The 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship will take place on Monday, January 19 at 7:30 PM ET. The game will be played at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Depending on the results of the playoff quarterfinals and semifinals, the National Championship team will feature two of the following teams: Oregon, Texas Tech, Alabama, Indiana, Ole Miss, Georgia, Miami (FL), or Ohio State.
This is an extremely popular sporting event which means there’ll be plenty of unlicensed streams. However, we’re only recommending official sources for watching the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship. That way, you can avoid issues including low resolution, heavy lag and buffering, and the risk of the stream being taken offline for violating copyright.
The 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship will only be shown on region-locked services. That’s why you’ll need a VPN if you want to live stream the game when travelling abroad (outside the US).
How to live stream the 2026 College Football Playoff
A VPN works by encrypting your data and routing it to one of its own servers. By connecting to a server in the US, for instance, you can get a US IP address from anywhere in the world. This allows you to fake your location and access region-locked services showing the National Championship game from any location.
Here’s how to watch the 2026 College Football Playoff online from anywhere:
- First of all, sign up for a VPN. We recommend NordVPN although Surfshark and IPVanish are two affordable alternatives with strong unblocking ability.
- Next, download and install the appropriate VPN app for your device before logging in.
- Connect to a VPN server in the US. You’ll then have a US IP address, allowing you to unblock ESPN and watch the 2026 National Championship game abroad.
- Go to ESPN (or a streaming service offering ESPN) and sign in. Alternatively, create an account if you don’t have one already.
- Try playing a video; it should be unblocked. If not, clear your browser’s cache and cookies before refreshing the page. Another possible solution is to connect to another server as it may be that the one you’re using has been blacklisted.
The 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship will be shown live on ESPN. For this reason, we strongly recommend you test your VPN ahead of time. This helps avoid any unwanted last-minute surprises and gives you time to contact your VPN’s customer support for further assistance if needed.
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How to watch the 2026 National Championship game in the USA
The 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship will air on ESPN. If you have cable TV, your package may already include ESPN which means you’ll be able to watch at no extra cost. Simply go to WatchESPN and sign in with your TV provider, entering your email address or username and password.
It’s also possible to watch the 2026 National Championship without cable. Many streaming services offer ESPN as part of their live TV packages:
- FuboTV ($45.99 USD for the first month and then $55.99 each month)
- Hulu + Live TV ($89.99/month)
- Sling TV ($45.99/month)
- YouTube TV ($72.99/month for the first three months and $82.99/month thereafter).
With the exception of Sling TV, these services include free trial periods, meaning it’s possible to live stream the National Championship for free by signing up and then canceling the account after the game (before the free trial period expires). However, it’s important to know that the above services require a US payment method, which makes it difficult to sign up from abroad.
While ESPN and streaming services such as Hulu and YouTube TV are region-locked, you can unblock them abroad with a VPN. All you need to do is connect to a US server and you’ll have a US IP address for watching outside the US.
NordVPN includes a 30-day money-back guarantee. As such, you can stream the college football bowl game risk-free and receive a full refund if the VPN doesn’t meet expectations.
How to watch the 2026 National Championship game in the UK
Football fans in the UK will be able to watch the 2026 College Football National Championship on DAZN. Better still, you can watch college games on DAZN for free. All you’ll need is a free DAZN account (you’ll need to provide an email address to register) and you’ll be all set.
Although DAZN is available in most countries, college football content such as the National Championship game will only be available in select countries, the UK included. As such, you’ll need a VPN to watch as normal while traveling abroad. For example, a UK IP address to watch the UK version of DAZN from anywhere.
What should I know about the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship?
The 2026 College Football Playoffs are well underway with James Madison, Oklahoma, Tulane, and Texas A&M all eliminated following the first round. That leaves Oregon, Texas Tech, Alabama, Indiana, Ole Miss, Georgia, Miami (FL), and Ohio State battling it out in the quarterfinals on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
This year’s College Football Playoff National Championship is the 12th of its kind and will be played at Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins, in Miami Gardens, Florida. As it stands, Ohio State remains the strong favorite to win the 2026 College Football Championship, which would be back-to-back titles for the Buckeyes.
Can I use a free VPN to watch the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship?
The trouble with free VPNs is that they don’t successfully unblock the streaming platforms showing the College Football National Championship game, such as ESPN and DAZN. Even if you got lucky and found an IP address that did work, speeds would likely be too slow for streaming anyway, due to the heavy bandwidth throttling imposed by most free VPN services.
Performance isn’t the only limitation with free VPNs either. Many lack sufficient encryption to keep your data secure. This could put personal information in the hands of hackers or snoopers. It’s also important to question how a free VPN is making money. This may be through extensive data logging which may see your browsing activity sold to third parties.
