Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Taking The Plunge Notre Dame to dip its toes into the Atlantic Coast Conference, but football will remain independent By Wes Morgan By now, Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick knows how Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner John Swofford takes his coffee. Swofford probably knows how Swarbrick likes his steak cooked. The two have had plenty of time to chew the fat, and the past few months have certainly required an ample amount of caffeine for two of the bigger movers and shakers in college athletics. Through multiple meetings involving BCS conference bosses and Swarbrick, which resulted in a four-team playoff system to be implemented in 2014, the two began discussing another headline-making deal: Notre Dame would become the 15th member of the ACC in all sports other than football and hockey come no later than 2015, which was officially announced on Sept. 12. Notre Dame’s association with the Big East, which it joined in 1995, stipulates Swarbrick must wait 27 months and pay $5 million to move Fighting Irish Olympic sports to their new home. It’s unlikely it will take that long, though an expedited move will cost Notre Dame significantly more. “Special thanks to commissioner Swofford,” Swarbrick said. “He and I have spent a lot of time together in the past two years — we’re going to have to pick out china soon, I think — with all the BCS meetings we attended, and it was a natural byproduct of the relationship we built through that process that these discussions began. “I would say it got pretty earnest about the end of July, probably mid-, third week in July or so, where it came to us in a different light.” “In terms of athletics, the Irish have marquee programs that boast great tradition and great success,” Swofford added. “In addition, the collective alumni and fan bases of our conference will become even stronger while covering the entire country with exceptionally strong roots up and down the Atlantic Coast. “I had a number of conversations with Gene Corrigan, my predecessor who I had great respect for, and Gene has the distinction of having been the athletic director at Notre Dame as well as the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference. And so I think it just came through our internal discussions as now is the time and this is a partnership that is a win-win and good for both parties and the time had come to cross that threshold.” What the “financially neutral” decision, according to Swarbrick, boiled down to was stability (mostly in basketball), as well as access to postseason football games below the BCS level. For the next two seasons, the Notre Dame football team, which has exhausted its Big East bowl tie-ins, is essentially a free agent, forced to see how everything shakes out contractually for conferences around the country before settling on scraps eventually offered. “We thought there were several critical dynamics here, and the biggest one of all was to understand what the BCS resolution would be,” Swarbrick explained. “With the BCS resolution in place, we began the deliberate process of considering our options, and worked with [Notre Dame president] Father [John] Jenkins on that and communicated to third parties that we were engaged and wanted people to know that we were thinking about that, trying to evaluate it. “And that’s when the process began, and we worked pretty consistently on it from the time we got the BCS resolution to today.” The timing of the announcement was based mostly on convenience. “It related to the timing of the already scheduled ACC presidents meeting,” Swarbrick said. “They have been meeting the past two days and it was a long, calendared meeting, and for some time we had pointed toward this day, knowing that they had the meeting schedule. “So probably for the past eight weeks or so, we were focused towards driving towards the conclusion of this period of time.” The agreement involves the Irish playing five ACC opponents every season in football, which means some annual matchups on Notre Dame’s schedule may fall by the wayside. “We have not gotten to that level of detail yet,” Swarbrick said. “It’s obvious that we will not be able to maintain every rivalry every year. Getting to California each year is very important to us. So Stanford and USC rivalries will be retained, and of course our history with Navy is unique. And after that, we are going to work to maintain as many of our traditional games as we can.” Notre Dame will keep all its television revenue from home games and neutral-site football contests where the Irish are the designated home team aired on NBC. The ACC, which has a partnership with ESPN, will keep its television revenue whenever the Notre Dame football team is the visiting squad. The Irish will alternate three and two home games each year against ACC opponents, with the intent to play all conference schools on a rotating basis. In terms of basketball revenue sharing, the Irish will get a 1/15th share, as will all other Olympic sports. As for the bowl situation, details of which have not been finalized, Notre Dame “in all probability,” according to Swofford, will be one of the multiple participants on the opponent’s side of the Orange Bowl. The ACC will keep all of its revenues as a contracted partner, and, if Notre Dame qualifies to fill the opposite sideline, it will retain all associated revenue without having to share with the conference. If the Irish land in a BCS game, they would not have to share that revenue with the ACC. “Below the BCS, Notre Dame will be a part of the ACC bowl lineup and in that sense will basically become an ACC team in our bowl structure and bowl lineup,” Swofford explained. “There will be a provision in which for Notre Dame to be selected over an ACC team at the point of selection, another eligible ACC team, that Notre Dame would have to be ranked higher, equal to, or in the win column, be within one win of any ACC teams that are also eligible to be picked.” Pushing the Notre Dame brand into new territory was also a factor in the decision. Swarbrick said Irish football is scheduled to play in 10 of the 11 largest cities in America. “I think unquestionably, in a host of sports, this is the best athletic conference in the country, and we’ll only make it better in that regard,” he added. “Importantly, this is a story of moving to something great, not away from something. We are very thankful for the opportunity to have been a member of the Big East. We will continue to be a committed member during the remainder of our stay in that conference, and it has been a good home for us.” “The University of Notre Dame is extraordinarily proud to join this great athletic conference composed of such outstanding institutions of higher education,” Jenkins said. “Our partnership, with the superb institutions of the ACC, will enhance greatly the University of Notre Dame as a whole. And Notre Dame is fully committed to enhancing the ACC and its member institutions.” Current ACC Bowl Tie-Ins In 2008, the Atlantic Coast Conference set an NCAA record by sending 10 football teams to bowl games. With the 2012 season already underway, here’s a look at the postseason options for member schools, which will include Notre Dame in 2015 or sooner, even though it will technically remain independent in football. Orange Bowl Played on Jan. 1 in Miami, the winner of the ACC championship will serve as the host team of the FedEx Orange Bowl, unless it is ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the final BCS standings and is playing in the national title game. Notre Dame has already agreed to play five ACC schools per year in the regular season, and will be among several schools included in the opponents’ pool for this ESPN-televised contest, which means a sixth Irish-ACC matchup is possible. Military Bowl The Dec. 27 game in Washington, D.C., will be aired on ESPN and features mainstay Army against the ACC’s No. 8 bowl-eligible squad. Ironically, some experts believe the Irish will land in this bowl this year. Belk Bowl The contest on Dec. 27 in Charlotte, N.C., is broadcast on ESPN and is between the ACC’s No. 5 team and the program that finishes No. 3 in the Big East. Independence Bowl ESPN will show the Dec. 28 game in Shreveport, La., between the No. 7 ACC school and a partner from the SEC. Russell Athletic Bowl The Dec. 28 game in Orlando, Fla., will be on ESPN and is played at the Citrus Bowl between the No. 2 Big East school and the third-best ACC team. Music City Bowl Located in Nashville, Tenn., on Dec. 31, ESPN will air the game between the sixth-ranked ACC team and the No. 7 finisher in the SEC. Sun Bowl Not a new destination for the Irish (they registered a 33-17 win over Miami in 2010), the contest on Dec. 31 in El Paso, Texas, will be broadcast by CBS and hosts the No. 4 ACC team and the No. 4 squad from the Pac-12. Chick-fil-A Bowl This game, annually set aside for the ACC championship game runner-up and the SEC’s No. 5 team, would get Notre Dame into the Atlanta market on Dec. 31.