How to stream the SMU-Penn State College Football Playoff game
How to stream the SMU-Penn State College Football Playoff game
Will the Mustangs from Texas be able to overcome the cold and PSU’s stout defense?
Two programs with storied histories will kick off the second day of the 2024-25 College Football Playoff as the No. 11 SMU Mustangs will travel to Happy Valley to take on the No. 6 Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday, Dec. 21 at 12 noon ET in a game airing on TNT. After falling just short in their respective ACC and Big Ten Championship Games, the two teams will look to rebound in their first-round CFP matchup with a date against Boise State waiting for the winner. You can watch this 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: Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024 at 12 noon ET
- TV: TNT
- 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 SMU vs. Penn State in the CFP:
Watch a preview of SMU vs. Penn State
Why we chose Sling TV to watch SMU vs. Penn State
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.
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.
Related: Best choice for watching College Football Playoff? It’s Sling TV
Can you watch SMU vs. Penn 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, 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 YouTube TV, it gets complicated. Though the largest live streamer’s trial is said to be “up to two weeks,” it 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.
SMU vs. Penn State game breakdown
For his entire decade-long tenure as the head coach of Penn State, James Franklin has struggled with the reputation that he couldn’t win the big games. Despite having talented rosters, he seemingly can’t close the deal in marquee matchups. However, on the Saturday before Christmas, he will have the opportunity to begin turning that narrative around when the Mustangs visit State College.
In its first year in the ACC, SMU pushed Clemson in the conference title game and will hope to prove that its run back to national prominence wasn’t a fluke as it heads north to play in sub-freezing temperatures against a Big Ten power.
The Mustangs will enter the game with the No. 6 scoring offense in the country, putting up 38.5 points per game on the season. While the Nittany Lions are no slauch in that department (averaging 33.6 ppg), it is PSU’s defense that could create problems for SMU. Penn State comes into the playoff allowing the sixth fewest yards in all of college football. So, it will be a strength vs. strength matchup. If Rhett Lashlee’s offense is able to overcome the cold and move the ball against the home Lions, it would be an impressive upset.
Penn State is currently favored by 8.5 points, with the over/under set at 53.5 point. So, the oddsmakers out in Vegas are projecting a final score in the neighborhood of 31 to 22 in favor of the Nittany Lions.
What are all of the streamers you can use to watch SMU vs. Penn State?
Fortunately for college football fans, there are six different streaming services that will stream the SMU vs. Penn 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 three free trial options above, but there are two more options that give you very different ways to stream the game.
The first option happens to come on a streaming service that you might already use to watch some of the best prestige TV ever created or some of the biggest movies in the world. Since TNT is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the game will stream on the company’s flagship streaming service Max. The service isn’t a great way to stream the entire CFP, since it will only host this game and Clemson vs. Texas, but if you are looking just to watch this game, you can do so for just $10 via a subscription to Max.
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.
| DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Free 3-Day Trial | Free Trial | Get 50% OFF | Sign Up | |||
| $86.99 | $94.99 | $82.99 | $28 | $45.99 | $45.99 | $82.99 | ||
| TNT | ✓ | - | ✓ | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
How to watch SMU vs. Penn 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 SMU vs. Penn 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