Notre Dame Football: Game at Michigan needs to be in prime time

Notre Dame football heads to the Big House to play the Michigan Wolverines on October 26th. We have new information on TV listings and kickoff time.

Notre Dame football’s rivalry with Michigan is one that has picked up a lot of steam in recent memory. Geographically, the two schools are close on the map. They’ve also been close on the football field and on the recruiting trail, which has added multiple layers of intrigue to an already-interesting rivalry.

That rivalry will be renewed this year, with Notre Dame hoping to double up on their home-and-home series that was starting with an opening week win over the Wolverines last September. The Wolverines, likely still embarrassed after two straight losses at Notre Dame Stadium, want to make sure that the end to this chapter of the rivalry goes their way.

Notre Dame and Michigan don’t have any concrete plans to meet in the foreseeable future, although both schools’ athletic directors have indicated a desire to make future meetings happen.

And that’s exactly why this game between Notre Dame and Michigan needs to be a prime time game–it might, after all, be the last time that fans see the two schools competing on the football field in quite some time.

The last time the Irish played at Michigan under the lights, the game lived up to its billing, at least as far as pure entertainment value is concerned. The Irish ended up losing that game 41-30, but a lot has changed since 2013.

There was some thought that this game could have been a noon kickoff, as FOX holds the rights to many Big Ten games. FOX had recently announced that they would televise many of their marquee games at noon in an effort to compete and take control of a time slot that often doesn’t feature marquee matchups.

But yesterday, it was announced that Notre Dame and Michigan will play on the ABC family of networks (either ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2), perhaps opening the door for the Irish and Wolverines to be bumped to an 8:00 start. It also would open the door for College Gameday to be in Ann Arbor, as well.

Regardless, Notre Dame and Michigan is a special rivalry that won’t be renewed for quite some time. It needs to be be given precedence to be put in prime time.