Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Notre Dame and Arizona State have reached a compromise to play in football, as scheduled, in 2014. The date, however, has changed. In 2008, the two programs agreed to meet in Tempe on Oct. 25, 2014, with the return match at Notre Dame in 2017. The Fighting Irish and Sun Devils also will meet this Oct. 5 at Cowboys Stadium (Arlington, Texas). Notre Dame tried to cancel the 2014 contest to make room for ACC opponents, but the Sun Devils held their ground. The compromise was announced June 11. Arizona State will host Notre Dame on Nov. 8, 2014 instead of Oct. 25. Meanwhile, the 2017 game at Notre Dame was cancelled. "We're pleased that Notre Dame was able to resolve its scheduling issues in a way that allows it to play at Sun Devil Stadium in 2014," ASU athletics director Steve Patterson said. "Our entire community here in the Valley have been looking forward to playing Notre Dame in Tempe since the original agreement was signed in 2008." A home game with Northwestern and a road game with Temple also had been scheduled in 2014, but that would bring the number of regular-season games to 13. Something eventually will have to give to make it 12. Arizona State saw to it that it would not be the one "giving." — Lou Somogyi of amateurism from NCAA sports. Swarbrick said it is inevitable that financial support for the student-athlete will increase in the future. The form that extra money will take — a stipend, a larger dollar value on the scholarship or a larger student-athlete opportunity fund — is all that is left to be decided. "We'll figure out how to get to a model which makes sure studentathletes are not disadvantaged, which is ultimately what you're trying to do," he said. "You really can't have a summer internship as an athlete. We've now mastered the calendar so you can't do that anymore. That's a disadvantage we create for them, and we need to be mindful of that and respond to it." The delay at this point isn't about weighing the merits of amateurism or fair compensation, but about navigating a path through the tricky waters of financial aid to make sure whatever program the NCAA puts into place will help all of its student-athletes as much as possible. Those issues have been placed on the back burner during the past several months while the NCAA has been dealing with larger governance and compliance issues. The organization's ever-increasing problems, coupled with the rise in money and power for major athletic conferences, have raised questions about how long the NCAA will survive as the governing body of college sports. Swarbrick said he can't see a day when the NCAA ceases to exist, but it will need to change going forward. "That it will change is obvious. How it will change? Nobody's crystal ball is that good," he said. "I'm encouraged by the dialogue that's going on now. I think this school year we'll get to the end of it with models for change at least being identified, perhaps even adopted." Enjoy the summer. Another busy year lies ahead. ✦