Northwestern vs FAU live stream: Can you watch for free?

After a magical run to the Final Four a year ago, FAU–which returns most of the same roster–is back in the familiar spot of an 8 vs. 9 matchup, as the Owls take on Northwestern in a Round of 64 game today.

This one kicks off Friday’s slate of games, and it’s almost time for tip off, which will happen at 12:15 p.m. ET. It will be televised on CBS, but if you don’t have cable, there are a bunch of different ways you can watch a live stream of this one for free.

Is There a Free FAU vs Northwestern Live Stream?

There are a lot of different ways you can watch this specific game for free, but two options stand out as the best if you want to watch March Madness for the entire weekend at no cost.

With either YouTube TV (“Base Plan”) or DirecTV Stream (“Entertainment” package or above), not only do you get CBS (live in most markets) for this game, but you’ll also get TBS, TNT and truTV for every other tournament game. Both of these live-TV streaming services come with a free five-day trial, meaning you can watch all 32 games between Friday and Sunday before needing to pay anything.

There are some other options if you’re just interested in watching this one (and the other CBS games).

The Paramount+ “with SHOWTIME” option will get you a live stream of your local CBS channel. This is just $12 per month and comes with a free seven-day trial. That’s all you need for this particular game, but if you want, you can also sign up for a month of Max–which has the TBS, TNT and truTV games–for $10, giving you every tournament game for a total of $22. That’s the cheapest way to do that.

Fubo is another full-on cable-replacing live-TV streaming service. The “Pro” channel plan includes a massive 180-plus channels, but unfortunately the Turner-owned networks are not included. That means no TNT, TBS or truTV, but it does come with CBS (live in most markets), so it’ll work for FAU vs Northwestern.

Finally, you can also watch the game on the March Madness Live app or website. This option will include every tournament game so long as you sign in with a cable provider, but even if you don’t have that, you can watch unrestricted for your first three hours.

How to Watch the FAU vs Northwestern Live Stream from Abroad

If you want to watch YouTube TV, DirecTV Stream or any of the previously mentioned streaming services from outside of the United States, you will need a virtual private network (VPN). A VPN can hide your IP address and connect you digitally to a US-based server, allowing you to bypass geo-locks and stream as if you were actually in the country.

There are plenty of good VPN’s out there–you can check out our ranking of the best VPN services–but we would start with NordVPN, which is reliable, fast and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.