One of the more important NCAA athletic director positions is at Notre Dame, where Jack Swarbrick has held that role since 2008. Swarbrick is leaving in 2024 and will be succeeded by NBC Sports Group chairman Pete Bevacqua, but he’s still in the top role there for now, and also retains his spot on the 11-member College Football Playoff management committee (where he’s the only member who isn’t a conference commissioner). And Notre Dame’s football independence (they’re a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference for all other sports) remains one of the big questions in any further conference realignment.
So Swarbrick weighing in on realignment is notable. And he had some significant comments there on The Dan Patrick Show Wednesday, appearing in-person on one of that show’s broadcasts from Ireland ahead of Notre Dame’s game against Navy Saturday:
"A Complete Disaster."
-Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick sums up what's happened with College Football#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/wEBlqlUk3G
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) August 23, 2023
Patrick asks Swarbrick to “sum up what’s happened with college football” and Swarbrick responds “Complete disaster.” Patrick then asks “How did we get here, Jack?” and Swarbrick says “I wish I knew. And listen, I’m not, everybody in the industry has to take responsibility here, I’m not excluding myself from that. I think the decision-making has lost its way in terms of the focus on the student-athlete and what’s primarily best for them. But we are where we are, and we have to try to make it work.”
Swarbrick then goes on to talk about the discussions of adding Stanford and Cal to the ACC, saying “We’ve been pretty vocal in the past month about we need to find a home for Stanford and Cal. You can’t have two of the great academic institutions in the world not have a place to play.” Patrick says “What kind of solution you got?” and Swarbrick says “We’re working on it. There’s still consideration of the ACC as a home for those schools.” Patrick says “And Notre Dame is lobbying for Stanford and Cal to join?” and Swarbrick says “Very much so.” Patrick says “And the Pac-12 dies?” and Swarbrick says “It’s looking that way more and more every day, yes.”
After that, Swarbrick talks about how he’d like to see more regional scheduling in non-football sports, but says he doesn’t think that means football needs to be separated out from the other sports in terms of a school’s conference (interesting, considering that Notre Dame does have football separated out that way). He then talks a bit about how student-athletes are likely to be defined as employees soon and says he doesn’t particularly like that, and then agrees with Patrick’s comment that realignment decisions are “all about the money” (but not Patrick’s characterization of that as greed). But it’s the “complete disaster” comments that really stand out.
What’s interesting about that is to see that vitriolic of a description of the current realignment wave from a powerful person inside college athletics, and someone whose institution hasn’t been directly impacted to date. There have been plenty of criticisms of the current wave of realignment from media members, and some individual coaches, athletic directors, and school presidents have weighed in as well, but their comments have generally been more muted and also more specifically about their own schools.
Swarbrick’s comments stand out given his unusual power (as noted, he’s on a level with conference commissioners when it comes to the CFP management committee), unusual longevity (there are not a ton of ADs who have been in the same position at the same school since 2008 and have seen all the waves of realignment since then), and unusual situation (Notre Dame has an ACC vote despite not being a member of the conference in football). So it’s notable to see him weigh in in these terms. And speaking of that football independence, Swarbrick also addressed that with Patrick, but largely said what the Irish have always said: they value their independence, and will only give it up if forced to by a lack of a suitable media deal or path to the CFP.
Jack Swarbrick tells us what would need to happen for Notre Dame to join a Conference in football
-No Media Partner
-No Fair Path to the College Football Playoff pic.twitter.com/5s2g2K4L9O
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) August 23, 2023
A notable element of this summer’s realignments is how many inside the NCAA halls seem upset by them, and how very few seem particularly happy about them. In past realignments, there have certainly been aggrieved fans, and a few annoyed schools and conferences, but there’s also been a lot of excitement from schools about their moves and their coming opportunities. But the schools leaving the Pac-12 for the Big 12 and Big Ten have seemingly done so pretty reluctantly, chalking that up to the conference’s media deal struggles, and in some cases even criticizing their new conference mates. And now Swarbrick has joined the chorus blasting realignment moves, and done so in a prominent way.
[The Dan Patrick Show on Twitter]
