One of FOX's objectives was a national Saturday game. Much of their fall Saturday's have afternoon baseball, so a national game would probably have to have a noon ET start time. The ACC could have accommodated that. The Pac 10 could not. The Big XII might but that means a lot of 11:00 am local starts. Notre Dame -- even with South Bend's funky timezone thing -- probably would be willing to play games at noon. It wouldn't be the same exposure they get from NBC, but money talks. If FOX pays the Irish in the neighborhood of the ACC's $17 million I am sure ND will play the early game Saturday.
If the ACC had taken the FOX offer, I doubt ESPN would have broken the bank for the Irish. They have enough content and get enough Notre Dame via their road games against other schools.
With FOX as a free partner with deep pockets, Notre Dame can either move or leverage the interest to get more money out of NBC. A decent contract will placate those around Notre Dame who want the Big Ten's money.
What does this all mean for BC? If Notre Dame joins another conference, we will probably never get back on their schedule. As long as they remain independent, they will have to talk to us...especially if there is pressure from their TV partners to find attractive, and proven ratings grabbing opponents.
Posts
10 comments:
South Bend doesn't have the time zone issue anymore, Indiana instituted Day Light Savings and St. Joseph's county (County containing South Bend) is now on Eastern time I believe.
They can go play UCONN for all I care. I will never be happy with a 2 vs 1 home game set up again!
My ND colleague claims that we are talking about another long term football contract. It's not clear when it would commence, however.
I wouldn't be totally against seeing the game at Gillette Stadium, although I prefer on-campus games.
He also surprised me by staing that he'd like to see ND in the ACC.
ND is adding a lot of ACC teams to its sked for the next decade, if another random blog I read is correct - in addition to Miami they have a home-neutral-away with Maryland, and have a few with Wake starting in '12 or after and there may have been another (Ga Tech?). They also are adding on Okla St. the seem set to be independent, but maybe setting the stage to have a seamless ease into the ACC if they have to join a conf.? Or maybe if the BE goes bust they'll approach the ACC for a similar arragement - member other sports, 3 games or so. IMO, ND fits better with ACC than BigTen (and is as far from everybody else as Miami and BC)
I'll just come right out and say it. If the ACC decides to expand and they want to go all the way to 16 (since 16 seems to be the new 12 these days), then I'd like the 4 new teams/schools to be ND, Syracuse, UConn and X. X could be any one of the following: Pitt, Penn State, WVU, Army, Navy, Rutgirls, etc.
Yes, I said I'd like UConn to join.
If UCONN joins the ACC under any of the doomsday scenarios we've talked about, do you think the ACC makes them repay the legal fees to member schools and the league itself in addition to the entrance fee?
Evil Empire strikes again! On account of the page content, there's an ND banner ad up top (right now anyways).
Adblock plus for firefox means never having to see a surprise notre dame banner ad.
Don't block the ND ads. Click on them all day. It means ND is paying for a BC blog.
ND is making a move to put themselves in the running.
www.gardenvalleyrealestate.info
Post a Comment