We're Notre Dame And You're Not

Under Neinas, who was an aide to Byers for a decade and later spent nine years as commissioner of the Big Eight Conference, the CFA, which was founded in 1977 as a lobby for the big-time football schools at the NCAA convention, suddenly got into the TV business in earnest. Of the nation's top football schools, only those from the Big Ten and Pac-10 didn't join the CFA. The Big Ten and Pac-10 cut their own television deals. The result was a lot more football on TV, which drove down ratings, commercial rates and payoffs.

The bomb that exploded last week began ticking in October, when the CFA asked each of its members to ratify its new cable package, a four-year, $110 million deal with ESPN. At Notre Dame the cast of players had changed. Hesburgh and Joyce retired in May 1987, and the new president, the Reverend Edward Malloy, put athletics in the hands of the Reverend William Beauchamp, his executive vice-president, whose credentials include a law degree. Dick Rosenthal, who, like Malloy, is a former Notre Dame basketball player, took over as athletic director.

The new team soon proved itself to be more profit-oriented than its predecessor. Last season, for instance, the Irish appeared in the Kickoff Classic at the Meadowlands. Never mind that by playing in the game, which doesn't count against the maximum of 11 regular-season games allowed by the NCAA. Notre Dame's student-athletes would have to play 13 times, counting the inevitable bowl invitation; the game put $600,000 in the Irish's coffers.

After Notre Dame received the CFA's request to ratify the ESPN deal, Beauchamp, who had been elected secretary-treasurer of the CFA, wrote Neinas on Oct. 24, explaining that he wouldn't sign until he saw both of the CFA's television packages, network as well as cable. Beauchamp's letter should have set off an alarm in Neinas's head. Heedlessly, the CFA signed with ESPN before it negotiated its network deal.

When Neinas went to New York City to negotiate with ABC, CBS and NBC in December and January, he gave no indication that Notre Dame might desert the CFA. Says NBC Sports executive vice-president Ken Schanzer, "The Notre Dame schedule was on the spec sheet from the CFA." Even so, both NBC and CBS balked at Neinas's asking price of $40 million per year for five years. But ABC, which already had the rights to the Big Ten and Pac-10 games, was willing to pay $210 million over five years to gain exclusive noncable network rights to college football, and its deal with the CFA was announced on Jan. 17.

Notre Dame realized that ABC's new commitments to the CFA, when added to its obligations to the Big Ten and Pac-10, meant that the network would have to cut back on national telecasts and carry more regional games (those sent to different areas of the country within the same time period). "There was to be a great deal of regionalization," Rosenthal said, "and our constituency comes from all over the U.S. We expressed our concern to the CFA."

On Jan. 16, Rosenthal, who was in New York for a Notre Dame-Rutgers basketball game, visited NBC and CBS to talk about marketing the CFA in 1990. During those conversations, he let it be known that Notre Dame was unhappy with the CFA-ABC deal that would be announced the next day. The hint of Notre Dame's availability—if that's what it was—went right by CBS's executives, but NBC's Schanzer picked up on it. He called Rosenthal after ABC and the CFA had announced their agreement and asked if he would consider a separate deal. When Rosenthal said yes, Schanzer walked a few feet down the hall and into the office of Dick Ebersol, the president of NBC Sports. "I think we really have a shot here," Schanzer said. Ebersol told him to go for it.

On Jan. 24, Schanzer flew to South Bend, where he met with Rosenthal and Beauchamp at Rosenthal's house, near the Notre Dame campus. Aware of Notre Dame's sensitivity to charges of greed, Schanzer spoke of everything but money. After three hours, he was encouraged when Beauchamp said, "I came in at four [on a scale of one to 10 in favor of going with NBC], and I'm at seven now."

Notre Dame had two main concerns, says Schanzer. It wanted national exposure and, to accommodate fans who travel long distances to attend home games, a 1:30 p.m. starting time for all games. The Irish feared that ABC might try to shift the kickoffs to various times of the day because of its many other college football commitments.

On Jan. 31, Rosenthal again visited New York, this time to close the deal with NBC. On Feb. 3, he and Beauchamp flew to CFA headquarters in Boulder, Colo., to tell Neinas what Notre Dame had decided and why. "I was surprised, taken aback, and somewhat miffed," says Neinas.