Yesterday, I watched a bit of a Notre Dame game online from the NBC website.
The game featured Notre Dame and…Western Michigan. Wow! A matchup that I am dying to see!:rolleyes: The announcers are more or less trying to hype up ND although they are a 3-3 ballclub playing an inferior opponent. How many people, unless they are from Indiana or Michigan wanted to watch that versus ABC’s game of the week?
NBC has had a partnership with Notre Dame for many years, so they must be making a lot of money from this. I just don’t see how Notre Dame is popular beyond a region in the midwest, alumni and probably Catholics themselves. Unless this is a team that is highly ranked and making a run at a national championship, who bothers to watch them outside of their demographic?
I know little about Notre Dame except that it is a famous Catholic University in South Bend, Indiana with a rich and famous football history. Now the team is just so-so and seems to be living on traditions. Seems they actually have a decent team this year, with two of the three losses very close.
This has probably been debated over and over again, but ND needs to join the damn Big 10, STFU about it and do it. They are in the heart of Big 10 country. Again, I don’t understand (enlighten me) how being an Independent is better than joining a conference. If it is so much better, why don’t other top echelon schools do the same thing? Other schools have rich alumni who live all over the country, what makes ND special?
(If football questions are for the “Game Room”, please move it there.
Any money they make they get to keep, as opposed to affiliated teams that have to spread the wealth. http://religions.pewforum.org/reports, shows that “Among all adults…” 78.4 % identify as Christian, of that 78.4%, 23.9 % identify as Catholic. Just this year BYU has declared independence with 1.7%.
I think what Notre dame and BYU have is a lot of people identifying with them based on religion, some people identifying with them based on history, and a lot of people viewing them as their 2nd 3rd favorite team and worthy of attention beyond their alma mater.
It’s better to be **a lot **of peoples 2nd or 3rd than to be in the, all or nothing, fan base of most colleges.
Their ‘Catholic demographic’ creates a huge national fan base, as noted above. Alumni and scattered fans of say, Ohio State number much less than catholic football fans across the country. ND’s long span of mediocrity is surprising but the fact that they’re still independent and have the NBC contract demonstrates the fan base. Current coach Brian Kelley has had much success in previous positions and had the Cincinnati Bearcats ranked in the top 5 just last year, ahead of the vaunted Buckeyes (talk about sacrilege!)…I expect he will have the Irish at the top of the heap again soon.
Simple. At one point, WNDU-TV South Bend was owned by the University of Notre Dame. WNDU is a NBC affiliated station. Even after it was sold, there continues to be some sort of connection with NBC and the university.
When they were really good last… Lou Holtz days… they made a boatload of money off of their deal with NBC. If Kelley can turn things around then things will be bright again for the IRISH… I think if Kelley falls short they will go looking to the BCS for some sort of conference agreement.
For most of the ND/NBC contract, both parties have made truckloads of money over the deal - that’s reason enough to maintain independent status, not to mention the freedom to schedule anyone you want. Western Michigan may have been a patsy, but ND has a number of recurring rivalries that few other schools would willingly sign up for. So what compelling reason do you have for them joining the Big 10?
The talk this summer as the Big 12 was on the cusp of completely dissolving and changing the landscape of college football into one of megaconferences was that ND would pretty much have to join the Big 10. As a fan and alum, I have no problem with that. In fact, there’s more money to be made in the Big 10 these days, what with the Big 10 network now (it’s really unbelievable how much that channel makes - I’d never have guessed it).
For decades (the 40s through the 80s), Notre Dame was the adopted alma mater of millions of non-college graduates simply because of its Catholic, working class identity connected to a football team that just kept winning.
As Sports Illustrated put it in a headline when Notre Dame first started their exclusive NBC deal. “WE’RE NOTRE DAME, AND YOU’RE NOT”. Back then, ND was still a legitimate major college power just starting its slow slide to its current state.
“I’d rather be … nine people’s favorite thing than a hundred people’s ninth favorite thing …” Thanks a lot for reminding me of a crappy song from a crappy musical ([title of show]). Now I’ll have that stuck in my head all day!
It was reported last year that Notre Dame would make more money by being a member of the Big Ten than they do as an Independent with their own TV deal. The Big Ten’s revenue is growing by leaps and bounds while ND’s is essentially flat. Notre Dame’s insistence on remaining an Independent is basically just idealism. That’s all fine and good, and they have something of a sweetheart deal with the BCS assuming they ever get good again, but this isn’t about money or any crazy “Catholic” cabal. Notre Dame wants to be different and in their eyes “special” and in many ways they are. NBC wants them on TV because they need to show something on Saturday afternoons other than Skiing and X Games.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with BYU’s TV deal next season.
I don’t see what the big deal is that ND scheduled Western Michigan. All big time schools play a few patsies.
As for joining a conference, ND makes way too much money by itself. They are definitely in the top 10, if not top 5, as far as revenue making football programs. They don’t have to share that with 11 other teams. Their fanbase is truly national. There is an entire network of “subway alumni” that didn’t attend ND, but are fans.
As for NBC, again the huge national fanbase makes it a no brainer. Even when ND is down, people will watch.
I think it’s true they would have made slightly more football TV money. However, they do get money from the Big East for their other sports. Plus, there was some fear that alumni backlash to joining a conference would result in much fewer donations. Joining a conference is a highly unpopular idea to the alumni.
No, it’s really not. Brian Kelly and Jack Swarbrick basically spent the summer touring the country, going to alumni dinners and answering questions on the possibility of joining a conference (the Big 10, specifically). There are certainly people who are against it - but mostly out of fear of losing a national spotlight (NBC) as well as losing control over a good portion of their schedule. ND lost more alumni dollars bringing Obama in to give the commencement than they’d ever lose moving to the Big 10.
The schedule isn’t a big problem - three of our traditional rivalries are Big 10 teams (Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue), and there are only two other schools we need to play every year (Southern Cal and Navy). The athletic department likes playing Boston College because it’s a good way to recruit in the northeast, but the rivalry itself is pretty artificial (unless you ask a BC fan - they think it’s much bigger).
The only real concern is losing exposure, which is important (especially since we’ve sucked so hard for so long). Even if NBC is able to strike a deal with the Big Ten and the Big Ten Network, ND isn’t going to be the featured game every (other) week.
I can’t prove it of course, but I suspect that if Kelly had coached the team in the bowl game rather than having jumped ship to ND, the Bearcats would’ve made a better showing of it and very possibly would’ve even won the bowl game.
All the anecdotal evidence I’ve gathered would concur. Personally, I could possibly come around to accept the idea. But think how boring the schedule would be if you play the same Big 10 opponents, Navy, USC and 2 other teams (who would probably be cupcakes).
At the end of the day, it really depends on the product on the field. Better football means more viewers, which means more money from NBC or whoever gets the next contract. I’d like to see ND remain independent, assuming they keep the same or similar BCS setup.
