While members of the Notre Dame athletics department will be giving back over $1.5 million in salary for the 2020-21 sports season, that hasn’t completely shed fears on how things will look once the worst of COVID-19 has passed. It’s fair to wonder how many of the university’s 20 varsity sports will remain. After all, Old Dominion has eliminated wrestling, and Cincinnati no longer has men’s soccer.
During his Zoom conference with national media Tuesday, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said he doesn’t “anticipate that happening during the course of this.” He further said he’s prepared “to look at every element of our budget, both the revenue side and the expense side.” That could include eliminating the football program’s game against Western Michigan, which is scheduled to make $1.2 million just for showing up. That alone likely wouldn’t keep the athletics department out of the red.
Swarbrick has sensed in his regular talks with conference commissioners that sports best known to the public during the Olympics (swimming and diving, fencing, track and field, etc.) could be affected. That would be include more regional schedules, shorter road trips involving multiple conference members in one location and cuts to scholarship totals.
With the future of sports across the board as unpredictable as ever, it’s understandable to be apprehensive. Even though most of Notre Dame’s sports don’t have nearly the amount of public interest as football and basketball, that doesn’t make them any less important. This is the only way many can earn scholarships, and if they have less of a chance at those, everyone loses. Here’s hoping Swarbrick and the rest of the athletics department is spared having to make some of the most difficult decisions anyone with their positions can.