"Sports Business Journal" initially reported that Tirico would serve as NBC's lead play-by-play announcer for "Thursday Night Football" (which was expanding to NBC during the upcoming season), and was likely to be a future successor to Al Michaels. The NFL later stated that its contract with NBC required that the network use its lead play-by-play commentator for all primetime broadcasts. In the meantime, Tirico called the two preseason games allocated to NBC, and was placed on play-by-play for NBC's first three Notre Dame college football games to fill in for Dan Hicks, due to Hicks' conflicts with his lead play-by-play role on NBC's golf coverage, including the 2016 Ryder Cup. Tirico would join Hicks to host Sunday coverage of the event.