Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Under the Dome ������Gimme Five If you build it, they will watch. No. 1 Notre Dame���s ���Field of Dreams��� 2012 regular season ended with a 22-13 victory at USC Nov. 24. ABC���s telecast of the game included the following superlatives: ��� Fifth-most-viewed regular-season game in college football since 1991, the year Notre Dame���s contract with NBC for home games began. Ratings prior to 1991 were not made available. ��� ABC���s most-viewed Saturday night football game ever. ��� Most-viewed game on ESPN/ABC that involved Notre Dame since 1991. ��� ABC���s four Notre Dame games in 2012 ��� Michigan State (Sept. 15), Oklahoma (Oct. 27), Boston College (Nov. 10) and USC (Nov. 24) ��� averaged nearly nine million viewers. The matchup with USC averaged 16,059,000 viewers and 10,707,000 households, and received a 9.4 rating ��� making it the most-viewed regular-season college football game on ABC since Nov. 18, 2006. Here are the top-five most-viewed games since 1991 among all the networks: Game Date Rating (Network) 1. FSU-Notre Dame Nov. 13, 1993 16.0 (NBC) 2. Michigan-Ohio State Nov. 18, 2006 13.0 (ABC) 3. LSU-Alabama Nov. 5, 2011 11.5 (CBS) 4. Florida-Alabama Dec. 5, 2009 11.1 (CBS) 5. Notre Dame-USC Nov. 24, 2012 9.4 (ABC) James Franklin Votes Notre Dame No. 4 In the final USA Today coaches��� poll, 56 of the 59 ballots had Notre Dame ��� the lone eligible team to finish 12-0 ��� ranked No. 1. Two of the exceptions, Middle Tennessee State���s Rick Stockstill and Texas Tech���s Tommy Tuberville, placed the Fighting Irish No. 2. Vanderbilt���s James Franklin voted Notre Dame No. 4 behind three SEC teams: No. 1 Alabama (12-1), No. 2 Georgia (11-2) and No. 3 Florida (11-1), whose lone loss was to Georgia. Franklin had six SEC teams in the top eight, with LSU fifth, Texas A&M sixth and South Carolina eighth. He also ranked his 8-4 Commodores No. 16, enabling them to come in at No. 27 overall. The only other coach to have Vanderbilt in the top 20 was Stockstill, who also had it 16th. ���It���s an educated opinion,��� Franklin told Jeff Lockridge of USA Today. ���I���ve coached in the ACC. I���ve coached in the Big 12. I���ve coached in the Pac-10. I���ve coached in the SEC. I���ve coached in the NFL. So I think I have a pretty good understanding of what these conferences are like. ������ I have tremendous respect for Notre Dame, what they���ve done this year ��� great year. They can prove me wrong the day after the [BCS Championship Game], but that���s just how I feel.��� Notre Dame Football Tickets ��� BCS ChampionShip Bowl game ��� 2013 gameS now on Sale 24 years in business www.NotreDameTickets.com 1-800-925-2500