How to watch college football in Ireland
How to watch college football in Ireland – 2023
The College football season is upon us once again, and if you’re a weirdo like me you’ve been waiting all summer for this moment. Better yet, the 2023 schedule gets underway right here in Dublin next weekend as Notre Dame takes on Navy in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday August 26th.
Is anyone else looking forward to the dark evenings ahead spent inside, all cozy and watching some college football? Well, I was until I found out that it just got incredibly harder to watch college football in Ireland.
With the recent news that ESPN Player will cease to operate from August, your options for following your favorite college football team this autumn have more or less been extinguished.
Adding to this bleak scenario, it appears that BT Sport or TNT Sport or whatever they’re calling themselves now won’t be showing any college football. Major bummer.
So what can American football fans in Ireland do to get their college football fix?
Luckily, all is not completely lost. There is a way. Bear with me.
Step one – get yourself a VPN. You’re going to need your internet connection to be coming from the USA, so a good VPN is vital. Personally, I use Hola + and it rarely lets me down. A free version might cut it, but you’ll run the risk of your connection dropping mid game, and nobody likes it when that happens! VPN’s are also for the likes of Netflix! Without a VPN it’s unlikely you’ll be able to implement step two.
Step two – make friends with an American (ideally one with a good tv package) If you have friends or family in the states, ask them what TV service provider they use. There’s a good chance that certain channels will be available to stream online, much like the RTE player ( just better) The likes of ESPN and CBS Sport show a good amount of college football, though perhaps not necessarily your favourite team. I got lucky – a good friend of mine has Xfinity, through which I can stream Notre Dame home games on NBC and away games on ESPN!
If you don’t know anyone living in the USA, which let’s be honest as an American football fan is quite unlikely, we would highly recommend making some friends. The best way to go about it is on a social media fan page. Explain your plight, ask nicely and you never know what might happen!
Now all of the above is the ideal scenario. Not everyone is going to be in a position to stream directly from the USA. But fear not, there is another solution. And that is: streaming sites.
Let me preface the next section with a disclaimer: I do not condone or promote illegal streaming. Now that’s out of the way, your best bet is a site called First Row Sports. It usually has a good selection of streams, if you’re willing to wade through several waves of pop ups. Just make sure your antivirus is up to date! If you can’t get that to work, there’s always Reddit. I’ve been told as well that so-called “dodgy sticks” work really well for streaming American channels, but I personally cannot attest to their effectiveness.
It’s only a matter of time before a domestic TV channel here or the UK picks up college football but until then our options are very limited! Have another way of watching college football in Ireland? Let us know in the comments!