The 2024-25 College Football Playoff will kick off on Friday, Dec. 20 at 8 p.m. ET with a Hoosier State showdown between the No. 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the No. 10 Indiana Hoosiers. For the first time in history, the CFP has been expanded to 12 teams with the first-round games being played at the higher seeds’ home stadiums. So, Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers will travel up US-31 from Bloomington to South Bend to take on Marcus Freeman’s Irish with Touchdown Jesus looking on. You can watch this in-state matchup and every College Football Playoff game with a subscription to Sling TV.

How to watch the Indiana vs. Notre Dame College Football Playoff game

• When: Friday, Dec. 20, 2024 at 8 p.m. ET
• TV: ABC, ESPN
• 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 Indiana vs. Notre Dame in the CFP:

Watch a preview of Indiana vs. Notre Dame

Why we chose Sling TV to watch Indiana vs. Notre Dame

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 will air all of its games on either ESPN or TNT, so every single snap of the entire 11-game bracket will be available on Sling. That means that there is no cheaper option in streaming to watch all of the CFP action over the next month.

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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 Indiana vs. Notre Dame 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.

Indiana vs. Notre Dame game breakdown

The storylines in this College Football Playoff game practically right themselves. For generations, Notre Dame has been amongst the bluest blood teams in all of college football, while their in-state rivals from Bloomington have been, at best, an average team fighting for respect in the Big Ten. However, as the sport’s postseason tournament expands to 12 teams for the first time, these two Indiana teams will have the opportunity to prove who is at the top of the state’s football mountain.

Marcus Freeman just signed a new long-term deal that will keep the 38-year-old head coach in South Bend for years to come. He will face off against the more seasoned 63-year-old Curt Cignetti who has won at every level (if you don’t know, Google him), but is in his first year as a Power 4 coach, having made the jump from James Madison following last season. Both coaches have something to prove in this game. Freeman wants to show that he has what it takes to make this proud program a legitimate national contender once again, while Cignetti — who also signed a massive contract extension last month — is looking to prove that he can turn any team into a national power.

Notre Dame is a 6.5-point favorite in the game, so if IU wants to overcome the Vegas consensus, the Hoosiers will need a big game from quarterback Kurtis Rourke. The former Ohio Bobcats QB enters the game having completed 70.4% of his passes this season for 2,827 yards, 27 touchdowns, and only 4 interceptions. He will be up against the No. 3 scoring defense in the country, as the Irish have only allowed 13.6 points per game this season.

The bookmakers expect this game to moderately low scoring as the total points line is set at 50.5, which given the spread, suggests that they believe ND will win roughly 28-22.

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

Fortunately for college football fans, there are six different streaming services that will stream the Indiana and Notre Dame 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 2024 edition of this in-state rivalry, 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 Indiana vs. Notre Dame 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 Indiana vs. Notre Dame 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