Colorado’s home opener against Weber State kicks off Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Mountain — and if you go looking for it on your television, you are not going to find it.
How to Watch the Buffs This Week — sponsored by SportsDeck
Football: Weber State at Colorado
Saturday, 1:30 p.m. Mountain — ESPN+
Here is the part that catches people out every single year, so it is worth being blunt about it: ESPN+ is not the ESPN channel that you think it is. Turn on plain old ESPN at 1:30 on Saturday and you will NOT get CU’s game. ESPN+ is a separate service, and a large share of non-conference and Olympic-sport college football lives there and nowhere else.
If you have YouTube TV, you are probably already covered — and this is newer than most people realize. ESPN and YouTube TV now link accounts directly, so YouTube TV subscribers with ESPN get ESPN+ content inside the YouTube TV app rather than juggling a second subscription and a second login. For a college football fan that quietly makes YouTube TV one of the more sensible packages out there, because the ESPN+ games stop being a separate errand. Link your ESPN account in the app if you have not already.
Other ways you may already have it without realizing:
- A Disney+ or Hulu bundle. Several plans include ESPN+ at no extra cost. Check before you buy anything.
- ESPN Unlimited. ESPN’s full plan carries the ESPN networks and ESPN+ together.
- Some TV providers. A handful bundle ESPN+ into their packages. Worth two minutes in your account settings.
If none of those apply, ESPN+ on its own is the cheapest route in, and you can cancel it after the season.
Also on the schedule
- Volleyball vs. Oregon State — Friday, 5:30 p.m. MT, B1G+
- Soccer vs. Denver — Friday, 7:00 pm, ESPN+
- Volleyball at USC — Saturday, 7:00 p.m. MT, B1G+
Both volleyball matches are in Los Angeles — the Buffs are playing a tournament hosted by USC, so Friday’s meeting with Oregon State is a neutral-site match rather than a trip to Corvallis. That is also why both land on B1G+: the Big Ten’s streaming service carries events its member schools host, and USC is the host here. Colorado is in the Big 12, so the Buffs themselves are not on B1G+ often — but they will be any time they play at a Big Ten venue, and that is a subscription most Colorado fans have no reason to already own. And yes, B1G+ is the streaming service carried by the Big 10 Network — not the Big 10 Network itself!
The soccer team is celebrating 30 years of the program’s history this Friday night against Denver, and bringing back many of the program’s luminaries. This is definitely worth a watch as the nationally ranked Buffs look to take on an in-state rival.
Looking ahead
Colorado travels to Northwestern on Friday, September 19 at 5:30 p.m. Mountain. The game will be on Fox or Fox Sports – this still hasn’t been determined.
This section is sponsored by SportsDeck — an app I built after getting tired of finding out my team had played yesterday, on a channel I already had.
You pick your teams — or entire leagues, so every Buffs game across every sport lands automatically — and it shows you what is on today, what time it starts in your time zone, and exactly where to watch it based on the services you actually pay for. It also tells you whether there is a cheaper way to watch more of your teams’ games than what you have now. And every morning it emails you the day’s slate before your coffee is done.
Your teams’ news, podcasts and YouTube channels come in one place too — just like the old sports page you miss, updated for today’s world.
Your first month of Pro is free. Get the iPhone app or start at mysportsdeck.com.