SAN ANTONIO NOW LAST PLACE THAT CARES ABOUT IRISH? The SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE has the news today that, much like Charlie Weis’ Subway punch card, NBC’s ratings for Notre Dame football are at an all-time low.

We all know why the Irish have endured the least viewership in the 17-year partnership between the school and network, and NBC is trying alleviate the hemorrhaging eyeball losses by “bundling other sports programming with Notre Dame football” and starting games later in the day.

Night games would also likely increase the ratings by default, but ND has resisted the idea in the past few years. NBC Sports President Ken Schanzer said, “There are times we would love to play games in prime time.”

Uh, Ken, YOU might love having Notre Dame games in prime time but here in L.A., we’ll take our local Sanford & Son reruns instead. We’ve already suffered enough.

The South Bend Tribune also reports that Notre Dame is, for some unknown reason, going to kickoff off-site home games in 2009, with a game against Washington State in San Antonio. Let us repeat that for you, ND vs. Wazoo in the Alamodome, which begs the question, if a Cougar and Irishman falls in the woods …