VERSUS Could Potentially Air Notre Dame Football as Part of Comcast-Universal Merger

John Ourand of Sports Business Journal has a must-read column in today’s edition, in which he talks a lot about what a purchase of NBC Universal would do for Comcast.  Here’s the most interesting potential note:

But Comcast also has its sights set on Notre Dame football. Sources said NBC’s deal with the Fighting Irish has a clause that allows a certain number of games to migrate to cable. Versus would be a natural place to house those games.

Versus also could have the right to re-air NBC’s Notre Dame games. And it could roll out pre- and postgame shows around them. In June 2008, NBC signed a five-year extension for Notre Dame’s home football games, a deal that extends through the 2015 season.

Adding some Notre Dame to the Mountain West and low-level Pac-10/Big 12/Ivy League games VERSUS currently presence would mean big things for the network as a brand in general.