Don’t miss Ohio State vs. Tennessee in the College Football Playoff
Don’t miss Ohio State vs. Tennessee in the College Football Playoff
The final first-round game of the CFP will be played under the lights in a sub-freezing Horseshoe.
The first weekend of the 2024-25 College Football Playoff will wrap up with a night game inside the cathedral of college football known as Ohio Stadium as the No. 7-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes host the No. 8 seed Tennessee Volunteers in a first-round matchup. The two squads come into the CFP with a lot to prove as neither was able to make their respective conference championship games. The winner will face off against the No. 1 Oregon Ducks in a week and a half, but it will be a cold, defensive struggle in The Horseshoe to determine who will survive and advance. You can watch this matchup and every College Football Playoff game with a subscription to Sling TV.
How to watch the Tennessee vs. Ohio State College Football Playoff game
- When: Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024 at 8 p.m. ET
- TV: 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 Tennessee vs. Ohio State in the CFP:
Watch a preview of Tennessee vs. Ohio State
Why we chose Sling TV to watch Tennessee vs. Ohio 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 Tennessee 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.
Tennessee vs. Ohio State game breakdown
There is obviously pressure on every team and coach in the College Football Playoff, as every matchup is an elimination game. However, there is arguably no one more underpressure this post season than Ohio State head coach Ryan Day. Despite an impressive overall record, Day has struggled in marquee matchups, including four-straight losses to archrival Michigan. Many around Buckeye Nation believe that the Buckeyes need to make a major run in the postseason, potentially even winning the national championship, for the head coach to keep his job.
Fortunately, he has arguably the most talented roster in college football, and they will be playing at home as Josh Heupel’s Vols will come to town and try to help prove that the SEC is the most dominant conference in all of college football. The game features two of the best defensive units in the country. The Buckeyes have the best scoring defense (allowing just 10.9 points per game) and total defense (just 241.1 yards per game), but Tennessee isn’t far behind, giving up just 13.9 points and 278.3 yards per game, good for fourth nationally in each category.
The difference will likely come down to whose offense can break through the most. Ohio State is led by the country’s fourth most accurate passer Will Howard (72.3%) and features arguably the best stable of playmakers in the country, led by wide receivers Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka, and Carnell Tate, along with running backs TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins. The problem for the Buckeyes is that coming into the year, their offensive line was the glaring weak spot, and that has only been exacerbated by season-ending injuries to their two best linemen Josh Simmons and Rimington Award winner Seth McLaughlin.
On the other side of the ball, Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson was the SEC Offensive Player of the Year, leading the league in rushes (256), rushing yards (1,485), and rushing touchdowns (22). Despite Heupel’s reputation as an air-raid coach, The Vols have thrown the ball just 39% of the time this season, and given the sub-freezing temperatures, that’s not likely to change.
The Vegas oddsmakers have Ohio State as 7.5-point favorites and an over/under score of 46.5 points. So, they are predicting a final score in the ballpark of 27 to 20 in favor of the home Buckeyes.
What are all of the streamers you can use to watch Tennessee vs. Ohio State?
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 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 | ||
| ESPN | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ | - | ✓ | |
How to watch Tennessee 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 Tennessee 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