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How to Watch the College Football Playoff Games on New Year's Day for Free

By:
Brad Tuttle
3 min read
Last years's College Football Playoff National Championship game featured the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Clemson Tigers. - David Rosenblum—AP
Last years's College Football Playoff National Championship game featured the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Clemson Tigers. David Rosenblum—AP

New Year's Day 2018 is a big day for college football fans. Two college football playoff games are scheduled for January 1, and the winners of each game will meet up in a national championship game on Monday, January 8.

Here's how to watch the college football playoff games for the 2017-2018 season.

College Football Playoff #1: 5 P.M. ET January 1 on ESPN
#3 Georgia vs. #2 Oklahoma, at the Rose Bowl

Both college football playoff games, as well as the national championship game, are being broadcast on ESPN. The first game, in which the Georgia Bulldogs face the Oklahoma Sooners, starts at 5 p.m. ET on January 1, 2018.

If you have a cable or satellite TV package with the usual lineup of channels, simply tune in to ESPN to watch the college football playoffs. You may also be able to stream ESPN live by logging in with a valid pay TV account number and password.

If you don't have cable or another pay TV subscription, it's still possible to watch by streaming the college football playoffs with a service such as DirecTV Now, Hulu Live, Playstation Vue, Sling TV, or YouTube TV. All of the services above allow you to live-stream pay TV channels such as ESPN on a variety of devices, and all come with free trial periods for new signups.

So if you just want to watch the college football games on ESPN on New Year's Day for free, register with one of streaming services above. Remember, however, that you must cancel before the trial period ends if you don't want to be charged. The normal fees for these streaming TV services start at $20 and up per month, and Sling TV is the cheapest (though most limited) of the bunch.

College Football Playoff #2: 8:45 P.M. ET January 1 on ESPN
#4 Alabama vs. #1 Clemson, at the Allstate Sugar Bowl

The second game of the college football playoffs, in which the Alabama Crimson Tide square off against the Clemson Tigers, starts at 8:45 ET on January 1, 2018.

Like Georgia-Oklahoma, the Alabama-Clemson game is being broadcast on ESPN. Follow the same directions for how to watch on TV or stream both college football playoff games.

For that matter, the guidelines above will also work for tuning in to the national championship game. The broadcast for that game, featuring the winner of Georgia-Oklahoma versus the winner of Alabama-Clemson, will start at 8 p.m. ET on January 8, 2018, also on ESPN.

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