A long weather delay meant that NBC’s coverage of Saturday afternoon’s game between Purdue and Notre Dame would run into its coverage of Saturday night’s game between Illinois and Indiana. So, what did NBC do? Two different things.
At 7:30 p.m. Eastern, when Purdue and Notre Dame were early in the third quarter the Illinois-Indiana game was nearing its start, NBC Sports made an announcement on X, formerly Twitter.
“PROGRAMMING NOTE: Coverage of tonight’s Illinois/Indiana game will begin on Peacock,” the announcement said. “NBC will join in progress at the conclusion of Notre Dame football.”
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Coverage of tonight’s Illinois/Indiana game will begin on Peacock. NBC will join in progress at the conclusion of Notre Dame football.
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) September 20, 2025
Soon thereafter, NBC called an audible and decided to put the Fighting Illini and Hoosiers on at 7:50, which is when the game began.
“PROGRAMMING UPDATE: Coverage of Illinois/Indiana will begin on NBC on most stations at 7:50 ET,” NBC Sports announced. “Notre Dame coverage will continue on Peacock.”
PROGRAMMING UPDATE: Coverage of Illinois/Indiana will begin on NBC on most stations at 7:50 ET. Notre Dame coverage will continue on Peacock.
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) September 20, 2025
Normally, the original network sticking with a game to its conclusion while moving the start of another game elsewhere is standard practice. So, what happened?
For starters, the Purdue-Notre Dame game was not particularly suspenseful. At the time NBC Sports made its initial decision, the Fighting Irish were up 42-23. By the time that decision was reversed, the Notre Dame lead had grown to 49-23 and was moments away from being 56-23. Keeping that in mind, and that Illinois-Indiana is a conference matchup between ranked opponents (the Fighting Illini and Hoosiers entered the game ranked No. 9 and No. 19, respectively), the initial decision to relegate the start of the game to Peacock caught some backlash.
This is horrendous for how you treat a top 20 matchup, but the Blowout on your streaming service
— Chas. A. Davis (@chasadavis) September 20, 2025
Nobody wants to watch this blowout
— Jake Thompson (@ChaserJake94) September 20, 2025
The only year anyone in the world would willingly tune into watch Illinois and Indiana and it’s being disregarded for Purdue at Notre Dame https://t.co/caplTqI3Un
— Spartan Dawgs (@SpartanDawgsEL) September 21, 2025
BOOOOO 🍅
— CFB Tracker (@MatchupTracker) September 20, 2025
Naturally, when NBC reversed its course, the feeling was that it was because of the backlash.
We bullied them enough 🙌
— SleeperCFB (@SleeperCFB) September 20, 2025
NBC Sports, YOU are the latest victim of cyberbullying.
— Trilly Donovan (@trillydonovan) September 20, 2025
Was it the right call? You can’t please everybody. But at the end of the day, it’s hard to argue with showing a top-20 matchup over a blowout that still had several minutes remaining.
About Michael Dixon
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