Watching the Texas Longhorns in 2024 is a different beast entirely
The move to the SEC changed everything about how their television schedule operates. Games that used to be predictable Big 12 afternoon windows are now scattered across Saturday afternoons, Saturday nights, and occasionally Wednesday primetime when the conference decides to shuffle things for ESPN availability. I spent years tracking long-form broadcast windows and conference rights deals, and this transition has been as messy as it sounds on paper. Here is how the schedule actually breaks down when you stop looking at the promotional material and start looking at where the broadcasts live. Most of the Saturday afternoon kickoffs air on ABC or ESPN. That is the default landing zone for regular season games that aren't in a national Saturday night window. When Texas is expected to draw a bigger audience — early season opponents, rivalry games, matchups against other top-15 SEC teams — those shift to ABC for wider broadcast reach or ESPN2 for secondary coverage. The Saturday night games, usually against higher-profile opponents or when the schedule aligns with national interest, sit on either ABC or ESPN depending on the week.
I ran into a real problem last year when trying to track down exact channel numbers for a viewer in the Austin market. The broadcast listings showed the game was on ABC, but your actual channel number depends on whether you are on DirecTV, Dish, Spectrum, AT&T TV, or a live TV streaming service. Different providers map "ABC" to different channel positions even within the same city. My workaround was straightforward: I stopped relying on provider channel maps and just went straight to the ESPN app with my TV provider login, or used the ABC app when the game was broadcast there. Both apps carry the live feed regardless of what channel number your provider assigns to that network in your area. This saves you from calling customer service or refreshing listing pages that are constantly changing. The non-conference games tend to land on the bigger networks because the conferences with national distribution deals get priority. A game against a Power Four opponent in September or October might already be set for ESPNU or the main ESPN channel before anyone knows who Texas is playing that week. Conference games, conversely, are often assigned after the strength of schedule becomes clearer. For the actual game dates, most of the schedule runs from late August through mid-November. Texas typically opens in late August or very early September with a non-conference opponent. The SEC schedule then runs from early September through late November, with most games on Saturdays between 3 PM and 7 PM Central time, though Thursday and Saturday night windows do appear. The final regular season games usually fall in the second or third week of November.
If you want to watch every game, here is what actually works in practice rather than what the articles tell you. ESPN+ is not sufficient on its own for most Texas games. The main ESPN linear channels carry the bulk of the schedule, and ESPN+ only picks up a handful of non-conference or lower-profile SEC games. If you rely solely on ESPN+, you will miss roughly half the season. A standard cable or satellite subscription that includes ESPN, ABC, and ESPNU will cover the vast majority. For streaming, YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, and DirecTV Stream all carry the relevant networks, but you need to verify that ABC is included in your specific package — some lower-tier streaming options dropped ABC coverage or restrict it to certain markets. One counter-intuitive thing most people miss: the SEC Network is not your primary resource for Texas football. The SEC Network carries some conference games, but Texas games that matter — the big Saturday matchups, the primetime slots — go to the main ESPN or ABC feed. Checking SEC Network first will make you think you are watching the right broadcast when you are actually tuned to a studio show or a completely different game. Always confirm which specific channel number corresponds to the main ESPN or ABC feed for your provider before kickoff.
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Another practical issue: regional blackout restrictions rarely apply to college football in the way they do to NFL games, but local station affiliation can still create confusion. If you are outside the Austin market, your ABC affiliate might not carry the game if it is not a high-profile matchup, and the feed could be coming from a national feed instead. This mostly matters if you are trying to use an antenna or a local stream rather than a cable or streaming service. In that case, the antenna approach will fail during regionalized broadcasts where the national feed replaces your local affiliate's programming. The practical takeaway is simple. Use a live TV streaming service or cable package that includes ABC and ESPN as primary channels. Log into the ESPN app with your credentials for the most reliable access regardless of your provider's channel mapping. Double-check the specific game broadcast window each week because SEC scheduling changes frequently due to television partner requests. And never assume SEC Network is where a Texas game will be — it is not the default destination for Longhorns broadcasts. I tracked about forty games across two seasons doing this research, and the single most consistent problem was people calling in frustration because their provider listed the game on a channel that was showing something else. It was almost always a provider mapping issue or a mid-week schedule change that had not propagated to the channel guide yet. Refreshing the guide or checking the ESPN website directly for the current broadcast assignment solved it every time.
For the exact week-by-week dates and channels, the official Texas Athletics website posts the broadcast information roughly two weeks before each game once the conference and ESPN finalize the assignments. Those listings are more reliable than any third-party aggregate site, which often publish tentative information that gets updated without notification.
