There are so many small college, mid-major and some big nonconference football games that will only be streamed live on ESPN Plus (now called “ESPN Select”) this college football season. And we’re breaking down the schedule of streaming-only games on the platform in Week 3.
Sign up and start watching college football with ESPN Select now ($11.99/month, or $119.99/year for the cheapest plan tier)
Now, you may have questions about what the ESPN Select service is, where you can find it, what it costs, what a subscription to the ESPN Select or ESPN Unlimited plans include, and whether or not is is worth adding to your list of streaming services.
What college football games are streaming only on ESPN Select in Week 3?
Here’s a look at the schedule of Week 3 college football games being broadcast on ESPN Plus (now called ESPN Select or ESPN Unlimited, depending on which plan you choose).
9:00 am Samford vs. Baylor10:00 am Louisiana vs. #25 Missouri10:00 am Davidson vs. Tennessee Tech10:00 am Lafayette vs. Georgetown11:00 am New Hampshire vs. Ball State11:00 am Northern Colorado vs. South Dakota11:00 am Rhode Island vs. Holy Cross11:30 am Elon vs. Western Carolina 12:00 pm Bowie State vs. Delaware State12:00 pm San Diego vs. Montana State12:00 pm Illinois State vs. Eastern Illinois12:00 pm UConn vs. Delaware12:00 pm North Dakota vs. Montana12:30 pm VMI vs. Bucknell12:30 pm Southeast Missouri State vs. North Dakota State12:30 pm Incarnate Word vs. UTSA12:30 pm Morgan State vs. Toledo12:30 pm Northwestern State vs. Cincinnati1:00 pm Virginia Union vs. Edward Waters1:00 pm Lindenwood vs. Charleston Southern1:00 pm Utah Tech vs. Idaho1:30 pm Alabama A&M vs. Tennessee State2:00 pm Liberty vs. Bowling Green2:00 pm Eastern Washington vs. Northern Iowa3:00 pm Florida Atlantic vs. Florida International3:00 pm Monmouth vs. Charlotte3:00 pm Merrimack vs. Kennesaw State3:00 pm West Liberty vs. Robert Morris3:00 pm Fayetteville State vs. North Carolina Central3:00 pm Bethune-Cookman vs. South Carolina State3:00 pm Stetson vs. Chattanooga3:00 pm Eastern Kentucky vs. Marshall3:00 pm East Tennessee State vs. West Georgia3:00 pm Wofford vs. Mercer3:00 pm Alcorn State vs. Mississippi State4:00 pm Jacksonville State vs. Georgia Southern4:00 pm Northeastern State vs. North Alabama4:00 pm Murray State vs. Georgia State4:00 pm Drake vs. South Dakota State4:00 pm Valparaiso vs. Western Illinois4:00 pm Tarleton State vs. Central Arkansas4:00 pm Mississippi Valley State vs. SE Louisiana4:00 pm The Citadel vs. Gardner-Webb4:00 pm Prairie View A&M vs. Rice4:00 pm Weber State vs. McNeese4:00 pm Southern Illinois vs. UT Martin4:00 pm Erskine vs. Presbyterian4:00 pm Morehead State vs. Austin Peay4:00 pm App State vs. Southern Miss4:30 pm East Carolina vs. Coastal Carolina4:30 pm New Mexico State vs. Louisiana Tech5:00 pm Abilene Christian vs. TCU5:00 pm Langston vs. UT Rio Grande Valley5:00 pm Western Oregon vs. Cal Poly5:00 pm Navy vs. Tulsa5:00 pm Sul Ross State vs. Stephen F. Austin5:30 pm Akron vs. UAB5:30 pm Northern Arizona vs. Southern Utah6:00 pm Mercyhurst vs. Sacramento StateHow much do the new ESPN Plus plans cost, and is there a free trial?
