Tag: Notre Dame on NBC

Twitter reacts to pending Big Ten media rights deal’s impact on Notre Dame

What do you think is going to happen?

The Big Ten has to be feeling high and mighty right now. With a primary media rights deal with Fox in place, the race for the secondary deal is in place. CBS and NBC have emerged as the networks to beat. That means after this year, you can kiss Big Ten games on ESPN and ABC goodbye.

What that means for Notre Dame’s TV future is unclear. Frankly, it’s not even a pressing issue as its current deal with NBC doesn’t expire until 2025. However, that isn’t stopping people from taking to Twitter to speculate what it might mean for the program. Some believe it only will affect the times the Irish kick off at home, while others see it as a sign that full-time membership in the Big Ten is inevitable.

Whatever you think this means, you can’t deny that Notre Dame’s next media rights deal will be massive. Here’s what people are saying about the Irish’s future at the moment:

Notre Dame wants $75 million in media rights fees to stay independent

Is the Irish’s independence worth this much?

For over 30 years, Notre Dame and NBC have gone together like peanut butter and jelly. Now, the future of the Irish’s independence might depend on the arrangement between the two sides. Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports is reporting that Notre Dame is seeking at least $75 million in its next media rights deal with its longtime broadcast partner. Notre Dame currently earns $22 million every year under its current deal, which expires in 2025.

The only way NBC reportedly would agree to such an arrangement would be if it also took on broadcasts of a Power Five conference. With the SEC’s future firmly with ESPN and the Big Ten about to announce a lucrative deal with Fox, the Big 12 has emerged as the likely frontrunner for NBC. The Big 12’s current media deal also has an expiration year of 2025.

Whether Notre Dame ends up remaining independent or not, it better move quickly. We are at a tipping point in college football, which now is being driven almost, if not entirely by media deals. The last thing the Irish want is to be left behind in all of this dealing and thus possibly put its future as a legitimate contender at risk.

Best of luck to everyone involved with this decision. It may not be pretty, but it has to get done.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Barrett Sports Media piece questions NBC’s enthusiasm for Notre Dame

Is the Irish’s home TV partner hurting the coverage?

Having carried Notre Dame home games for over 30 years, one would think NBC is all in on providing the best Irish coverage. However, Demetri Ravanos of Barrett Sports Media doesn’t see it. In a new piece, Ravanos wonders just how much the suits at NBC even like the Irish.

Ravanos’ biggest gripe with NBC regarding the Irish is that the USFL broadcast duo of Jac Collinsworth and Jason Garrett is being considered to succeed Mike Tirico and Drew Brees on Saturdays in South Bend. Ravanos also points out how there haven’t been former Irish players on the broadcasts lately even though plenty of them have ventured into broadcasting. He particularly cites a quote from [autotag]Mike Golic[/autotag] about Brees being a Purdue guy and folks like Tony Dungy and Doug Flutie coming from Boston College.

There’s no question Notre Dame has benefited from its relationship with NBC in terms of both exposure and the money coming into the university. At the same time, it indeed is worth wondering how the other side feels about it. We probably won’t get any answers, and this surely will be forgotten about once the season starts. Still, what quality of broadcast will we get?

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Farewell to 1988 Notre Dame TV broadcaster Dan Roan

A former “provocative” intern says goodbye to a Chicago sports TV legend.

You have to be a certain age now to remember a time when Notre Dame games weren’t broadcast on NBC. One of the last seasons of that happened to be 1988, the last time the Irish won a national championship. With no TV contract tied to a specific network, several networks broadcast the Irish that season. One network was Chicago superstation WGN, and the man handling play-by-play duties in that case was Dan Roan.

I bring this up because I’m writing this on the night of Roan’s last sportscast. The lead sports anchor at WGN is retiring after 38 years with the network. No one in Chicago has held such a position for longer, and that has led to him becoming a familiar face on the city’s airwaves. He has provided game and news coverage for every pro and local college team during his tenure, which makes it harder to think of him no longer being associated with Chicago sports.

I had the chance to see the man work up close when I was fortunate enough to land a sports internship with WGN. On Wednesdays and Thursdays between August and December 2010, I would be assigned one sporting event to cut highlights for that night’s 9 p.m. newscast. Naturally, I worked with Roan more than anyone else, and it was one of the happiest times of my life. Had I been given the opportunity to stick around longer, I gladly would have taken it in part because of the kindness Roan and everyone else at the station showed me.

