Paul Finebaum insists no one watches Notre Dame on NBC

Paul Finebaum doesn’t need much of an excuse to go after Notre Dame, but the Irish gave him a good one this week.

After being left out of the College Football Playoff on Sunday, Notre Dame said the spot was “stolen from our student-athletes” and announced it would skip bowl season entirely. Then, athletic director Pete Bevacqua went on The Dan Patrick Show on Monday and escalated things further, saying the ACC did “permanent damage” to their relationship by campaigning for Miami at Notre Dame’s expense.

Finebaum heard all this and decided to pull out television ratings from earlier in the season to make a point about whether Notre Dame deserves to act this entitled.

“Notre Dame makes all that money off that NBC contract, but does anybody watch these games?” Finebaum asked.” No. On the week of their biggest game of the year against Southern Cal, I think — if I have this correctly — they lost in the ratings to LSU and Vanderbilt on ABC.

“The problem is, they think they’re great, but they’re not. They’re not the draw they used to be, and that has nothing to do with the playoffs, it just has to do with the fact that their brand — as good as they think they’re — aren’t as big as the SEC brand or even the Big Ten brand.”

Paul Finebaum insists no one is watching Notre Dame on NBC… 🤔 pic.twitter.com/qE6ivm2nwo

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 8, 2025

Using one October weekend to make a broader point about Notre Dame’s standing feels convenient, given the actual issue at hand. The committee ranked Notre Dame ahead of Miami for weeks, then switched them at the last possible moment after the ACC lobbied hard. Notre Dame’s reaction was over the top, but the process that got them left out was also legitimately strange. Finebaum bringing up ratings from three months ago doesn’t change the fact that the committee appeared to flip under outside pressure rather than on any new information about either team.

The ratings show Notre Dame isn’t the dominant force it was decades ago. They finished fourth that Week 8 weekend behind three SEC games but ahead of every Big Ten matchup. The numbers aren’t elite, but they’re not irrelevant either. Finebaum cherry-picking one game where Notre Dame underperformed doesn’t prove the Irish don’t deserve consideration any more than Notre Dame’s outrage proves they got robbed. Both sides are overstating their case.