I am able to watch the big 10 network right now on rocket streams iptv. But to answer your question yes you won't really know if you will have a stream until September when NFL and NCAA begin the season. I am in the same boat waiting until football season. All you can do is email support for smooth streams and they should tell you.

Smoothstreams and torula are pretty different and both pretty great. Torula has 24/7 streams of all their channels including pac12, csn, etc. Smoothstreams has more sports in general (even obscure sports I never heard of) and will definitely have your college games. It's going to be a personal preference and come down to what you'd like. Maybe if you're already familiar with SS, torula is worth a try.

They used to give free trials. Not sure if they still do but worth a shot. If not a short subscription will settle the question for you.