Notre Dame Football on NBC

On November 19, 1949, WTVN-TV (now WSYX-TV, channel 6), ABC in Columbus, Ohio provided a telecast[10] of Notre Dame's game against the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Notre Dame would soon have an exclusive television deal with the DuMont Television Network starting in 1950.[11] What attracted Notre Dame to DuMont despite receiving higher bids[12] from ABC and NBC, was DuMont's willingness to air educational programs on behalf of Notre Dame along with the football broadcast. This triggered concern from NCAA members that television would hurt attendance. But Notre Dame argued[13] that the contract with DuMont actually increased interest in their football program and the university.

On October 1, 1950, WSB-TV (channel 2), ABC in Atlanta, Georgia broadcast[14] Notre Dame's game against the North Carolina Tar Heels from South Bend, Indiana via a coaxial cable. WBKB (now WBBM-TV, channel 2), CBS in Chicago, Illinois aired[15] Notre Dame's home games live with the aid of a microwave relay system that was fashioned by William C. "Bill" Eddy, Bill Kusack, and Arch Brolly.

But during the majority of this time, Notre Dame's games were syndicated for airing on Saturday nights. The telecasts were typically condensed to a one hour program anchored by Lindsey Nelson.

Notre Dame would next land a television deal with ABC in 1953. It was ABC who would air the "Game of the Century"[16] between Notre Dame and the Michigan State Spartans on November 19, 1966. The game was not shown live on national TV. The agreement between the NCAA and ABC in effect at the time limited each team to one national television appearance and two regional television appearances each season. Notre Dame had used their national TV slot in the season opening game against Purdue. ABC executives did not even want to show the game anywhere but the regional area, but pressure from the West Coast and the South (to the tune of 50,000 letters) made ABC air the game on tape delay.

In 1976, Notre Dame was one of 67 schools to form the College Football Association (CFA) and pool their television rights.[17] However, by the second half of the 1980s,[18] Notre Dame became one of the most valuable and recognizable teams on national television and was unhappy with deals signed by the CFA[19] that emphasized regional games.[20][17]

In 1986, Notre Dame along with Notre Dame joined eight independent schools in the East coast in a secondary rights deal with Jefferson-Pilot Communications.[21] In the event that CBS or ESPN passed on airing that week's Notre Dame game, then Jefferson-Pilot's independent stations could broadcast it throughout the country. CBS[22][23] most notably broadcast the famous "Catholics vs. Convicts" game[24] against the Miami Hurricanes in 1988.

On August 25, 1991, NBC broke away from the CFA and signed a five-year broadcasting contract with the University of Notre Dame, worth $38 million. The deal surprised the college football world and left many of the other CFA members unhappy with Notre Dame.[25][20] Notre Dame got half of the $7.6 million that NBC paid for the rights each year of the deal and its opponent received the other half.[26] The last Notre Dame home game to be on a broadcast network outside of NBC was on October 20, 1990 (with the Irish taking on Miami) on CBS (with Jim Nantz, Tim Brant and John Dockery on the call). And then on November 17, the Irish played their final home game of 1990 against Penn State, in a game that was broadcast by ESPN (with Ron Franklin, Gary Danielson and Neil Lomax on the call).

The network's 1993 broadcast of the game between Florida State Seminoles and Notre Dame (ranked as the #1 and #2 college football teams at the time) is still the most-watched regular season college football game since NBC began carrying the Fighting Irish's games.[27]

In 2009, Notre Dame began to play one home game each year at a neutral site outside of the university's South Bend, Indiana campus for recruitment and exposure purposes, which are broadcast nationally on NBC as part of the television deal with 7:30 p.m. Eastern start times under the banner of the Shamrock Series. This was initiated with a late October 2009 game against Washington State at the Alamodome in San Antonio. A November 2010 matchup against Army at Yankee Stadium, which NBC also televised, was also a Notre Dame home game, despite West Point's proximity to the Tri-State area. Notre Dame battled Miami at Soldier Field in 2012 and met Arizona State at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas in 2013, a year later Notre Dame played Purdue at Lucas Oil Stadium and in 2015, Notre Dame played against Boston College at Fenway Park.

