[Goose]

But Notre Dame's appeal seems to have waned since both ABC/ESPN and Fox passed on carrying the game this year.

Indeed it has waned. The Irish fans are disillusioned. The 7-3 record means no "good" bowl. Sam Hartman, who was supposed to lead them to success, basically failed in every "difficult" game. (Not my words, ND fan website words). He should be benched so they can give their other QBs experience for next year. Oh, and they don't like their coach either :-).  Stanford's record is not impressive. Plenty of reason to not watch this game on TV.
https://ndsmcobserver.com/2023/11/miller...m-hartman/

It wasn't Sam Hartman's fault that Notre Dame had 10 men on the field on defense for Ohio State's final play......

True. However many of the ND fans would say the fact that play even mattered was that ND "only" threw for 73% as many yards as Ohio State did. The play calling was not Sam Hartman's responsibility, but expectation was that he would bring the ND passing game to a "new level". He didn't.

Obviously in this game ND was playing a bit conservative to keep the Ohio State offense off the field as much as possible. However, ND needed to score points while doing this. The strategy was that the run game would open up the opportunities to throw for "chunk" yardage. It didn't. Sam Hartman didn't lose the game for ND, but in the fans eyes (unfairly or not) he was there to win it for them. He didn't. They were 9-3 last year with what was considered "substandard" QB play. They will likely finish 9-3 this year. Not what the fans expected.

[Goose]

But Notre Dame's appeal seems to have waned since both ABC/ESPN and Fox passed on carrying the game this year.

Indeed it has waned. The Irish fans are disillusioned. The 7-3 record means no "good" bowl. Sam Hartman, who was supposed to lead them to success, basically failed in every "difficult" game. (Not my words, ND fan website words). He should be benched so they can give their other QBs experience for next year. Oh, and they don't like their coach either :-).  Stanford's record is not impressive. Plenty of reason to not watch this game on TV.
https://ndsmcobserver.com/2023/11/miller...m-hartman/

It wasn't Sam Hartman's fault that Notre Dame had 10 men on the field on defense for Ohio State's final play......

True. However many of the ND fans would say the fact that play even mattered was that ND "only" threw for 73% as many yards as Ohio State did. The play calling was not Sam Hartman's responsibility, but expectation was that he would bring the ND passing game to a "new level". He didn't.

Obviously in this game ND was playing a bit conservative to keep the Ohio State offense off the field as much as possible. However, ND needed to score points while doing this. The strategy was that the run game would open up the opportunities to throw for "chunk" yardage. It didn't. Sam Hartman didn't lose the game for ND, but in the fans eyes (unfairly or not) he was there to win it for them. He didn't. They were 9-3 last year with what was considered "substandard" QB play. They will likely finish 9-3 this year. Not what the fans expected.