Notre Dame football affected by NBC bidding for Big 10 media rights
Notre Dame football: NBC to bid for Big 10 media rights
The Effect
First, if the other Midwest powers can spend even more than they already do, then the Irish need to expand investments into the program again. Current football, and overall athletic, facilities at Notre Dame are already worse than the average Big 10 school. The money invested in recruiting is already lower. To keep up, Notre Dame will need to be more willing to spend, which likely means being more willing to raise money from donors.
On top of that, one of the networks most interested in gaining the Big 10 rights is NBC. This would mean that NBC would end up using the Big 10 as a lead-in to Notre Dame games, or as the primetime headliner after them. Either way, Notre Dame would be losing what is currently a network all to themselves. There’s no way to get around that this would likely also mean less attention on platforms like Peacock would be given to the Irish.
On the other hand, this could also work in Notre Dame’s favor. If more people are tuning into NBC for other games on a Saturday, then there is a good chance that more people stick around to watch Notre Dame too. Improved viewership, along with raising media deal prices, could easily help Notre Dame make more money from its next deal. Even if that doesn’t happen, improved visibility helps build a younger generation of fans and makes it easier to recruit.
In 1984, when NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma ruled that the NCAA controlling everyone’s media rights violated anti-trust laws, there has been a rush to have media access.
Now, with thousands of channels and new streaming services appearing all the time, you need to be a media expert for the success of your conference, or in the case of an Independent, your individual program. Notre Dame and NBC have a special relationship, but if NBC finds other games to show, that relationship could easily change.