ESPN makes ‘College GameDay’ announcement amid YouTube TV standoff

Oregon fans pack the barricade ahead of ESPN’s “College GameDay” | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As ESPN and YouTube continue to bicker like an old wives' supper club over the return of ESPN/Disney's bundle of channels back to YouTube TV, there's at least one sliver of good news this week regarding 'College GameDay.' Don't worry, you can read about the very bad news, which also dropped on Friday regarding the dispute.

Long story short: ESPN/ABC channels are unlikely to return to your YouTube TV service in time for the Saturday slate of college football. A truly irreconcilable offense by both parties, frankly. But anywho, ESPN did announce Friday afternoon that they still plan to show Saturday morning's 'College GameDay' episode for free on the ESPN app and live on the Pat McAfee Show X/Twitter account.

"As we continue to work on reaching a fair resolution with YouTube TV so they can restore our networks, this week College GameDay will be available, once again, to all fans on the ESPN App with no subscription or authentication needed. Fans can also watch all three hours on X @PatMcAfeeShow," ESPN PR tweeted out.

Catch ESPN’s @CollegeGameDay live from Lubbock for a Top 10 Showdown with @PatrickMahomes as guest picker!

As we continue to work on reaching a fair resolution with YouTube TV so they can restore our networks, this week College GameDay will be available, once again, to all fans… pic.twitter.com/Ls0LRCCuwc

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) November 7, 2025

ESPN actually did the same thing last weekend, perhaps only adding salt to the eventual wound when, at noon, when actual games began, fans were not able to watch for free. If you think about it, if ESPN really wanted to win some support back over, they'd have just let fans streamed all of last weekend's games for free instead of allowing GameDay but no actual games. But we know that fools operate these corporations.

Instead, you will be able to watch GameDay until noon, when you'll be asked to fork over whatever amount of money to watch the game through ESPN. But here's the secret: You can watch the games for free! Yes. Just punch up YouTube.com and navigate over to the "live" section, where you'll probably find dozens of free live-streams of the college football noon slate. At least, that was the case last weekend.

So, if you're frantically trying to figure out how you'll watch your favorite team's game on Saturday withut being milked for more money than you've already forked over as a basic YouTube TV subscirber — just go to the actual YouTube page, who is taking really nice care of the people out there just looking to watch a game.

For now, though, greedy companies worth billions and trillions of dollars will continue this drag-out boxing match in the middle of the home stretch of the regular season. Man, what a bunch of nonsense for the good hardworking fans who make this whole crazy sport go around to have to deal with.