PIA. You will find that popular streaming services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer are getting good at blocking VPNs. It’s a game of cat and mouse in which the VPNs find ways to stay ahead of the game. In addition to unblocking restrictions, PIA is also very popular in the file sharing community. Torrent users turn to PIA to secure their privacy with sites like TorrentFreak promoting the service. You will find that PIA has a lot to offer for a very reasonable price.
If you want to check out college football, you can usually bet on it being Division 1 (abbreviated DI). It is the top tier of college athletics. There are 129 football teams in the division, and each team has a ranking. Since we have shown you the best ways to watch, let’s take a look at the current pre-season NCAA football rankings. Keep in mind this list can and will change every week during the college football season. Below, we will mention the top 25 schools in pre-season rankings only.
- Alabama
- Clemson
- Ohio State
- Georgia
- Washington
- Wisconsin
- Oklahoma
- Penn State
- Miami
- Auburn
- Notre Dame
- Michigan
- Michigan State
- Stanford
- Virginia Tech
- USC
- Mississippi State
- Florida State
- Boise State
- West Virginia
- TCU
- Texas
- Oregon
- UCF
- South Carolina
Though there are some lists that have all of them, most are only concerned with the top 25 or top 10. That all leads up to the 4 team playoff and the national championship game afterward. Again, you would need to connect to a VPN in the US and have access to unblock the games outside the US.
About Geo-blocks
Geo-blocks are often annoying. Because of world licensing and broadcasting rights, the media companies mostly block anyone outside of their targeted area. In other words, if you are traveling, want to watch the tournament outside the system, or just want to watch something new from an area, the blocking software will stop you. Since it can detect IP addresses, it can tell if you are outside of the targeted area. By connecting to a VPN, the blocking software will think you are located someplace else. Of course, you can watch more than just college football by using one.
Not All VPNs Will Unblock NCAA Football Games
The truth is, ineffective VPN products litter the community. Though some will help you in other ways, you are removing one of the biggest benefits of a VPN if it does not unblock geo-restrictions. Even some of the more well-known providers do not work well to get you past those types of blocks. There is no point in trying to access the streaming services to watch the NCAA football games if you are having issues with the VPN. That is why we suggest the options we mentioned above.
As you can see, there are some great teams to watch this year and some good ways to watch them. Though there are other providers available, we think these are the best choices. No fan of college football should have to miss out on some epic games. If your goal is to unblock and watch NCAA college football, you are in the right place.
