Looking at using the Spectrum Choice app...

That actually does a great job of answering my question. As long as I have a "provider" I can get the ESPN app materials? I don't know if you're familiar with Spectrum Choice (they don't advertise it) but you get all your locals plus 10 cable channels of your pick for $20. My plan was to make ESPN one of those 10 and use their app and pony up for the ESPN+. The only question now is that daggone CBSSPORTSNETWORK. You'd think CBS would offer those games on their all access??

I cancelled DirecTV right before the season. Ohio games basically are all I really care to watch and my kids otherwise dominate the TV and seem to prefer to watch YouTube videos of people playing video and computer games.

I've done one-week trials with Sling, Hulu, YouTubeTV and Playstation Vue in order to watch televised games. One of those trials allowed me to watch two games with one trial because the games were six days apart. The rest of the games I've been able to watch with ESPN3 or ESPN+ or I was there. I signed up for Vue on Friday. I might keep it for one month because it's half price for one month and that should cover Ohio's bowl game, plus the basketball game against Xavier and perhaps the Purdue game. If needed, I still can do a trial with DirecTV now. That's basically been my plan to get me through this year at least. Spectrum Choice is another possibility if needed.

One thing I noticed about a few of the streaming options is they allow you to pause your service for as short as a week, so if you are going on vacation or you know there really isn't going to be much on TV you want to watch for a while, you can pause and then resume and not pay for that time. From what I remember about DirecTV, you had to "pause" your service for something like two months minimally. Also, you can straight up cancel at the end of any month and never are locked in for a certain amount of time. I don't know that I'll sign up for anything long-term any time soon, but if I do, it definitely will be one of the streaming services. I really liked the wide assortment of sports channels on most of them.