On Monday, Jan. 20, two of the most tradition-rich programs in college football will square off in a historic matchup. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Ohio State Buckeyes will take to the field in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium in search of the very first 12-team College Football Playoff national championship. Both teams have used dramatic losses to propel them to the precipice of a national title, as ND suffered an early season setback to Northern Illinois and have won 14 straight. OSU ended its regular season with a fourth-straight loss to archrival Michigan, but has been, by far, the most dominant team in the playoffs since. The blue-blood squads will attempt to cap off their remarkable turnarounds at 7:30 p.m. ET in a game broadcast across the ESPN family of networks. You can watch it all with a subscription to Sling TV.

How to watch the College Football Playoff National Championship

• When: Monday, Jan. 20, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. ET
• TV: ESPN, with alternate broadcasts on ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, ESPN Deportes, ESPN App
• Stream: Watch with 50% off a subscription to Sling TV.
• From anywhere: Watch with a subscription to a VPN.

Everything you need to know to stream Notre Dame vs. Ohio State in the College Football Playoff National Championship:

Watch a preview of Notre Dame vs. Ohio State

Why we chose Sling TV to watch Notre Dame vs. Ohio State in the College Football Playoff National Championship

Over the next month and a half, there will be tons of college football and NFL postseason games coming to you and sports fans will not want to miss a single second of the action. If you fall into that category, then Sling is the way to go for you. It is the cheapest way to get national broadcast channels and the biggest cable networks as well, which will be especially important as the College Football Playoff will air a significant portion of its games on cable.

Normally, Sling costs $46 per month, but you can currently get 50% off your first month of service, meaning that you can watch a month of the college postseason and the stretch run of the NFL for as little as $23. Sling has two different base packages, Orange and Blue. You can subscribe to one or both. If you do opt to combine Orange and Blue it will run you $61 monthly — still substantially cheaper than the comparable live TV streaming services — but with the first-month deal, you can stream everything on both packages for just $30.50.

The College Football Playoff will air all remaining games on ESPN, so that means that there is no cheaper option to watch all of the CFP action over the next few weeks.

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Sling TV

Sling TV is The Streamable’s choice for cord cutters on a budget. Sling is a live TV streaming service with multiple channel packages. The $45.99/month Sling Orange plan offers about 30 channels, including Disney Channel and ESPN. The $45.99/month Sling Blue plan offers about 40 channels, including ABC, Fox, and NBC in major markets.

You can combine Orange+Blue for a total of $60.99 / month. Sling also offers many channel add-on packages starting at $6/month.

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Related: Best choice for watching College Football Playoff? It’s Sling TV

Can you watch Notre Dame vs. Ohio State for free?

If you are just looking for a streaming service to watch this specific game and nothing else, there are options available for you. DIRECTV STREAM, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo, and YouTube TV all offer free trials, but they vary in length, so be wary. DIRECTV STREAM’s industry-leading trial runs for five days, while Hulu + Live TV’s is a solid three days.

Those are pretty straightforward, but when it comes to the sports-minded streamer Fubo, things can get a little complicated. As The Streamable’s expert David Satin discovered when signing up for the services, figuring out how long Fubo’s trial is — even as you are signing up — can be a bit difficult. Nonetheless, it will be at least one day, with the potential to be as many as seven, depending on a wide range of factors that Fubo does not share publicly.

The YouTube TV trial is said to be “up to two weeks,” but can be as short as two days. So it is difficult to ascertain what you are actually getting before you go through the signup process.

If you are looking to watch the game for free, I would recommend DIRECTV STREAM, because that streamer has the longest guaranteed free trial.

What are the MegaCast options for the Notre Dame vs. Ohio State National Championship Game?

Notre Dame vs. Ohio State game breakdown

When Marcus Freeman’s Fighting Irish lost to Northern Illinois in Week 2 of the season, many around the college football world wrote off the team as another underachieving squad from South Bend. Similarly, despite arguably the most talented roster in recent college football memory, when Ryan Day’s Buckeyes lost to Michigan for the fourth straight year, even some of OSU’s most ardent fans were ready to move on from the head coach.

