Flanagan became the Sideline reporter for Notre Dame Football on NBC in 2007 while pregnant with her third child, who was born in December 2007. The Irish went 3–9 during her first year, and the following seasons, which saw Charlie Weis lose his job in 2009, again fell short of meeting expectations in South Bend. Her 2009 on-field post-game interview with an emotional UConn coach Randy Edsall rembering one of his players who had died was cited as the best interview of the weekend.