I was just wondering how lucrative Notre Dame football really is for NBC these days. I guess it can't be that bad, since they renewed it only a couple of years ago, but I would think that the years of ordinariness would be gradually wearing at their fan base and their ability to recruit top talent. After all, although they still get an inordinate amount of media attention for a middling program, no current recruit will be able to remember the last time Notre Dame was a truly elite team (1993). At this point, (I'm skeptical that high schoolers are really that impressed by history unless their parents are huge fans), their main edge for recruits is probably all the guaranteed TV time. But if they don't get back into the mix at the top, will NBC still want to televise them after 2015?

It seems to me that many people are still into Notre Dame, although the fan base may shrink somewhat. 2015 is still a long way away. Plus, if Comcast buys NBC-Universal, I would think they'd want to keep Notre Dame football because they might be able to move a game or two onto Versus, which they still want to build into a major sports network.

And for many potential recruits the TV exposure is a big selling feature of Notre Dame. Just look at schools at the other end of the spectrum like a University of Buffalo. They were hoping that their recruiting would get a boost because of the fact they made it on to ESPN2 twice last season - once for the International Bowl up here that attracted over 2 million viewers - highest ever for a bowl game on ESPN2. Plus during the season they had 2-3 other games on ESPN360 or ESPNU or whatever some of the minor networks for ESPN are called.

So no not NBC, CBS or ABC - but even that level of coverage they thought would give a huge boost to their recruiting efforts.

And yes - I still watch most Irish games I can - be it their home games on NBC or road games if I can get them. It must be my Irish/Catholic upbringing.

And speaking of things Irish - we wuz robbed by that handball in soccer. LOL

Yeah, yeah yeah! All this ogling over the Fighting Irish. Should my loyal Trojan heart give its .02?

It sounds to me like as long as the team is competetive and a top 10 team, that's all that NBC needs to be happy with the relationship. Last year Notre Dame had their lowest ratings on NBC since 1991. I thought Dick Ebersol comparing the branding of Notre Dame to the Olympics was a bit over the top though.

TV contract.