However, both teams have responded to their demoralizing losses by playing their best football. For ND it was over the bulk of the regular season, as the team used a stout defense and efficient offense to log the second-best scoring margin in the sport at +22.7 points per game. The only team better on the year is their title game opponents; Ohio State has won games on average by 23.6 points this season.

The domination exhibited by both teams stems from their defenses as Notre Dame’s Al Golden and Ohio State’s Jim Knowles oversee the two top scoring defenses in the game. Ohio State is No. 1 allowing only 12.2 points per game through its first three playoff games, and the Irish are at No. 2 giving up 14.3 points per game.

On offense, the similarities continue. Both teams are led by senior transfer quarterbacks — former Duke QB Riley Leonard for Notre Dame and former Kansas State signal caller Will Howard for OSU. While neither has been exceptionally splashy, they have both seemingly been the perfect leaders for their respective teams. Leonard’s ability to run — either on designed keepers or to scramble away from pressure — has been a major component in the Irish’s offense.

While Howard is prone to the occasional ugly turnover, on the whole, he has been remarkably adept in getting the balls into the hands of his explosive playmakers — wide receivers Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka, and Carnell Tate; running backs TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins; and tight end Gee Scott Jr. On the season, the OSU quarterback is completing 72.6% of his passes, fourth best in college football.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman also finds himself in multiple historical situations. He has already become the first Black coach to take his team to a college football national championship game and he just so happens to be doing it against his alma mater. Freeman played linebacker for the Buckeyes from 2004-08, where he was a two-time All-Big Ten honoree. Whether Freeman or Day win the game, they will join Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney as the only active FBS head coaches to win a national title.

What are all of the streamers you can use to watch Notre Dame vs. Ohio State?

Fortunately for college football fans, there are six different streaming services that will stream the Notre Dame vs. Ohio State playoff game, so you have options to choose from if you don’t already subscribe to any of them. We discussed Sling TV and the four free trial options above, but there is one more, and it offers a different type of streaming arrangement.

If you are looking to find a long-term streaming service and want to avoid the potential of having to pay more if price hikes strike, then DIRECTV via Internet is your best bet. Packages start as low as $70 per month and come with a two-year price guarantee. This, of course, locks you into a two-year contract, but with prices increasing fairly regularly, it is understandable why this would be an attractive offer to many people.

Ultimately, there are tons of different ways to stream the game, and while we recommend Sling TV as the best way to stream all of the college and pro football postseason, you have plenty of options to find the platform that meets your needs.

How to watch Notre Dame vs. Ohio State from anywhere

If you’ll be away from home and can’t watch the game as you normally would, you can still catch all of the action no matter where you are in the world with a VPN. A VPN can be used on your phone, tablet, or computer and make you appear to be back home — even when you’re not — making sure you feel at home no matter where you are. A VPN is a safe and secure way to stay protected online while streaming your favorite sports, movies, and shows on the go. Keep in mind that you will still need to be subscribed to a live TV streaming like Sling TV in order to stream the Notre Dame vs. Ohio State game with a VPN.

NordVPN is one of the best providers around, at one of the best prices. Currently, you can get two full years of protection for just $3.59 per month — plus you’ll get three extra months FREE. A high-speed VPN with best-in-class security that can be used on up to 10 devices at once — what more could you ask for? Simply sign up, install the software on your device of choice, and start streaming just as you would back home. It couldn’t be easier!

While NordVPN is our recommendation for the best VPN to use while you are traveling, there are a number of other high-quality options available depending on what you are looking for.

• Best Features: ExpressVPN | Starting at $5 per month
• Best Budget Option: Surfshark | Starting at $2.50 per month
• Best Free Option: Proton VPN | Free plan available