ESPN in major broadcasting change causing bitter blow to rivals NBC over College Football Playoff schedule
A unique broadcasting assignment will be undertaken by ESPN as part of the new 12-team College Football Playoff.
Over the extended playoffs, the network’s broadcast job will deal NBC a severe blow.
In the inaugural College Football Playoff, the 11-1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish will host the 11-1 Indiana Hoosiers.
ESPN and ABC will broadcast the game, which is scheduled for Friday, December 20th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
Additionally, it will be the first Notre Dame game since 1990 to not air on Peacock or NBC.
The Indiana-Notre Dame game will be the first Fighting Irish home game to be shown on a non-NBC network since November 17, 1990, according to a report by journalist Timothy Burke on Bluesky.
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On that day, ESPN aired a game between the Fighting Irish and the Penn State Nittany Lions.
Under the terms of their existing broadcasting agreement, Notre Dame’s home games will continue to air on NBC through 2029.
According to reports, NBC is paying an annual fee of about $50 million as part of the agreement that was reached last year.
Many media firms, including NBC, expressed interest in bidding for the expanded CFP but were unsuccessful in obtaining those rights.
More Fighting Irish home games could be broadcast outside of the NBC network as a result of the new playoff structure.
ESPN was able to broadcast the game since Notre Dame finished as the seventh seed.
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ESPN or TNT, who lease hand-picked first-round CFP games from ESPN, may be able to show a game live from South Bend, Indiana, if the Fighting Irish finish between the No. 5 and No. 8 seed, like they did this season.
According to Nielsen data reported by Sports Media Watch, Notre Dame has received high TV ratings for NBC this autumn.
Two games, one against Army in November and one against Northern Illinois in September, each drew 4 million viewers.
When the Fighting Irish traveled to play the Texas A&M Aggies to begin the season, they drew the most crowds.
There were about 8 million viewers of that game on ABC combined.
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