Countdown to kickoff: Notre Dame vs. Ohio State only 90 days away
To preview one of the most anticipated games for Notre Dame this century and the official start of the Marcus Freeman era, BlueandGold.com is counting down the days to the matchup against Ohio State on Sept. 3.
This daily series of 99 stories celebrates by the numbers some of the most notable names, dates, moments and memories related to the past and present of Notre Dame football.
Today, we look at the year 1990, when the blockbuster television deal between Notre Dame and NBC was finalized.
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It was considered a college football-shaking decision at the time, as one of the sports’ biggest brands was breaking away from the College Football Association (CFA) formed in 1977. On Feb. 5, 1990, Notre Dame signed a massive television deal with NBC. The media monster would now air all Notre Dame home football games.
The first iteration of the deal would go from 1991-95 and be worth $38 million. The money would be broken down into two parts: $18 million would go to Notre Dame’s home opponents, while the remaining $20 million would go toward non-athletic scholarships.
The partnership was met with mixed reactions; unsurprisingly, many outside of the Notre Dame world saw the deal as greedy and the perfect culmination of the idea that college football had officially become a business endeavor. Others understood why Notre Dame did it, even if they were not thrilled that it was happening.
“My initial thought was this is an outrage, this is crazy,” said Tim Layden, formerly of Sports Illustrated, in the 1998 book “Talking Irish” by Steve Delsohn. “Then you sort of rebound from that. You realize it makes sense.
“Notre Dame is the only nationally marketable commodity in college football. So once the opportunity presented itself, they did the smart thing. They would have been crazy not to.”
Had Notre Dame chosen to remain as a member of the CFA with the 63 additional teams, the Irish’s games would’ve remained largely regional despite having a fanbase spread out across the United States.
On Sept. 7, 1991, Notre Dame hosted Indiana for the first NBC game. With few exceptions, all Irish home games have been shown on NBC since that day.
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The deal has become a part of college football, although it occasionally comes under fire for an interesting reason. Notre Dame is actually leaving money on the table by remaining a party to the agreement, as conference media deals continue to balloon to astronomical amounts and schools are receiving massive payouts.
When Notre Dame was a full member of the ACC, including football, in 2020, it shared its profits with the rest of the conference while also earning an equal share of the ACC’s profits that season. Notre Dame brought in $34,889,808, a more than $10 million increase from 2019-20 when the school was independent in football.
It’s the cost of independence in college football these days, and one that Notre Dame continues to be willing to pay.
The current deal runs through 2025, and as various conference media deals expire and streaming services become more and more common, it is anyone’s guess what the future of the contract holds.
