Tag: Notre Dame on NBC

Heather Dinich: Conference realignment means nothing for Notre Dame

Don’t worry, Irish fans.

To put it mildly, college football is in chaos. The Pac-12 is about to become extinct or is seriously threatened at the very least.

Oregon and Washington will join USC and UCLA in the Big Ten in 2024. Colorado is rejoining the Big 12 in 2024, and we now know Arizona, Arizona State, Utah also are heading there as well.

What does this mean for Notre Dame?

If college football insiders are to be believed, absolutely nothing. As part of a series of questions published on ESPN’s website, Heather Dinich was asked to tackle the evergreen issue of the Irish’s independence and how it applies to the changing college football climate. If you’re worried about the Irish giving into public pressure and joining a conference permanently, Dinich says don’t be:

“Notre Dame athletic director [autotag]Jack Swarbrick[/autotag] has long repeated the same three factors that could contribute to the university’s position as an independent becoming ‘unsustainable.’

Those include: the loss of a committed broadcast partner; the loss of a fair route into the postseason; or such an adverse financial consequence that would force it to reconsider.

In spite of all of the drama swirling around Notre Dame, nothing has impacted those particular factors. Notre Dame still has a strong partnership with NBC as its broadcast partner that runs through the 2025 season. It recently announced a renewed commitment to Under Armour. It also remains a partial member of the ACC in football and has a contract with the league stating that if the Irish were to relinquish their independence, it would be for the ACC.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said recently at the league’s media days that he knows how much the Irish value their independence. Notre Dame still remains the most valuable property remaining on the Monopoly board – and it’s still not for sale.”

Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune expressed similar thoughts earlier in the day. So sleep easy, Irish fans. The program is not changing its affiliation or lack thereof anytime soon. Besides, conferences need the Irish more than the Irish need them.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

NBC mostly has same Notre Dame broadcast team for 2023

We know some of you don’t want to hear this.

Notre Dame fans who were hoping to hear new voices broadcasting home games in 2023 are out of luck. NBC Sports has announced that nearly every broadcaster from 2022 will be calling the action from South Bend as well as the season opener in Ireland. That means Jac Collinsworth on play-by-play, Jason Garrett as color commentator and Zora Stephenson reporting from the sidelines. The only difference is the departure of coverage host Kathryn Tappen, who will be on NBC’s Big Ten broadcast team.

Despite some sports media critics willing to give the broadcast team a chance in 2022, Irish fans were far more critical. After the season’s final home game, more than a few folks expressed that they were fed up with this group. Although rumors swirled about Garrett and the Stanford head coaching job, that arrangement didn’t materialize. So we’ll have mainly the same people on the call in 2023.

For those disappointed by this, remember that you’re not tuning into games to hear the announcers. They merely provide the soundtrack to what you’re saying. If you really can’t stand them, the mute button is right there on your remote. Problem solved.

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PointsBet Sportsbook’s ridiculous scenario for Notre Dame-Ohio State

No way this happens.

Let’s begin by getting two facts out of the way. First, Shohei Ohtani is the greatest thing baseball has to offer right now and maybe ever. Second, Peacock has MLB broadcast rights but only does Sunday games. NBC gets one of those games every year and surely would be one of the regularly scheduled games.

That being the case, the chances of NBC breaking away from any Notre Dame game for baseball, particularly the game against Ohio State, are virtually nonexistent. But that’s not stopping PointsBet Sportsbook from posing a scenario that defies all logic:

I don’t care how exciting a player Ohtani is or what’s on the line for him. No broadcast network in its right mind is going to cut away from college football to cover something for another sport. Is watching it on MLB Network not enough? If people are watching college football, chances are they don’t care about anything else at the moment.

On top of that, Aaron Judge already broke the American League single-season home run record last year. There’s nothing at stake in this scenario except for Ohtani joining the 60-homer club. If this happens for Ohtani, this has to happen for all players on this precipice going forward. Somehow, I doubt that will happen because it’s not Ohtani.

Yes, there are exceptions to the rule of not cutting away from an Irish home game. The most notable example was NBC temporarily transferring the feed of the 2020 classic against Clemson to USA Network so it could broadcast Joe Biden’s victory speech for the presidential election that was called earlier that day. But an Ohtani at-bat is not on the same scale as a speech from the new soon-to-be leader of the free world.

I’m all for a nice debate on Twitter, but this is the wrong one to start. Not only does it not make any sense, but it’s insulting to everyone’s intelligence. NBC will not cut into an Irish-Buckeyes game for a sport that it barely has any rights to. Hopefully, everyone who saw this tweet figured that out quickly.

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Notre Dame-Clemson will be broadcast on ABC

We now know the TV home of one 2023 road game.

It will be a while before we know everything about Notre Dame’s 2023 schedule. Obviously, every home game will be on NBC with the likely exception of one on Peacock. But what about the games on the road? Well, we now know that when the Irish visit Clemson on Nov. 4, ABC will have the coverage thanks to a few leaks from ESPN:

No times have been announced for any game, including this one. However, the chances of this game being played in primetime have to be extremely high. In addition to both teams figuring to be ranked by that time, perhaps even significantly, the two Irish-Tigers matchups in South Bend over the past three years both were broadcast in primetime. History says it’s certain to happen, but we’ll see.

This leak shows how close we’re getting to the college football season. Every day gets us closer than the day before. Just keep counting the days down to kickoff.

