Thursday, June 19, 2008

Notre Dame & NBC: WHY?


NBC renewed its television contract with Notre Dame today through the 2015 season. The contract calls for 7 home games and 1 off-campus 'home' game. All home games at Notre Dame must be played in the afternoon. Night games are said to be too disruptive for Irish students. So with all the potentially great college football match-ups around the country practically every fall Saturday afternoon, one powerful network sticks us with Notre Dame. NBC says it is not about ratings, which are understandably down. They feel the Irish still have that 'lure'; that we want to watch them just because they're the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. I've got news for you guys: we want to watch good football teams and exciting football games. Notre Dame has finished in the Top 10 only three times during their 17 year run with the network. They were 3-9 last year. When most teams finish below .500 they have to "play their way" back on TV. In other words, they have to get better to be seen on Saturday's airways. Evidently NBC is saying they would rather have a mediocre Notre Dame as opposed to a legitimate Top 10 contest. I don't think that's quite the same as saying you'd take Tiger on 1 1/2 legs as opposed to anyone else on the PGA Tour. If you think about it this fall when ND is occupying that mid-afternoon time slot playing another "wanna be", check and see the other games not being televised that you would much rather be able to view. Now that will be a good way to get you all riled-up on Game Day.

No comments: