I think if we moved on from NBC the storyline would be this: "Ridiculous" > Gave up our exclusivity > ND is continuing to slip > Fine I'll watch > Hey this is kind of nice > These announcers are pretty intriguing > Ok, we waited too long with NBC, this is awesome.
I don't really follow... almost half of ND's games have various announcers through the season, and it's usually one of the big crews, including seeing Gus Johnson when they're playing Stanford or a B1G team, and getting Herbie and Fowler at least once and then a couple of random 'B' squad ESPN booths outside of that. Unless you mean getting intriguing home booth announcers on a different network, in which case you can't really compare to NBC until you know who they would be. It could be much better, or could be a total disaster (like hiring Flutie was). Right now I feel like it would be hard to find a booth that could beat Tirico and Brees, unless it includes Brady Quinn.
In terms of their presentation, they may be a step back from ESPN, but I think that's mainly because NBC has no reason to pump so many tie-in storylines right now. That would change if they added the B1G, and had a legit reason to do a gameday production, rather than jamming ND content into a half-hour pregame and then whatever post-game stuff is on Peacock.
Fox's game coverage is the definition of 'little dick energy,' imo. Their pregame show is alright for alternative viewing to Gameday, but the game presentations themselves always seem so low-energy. Their crowd noise sucks, their graphics could be leftovers from an NFL Thanksgiving game from 1996, and their efforts to keep pushing noon games, while valiant and provide a good option for people that watch all day, screams "we know we can't compete with ESPN, CBS or an ND night game!" Their 8pm-and-later offerings on Fox and FS1 were mostly garbage this year, outside of Baylor and Oklahoma State.
NBC is clean and high-class, which DOES fit your 'golf' analogy, but that doesn't mean it's the little guy on the block... it means its the stuffy rich guy that has a great wardrobe (the presentation and visuals are nice) but needs to modernize (upgrade the CFB-at-large tie-ins, sack up and hire Brady Quinn for the booth, etc.). NBC will never be ESPN, but it won't take much to get them in line ahead of Fox if they're willing to spend the money, and promise not to dick ND over in the process.
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