It’ll be hard to say goodbye to Roan, but after being on the job for so long, the man has earned a break (and a lot of golf). Here’s hoping he enjoys life now in a state of complete relaxation. From the person he later called “the most provocative intern” he ever had, thank you, and good luck.

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 TV analyst Drew Brees’ future in air

Would you miss Brees on the Notre Dame broadcasts?

Whatever you think of Drew Brees, you can’t deny that his assuming the analyst role for NBC’s Notre Dame broadcasts drew interest. After all, he surely will go into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, and folks always want to know about such former players’ post-football activities. Now, he reportedly is done at NBC after only one season. However, he was quick to refute the report on Twitter and has instead left his future open to speculation:

There’s no telling how much of this tweet Brees is serious about. He really might not know what his next move is, or he might just be trolling everybody. Either way, it might be in NBC’s best interest to start looking for a new analyst for its Irish broadcasts. Perhaps it’s just as well because with Mike Tirico’s tenure as play-by-play announcer also up in the air, the time to start fresh appears to be now.

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

Start times for 2022 Notre Dame home games revealed

Mark your calendar.

During halftime of the Blue Gold Game, the start times for Notre Dame’s home schedule were unveiled. That will give Irish fans who anxiously are looking to plan their Saturday schedules for the autumn months peace of mind. While they’ll have to wait for the start times for the road games, they can at least make plans for these particular games, especially if they plan on going to Notre Dame Stadium. Here it is:

The one big thing you’ll notice right away is that unlike last year, there will be no games exclusive to Peacock, so that will save you the trouble of explaining it to your Irish fan relatives who don’t understand streaming. Also, the majority of these games will be played during the day, which will make the more traditional Irish fans happy. But whatever you think of any of the above issues, we all should be glad that this latest sign of college football on the horizon has come to pass.

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

Sideline reporting shakeup coming to NBC’s Notre Dame coverage?

Could this happen?

A report from the New York Post indicates that Michelle Tafoya will leave sideline reporting after the NFL season. That means there will be a gap to fill on NBC’s Sunday Night Football coverage. While no replacement for Tafoya officially has been named, many signs point to recent fill-in Kathryn Tappen, the network’s sideline reporter for its Notre Dame coverage since 2014. That’s longer than anyone else currently on that broadcast team.

Just as the Irish are going through a coaching transition, this also could be a time of transition for their home TV partner. Mike Tirico is expected to replace Al Michaels as the Sunday Night Football play-by-play announcer next season. It certainly would be a heavy load to expect Tirico to handle both gigs at once. It already is a lot doing both the Irish and “Football Night in America” on the same weekend.

The times are changing indeed, and it’s happening in many ways.

Notre Dame vs. Georgia Tech: Third-Quarter Analysis

One quarter left in the home season.

It’s really just a matter of running out the clock at this point. Notre Dame has this game against Georgia Tech well in hand, but the scoreboard dictates there still is football to be played. Though the teams will play on, there isn’t a lot left to decide here. That’s the thought process as the Irish have a 55-0 lead after the third quarter.

The first three punts of the quarter ended in punts. At one point, Jack Coan nearly was sacked for a safety, but he got rid of the ball just in time. Perhaps that was enough to convince Brian Kelly that it wasn’t worth putting his top quarterback at further risk because he put Tyler Buchner in the next time the offense took the field. The underclassman ran for 68 yards on his first play, setting up a 26-yard field goal from Jonathan Doerer.

When the Yellow Jackets regained possession, Jordan Yates had a 54-yard run to put his team in the red zone for the first time. On third-and-6 at the Irish’s 11-yard line, Isaiah Foskey sacked Yates and forced a fumble, which Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa picked up and ran 70 yards the other way for the Irish’s second defensive touchdown of the game. An NBC interview with Tagovailoa-Amosa‘s family that took place right after indicated how emotional of a moment this was for the senior, who lost his dad in August.