Ratings for NBC's Notre Dame game telecasts had slumped to historic lows during the 2011 season, coinciding with average performances of the team on the football field over the past several years; however, the resurgence in the program under Brian Kelly in 2012 has resulted in the network's highest game viewership since 2005.[27]

In 2011, sister channel Versus (now NBCSN) began airing rebroadcasts of past Notre Dame games, including those aired on NBC over the years. Previously via NBC's rights deal, sister cable network Universal HD aired same-week reruns of Notre Dame home games until NBCUniversal's January 2011 merger with Comcast. The deal has also been expanded to cover some games of the university's hockey team.

On April 9, 2013, NBC Sports renewed its broadcasting contract with Notre Dame for ten years through the 2025 season.[28] Double the length of prior contract extension deals, the agreement allows NBC Sports the rights to a minimum of seven home games to be broadcast per season, with NBC Sports Network also acquiring rights to select games beginning in 2016. While most games traditionally are held at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturdays, some games will be held during primetime.[29] Revenue from the deal will continue to aid non-athlete student financial assistance.[30]

On November 21, 2015, NBCSN broadcast its first live Notre Dame game, a neutral site night game against Boston College held at Boston's Fenway Park as part of the Shamrock Series.[31]

On September 8, 2016, NBC announced that all Notre Dame home games during the 2016 season would be broadcast in 4K ultra-high-definition television exclusively on DirecTV.[32]

On September 30, 2017, NBCSN broadcast its second live Notre Dame game, against Miami (OH).

Notre Dame's September 19, 2020, game against South Florida was shifted to USA Network due to conflicts with the 2020 U.S. Open on NBC. With NBC's usual production unit working the U.S. Open, the broadcast was produced using the university's in-house Notre Dame Studios unit (in combination with NBC talent, and staff working from NBC Sports' Stamford, Connecticut studios), marking the first time it had worked a regular season Fighting Irish football game.[33]

Notre Dame's double-overtime win against Clemson on November 7, 2020, was NBC's most-watched Notre Dame game since 2005, despite game coverage moving temporarily to USA Network (due to coverage of Joe Biden's acceptance speech after being declared consensus winner of the 2020 presidential election).[34]

• Paul Burmeister - fill-in play-by-play (2017, 2020-present)
• Jac Collinsworth – pregame/halftime host and sideline reporter for select games (2020–present)
• Tony Dungy – color commentator (2020–present)
• Terry McAulay – rules analyst (2018–present)
• Kathryn Tappen – sideline reporter (2014–present)[35]
• Mike Tirico – play-by-play announcer (2016–present)
• Doug Flutie – color commentator (2014–2019), studio analyst for select games (2020–present)

• Don Criqui[36] (1994–1997)
• Dick Enberg (1991, 1993 and 1998–1999)
• Tom Hammond (1992–1997 and 2000–2015)
• Dan Hicks (2002 and 2011–2016)[37] – On November 2, 2002, Hicks filled in for Tom Hammond, who was recovering from heart surgery, in the game against Boston College.
• Charlie Jones[38] (1993–1997)
• Craig Minervini (2000) – Minervini filled in for Tom Hammond for the September 9, 2000 game against Nebraska, and the following week's game involving Purdue. Hammond was preparing for and subsequently, assigned to work on NBC's coverage of the Summer Olympic telecasts in Sydney, Australia.

• Todd Christensen (1993)
• Cris Collinsworth (1992–1994)
• Randy Cross (1994–1996)
• Pat Haden (1998–2009)
• Paul Maguire (1995)
• Mike Mayock (2010–2014)
• Beasley Reece (1996)
• Phil Simms (1995)
• Bob Trumpy[36] (1993 and 1995–1997)
• Bill Walsh (1991)

• John Dockery (1991–1997)
• Alex Flanagan (2007–2013)
• Jim Gray (1998–2001)[39]
• Lewis Johnson (2002–2006)
• O. J. Simpson (1991–1993)

• Bob Costas (1993)
• Liam McHugh (2013–2019)

• Dhani Jones (2016)
• Jonathan Vilma (2015)
• Chris Simms (2017–2019)
• Hines Ward (2013–2015)