How to watch this week’s Baylor-UTSA football game on Facebook

As you may have heard, this week’s Baylor football game is not on ESPN, or FS1, or Fox Sports Southwest. It’s on Facebook.

Yes, Facebook.

This raises two big questions; below is our best effort to answer them.

Why is this game on Facebook?
College football television assignments are based on which school’s home game it is. Saturday, the Bears play at UT-San Antonio, which is part of Conference USA. Conference USA’s primary TV deal is with CBS Sports — and CBS Sports has decided to sublicense some of its games to Facebook.

How do I watch the game on my TV?
The simplest way to watch the game is on your computer, tablet or phone, right inside the usual Facebook app (here’s the link). But if you want to watch it on your television, here are some options:

• If you have a laptop (or your desktop computer is close enough to your TV), you can connect your laptop to your computer via HDMI other types of cable. (Here’s how.)
• If you have certain types of smart TVs or streaming devices (like an Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Xbox One), you can download the Facebook Watch app and stream that way. (Here’s how.)
• If you have an iPhone or iPad and an Apple TV, you can use AirPlay to show the game on your TV. (Here’s how.)
• If you have a PC and a Google ChromeCast, you can share your computer screen with your TV. (Here’s how.)

[Direct link to watch the game on Saturday]

Sure, it’s complicated and unusual. But… it also appears to be the way of the future. Facebook has had exclusive rights to one Major League Baseball game a week for almost two years now; Amazon is in its second year of streaming the NFL’s Thursday Night Football; and Twitter has experimented with both MLB and the NHL. In time, we’ll get used to having streaming apps for these services the same way we got used to streaming Netflix and Hulu.

And if none of the options above work for you, you can always go to the game — tickets are still available through the UTSA ticket office — or listen to the radio broadcast of the game via BaylorBears.com, the Tune-In app or on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio.

Sic ’em, Bears!