Irish Breakdown

Notre Dame Football Welcomes New Radio Voice for 2024 Season

Paul Burmeister leaves after six seasons for a bigger role with NBC Sports

Nick Shepkowski

Notre Dame football radio play-by-play voice Tony Simone
Notre Dame football radio play-by-play voice Tony Simone / Notre Dame Athletics
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Notre Dame football has a new radio voice this fall as long time pregame host Tony Simeone heads to the big booth.

Simeone has called a number of Notre Dame games on the radio in a fill-in role over the last few years but now replaces Paul Burmeister who is taking a bigger role in NBC's expanded college football coverage.

An Appreciation of Paul Burmeister

Burmeister is headed to greener pastures as he'll be covering college football on NBC on nearly a weekly basis. The former Iowa quarterback was a treat for Notre Dame fans the last six years in the radio booth.

Burmeister took over for Don Criqui starting with the 2018 season, one that saw Notre Dame go unbeaten in the regular season and reach the College Football Playoff for the first time.

What Burmeister did was undeniable. His thunder pipes gave a presence of Notre Dame football being a big deal, something the broadcast and television teams haven't always had in recent years. In replacing Criqui he replaced a man who had an illustrious broadcast career, but by the time he took over the Notre Dame football radio call in 2006, had moments, but was clearly finishing out his career round. Far too often Criqui would undersell a huge play or fail to give basic information - like if a pass was complete or incomplete, or the down and distance.

Burmeister was a pro's pro in the Notre Dame radio booth and did a flat-out fantastic job with Ryan Harris the last six years. He had great moments over the years but few better than the Sam Hartman and Audric Estime runs to escape Duke with a victory last fall.

Burmeister has a big game voice, sounds as excited to be doing Notre Dame vs. a poor Stanford outfit at the end of the year as he does to be doing Notre Dame vs. Ohio State in September, and was promoted by NBC Sports for good reason.

All the best to the former Iowa Hawkeye as he now fully goes in the TV pool instead of shuffling between it and radio.

Tony Simeone Has Great Potential

Simeone is hardly new to radio play-by-play as he's been calling Notre Dame basketball games for the last three seasons. He's also fresh off a trip to Paris where he broadcasted Men's and Women's Field Hockey at the Summer Olympics.

“To call Notre Dame Football games is the broadcasting opportunity of a lifetime. There is no more iconic team in college football – and maybe in all of sports. I look forward to describing the action to Notre Dame fans across the nation for many Saturdays to come,” said Simeone, in a Notre Dame press release.

Simeone has called Notre Dame football in a fill-in role for Burmeister previously and has covered Notre Dame athletics as a whole for quite some time so the potential for a long term marriage here is certainly the hope.

I'll Always Miss Tony Roberts

When you grow up often listening to your favorite teams on the radio you always have a soft spot for certain play-by-play voices.

Mine as a kid were Harry Caray with the Chicago Cubs (he'd do three innings of radio each game) and Tony Roberts with Notre Dame football (on Westwood One).

Roberts passed away on the first day of the 2023 regular season and left a slew of memorable calls over the years for Notre Dame fans.

When I think of Notre Dame play-by-play voices he'll always be the first I think of and I undoubtedly think he played a big role in my fandom developing like it did.

Here's hoping a couple decades from now that a bunch of today's young Notre Dame fans will feel the same with Simeone.

—Enjoy free coverage of the Irish from Notre Dame Fighting Irish on SI—


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Nick Shepkowski

NICK SHEPKOWSKI

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