It’s Saturday night. You’re relaxing at home and want to watch the football team from the university you attend, graduated from, or have supported your entire life.

Then you discover you have to pay to watch the game.

And finding the game next week may be an entirely different experience.

One week it might be ESPN+. Another week it could be a traditional network, cable sports channel, or another streaming service. Following your team for an entire season can mean navigating multiple networks, subscriptions and streaming platforms just to find out where the game is.

Arizona sports fans deserve better access.

Opening weekend of the 2026 college football season provided a perfect example. Northern Arizona University's season opener was available on ESPN+. Arizona State University's opener against Morgan State and the University of Arizona's game against NAU were also scheduled exclusively on ESPN+, with no television broadcast.

Meanwhile, Arizona's professional sports franchises have demonstrated that expanding public access can be a priority. The NFL ensures Arizona Cardinals games remain available on local over-the-air television, even when games are carried nationally by streaming services. The Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury have embraced extensive over-the-air distribution through Arizona's Family, and the Arizona Diamondbacks have expanded their over-the-air presence through a partnership with 12 News.

So we asked a simple question:

How easy is it for Arizonans to watch the teams representing Arizona's public universities?

Our research for Arizona Sports Access — Broadcast • Stream • Watch examined broadcast and streaming availability for professional and university sports throughout Arizona. We developed a Sports Access Score measuring how readily Arizona residents can watch their teams without encountering a paid viewing barrier.

The results surprised us.

Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University all scored poorly for public viewing access. Meanwhile, private Grand Canyon University has established broadcast partnerships that make many of its athletic events readily available to viewers throughout Arizona.

ASU, UArizona and NAU are public institutions supported by Arizona taxpayers, students, alumni and their communities. This does not mean taxpayer dollars directly pay for athletic broadcasts, and we recognize that universities do not control every game. Conference agreements and national media contracts determine where many events appear.

We are not asking our universities to break those agreements. We are asking them to make access part of the conversation.

When universities control their media rights, we want broad Arizona access to be a priority. When future media agreements are negotiated, we want accessibility to Arizona residents considered. And we want each public university to clearly report where its athletic events can be watched and how many require paid television or streaming services.

As an Arizona State University graduate alumnus and Arizona resident, I am proud of our public universities. This effort isn't about attacking them. It's about asking them to lead.

The teams that represent Arizona should be accessible to Arizona.

Our goal is to bring together 10,000 Arizonans who agree that greater broadcast and streaming access to our public university sports deserves serious consideration.

Arizona Sports Access
Broadcast • Stream • Watch