NBC Sports Network to Televise Notre Dame Hockey Home Games Starting in 2013-14

Two years from now, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will have what Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick called “a more robust television program than any hockey team in the country,” thanks to an agreement with NBC Sports Network.

In conjunction with the University of Notre Dame’s move in conferences from the CCHA to Hockey East, the program announced today what had been speculated about for a couple of days, that NBC Sports Network will televise Irish hockey home games, including a package of Hockey East games, starting with the 2013-14 NCAA Hockey season, as Swarbrick and John Miller, President of NBC Sports/VERSUS (VERSUS will change it’s name to NBC Sports Network on January 2, 2012) announced at the press conference confirming Notre Dame’s move to Hockey East today in South Bend. Details were scant and, according to Swarbrick, more “will emerge in the coming weeks.”

Miller states that the deal is an extension of the network’s relationship with Notre Dame “Our relationship with Notre Dame is one of our most important partnerships and has been for in excess of 20 years. And the opportunity to broadcast Notre Dame hockey games as well as Hockey East games is something that was very exciting for us as we rebrand the NBC Sports Network, and we’re excited about what the future holds.” NBC has been the home for Notre Dame football since 1990, and has a current agreement to televise home games through 2015.

This is the first step into televising college hockey for VERSUS, which has been the home of the National Hockey League on cable television since 2005, when it was known as OLN. Since coming under the same umbrella as the NHL’s broadcast partner, NBC, the two networks renewed their agreements in a 10-year, $2 billion contract. There have been some separate rumors of VERSUS beginning to televise college hockey from various conference as soon as this January, which appear to be unaffected by today’s announcement. The guarantee, however, is that NBC Sports Network will be the home for both professional and college hockey by the end of 2013.