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Already halfway to last year’s win total following an absolute trouncing of Hawaii in Week 0, Vanderbilt returns home for a matchup against FCS squad Elon on Saturday.
The game (7 p.m. ET start time) isn’t on regular TV, but it will stream live on both SEC Network+ (this can be watched on the ESPN app or website if you have a cable package or streaming service that includes SEC Network) and ESPN+.
Here’s a full guide on how to watch Elon vs Vanderbilt:
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ESPN+
Every game that is on SEC Network+ (which is different from the regular SEC Network TV channel) is also available live on ESPN+:
ESPN+ includes hundreds of live college football games in 2022, dozens of other live sports, every 30-for-30 documentary and additional original content (both video and written) for $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year (or $13.99 per month for a bundle of all three of ESPN+, Disney+ and Hulu).
Once signed up for ESPN+, you can watch Elon vs Vanderbilt live on the ESPN app or ESPN.com.
Compatible devices for the ESPN app include Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4 or 5, Xbox One or Series X/S, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), Samsung Smart TV, Oculus Go, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet.
FuboTV
You can watch SEC Network+ with a subscription to FuboTV. You’ll need both the main channel package and the “Sports Plus” add-on, but both can be included with your free seven-day trial:
Once signed up for FuboTV, you can watch Elon vs Vanderbilt live on the ESPN app (not the FuboTV app) or ESPN.com. You’ll need to sign in to a cable provider to watch this way, but you can use your Fubo credentials to do that.
DirecTV Stream
DirecTV Stream has four different channel packages: “Entertainment,” “Choice,” “Ultimate” and “Premier.” You ‘ll need “Choice” or above to watch SEC Network+, but you can pick any package and any add-on you want with your free five-day trial:
Once signed up for DirecTV Stream, you can watch Elon vs Vanderbilt live on the ESPN app (not the DirecTV Stream app) or ESPN.com. You’ll need to sign in to a cable provider to watch this way, but you can use your DirecTV Stream credentials to do that.
Sling TV
You can watch SEC Network+ with a subscription to Sling TV. You’ll need the “Sling Orange + Sports Extra” bundle. This option doesn’t include a free trial, but it’s the cheapest long-term streaming service with SEC Network and SEC Network+, and you can get your first month half off:
Once signed up for Sling TV, you can watch Elon vs Vanderbilt live on the ESPN app (not the Sling app) or ESPN.com. You’ll need to sign in to a cable provider to watch this way, but you can use your Sling credentials to do that.
Hulu With Live TV
You can watch a live stream of SEC Network+ with a subscription to Hulu With Live TV, which also includes access to both ESPN+ and Disney+ at no added cost:
Once signed up for Hulu With Live TV, you can watch Elon vs Vanderbilt live on the Hulu app (because Hulu includes ESPN+) or Hulu website.
Compatible devices for the Hulu app include Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One or Series X/S, PlayStation 4 or 5, Nintendo Switch, Samsung TV, LG TV, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet.
You can also watch the game live on the ESPN app or ESPN.com. You’ll need to sign in to a cable provider to watch this way, but you can use your Hulu credentials to do that.
Elon vs Vandy Preview
After soundly defeating Hawaii 63-10 in week zero, the Vanderbilt Commodores are looking at a chance to open their football season at 2-0 for the first time since 2018 when the Elon Phoenix come to town for week one. Vanderbilt is favored by over 17 points, though head coach Clark Lea said that Elon is returning a lot of good players and they can’t overlook their opponent.
“[Elon] is a different challenge,” Lea said in his pre-game press conference via Vanderbilt Hustler. “We’re going to play a good team this weekend. We know what that’s like, as a program we’ve experienced this. They’re going to have a chip on their shoulder, they’re going to be connected — they have a lot of experience coming back.”
He added, “Our focus needs to be on playing at our highest level as a team. We love that we had a good result, but that for us is not our focus — our focus is to push the program to new heights and play at our highest level as a team and that requires consistency. Winning is hard, winning consistently is even harder.”
Lea also said that their decisive victory over Hawaii is “meaningless” if they don’t “build on it.”
“Any time you win, you want to take the time to celebrate appropriately. Maturity and progress is in handling the success,” said Lea. “We spent a lot of time guarding against this in our language internally. We weren’t defined by our performance, but it is a glimpse of where we’ve come. Saturday’s result is meaningless if we don’t build on it.”
That echoes what Lea said in his postgame presser (via 247sports.com) after the Hawaii win where he remarked, “I think we’re a work in progress. Our goal this season wasn’t to win this game. This was just the start of the journey for us. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. We’re gonna celebrate this one, and we’re going to enjoy it on the trip home. But the challenge is now going to be the win the trip back and reset our focus on Elon. This is the beginning of the season for us. It’s good to be 1-0, but I don’t know that this proves anything other than this team will compete, will play hard for four quarters and we gotta keep applying that formula as we move forward.”
Elon is coming off of a year where they finished 5-3, good for third place in the Colonial Athletic Association, after being predicted to finish in 12th place on the conference. The only prior matchup between these two teams came in 2011 when the Commodores beat the Phoenix 45-14.
The Elon at Vanderbilt game kicks off Saturday, September 3 at 7 p.m. Eastern on the SEC Network Plus and ESPN Plus.