How to watch NCAA College Football in the UK and abroad 2022
As kick-off approaches for the 2022 season, we show you the best ways to keep up with your favourite teams
The 2022 college football season is nearly upon us. With previews and predictions aplenty happening right now, it’s time to fill you in on how to follow all the action, no matter where you are in the world.
College football is an overtly American phenomenon, and a celebrated part of US sporting culture no matter the state you visit. However, the NCAA has less jurisdiction in football than it does in the other collegiate sports it oversees, meaning there’s far more money, franchising and complicated broadcasting rights than are typically found in non-professional sports. As such, it can be tricky to know where to watch all of the games. College football is split up into geographical “conferences” (sets of divisions) that are all covered by different networks and sometimes even independent streaming services.
If you’re an avid college football fan in the UK, coverage is mostly centralised thanks to ESPN’s partnership with BT Sport. But if you want to keep up with every single game in every single division, BT Sport may only get you some of the way. Thankfully, we’ve done our homework, and you’ll find a guide below that details how to watch along with as much of the 2022 college football season as possible.
NCAA College Football 2022 Season Preview:
As we mentioned, NCAA College Football is divided into many smaller leagues that are mainly drawn from geographical zones. Before the season gets going, we’ve scanned the field and picked out the conferences we think will be the most exciting. Also, keep your eyes peeled below each conference summary to see which networks and streaming services in the US cover that conference – those details might come in handy for you later.
AAC stands for American Athletic Conference. It was founded in 2013 and is a Division 1 conference that features 11 member universities and five affiliate members. This year, the teams to watch are Cincinnati and Houston, who ended the 2021 season on top. These two teams have led predictions for the upcoming season, and are both expected to reach double-digit wins this year. The middle of the league will be hotly contested, too, with Memphis and Tulsa looking to use their returning quarterbacks to lead their offences with added wisdom and experience.
Covered by – ESPN, ABC, CBS Sports
ACC stands for the Atlantic Coast Conference, which consists of 14 school teams based in the eastern states of the US. Also in Division 1, many of this conference’s teams have gone on to win National Championships since it was established in 1953. According to CBS Sports, no other conference has the depth of quarterback talent that the ACC does in 2022. This means matches will be filled to the brim with attacking football and interesting strategies, and will reward whichever team can counter with clever defending. Teams to watch this year are Clemson, NC State and Miami, who all hold some of the best quarterbacks in the current college game.
Covered by – ESPN, ACC Network, local syndicates in certain cities (Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC)
Big 12, not to be confused with Pac-12, is a conference made up of 10 universities that can be found up and down the Midwest (excluding West Virginia, which lies further to the east). This ten-member conference is also Division 1, and this year looks to be one of the most competitive conferences in the country. Despite the Baylor Bears winning the conference title in 2021, they’ve lost some of their biggest defensive assets. Meanwhile, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have also been earmarked as favourites. Without a clear frontrunner, 2022 is set to be a great year to watch Big 12 College Football.
Covered by – ESPN, ABC, Fox Sports
Pac-12 is the conference to watch if you have allegiances to the western states. This is the conference with more national championship wins in team sports than any other in the US. To make things even more interesting this year, some rules in how the conference crowns its champions and runners-up have changed, essentially blowing the field right open for any team to reach the top, regardless of their division. Defending champions Utah will look to bolster their last performance in 2022 and back up their very first Pac-12 win. Aiming to stop them are teams from USC and Oregon, who both take on new coaches this season.
Covered by – ESPN, Pac-12 Networks, Fox, Fox Sports
Mountain West is another conference based in the western states, and is made up of 11 member universities from California, Hawaii, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming, to name a few. Like the Big 12, we think this is one of the best conferences to keep your eyes on in 2022 because while there may not be an obvious favourite, there are plenty of competitors ready to prove themselves. Encapsulating that is Mountain West’s second tier, which features convincing underdog teams such as the San Jose Spartans and Wyoming.
Covered by – ESPN, Mountain West Network, Pac-12 Networks, Stadium, CBS Sports
How to watch college football in the UK
The best way to watch the 2022 season in the UK is on BT Sport. Whether you have BT TV, broadband or an online subscription, BT Sport gives you access to the majority of college football coverage. ESPN has access to all the major conferences in college football, and its partnership with BT means it’s the home of college football in the UK. Most games will be shown on the bundled ESPN channel that comes with BT Sport, or can be found on BT Sport apps and channels on phones, consoles and tablets.
Of course, there is the off-chance that your favourite team is one like Notre Dame, which is in the FBS Independents conference that isn’t covered by ESPN. There’s also the chance that BT Sport is too busy with UFC or WWE to show every college football game that’s being played. In any such case, read on to see how a VPN may be able to help you.
READ NEXT: How to watch the Premier League online
How to watch college football in the US
If you’re rooting for your school’s team, chances are you’ll already know the best ways to watch your home and away games, but how can you keep up with the other conferences en route to the play-offs?
Hulu offers you a great centralised hub where you can watch all the college football your heart desires. Hulu is owned by Disney, just like ESPN, which means that any of the above conferences we mentioned that are covered by ESPN will be available to stream live on Hulu with no cable TV package required.
How to watch college football anywhere with a VPN
If you’re a college football fan and you find yourself abroad during the 2022 season, it may prove tough to watch your favourite teams play. Outside the UK and US, the sport can be particularly tricky to access. In that case, the best way to keep up-to-date is by using a VPN.
VPNs are an amazing way to maintain privacy and security while surfing the web. Where they become especially useful is in scenarios such as this, where you need a way to bypass annoying geoblockers that stop you from accessing streaming services and programmes that are only available in certain regions. We’ve selected two VPNs that we can recommend to you below.
Express VPN is our go-to choice when it comes to choosing a VPN. With over 3,000 servers in 94 countries, ExpressVPN is a solid pick when it comes to bypassing geoblockers used by streaming services. When it comes to security, Express ensures your data is secured thanks to its independent auditing by PwC, which attests that your data will remain unlogged if you sign up. Speaking of which, signing up through us is a great idea since you can save yourself 49%.
Nord VPN is another great choice. It offers a fantastic all-round package and a 30-day money-back guarantee, which we’d be shocked if you had to use since Nord’s 24/7 customer support means you won’t go long without an issue being remedied. It has a great map-based UI that makes masking your location nice and easy, and it’s also independently audited to make sure your data stops with you.