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Big Ten opponents Notre Dame should play annually if it ever joins

Just picture at least some of these games happening annually.

The Big Ten has unveiled its “Flex Protect Plus” scheduling model, which will take effect when USC and UCLA join the conference in 2024. Eleven particular matchups will be protected and thus played every year, and every school will play every school at least twice over a four-year period. There will be both annual and rotating matchups over each team’s nine-game league schedule.

Which brings us to Notre Dame. We all know about the Irish being denied entry into the Big Ten in the 20th century’s early years, but times areMidw changing. With college football’s landscape radically changing soon, questions about the feasibility of the Irish’s longtime independence are being raised. Plus, with their next athletic director currently heading NBC Sports Group and the Big Ten about to start a long-term TV deal with NBC, the Irish almost seem destined for full-time Big Ten membership.

Now, before you Irish traditionalists hang me from the top of the Golden Dome, really think about this. Many of the Irish’s most frequent opponents in their history are based in the Midwest. This would revive annual or semi-annual rivalries that largely have been discarded to fulfill obligations to the East Coast-centeric ACC. Nothing against that conference, but Wake Forest, North Carolina and Georgia Tech just seem to be awkwardly forced upon the fan base by the arrangement and don’t exactly rile anyone up.

In the event of a Big Ten membership, certain parameters will have to be set for the Irish. They definitely would need to keep Navy as one of its nonconference opponents because any season not completely compromised by COVID that doesn’t have the Midshipmen just seems wrong. Other than that, there are some opponents that need to be scheduled every year or at least merit consideration for that. Here are the ones most worth considering:

Notre Dame-Central Michigan only will be seen on Peacock

Don’t turn to NBC on Sept. 16.

For the past few years, Notre Dame fans have been left to wonder which home game will be moved off NBC and exclusively onto Peacock. In conjunction with the Irish’s announcement of kickoff times for 2023 home games, we have our answer to that question for this season. The Sept. 16 game against Central Michigan will be seen only on the NBCUniversal streaming service. That game will kick off at 2:30 p.m. EDT, the earliest start time for an Irish home game this season.

Yes, we know it’s frustrating to have to jump through extra hoops to watch a Notre Dame game. It particularly is rough for those have yet to give into streaming or might not even know it exists. That’s why it’s the time to be neighborly and find a way for them to watch. No matter how many times someone might resist it, streaming is here to stay and probably will be the only way anyone watches TV down the line.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame, South Carolina will begin 2023-24 season in Paris

Brush up on your French before November.

When Notre Dame was eliminated in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, it lost the chance to play South Carolina in the Elite Eight. The Irish won’t have to wait long to learn what might have happened. To tip off the 2023-24 season, they will meet the Gamecocks on Nov. 6 in Paris. It will be the first college basketball game played there for either men or women, and it will mark the Irish’s first game outside North America.

As you can imagine, [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] is absolutely thrilled with this news:

This will be the second straight season in which the Irish are part of a historic first. When they met California in St. Louis last season, it was the first women’s college basketball game to be broadcast on NBC. Now, they’ll showcase their skills aboard at a time when women’s basketball is soaring in popularity. Whatever the outcome of this game is, everyone already is a winner.

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Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

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Potential shakeup coming to NBC’s Notre Dame broadcast team?

The broadcasters you saw and heard this season might not all be back in 2023.

To put it very politely, Notre Dame fans were not pleased with NBC’s broadcasters for their team’s games this past season. Jac Collinsworth and Jason Garrett called the game action, and those were the two who received the most wrath. Not receiving quite as much were sideline reporter Zora Stephenson and coverage host Kathryn Tappen, the lone incumbent on the coverage who previously had worked the sidelines.

Now, we know of a couple of news items that could indicate a change in the personnel for NBC’s Irish coverage. Garrett is one of the finalists for the vacant head coaching job at Stanford. Meanwhile, Tappen is giving up her golf assignments to potentially take on a bigger role at the network. There is no word on whether this would affect her Irish gig, but it definitely is worth thinking about.

Irish fans wanted a change in their team’s home coverage, and they just might get it, at least partially.

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Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame Twitter ready for new announcers for NBC broadcasts

Does NBC have a Notre Dame football broadcaster crisis on its hands?

With Notre Dame’s 2022 home schedule complete, the final NBC broadcast of the season is in the books. This was the first season with Jac Collinsworth and Jason Garrett in the booth, and, if Irish fans had their way, 2022 would be the only season they have to listen to them.

Don’t believe us? Look at Twitter.

When Collinsworth and Garrett were announced as the new broadcast team for Notre Dame football before the season, public reaction was lukewarm at best and incredibly negative at worst. Still, Irish fans had no choice but to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that the two would prove them wrong.

By the time the Irish were done dominating Boston College, it appeared very little about their perception had changed. That’s not a good look for the people at NBC who made the decision.

Here are some of the more brutal assessments of Collinsworth and Garrett with some tweeters commenting more than once:

Niele Ivey, Olivia Miles and Kylee Watson discuss Notre Dame win

The Irish speak about their win in St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS — Notre Dame’s 90-79 win over California at the Shamrock Classic in St. Louis came tougher than anticipated. Still, a win is a win, and to have it come live from the Enterprise Center on NBC made it all the more special. The opportunity for [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] to do it in her hometown was among the topics covered in her postgame news conference with [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] and [autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag]. Here is some of what they said: