NBC is praying that Brian Kelly revives the Notre Dame franchise make no mistake about it.

NBC has seen their broadcast numbers slump from 5.2 million per telecast under Charlie Weis in his first year to just 3.7 million this year.

That's a massive drop when it comes to advertisers and NBC knows it.

They are forking out $15 million a year to Notre Dame to cover their  home games and they are barely breaking even under the Weis era.

NBC honcho Dick Ebersol made that clear in The New York Times during the week

"Unquestionably, we would always like them to have a higher degree of consistency" he stated when talking about Notre Dame.

No kidding. Ebersol is being very nice about what is quickly becoming a problem for Notre Dame and the network. The last national championship was in the Lou Holtz era some four head coaches ago if you include George O'Leary. The last major bowl game was also  under Holtz.

That can't go on, especially with new ownership at NBC. Comcast will be doing a line by line analysis of what is paying off and what is not for the troubled network.

Unless Kelly can create a winning franchise then the Notre Dame/NBC deal could be in jeopardy.

So the message is clear for Kelly from NBC, Notre Dame and the fans.

Just win baby!