Notre Dame attempting to assure Irish will never win another national title

Notre Dame may use its media rights as leverage to stay independent and make more money.

In the brave new world of college football mega-conferences, Notre Dame would rather stay independent, hoping it can use conferences as leverage to help the Irish make even more money.

Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports reported on Monday that “Notre Dame would remain Independent if it can earn at least $75 million annually in media rights revenue from current broadcast partner NBC… The Fighting Irish’s deal with the network is set to expire in 2025.”

For this to conceivably work, NBC would need the help of another conference or two when it comes to “shoulder programming”. The ACC and SEC are locked in at ESPN. While the Big Ten is expected to maintain its primary broadcasting partnership with FOX, there could be some games airing on NBC as well. This also leaves open the possibility of the new Big 12 venturing over to NBC…

Ultimately, all this “shoulder programming” back-scratching will do is prevent Notre Dame from ever winning another national championship on the college football field.

Here is why not committing to the ACC, or eloping with the Big Ten, could have disastrous consequences for the Golden Domers.

Notre Dame may seal its fate by staying independent over more TV money

From a business standpoint, it serves NBC to offer more than just Notre Dame home games on a college football Saturday. If the broadcasting network wants to use Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 or even Group of Five games to complement its featured early-afternoon Notre Dame game, then so be it. Notre Dame may make more money this way, but its sweet NBC deal would be cheapened.

While it serves excellent college football programs like Baylor, Oklahoma State, Oregon and Utah from getting squeezed out due to the Big Ten and SEC going into mega-conference mode, what happens if Notre Dame fades or the overall product of their leagues suffer? Notre Dame being locked into an NBC TV contract with non-super conference teams could prove to be a huge miss.

The other big key here is what becomes of the next iteration of the College Football Playoff. It will be a four-team field for four more seasons before its exclusive rights contract with ESPN expires. Obviously, broadcasting companies like CBS, FOX and NBC, as well as other streaming services, will want a slice of the playoff pie. Playoff expansion is coming, but that might hurt the Irish a bit.

If the sport does go the way of super conferences, then automatic qualifiers when it comes to celebrating conference champions becomes a moot point. Itemizing what conferences have AQ championships is a great way to spend a few afternoons in front of Congress. Should it expand to 12 or 16 teams, the field may be more like that of March Madness or that of World Cup qualifying.

Should it expand to 12 teams in 2026, look for the enhanced Big Ten and SEC to get anywhere from a combined seven to nine of their teams in annually. It will still allow the likes of Baylor, Oklahoma State, Oregon and Utah to get in with their “league’s” allotment of one to two spots. Where does that leave the Irish? They would need to win 10 games, and probably pick up a 13th.

Notre Dame is still going to be a relevant factor in college football for as long as the university prioritizes the sport. But when you continue to make exceptions for something that is no longer exceptional, you get left off the list to the party. Notre Dame was exceptional under Brian Kelly, and may still be so under Marcus Freeman. However, staying Independent could be their undoing.

If you keep turning down their invitations, nobody will be happy to see you when crash their party.

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