A look at ESPN’s perceived bias against Notre Dame

ESPN has a track record of talking down to and about Notre Dame football.

Last season during the college football playoff run, ESPN College Gameday personality Desmond Howard was involved in a heated exchange with Chris “The Bear” Fallica, the show’s research producer, because Howard suggested that a one loss Michigan team should leapfrog an undefeated Notre Dame team in the top four standings. Fallica and Notre Dame fans alike took umbrage with Howard’s stance, because the Michigan’s one loss came at the hands of Notre Dame.

When Fallica called Howard out for his stance, Howard doubled down telling Fallica “You put too much weight on that one game. I look at what they have done since.” Unfortunately for Howard, his argument didn’t hold much weight, as Notre Dame had gone undefeated since the Michigan game, lending little credence that they should fall below the Wolverines in the standings.

In the end, it would be rendered a moot point, as Michigan would lose to Ohio State and Notre Dame would win out and advance to the College Football Playoff.

Fast forward to the first week of the 2019 college football season, where ESPN’s Paul Finebaum would be latest of the network’s personalities to take a swipe at Notre Dame’s football program. This furthered many Notre Dame fan’s notion that ESPN holds a bias against the Irish football team.

In this instance, Finebaum went on ESPN’s First Take program and proclaimed about the Irish “I think they can be 10-2, but they are not going to the playoffs and frankly, they should never be allowed back to the playoffs after their embarrassing loss to Clemson.  They should be given a five year probation.”

This rightfully infuriated Notre Dame football fans.  Most pointed to the fact that Notre Dame had actually lost by a smaller margin to Clemson in the first round of the playoffs (27), than Alabama had in the National Championship game (28). Clemson offensive lineman, Jon Simpson, said following the season that “The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were the best team that they (Clemson) played last year, not Alabama and head coach Nick Saban”.

Finebaum responded saying that Simpson’s comment is “one of the stupidest comments I have ever heard,”.  He would go on to elaborate stating “Notre Dame was good, but they were not as good as Alabama. Alabama would’ve destroyed Notre Dame,”.

These two instances exhibit Finebaum’s clear distaste for the Notre Dame football program and gives fodder to the beliefs of many Notre Dame fans that ESPN is biased against their program.

Critics of Notre Dame football often point to the fact that the Irish don’t play for a conference championship and thus should not be considered on the same level as teams who do. The flip side of this argument is that the Irish are aware of the weight given to conference championships and thus play a much stronger schedule than others.

So which is more important, a conference championship or strength of schedule?

A case could be made based on what occurred last year, that strength of schedule should take precedence over a conference championship.  After all, Ohio State defeated Northwestern in the B1G Championship and Clemson defeated Pitt in the ACC Championship game. The importance of this is that earlier in the season, Notre Dame defeated Pitt by a score of 19-14 and Northwestern by a score of 31-21.

Should the fact that Clemson and Ohio State won their respective games in a conference championship game count for more than regular season wins by the Irish against the same teams?  An unbiased opinion would suggest that it should not.

A skeptic might be inclined to wonder if television contracts may be a factor feeding into the perceived bias. After all, ESPN has television deals with the SEC (15 years, $2 billion), the Big 12 (13 years, $2.6 billion), and ACC (15 years, $3.6 billion). While Notre Dame athletics, excluding football, fall under the umbrella of the ACC contract with ESPN, NBC holds the television rights to Notre Dame football telecasts (10 year, $150 million).

It stands to reason that ESPN would have a vested interest in promoting ACC, SEC and Big 12 football teams who play in conference championship games (which they just so happen to have the television rights to) over an independent non-conference Notre Dame team, who is being broadcast on a rival network.  Perhaps that is why we see the ludicrous comments from the likes of Finebaum and Howard being made with little-to-no pushback from anyone else ESPN.

Regardless of the reasons, it is unlikely that the bias against the Irish football team will go away any time in the near future. The team from South Bend seems to be one of the teams that non-Notre Dame fans love to hate. I suppose that comes with the territory of being a powerhouse program since 1887.  Irish fans need to embrace the hatred from their critics, as it makes their success that much more satisfying.