National Football League tight end and two-time Pro Bowl selection Kyle Rudolph is going to be calling select Big Ten matchups on NBC this fall, he recently told Pete Sampson of The Athletic. The news has not been confirmed by NBC Sports, but it would continue Rudolph’s role on football broadcasts after working as a broadcast analyst for the United States Football League (USFL) this past season. Rudolph has played 12 seasons in the NFL and is the Minnesota Vikings’ all-time leader in touchdowns by a tight end (48).
Rudolph formerly played at the University of Notre Dame and called the Blue-Gold game alongside play-by-play announcer Tony Simeone. NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua recently departed the network to succeed Jack Swarbrick as the university’s 13th athletics director. He is on the verge of beginning a transition period lasting until July 1, 2024, during which he will shadow Swarbrick in the role of special assistant to the president for athletics. Notre Dame is reportedly targeting an annual payout of $65 million to $75 million in its next media rights deal, and discussions reportedly started with NBC.
Bevacqua will now be on the other side of the negotiating table, temporarily pausing discussions, and negotiating with NBCUniversal Media Group chairman, Mark Lazarus. Early negotiations were allowed to commence after the Big Ten agreement activated a clause in the ongoing 12-year media rights contract. Notre Dame is reportedly considering joining a power conference if it is unable to accrue those rights fees. Viewership for Notre Dame Fighting Irish home football games averaged 2.43 million.
The Big Ten media agreement with CBS, FOX and NBC began at the start of this month and continues through the end of the 2029-30 athletic season. While terms of the deal were not officially released, it is reportedly worth over $8 billion, making it the largest media rights partnership in the history of college sports in the United States. Yet there were unsettled financial terms when Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren left to become the president of the Chicago Bears related to mandated night football games, which caused a stir in late May.
NBC is unveiling a new lead broadcast team on Big Ten games this year with Noah Eagle as the play-by-play announcer and Todd Blackledge as the lead analyst. They will be joined by Kathryn Tappen as a sideline reporter and Football Night in America studio host Maria Taylor will serve in the same role for these broadcasts. Since the network has not announced a role for Rudolph, the commentator tandem is, at the moment, unknown.
