Alabama vs. Clemson: How to Watch the 2017 National Title Game, Ranked

Hey, did you know the National Title game was tonight? If you live in a cave and haven’t had the internet in a while...it’s tonight. And if you’ve somehow avoided ESPN for the past few weeks, there are a whopping TWELVE different formats in which to view the game. They come in different forms of the standard format, Spanish, different ESPN commentaries, analytics, etc. With so many, why not rank them while also listing out what they are? Let’s do it!

“Sounds of the Game” || ESPN Classic

I had a hard time determining the top one here (but certainly not the worst), but watching a commercial free broadcast with no announcing and pure sounds of the game with over 100 microphones placed around the field ranks up there. You don’t have to worry about commercials, announcers and you get to hear what I'm sure will be multiple bone crushing hits. The only downside could perhaps be how crowd noise effects the microphones but the potential is there.

Standard Game Broadcast || ESPN

This is pretty straight forward and the mute option is always there. The announcers on the main ESPN channel are Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit, which isn’t an awful combination and are easy to tune out if necessary. It’s hard to go wrong here.

“Film Room” || ESPNNews

This broadcast mutes out the sounds of the game and gives you instead Dino Babers, Dave Doeran, PJ Fleck, and Matt Rhule amongst others as the commentary on the game. Mark Helfrich was supposed to join as well but I couldn’t find confirmation after he was let go.

“Command Center” || ESPN Goalline

This is underrated in terms of the ESPN station it is being carried on but this will have a live split of the live game action and give you an instant replay of every single play on the other screen along with no commercials. No more having to pause and rewind to see something the teleprompter didn’t instant replay. This could get sticky though if the hurry up is utilized.

“Spider Cam” (All-22 Look) || ESPN3 (WatchESPN app)

Otherwise known as how all coaches are going to initially review the game film from the game, this look will provide an aerial shot of the game from ESPN’s spidercam that provides a high angle view and natural sounds of the game (no announcing FTW).

Standard Game Broadcast, Spanish || ESPN Deportes

Can’t knock this one down since it’s the same thing as #2 but in Spanish. Depending on the standard game announcing, listening in Spanish could be better, right?

“Data Center” || ESPN3 (WatchESPN app)

This unfortunately is relegated to ESPN3 so you’ll have to pull it up online. This view of the game should give you a side by side view of the game along with various analytical game stats as the game progresses. Nerds rejoice, even you can enjoy the game while nerding out!

Clemson Announcers on Standard Game View || ESPN3 (WatchESPN app)

This is the game shown on ESPN overlaid with Clemson Homer announcers. Sounds thrilling.

Alabama Broadcast Announcers on Standard ESPN view || ESPN3 (WatchESPN app)

Not to be outdone, this is the game as shown on ESPN overlaid with Alabama announcers. This sounds right up there with Finebaum’s feed below.

“ESPN Voices” || ESPNU

If you really enjoy torture, tune in here! Jay Bilas, Keyshawn Johnson, and Bill Walton. Hot taeks anyone?

“Homers Broadcast” || ESPN2

This would be ranked much higher if the Big Ten had a rooting interest. This will be the standard ESPN gamefeed with Joe Tessitore, Tahj Boyd, and Barrett Jones as the announcers. What could go wrong?

Finebaum’s Film Room || SEC Network

I have no idea who outside of the state of Alabama is watching this. This has to be the worst ever.

All TV feeds will begin with the game broadcasting around 8:15pm ET or so but have various shows leading up to it still showing. All online feeds presumably start up right around 8-8:15pm ET when kickoff is scheduled. What do you all think on the rankings? What’s too low or too high?