Watching PTI today, they brought up the NBC deal. ND receives 15 million a year and those two dopes on PTI were saying that WF makes more than that from the ACC. Their pitch was to see if it would be more financially beneficial for ND to stay in ACC. As a huge draw, I would have thought that ND's tv value was worth much more than what they are getting. What am I missing here?
The games covered by E.S.P.N., C.B.S., A.B.C., etc. that we are a part of also go into our pockets.
The contract for a game always contains a guarantee payment to the visiting team. Smaller colleges often fund their entire athletic department from these guarantees when they play Power-5 teams, but I don't think the guarantee involves a specific cut of the television revenue.
Whenever ND plays a road game, the contract provides them with a rather large guarantee payment. How the home team gets the money to pay Notre Dame or any visitor is entirely up to the home team - thus some of the guarantee that a Purdue or a Michigan State pays Notre Dame might very well come from their cut of the Big Ten television money. But the contract does not specify that Notre Dame gets a percentage of the television money - the contract simply contains a guarantee dollar amount that is to be paid to the visiting team.
You quoted total team payouts for conference programs. Those dollars are for 9 games, but you compared them to half of Notre Dame's schedule. The N.B.C. dollars are for 6 games. We get significant revenue for the other 6.
The $15 million from NBC for the ND home games are the only regular season television money that ND receives. The only money ND gets for the road games are the contract guarantees that ND negotiates with the home team opponent. I am sure that because Notre Dame is a desired visitor who sells tickets, that the ND guarantee is probably pretty hefty. But that does not negate the fact that the per team television payouts to Power-5 conference teams dwarfs what ND receives from NBC. The contract guarantee money is not related to the value of television contracts.
It is a fact that when it comes to TV money, Notre Dame sits near the bottom of Power-5 schools. Swarbrick himself has said multiple times that ND would make al lot more money if they joined a conference. He also said that the reason they are willing to take this financial hit, it that football independence brings a lot value to the University other than television money.
Those conference numbers are what each team in those conferences get. For example, Purdue gets $54 million - not 1/14th of the quoted $54 million. In addition, the SEC just signed a new deal with ESPN, which will bump that $45 million per team total to a reported $62 million per team.
So the fact that ND does not share their $15 million with other teams means squat. They are still at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to television money as an Independent.
