Paul Finebaum says Notre Dame’s brand has dipped, points to poor TV ratings
By David Wasson
Published:
Notre Dame’s stunning announcement Sunday that it would opt out of a bowl appearance after being boxed out of the 2025 College Football Playoffs continued to ripple across the sport Monday, with pundits analyzing every angle of why the Fighting Irish were left out and what the ramifications are for the future.
Among those hashing it out was ESPN’s Paul Finebaum, who appeared on the First Take television show Monday morning to question the strength of Notre Dame’s brand given their declining television ratings.
“Notre Dame makes all that money off that NBC contract, but does anybody watch these games? No,” Finebaum said. “The problem is they think they’re great, but they’re not. They’re not the draw they used to be. That has nothing to do with the Playoff, it just has to do with the fact that their brand – as good as they say they are – isn’t as good as the SEC brand or the Big Ten brand.”
Finebaum specifically referenced a Week 8 college football slate that saw Notre Dame take on USC – a game that averaged 4.64 million viewers on NBC. That ranked fourth in the sport over the weekend, well behind a trio of SEC matchups in Ole Miss–Georgia (9.79 million on ABC), Tennessee–Alabama (8.01 million on ABC) and LSU–Vanderbilt (5.94 million on ABC).
Notre Dame’s current contract with NBC allows the network to broadcast all Fighting Irish home games and Peacock to exclusively stream select games. That deal, which runs through 2029, pays the school a reported $50 million per year.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
