When Notre Dame and NBC announced last month that they were extending their broadcasting rights partnership through 2029, a footnote in the release mentioned that Peacock would be the home of “a new, annual documentary series on Notre Dame Football, debuting in 2024.”
It sounds like outgoing Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick confirmed some details of that docuseries on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Sports Business Journal Intercollegiate Athletics Forum in Las Vegas, Swarbrick mentioned that the series will be their version of “Hard Knocks.”
“Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick says the Irish will produce a season-long documentary — “their own version of Hard Knocks” — over the coming years and have their own tile/channel on Peacock,” wrote Fox Sports’ Bryan Fischer on X, formerly Twitter.
That was the most obvious expectation of what the series would be, though given the cozy relationship between Notre Dame and NBC Sports, we have to imagine the university will have a pretty heavy hand in making sure things they don’t want being seen are cut.
Swarbrick also spent some time discussing how important it was for Notre Dame to do whatever it took to ensure they could remain independent in the years ahead.
“We don’t do it because it’s financially advantageous or competitively advantageous, we do it because of the value to the university,” Swarbrick said, via Fischer.
He also made it clear that his successor, Pete Bevacqua, shares those sentiments around remaining independent.
“Yes. Well, I think my successor has the same view as I do. If he has a career comparable to mine, it’ll be at least that long,” he said, via Brandon Marcello.
Interestingly, he added that NBC’s role in the new Big Ten rights deal also played a big part in making Notre Dame feel better about sticking with them.
“That was an important part of our decision, the fact that NBC acquired more college football rights,” Swarbrick said. “We were on a bit of an island.”
Remember all of this the next time you see someone say that Notre Dame has no choice but to join a conference or get left behind. They’re doing just fine and, no, they don’t.
[Bryan Fischer, Brandon Marcello]
