TV at the tailgate

Thought about that but the eduroam was never strong on my phone once everyone else got to campus and our spot is t near any of the buildings so I doubt it would be strong enough.

I’m just curious if something like a tv running off the WiFi from a Verizon Jetpack or something equivalent is actually “stronger” than just screen mirroring with my phone and will run a semi fluid stream or not.

Just get an antenna and watch the CBS/FOX/ABC/NBC games.

You're going to need satellite. Find someone who already has directv and add a box to their account and reimburse them for the months of football season.

Deactivate the box when the season is over. Unless you are straight up tailgating in the enchanted forest you'll be able to find a gap and get a signal. You may need a super long coax though.

Edit: just make sure you don't add a client box because those don't work on their own. Needs to be a master.

You will try all of these alternatives and then be pissed when it buffers and the quality is shite. I've been there.

If your group plans to make this a permanent tailgate, go ahead and put up the money now for a dish setup. It's an expensive initial investment, but not that bad if spread out between everyone. We got the Dish Tailgater and couldn't be happier. Effortless setup and you only pay for the subscription for the months you actually use it.

Roku or Firestick then throw up your hotspot. Did it for years and it was fine. We used to tailgate in front of the Vet Center and never had issues. Now we are in the Hayfield. Used it a few times but we have the Tailgater now.

Depends on how reliable you want, really. The simplest way would be a phone with unlimited data and a firestick or a chromecast that you can cast to. If you're relying on a phone to provide the bandwidth on gameday, though, that's playing with fire and dynamite.

If the game you want to watch is televised on one of the over the air networks, bunny ears should do fine, but if you want ESPN or a non-broadcast network, satellite may be your only other option if you don't want to risk being without TV. Your best option really will be to add the satellite subscription as a line item to the dues for the tailgate and just be done with it.

I'd also recommend getting someone really good to be the treasurer and account for everything. It makes it so much easier. Before we disbanded our tailgate, our treasurer would send everyone a "state of the tailgate" email every year on June 1. It was just one PDF of the tailgate's ledger with a copy of the bank statement from each of the prior 12 months and a copy of every bill the tailgate incurred over the prior 12 months. Every cent was accounted for and the upcoming year's tentative dues were announced, which was the total consumable outlay (food, drinks, beer and liquor, paper plates, satellite costs, etc.) from the past year plus 5% for inflation plus an assessment for any capital outlays, like a new TV, new satellite equipment, tables, tents, etc.

The Saturday before July 1, we had a meeting where everyone who wanted to stay in would get together and the treasurer would announce the actual final dues based on the number who wanted to stay. We'd vote on whether to dissolve or keep going and set the final members' list and the final dues for the year. Half of the dues were due at the meeting to allow for the tailgate to make the capital outlays we needed in plenty of time for the season. The other half of the dues were payable before kickoff of the first game or you were forfeit and removed from the rolls. This half basically covered the weekly expenses, so if anyone decided not to pay the second half of dues, it wouldn't frick the rest of us over. Most of us just paid in full at the meeting and were done with it, but we left the graduated payment scheme in because we knew that not all of our members could absorb that big of a discretionary payout in one lump.

It may sound like a lot, but we learned the hard way that it's far better to start that way when you have only 5 or 6 guys than to try to implement it when you have 20-30 members and people start getting fricking sketchy about how the money's used and paying their dues. It makes things run so much smoother when everyone can see where the money goes, knows when and how the money is due, and nobody can start mouthing off about it halfway through a season.

I really miss being able to tailgate every home game with my buddies, but we all got old enough that we started moving, having too many kids, etc., and just couldn't justify keeping it going. It was a fun 15 years, though.

I digress, though.

Good luck to you and your buddies. Have some fun.

Rabbit ears for local channels. Satellite for ESPN or Fox sports. Been tailgating on the old front nine for years and LTE service starts to have problems around 3 with so many people on campus. LTE will work for watching gameday or sec nation then switch to rabbit ears for 11am and 2pm games.