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Got March Madness? Thirty-six ways to watch live sports online.

As TV goes increasingly a la carte, live sports is one of the last bastions of relevance for cable companies. But there are ways to watch some content for free. 

f you want to give up cable but can't bring yourself to do it because you would miss all of the live sports you love to watch, this article is for you.

It's absolutely聽true that聽major league sports and cable providers work hard to make sure you stay subscribed to their cable packages. In a world where nearly everything you want to watch can be found online through Netflix, Amazon, Hulu Plus, and former cable darlings like HBO and Showtime recently have broken free with a la carte options that circumvent the need for cable entirely, the popularity of sports is one of the last bastions of relevancy they've got.

It's not impossible to stream and watch live sports without cable, though, and so we've dug up everything we could find on all of the ways you can watch football, basketball, baseball, hockey and more online, sometimes even for free. Even better, every option on our list is 100% legal.

Many聽of the options we've listed below do require a cable subscription, and we call it out when that's the case, but you'll be surprised how many are free or available for a fee with no cable subscription needed.

For in-depth cordcutting advice that goes beyond sports, check out our聽post,聽.

For Sports in General

Cost: $20/month
Pioneered by Dish, Sling TV is easily the best option for sports fans who want to cut their cable subscription but can't live without ESPN.聽SlingTV costs $20/month (that adds up to $240/year),聽but that's聽still a whole lot less than your cable is likely costing you. Plus, it's not like ESPN is all you're getting for your money.聽, and then there are聽cable staples like聽Cartoon Network, TNT, TBS, HGTV, Food Network, Adult Swim and more. Bottom line, if聽you want to聽kiss cable good bye but can't help but chew your lip at the thought of giving up football and Fixer Upper, Sling TV is exactly what you're looking for. If you're still not sure that it's for you, take advantage of their聽.

Requires cable subscription, but select games are聽available to聽everyone
CBS served up the聽Super Bowl and all of the playoff games leading up to it free online and through the CBS Sports app, no cable subscription required.聽CBS also streamed two regular season NFL games last year, as well as most of its March Madness tourney games. So聽while it's not a given that the games they televise will be streaming free online for cordcutters, it's also not out of the question.

Select markets only
If you're lucky enough to live in one of a handful of markets, then you can stream聽any games broadcast on聽ABC聽online through ABC Live. It's reportedly available in聽Chicago, Fresno, Houston, Los Angeles, NYC, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco. We were able to field test it in Chicago and it worked pretty well.

听补苍诲听
Requires a cable subscription
You'll need to maintain a cable subscription to access live streaming sports聽on聽NBC and Fox.聽This clearly doesn't work if you're a cordcutter like me, but who said you had to stream it?聽That's what the over-the-air HD signal is for.

Requires a cable subscription
Our least favorite option for sports, all live content on the WatchESPN mobile app聽is cable-locked, with no over-the-air option, planting this firmly in "what's the point, really" territory for would-be cordcutters. But it is still streamable content, so there you go.

National Football League

Requires Verizon phone service
聽customers can use NFL Mobile app聽to stream in-market and nationally televised NFL games for free on their smartphones. Plus,聽iPhones聽can airplay that stream聽to an聽聽so you're not stuck watching it on a teeny tiny screen.

Requires DirecTV subscription OR聽meeting eligibility criteria
Cost: $199-$359
The simplest way to get access to NFLSundayTicket.tv is to subscribe to DirecTV satellite cable service. However, if you聽don't have DirecTV you may be able to get it anyway聽. Basically, if you live in an apartment or condo聽where DirecTV isn't an option, live in select neighborhoods of select cities, are a student attending聽a participating university, or DirecTV has determined that you can't get service because of obstructed access to satellite signals or your building won't let you put up a dish, you聽might聽be able to聽subscribe a la carte.

P.S. Thursday Night Football is up for grabs!
Football fans should also keep an eye on this story: The NFL is currently taking bids for digital streaming rights to Thursday Night Football, and rumored bidders include Facebook, Amazon and Verizon. It's unclear what a Facebook offering would look like, but聽聽is likely to聽tie it to its聽聽service, netting a whole slew of new Prime subscribers in the process, while Verizon's version would聽flow pretty naturally into its existing NFL Mobile package.

Major League Baseball

Cost:聽$84.99-$109.99 annually
Streaming options for baseball are considerably more limited than you find for football, but the good news is that it's also much simpler. Springing for the $109.99聽lump sum annual package is $20 cheaper than paying month-to-month if you know you're going to stick around for the entire season.聽If you're really only interested in following a single team, though, that will save you an additional聽$25.

The catch with MLB.tv is that they're really only good for watching out-of-market games, even when in-market games aren't being broadcast on an over-the-air signal.聽So it's great if you're a Cardinals fan living in Chicago, but if you're a Cubs fan, MLB.tv is going to be a waste of money unless you layer on a VPN like聽聽that fools the server into thinking you're watching from, say, Canada or the UK (which is also a neat trick for games broadcast on ESPN that are聽subject to a national blackout). Not that while using a VPN to fake your location is not illegal, it聽is聽against MLB's terms of service, so deploy this trick聽at your own peril.

National Basketball Association

Cost: $99.99 annually or $36.99/month
As with baseball, the NBA League Pass is聽a standalone streaming package聽that allows fans to watch out-of-market games. I haven't personally road tested the VPN workaround on NBA games, but a friend confirms that it does indeed work.

National Hockey League

Cost: $159.99 annually
If hockey is your jam, NHL.tv is your new best friend. Of course,聽your viewing is still limited to out-of-market games, and the VPN trick may or may not get you around the geoblock. It's the priciest of the streaming standalone offerings from major league sports, but you can subscribe to the rest of the 2016 season right now for just $24.99.

颁辞濒濒别驳别听厂辫辞谤迟蝉

Cost: $9.99/month
Can't get enough college sports?聽Most conferences have their own network apps, but College Sports LIVE is the one network to rule them all, covering live sporting events at 92 schools for聽$9.99聽per聽month.

See also:

• 听补苍诲听
• 聽(Big 10 Conference)
• 聽(Southeastern Conference)
• 聽(Ohio Valley Conference)
• 聽(Western Athletic Conference)

Major League and International Soccer

Cost: $79.99/year or $15.99/month
MLS Live wins points for聽not blacking out in-market games. However, it does blackout all nationally televised matches, and the service is only available in the US and Canada. That means if a US team is playing a Canadian team in a nationally televised match, not even the VPN workaround will work for you, sorry.

See also:

• 聽- $9.99/month
• 聽- from $5/month
• 聽- $8.99/month

Figure Skating & Speed Skating

• 聽- from $49.99/year

Eurovision and CBC may be geoblocked, so keep your VPN handy.

More Sports!

• 骋辞濒蹿:听
• 罢别苍苍颈蝉:听
• 鲍贵颁:听聽(from $49.99 per event, or from $76.96 for a 6-month聽UFC Fight Pass)
• 奥奥贰:听听($9.99/尘辞苍迟丑)
• 尝补肠谤辞蝉蝉别:听聽 ($7.99/month)
• 颁谤颈肠办别迟:听听($14.99/尘辞苍迟丑)

Even More Sports!

• 聽you'll need a VPN like Hola.org聽to get around the geoblock - includes聽most European sports. We found the Ski jumping, cross-country skiing,聽Eurocup basketball, and for cycling fans we also spotted the Grand Prix Le Samyn in Belgium.
• 聽- aggregates a bunch of free livestreaming sports sites ranging from European聽soccer leagues to American college sports conferences.

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