With little left to play for except pride, the Yellow Jackets’ offense simply tried to move the ball and mostly used a running attack to get into Irish territory. A third-down sack from Howard Cross put the Yellow Jackets back in their own territory and forced them to punt again. That ended the quarter, and the game can’t end soon enough for the Yellow Jackets.

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Notre Dame vs. Georgia Tech: Second-Quarter Analysis

We have another half of this, folks.

We’re only at halftime, and we’re already running out of ways to describe Notre Dame’s dominance over Georgia Tech. That we have 30 more minutes of this contest to go won’t convince college football fans who don’t root for the Irish to keep it on. As much as NBC would love to have a high viewership throughout its final Irish broadcast of the season, that appears unlikely now. Still, it’s nice to see the Irish have a 45-0 lead at the midway point of the game.

The Yellow Jackets punted very early in the second quarter, and it only continued to get bad for them from there. The Irish breezed down the field on their first possession of the frame and ultimately got a 5-yard touchdown run from Logan Diggs. After another Yellow Jackets punt, Diggs scored again. This one came on a 20-yard pass from Jack Coan on the fourth play of the drive. He was set up nicely thanks to a 26-yard run by Kyren Williams.

The Yellow Jackets then put together something resembling a respectable offensive drive, picking up two first downs and getting into Irish territory. All this resulted in was another punt. Yes, it was that kind of first half for the visitors.

The Irish started their next drive on the 11-yard line, but Coan solved that quickly with a 51-yard pass to Kevin Austin. He soon followed those with an 18-yard completion to Michael Mayer and a 19-yard completion to George Takacs to get to the 1-yard line. While it took three plays to reach the end zone from there, Williams did it. That put a stamp on the frame and gave the Irish their most first-half points since their game against Miami (Ohio) in 2017.

The Yellow Jackets moved quickly in their final drive of the half. They even got into field-goal range this time. With this stroke of good fortune, Jude Kelley came on for a 47-yard attempt in the final seconds. Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa preserved the first-half shutout by getting a hand on the kick and causing Kelley to miss. Some things just will stay the same for now.

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Notre Dame vs. North Carolina: Fourth-Quarter Analysis

Lots of points, and they led to another win.

Both Notre Dame and North Carolina have loads of talent. One of them has lived up to expectations, and the other has not. That was reflected by how Saturday’s game at Notre Dame Stadium turned out. The Irish won, 44-34, in their highest-scoring game of the season.

The Irish (7-1) were somewhat on their heels as the Tar Heels (4-4) were driving as the fourth quarter began. However, an incomplete pass by Sam Howell on third down set up a punt that downed the Irish at their own 9-yard line. Despite the long field to start, only one play was needed as Kyren Williams, who was back in action after suffering a third-quarter injury, took a handoff, made a nice move to the left, then executed a perfect stiff arm to run 91 yards for a touchdown. Mike Tirico told the NBC audience that it was the Irish’s play of the year, and it was hard to argue against it.

DJ Brown intercepted Howell on the first play of his next drive and returned the ball 15 yards into the red zone. After Avery Davis ran for 12 yards, another Irish touchdown appeared imminent. The Irish tried to punch it in on the ground, but the Tar Heels’ defense held. Jonathan Doerer kicked a 20-yard field goal to put the Irish up by two full scores.

Perhaps inspired by his defense’s effort, Howell went back to work. By mixing runs and passes, he was able to get the offense into field-goal range. However, he wasn’t satisfied with that, and he evaded a bunch of Irish defenders while running 31 yards for a touchdown. An Irish victory no longer appeared so certain.

Needing a response, the Irish’s offense did everything it could to get one. Jack Coan completed a pair of passes for first downs, and Williams had a couple of nice runs, one of which went for 20 yards. Eventually, the Irish had a third-and-long on which they drew a pass interference to give them first-and-goal. They once again failed to find the end zone in this situation, but they milked the clock down to the point where Doerer made a 21-yard field goal with 1:37 left.

Out of timeouts and needing more than one score, the Tar Heels marched down the field quickly. They made their way into the red zone and spiked the ball with 23 seconds left. On the next play, Howell was met by Jordan Botelho and threw the ball out of the box and was called for intentional grounding. He completed one more pass short of the goal line, and that was all she wrote in South Bend.

That game had a lot of action, and the Irish came out on top. Who would have it any other way?