I’m perplexed as to how Notre Dame can have such a big following. Lots of people who consider themselves rabid fans have never even visited Notre Dame University, and most have never even been to Indiana (and probably can’t even pick the state out on a map). Still, they get this whole legion of pretend fans to follow them. Yeah, i got it, it’s the Catholic thing. They’re a Catholic university and there’s a lot of Catholics that think rooting for Notre Dame is somehow required if they are going to be good Catholics. Blah, Blah, Blah.
My biggest complaint is actually about the stupid network TV people who offer the Notre Dame Football team a weekly gig on TV, whether they are playing well or not. These stupid network execs don’t even have the sense to put some sort of “slaughter rule” in their contracts with Notre Dame football. Notre Dame sucks this year. They may be the worst they’ve been in the past century. They are getting blown out and killed by opposing teams.
Meanwhile everybody suffers when the network won’t switch to another game. The die hard (pretend fans) of Notre Dame feel compelled to watch them get slaughtered (it’s the whole Catholic thing again). The rest of us don’t get to watch a more competitive game because Notre Dame has a contract that locks up that weekly TV time for them, And the team gets national exposure while getting a weekly ass-whipping. Advertisers are getting robbed because hardly anybody wants to watch a blow-out (no matter what team you are rooting for) and they change the channel. And it’s just plain embarrassing to the guys on the Notre Dame football team (do they think there going to make the pros when surrounded by a bunch of losers?).
If you’re wondering, I’m not really a Notre Dame fan or a Notre Dame hater. It’s just starting to get old. Flipping on the TV to find out that one team is getting killed by their opponents; that it has been happening for the past 5 weeks; and due to a contract it is going to happen for the rest of the season.
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The flip side is that so many people actually hate Notre Dame, they’re probably loving watching every minute of this disasterous season!
Disclaimer: I am a Notre Dame graduate.
First, the NBC contract is for home games only. There is nothing in that contract that gets Notre Dame on TV for away games.
Second, of the first 5 games this season, 3 were away. The Purdue game on Saturday was in West Lafayette.
I was actually surprised it was on Saturday. I expected to have to watch it on the Big Ten Network (since Purdue is a Big 10 team).
This coming Saturday is at UCLA, again, on ABC, nothing to do with the NBC contract you are complaining about.
The contract is good for the school, it pumps in millions into the academic programs. The exposure on national TV each home game helps recruiting in good years, it keeps contributing alumni in touch.
Yes, there are people who think it is not fair for ND to have the NBC deal. But look at the landscape, the BTN was having trouble just getting cable companies to put it on their system because the companies could not justify it.
dw17,
Interesting.
So are you saying that those non-NBC networks have no contracts with Notre Dame (even single game contracts)? If that is the case, it is even harder to believe that they don’t switch when Notre Dame is getting blown out.
Most likely Notre Dame will get the crap kicked out of them on some network station next week, and whatever network they are playing on could voluntarily switch to another game once the blowout begins but won’t. I just don’t get it.
Even if people hate Notre Dame, like tc3 mentions, I can’t imagine people really enjoying wasting their time watching any blowout. Maybe I’m just projecting my feelings onto them, though.
Correct Mr. Squeaky. I am unaware of any contracts with other networks other than NBC.
NBC’s show is “Notre Dame Football on NBC” or something.
When they are on ABC, it is just “College Football”
Back in 1985, prior to the NBC contract, ABC or CBS did just that, they left and “uncompetitive” game against Penn State (I clearly remember Jim Nantz saying that) to go to another game.
I still think the networks get ratings. It will be interesting to see if ABC sticks with the ND at UCLA game or not, or if it gets moved to ESPN.
I may be wrong, but I think the home team (for regular season games) contracts the TV. In a few years ND will have some “away Home games”. Those are games they are going to hold in a neutral site as a home game, closer to other alumni/fan bases, like LA or Florida but they will be home games for ND ticketwise and TVwise.
I don’t really watch the NFL, but don’t you always get your local team every week, (I understand the home game not sold out black out rule) regardless of the quality of the game? I cannot imagine that the Bears won’t be on TV or they will cut away to other games. They gave up a record 34 points in the 4th quarter yesterday.
dw17 said
I think the words were “competitively out of hand”. I remember them because I watched the game you’re talking about against Penn State. “Competitively out of hand” has become a long running joke in my family of Notre Dame fans. We don’t have a “slaughter rule” or “mercy rule” in our family, things just get “competitively out of hand”.
dw17 is correct in that the college football tv contracts are, in general, with the home team. Sometimes there will be some sort of revenue split between the home and away team, or a revenue share with the conference to which the home team belongs (Notre Dame is not in a conference).
He’s also correct in pointing out that you have only had to suffer through 2 ND home games on NBC that were losses so far this season. Next week at UCLA probably won’t be televised nationally because there is a better game being played at the same time.
So you could blame Penn State, Michigan and Purdue for having to sit through those victories against Notre Dame because they were the home teams that had the television contracts and they are the ones that enjoyed substantial revenue from ABC and ESPN.
If those school’s games against ND were not televised because ND is terrible this year, the home teams that beat the crap out of ND don’t get cash for doing it.
suckerfish on October 1st, 2007 at 10:32 am | Link
Looks like you got your wish.
Primary ABC channels appear to have Ohio State and Purdue (both undefeated) on rather than the previously scheduled Notre Dame at UCLA game.
If you have HD, you can get it on the alternate ABC.
According to the TVGuide online programming guide
Great. I got my wish. Now I’ll get to watch an interesting game instead of another Notre Dame pummeling.
It’s clear that the network execs have heard my complaint
This site rocks.
Frank85 on October 4th, 2007 at 9:07 pm | Link
The “stupid” network execs you refer to televise Notre Dame week-in, week-out for a reason: They bring ratings.
It’s true that Notre Dame is so bad this season that there’s probably a dropoff in interest in them. But this awful season is literally a hundred year aberration. Even in the up and down years since 1993, ND is a draw, plain and simple. You can like them, you can hate them, you can be meh about them. It’s a fact that they draw. It’s also a fact that college football games usually run to their end, regardless of outcome. So it’s not just Notre Dame blowouts that are cluttering the airwaves.
You profess to be mystified about peoples’ interest in “Notre Dame University,” and you go so far as to belittle their fans by questioning their intelligence. (By the way, you should get your own facts straight before you start throwing stones, dude. It’s the University of Notre Dame.) Yet you yourself are using Notre Dame as a vessel for criticizing all of college football. Why do you think you’ve chosen to do so?
Lastly, you mock the connection between Catholics and Notre Dame, but I’d argue that there are few better and more logical bonds in all of sports. ND is a very religious place, and the football team rose to prominence in an era when Catholics were widely looked-down upon in this country. The ND football team was a source of pride and identity for a group in need of it, and a lot of the fierceness of that early devotion survives in the person of subway alumns. I don’t find that worthy of mockery. I find it touching and genuine.
Hal on October 5th, 2007 at 12:44 pm | Link
Notre Dame 20 - UCLA 6.
You missed a great game Frank85. I had to pay 20 bucks to get it in a game day package, but it was worth it. Sorry you missed it.