Last season’s Ohio State-Notre Dame primetime game gave NBC its largest audience for a Fighting Irish game since the 1993 Game of the Century, featuring the Irish against Florida State. Despite not winning a major bowl since 1994, Notre Dame remains a spectacularly powerful brand. This year, we’d like to see Army get some of that spotlight.
NBC Sports Registers its Largest Audience for Regular-Season College Football in 30 YEARS with Saturday’s @OhioStateFB
— NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) September 25, 2023
vs. @NDFootball
More: https://t.co/PvprPY5aS2 pic.twitter.com/sMrJzGGWE2
Army-Notre Dame will never command the audience that Ohio State-Notre Dame did. Nevertheless, a real opportunity exists here. NBC’s squabbles with the Big Ten over November night games could push the Black Knights and Fighting Irish into primetime. The Big Ten’s long resistance to night games in November forced NBC into a suboptimal spot last season, which ESPN later documented in an insightful article. The article noted NBC and the Big Ten had to pressure Michigan State to move their Thanksgiving Weekend home game against Penn State to Ford Field for primetime. This disinterest from the Big Ten in primetime November home games also forced a matchup between 5-5 Wisconsin and 5-5 Nebraska to own the “big” Saturday Night slot on NBC in the penultimate week of the regular season.
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Grantland Rice’s Four Horsemen poem, college football’s most famous prose and one of American sportswriting’s most recognizable excerpts, Notre Dame and Army recently announced a 2024 Shamrock Series rematch. Alas, Army is no longer the national contender it was when Grantland Rice typed his immortal words. Still, NBC could benefit from giving Notre Dame-Army a primetime spot.
Notre Dame’s Shamrock Series is traditionally a primetime showcase for the Fighting Irish at a sparkling pro venue. Out of eleven editions of the Shamrock Series, only three have kicked during the afternoon — the 2016, 2018, and 2021 editions. Past Shamrock Series games against heavyweights such as Miami and Arizona State slotted naturally into primetime. Despite Army’s status as a Group of Five program, Army-Notre Dame would also likely draw a broad primetime audience. In 2010, 3.53 million viewers watched Army and Notre Dame play the first football game at the new Yankee Stadium as part of the Shamrock Series, earning it a 2.2 rating. That number exceeded the viewing figures from three Shamrock Series primetime games featuring Power Five opponents — the 2014 edition with Purdue (3.13 million, 1.9), the inaugural edition against Washington State in 2009 (2.34 million, 1.4), and the 2011 edition against Maryland (2.08 million, 1.3). By comparison, the Hurricanes’ Shamrock Series game drew about the same as the Army game — 3.68 million viewers and a 2.3 rating in 2012 — while the Sun Devils’ Shamrock Series game brought in 3.63 million viewers and a 2.2 rating the following year.
Bottom line, Army-Notre Dame has real drawing power.
With viewership numbers from the 2010 game in mind, it’s not far-fetched to imagine NBC putting the game in its primetime slot and using the nostalgia of the series’ history and the Four Horsemen to drive TV viewership. This past season, the network used nostalgia as a draw with its most lucrative sports property, the NFL. NBC not only kept a matchup between the 4-4 Zach Wilson-led Jets against the 4-5 Raiders on primetime, but they aired a special intro to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the Heidi Bowl… not a Super Bowl, the Heidi Bowl (For what it’s worth, the game’s intro was one of the best I’ve ever seen). So we can expect NBC to fire up the Notre Dame lore this time, too.
They got Heidi girl (Jennifer Edwards) to do the intro and it’s awesome pic.twitter.com/2bkv0YRtVu
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) November 13, 2023
Primetime TV slots on the Big Four networks come few and far between for Group of Five programs. Primetime TV slots against Power Four opponents are even rarer. But nearly six million people watched undefeated Temple nearly upset Notre Dame on Halloween in 2015 to right the wrongs of three decades of program futility, including their Big East exile. Temple-Notre Dame became the most-viewed game of that particular football Saturday. Alas, the Owls lost the game and then failed to reach the New Year’s Six altogether, but college football fans still talk about the game today.
Imagine Army beating Notre Dame. Now imagine it in primetime.
Such a win would be a banner moment for the Group of Five. Since their last win in 1958, Army has only come close to beating the Irish twice. This year looks like a continuation of that long losing streak. But the very drama of that six-decade streak makes this an alluring game for primetime.
The Black Knights can crash the Fighting Irish’s homage to its most treasured fable on one of college football’s biggest stages. Though it will have taken every bit of 100 years, a win in primetime effectively gets revenge on the ghosts of the Four Horsemen. What’s more, Navy has never beaten Notre Dame in primetime. The Mids are 0-3 all-time against the Irish in primetime, losing the 1986, 2014, and 2018 meetings by an average score of 41-25.
Those are some serious potential bragging rights right there.
⚠️ SCHEDULE UPDATE ⚠️
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) February 14, 2024
Army to take on Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium as part of the Shamrock Series.
→ https://t.co/2Y0xEY8BaC#GoArmy pic.twitter.com/nOVlhT4fzR
Army will be in rarified air with a win over Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are 11-0 in their neutral site showcase Shamrock Series games. Those wins spread the Gospel of Notre Dame Football to new cities in shiny pro stadiums all over the country. The Black Knights would become the first “bad guys” to win the Shamrock Series, joining the ranks of Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush (see the “Bush Push”), in the annals of Fighting Irish villains.
Moreover, a potential primetime appearance is vital in 2024. Army’s voyage out of the doldrums of the early-to-mid 2000s continues with its inaugural season in the American Athletic Conference, arguably the top Group of Five conference. A primetime TV appearance on a Big Four network in 2024 continues the steady, upward trajectory of the Army program, coming at a crucial juncture in program history.
With this in mind, Army fans must root for the executives at NBC to give the Black Knights their chance under the lights. There’s too much at stake to allow for any other outcome alongside a rare shot at true sports glory.
Go Army! Beat Notre Dame!!!
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