Unfortunately, there is no free trial for either of the new ESPN streaming plans. The ESPN Select plan gives you access to a vast selection of live games from pro and college sports that are not being broadcast on the main ABC or any of the ESPN network TV channels. ESPN Select costs less than $12/month (it’s just $11.99/month or $119.99/annual subscription, and you can cancel anytime). On the ESPN Plus landing page, you simply choose the “ESPN Select” plan in the dropdown menu to sign up for the cheapest version of the service. The ESPN Select plan is the best deal for people who already have cable, but need the extra service to watch their small college team, or other streaming-only sports event.
While it costs more, the new ESPN Unlimited plan ($29.99/month) is the best option for cord cutters, or people without cable. ESPN Unlimited includes everything in the ESPN Select plan, plus access to all ESPN TV networks and services. That includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPN+, ESPN on ABC, SEC Network+, ACC Network Now and ESPN3.
Also, since the NFL just inked a new deal with ESPN for broadcast rights, ESPN Unlimited will now allow you to stream every NFL game being broadcast in your local market on Sunday’s as well as Monday Night Football each week. This gives you a way to watch most college football and NFL games this season for under $30 a month (select ESPN Unlimited in the dropdown menu).
What is ESPN Select and why should college football fans sign up?
ESPN Select is a live sports streaming service (formerly called ESPN+) available from ESPN, but it isn’t made available through your local cable provider. It’s not available on cable and satellite packages from companies like Comcast/Xfinity, Verizon, Frontier and DirecTV. ESPN Plus is not included on those services because the service is a direct-to-consumer platform, which helps keep the cost low and available to everyone despite their location. Here’s a look at the ESPN+ college football broadcast schedule for Week 3 and Week 4 of the 2025 college football season as an example of the kind of teams you’ll see each week.
While ESPN Select does give you access to a vast selection of live games from pro and college sports, the service will not give you access to live sports and programs being broadcast live on ESPN, ESPN2, etc. To watch those channels, you will still need cable, satellite or a live TV streaming service provider login, or you can now sign up for ESPN Unlimited, which adds all of the TV networks to your streaming plan as well.
The best deal: If you sign up for the annual plan of the “Unlimited bundle” before January 5, 2026, you can get access to ESPN Unlimited, Disney+ and Hulu for $29.99/month for 12 months before the plan auto-renews to the regular price of $36.99/month.What else comes with ESPN Select and ESPN Unlimited access? What does it include?
ESPN Select is great if you like watching a lot of live college sports, which includes smaller events like volleyball, gymnastics, basketball, soccer and more. But that’s not all they offer. What makes ESPN Plus so worth the affordable price tag is that they offer so much outside of that. ESPN Plus offers weekly UFC and other mixed martial arts events as well as a bevy of professional soccer offerings including Italian Serie A league matches, German Bundesliga matches, English FA Cup games and other tournament matches as well as regular live streaming of Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball games, NHL hockey and a lot more. ESPN Plus is essentially an on demand sports streaming service that broadcasts live games and events from essentially everything ESPN can’t fit onto their regular channels due to schedule conflicts. ESPN Plus also has a growing list of original shows and programs that are exclusive to the ESPN+ platform like documentaries, athlete profiles, original shows and more.
A subscription to ESPN+ also gives you free access to ESPN Insider on the ESPN website, which includes exclusive content and stories that you wouldn’t get without that account.
Can I get ESPN Plus games on my TV, or is it just on phones on computers?
ESPN Plus is not a TV channel, so you will have to access it through the ESPN app. If you have a smart TV that is hooked up to wifi or connected to the internet with an ethernet cable, you should have no problem downloading the ESPN app. If you don’t have a smart TV, but do have a streaming device, you can get ESPN Plus by adding the app to any of the following streaming devices that you currently use to watch TV and movies:
Apple TVRokuAmazon Fire TVAndroid TVXbox One or Xbox Series XPlaystation 4 or 5
You can also watch ESPN Plus by using the app on your desktop computer, or with your internet browser by visiting plus.espn.com.
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