Everyone knows how much weight Notre Dame carries when it comes to TV ratings. To that end, a piece by Andy Staples of The Athletic, which is available only to subscribers, indicates just how often the Irish brought in big ratings during the latter half of the previous decade. Research compiled by Sports Media Watch indicates that 17 Irish games from 2015 to 2019 were members of the Four Million Club, meaning they scored at least 4 million TV viewers. Here’s where they rank compared to other programs:
If you want TV networks to pay premium prices for your games, you need games that crack the Four Million Club.
From 2015-19, 55 SEC-on-SEC games did it. 49 Big Ten-on-Big Ten games did it.
How many Pac-12 vs. Pac-12 games did it?
Five. https://t.co/nXYEtM4C6H pic.twitter.com/F5xbgt2M3s
— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) August 16, 2021
Staples dives a little further into the numbers and indicates that four of the Notre Dame games involved Pac-12 schools (two apiece against USC and Stanford). That means almost as many Irish games involving two of their annual rivals were in the Four Million Club as pure Pac-12 games. It demonstrates how much that conference would benefit from its potential alliance with the ACC and Big Ten.
The story also shows that the Irish’s 2016 season opener at Texas on ABC drew the most viewers during the aforementioned period at nearly 10.95 million. The game was a heartbreaking 50-47 double-overtime loss for the Irish. It served as a bad omen as they eventually finished 4-8, one of the worst records in program history. Fortunately, it proved to be an aberration as they have won at least 10 games every season since.