Is the Notre Dame football broadcast on NBC about to lose Mike Tirico?

When most Notre Dame Fighting Irish football fans talk about the NBC broadcast, they generally (according to my ears) say two things:

1. Doug Flutie is terrible and has to go — like to the moon if possible.
2. Mike Tirico is very good at what he does and we’re lucky to have him.

While I certainly agree with number one, I don’t have quite the same feeling for number two. Tirico just doesn’t move the needle for me. I don’t have anything negative to say about him, other than it [the broadcast] just feels boring to me, but I’m terrified about the possibility of replacing him.

That may happen sooner than planned.

ESPN is reportedly targeting Al Michaels and Peyton Manning to man their Monday Night Football booth, and that means a massive opening could be there on Sunday Night on NBC.

At first glance, this doesn’t seem like a scenario that will actually happen due to the competitive nature of the networks, but it’s certainly within the reason and could happen.

If it DOES happen, it’s only logical to assume that NBC would pull Tirico completely from the Notre Dame broadcast booth, and insert someone else like Dan Hicks or whatever. Tirico is already slotted to take over the SNF broadcast after the LA Super Bowl.

They could use it as an opportunity to rebrand the whole broadcast by putting Flutie out on his ass and go with two new faces, but that’s what networks do when they have vision and care about a product.

I have a hard time believing that’s the case after SkynetCamgate (GET USED TO US USING YOU AS A LAB RAT IRISH TRASH FANS).

So yeah... keep an eye on this one, because this could actually happen here over the course of the next few months.