Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JUNE/JULY 2020 21 be Jenkins' to make, but not before gathering input from public health officials. It's also possible state government orders make the decision for him. The school's preference is to do any- thing possible to reopen if circum- stances allow, Swarbrick said. "At a residential college like this, there's a huge desire to get back on campus," her noted. "It's so central to who we are and we want to figure it out." THE BOTTOM LINE Swarbrick works these days alone in his office at the same time he en- gages an endless line of folks inces- santly requesting by internet or tele- phone some guidance and updates on what the future of Irish sports will look like in the coming months and even years. And to this point, Swarbrick — and no other AD in the country — has any good answers, logistically, practically or financially. "We'll come out of this having to look at every element of our budget," Swarbrick said, "both the revenue and the expense side." COVID-19 has disrupted col- lege sports more than any event in American history. And sadly, there's a growing chance that it has only scratched the surface. College athletic pro- grams around the coun- try link their livelihoods to the earning power of their football programs. And with the real pos- sibility of no 2020 foot- ball season, a partial 2020 football season, or a foot- ball season with no fans or only limited attendance, the rev- enue squeeze could leave Olympic sports programs around the country running on financial fumes or com- pletely shuttered. "Out of this, regardless of what this year holds, will come a signifi- cant need to readdress budgeting issues across colleges and universi- ties," Swarbrick explained. What Swarbrick is trying to avoid is completely eliminating any of his non-revenue Olympic sports pro- grams. But again, with the disrup- tion and uncertainty this pandemic is creating, no cost-cutting measure is off the table. Notre Dame fields 19 non-revenue sports programs beyond its four breadwinners — football, men's and women's basketball, and ice hockey. "It doesn't necessarily mean that the reduction in sports [programs] will be the leading edge of cost sav- ings," Swarbrick said. "But I do think it would be disingenuous not to say that they have to be part of the consideration." The financial collapse and eco- nomic recession of 2008-09 forced more than 200 collegiate Olympic sports programs to be eliminated around the country, and no sporting events were even canceled during that crisis. So, how severe could coronavirus carnage become to Olympic sports programs this time? "I don't know whether Notre Dame will have to consider cutting programs," Swarbrick said, "and I don't anticipate that happening dur- ing the course of this as we try to figure out our way through it right now." Adding more uncertainty for col- leges and universities during these troubling financial times, USA To- day reported that the cancellation of the 2020 men's and women's NCAA Basketball Tournaments shrunk the annual profit pie from about $600 million to $225 million for schools to share, a 63 percent reduction from what was projected just two months ago. T h a t r e v e n u e b l o w c a u s e d Swarbrick to warn all of his coaches that times are changing. Irish head men's basketball coach Mike Brey said that adopting a dif- ferent schedule model will be one cost-cutting measure he'll apply this summer when construction begins. Brey said to expect a more regional look to trim travel costs and there to be fewer of the pricey one-and-done "buy games" on the schedule. "Are these now home-and-homes, are they bus rides if they are road games? Those are all things that we have been talking about," Brey said last month. "I'm conscious of this and [Swarbrick] has said to all the coaches in every department that this [pandemic] is greatly going to affect our budget." So while trimming travel expense is the driving initiative for cutting operational costs, scheduling is another measure that will be thor- oughly examined. Playing schools from Syracuse in the North to Miami in the South as an ACC member makes some travel unavoidable. But smarter scheduling might mean greater savings. Do league teams consolidate and coordinate their schedules to meet and play each other at one location rather than traveling back and forth to multiple cities and venues? "You have more opportunities to travel once and play twice or three times as opposed to traveling from city to city," Swarbrick explained. Do regional ACC teams play each other more frequently and cut back on games against the more distant league opponents? "You could still have a conference championship where the teams from the conference come together and compete," Swarbrick said. Whatever the solutions, expect sports at Notre Dame and around the country to look much different this fall and be- yond. "There may be even changes made within con- ferences about how many conference games are re- quired or what conference postseason tournaments look like, all designed to reduce travel," Swarbrick said. The recruiting budget is another area Swarbrick will seriously con- sider slashing, especially in this new age of video and virtual correspon- dence among coaches, athletes and their families. "For a national school like us, the [recruiting] travel demands can be daunting," Swarbrick said. "So I think the more this experiment causes us to say, 'You know what? We can still communicate our message. We can still connect with families and interact between those families and all of the resources on campus,' then maybe it's a good model we ought to use a little more." ✦ "Out of this, regardless of what this year holds, will come a significant need to readdress budgeting issues across colleges and universities. … It doesn't necessarily mean that the reduction in sports [programs] will be the leading edge of cost saving. But I do think it would be disingenuous not to say that they have to be part of the consideration." SWARBRICK