Tag: Independent

Notre Dame’s New AD Feels Better About Independence Now Than Upon Taking Job

Notre Dame’s AD has strong words about independent status

The college sports world is a crazy place right now as TV deals mean more than traditions that have forever shaped the sports, and conference realignment and the speculation surrounding it only continues.

Despite that, and despite the differences in money Notre Dame is getting from NBC by remaining independent instead of joining the Big Ten, Notre Dame athletic director [autotag]Ken Bevacqua[/autotag] feels better about independent status now than he did upon taking the job.

“I feel better about our independence sitting here right now than I felt even when I first came into the role,” said Bevacqua, who spent eight months shadowing Swarbrick before the official handoff. “Independence is part of the DNA of Notre Dame football. I believe that vehemently.”

Bevacqua shared that on a Notre Dame-produced video podcast within the last week.  He also shared how the expanded College Football Playoff is helping Notre Dame despite some claims to the contrary.

Bevacqua is a former TV executive with plenty of connections in the industry and I’m sure will be creative and savvy in using that background in his continued fight for Notre Dame’s independence.

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Power rating site gives Notre Dame favorable outlook for 2024

Does this excite you?

With college football action still two-and-a-half months out, it is time for experts to analyze the teams. Among them is Kelley Ford, who runs a power ratings site and is going through a different conference each day.

The time to look at the independents has come, so that means it’s Notre Dame’s turn. Let’s just say if the season goes as well as Ford as projecting, 2024 will be a very special season for the Irish:

Is it an overly optimistic look? Probably, but that doesn’t mean Irish fans can’t get excited about the season. The expanded College Football Playoff gives the Irish a chance to play meaningful football in December. If this chart is to be believed, the team very much will be equipped to make some noise.

Prospects are looking up in South Bend, so the question we have to ask is whether [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] and his staff can get the most out of their players to back those projections up.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on X: @gfclark89

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Johnson: Notre Dame ‘not an independent’

Keep telling yourself that, Richard.

With college football almost here, old issues are starting to be debated again. Notre Dame’s independence is about as old a debate topic as it gets, but with major conference realignment coming in 2024, it feels like a hotter issue than ever. Richard Johnson of Sports Illustrated disputed the very idea of the Irish being independent on his podcast. Specifically, he cited the university being a partial ACC member:

There shouldn’t be any middle ground discussed here. Either you’re in with a conference all the way, or you’re not. Notre Dame is not a full-fledged ACC member, so it’s no use debating this particular point. Until an ACC logo permanently is painted onto the Notre Dame Stadium surface, we can’t call the football program part of it.

Notre Dame’s other athletic programs are in conferences out of necessity more than anything else. They can’t sustain themselves the way the football program can. And until the college football powers-that-be decide that independence is bad for the game, the Irish are staying independent.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Legendary coach Bob Knight dies at 83

Rest in peace, Coach.

Basketball Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight has died at the age of 83. In 42 seasons coaching college basketball, Knight accumulated 902 wins, the sixth-most of all-time. He made 28 NCAA Tournaments and came away from three of his five Final Fours with national championships, all of them with Indiana.

Notre Dame was a regular opponent of Knight’s Hoosiers, who asserted their dominance in the series with 21-6 record during those years. However, the Irish won their first game against Knight in the 1968 NIT, when he was coaching Army.

The Irish also were witnesses to one of the many incidents Knight was involved in during his career. In a 1993 game between the teams, he screamed at and kicked his son, Pat, and subsequently was suspended for one game.

In 2010, two years after Knight coached the final game of his career for Texas Tech, he got in some digs at Notre Dame during a public speaking engagement. He began by referring to Sam Perkins and fellow Hall of Famer Chris Mullin, two players he coached to the gold medal in the 1984 Olympics:

“They were two smart Catholic boys. They should advise Notre Dame to go in the Big Ten, because there are some dumb Catholic boys up there. They have no idea how much it would change their recruiting.”

Since then, of course, Notre Dame has joined the Big Ten for hockey and the ACC for all other sports but remained independent in football. Still, that had to have ruffled a few feathers in South Bend at the time.

In spite of everything, Knight accomplished a lot in his career and deserves to be celebrated for it. May he rest in peace.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Deadspin wants Notre Dame to save Pac-12 by joining it

Dumb idea.

Much has been made over the past few weeks about the likely demise of the Pac-12. With only four schools currently slated to be members in 2024, the conference’s future doesn’t look good. Or does it?

DJ Dunson of Deadspin has decided that Notre Dame needs to be the savior of the remaining programs. California, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State apparently have become important enough to Notre Dame that it needs to upend its entire future for the sake of these particular teams. Here’s the idea in full:

“The ACC’s ham-handed attempts to scoop up Stanford and Cal were reportedly at the behest of Notre Dame looking out for their natural rivals. For now, that quid pro quo is on life support. Props to them for making an effort to rescue the eggheads in Palo Alto from a sinking ship, but you know what would help?

Why not join a conference that is seeking a media rights deal and join the Pac-12? The Pac-12 appears to DOA, but what does Touchdown Jesus represent if not the resurrection? It’s not a super-conference, but a mini-conference is a solid middle ground.”

No. No. Notre Dame does not owe anyone anything, least of all a group of teams they have very little history with except for the Cardinal. And the beauty of independence is that you can have this attitude and not worry at all about the shifting conferences around you.

Thanks for the offer, but if the day were to come that the Irish absolutely had to join a conference, the other side of the country is the last place they would consider. The aforementioned schools will just to find another way to sustain themselves.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Woodward Sports Network: ‘Nobody should schedule Notre Dame’

Nope. Not happening.

With college football being thrown completely out of whack, attention has turned to Notre Dame once again. All indications are that despite the calls of many outside the Irish fan base, their independence isn’t ending anytime soon. The program will not be intimidated by such pressure.

But that’s not stopping outlets such as the Detroit-based Woodward Sports Network from telling would-be opponents to force Notre Dame’s hand. Check out this clip from a show with a panel that includes Braylon Edwards, who faced the Irish three times while with Michigan:

Please. Any athletic director with a brain would be foolish not to agree to play the Irish regardless of the state of their own program. The exposure and grandeur is too hard to resist, and lesser opponents gladly will take the money they’re paid to come to Notre Dame Stadium because being there is not an opportunity that comes along every year.

These programs are shifting conferences because of money. Nobody is going to take a financial hit just so it can get Notre Dame to persuade itself to join a conference. If anything, teams will do whatever it takes to get a piece of the pie in South Bend because it benefits everybody to some degree. Those who think otherwise should find a different line of work so they aren’t detrimental to their school.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Heather Dinich: Conference realignment means nothing for Notre Dame

Don’t worry, Irish fans.

To put it mildly, college football is in chaos. The Pac-12 is about to become extinct or is seriously threatened at the very least.

Oregon and Washington will join USC and UCLA in the Big Ten in 2024. Colorado is rejoining the Big 12 in 2024, and we now know Arizona, Arizona State, Utah also are heading there as well.

What does this mean for Notre Dame?

If college football insiders are to be believed, absolutely nothing. As part of a series of questions published on ESPN’s website, Heather Dinich was asked to tackle the evergreen issue of the Irish’s independence and how it applies to the changing college football climate. If you’re worried about the Irish giving into public pressure and joining a conference permanently, Dinich says don’t be:

“Notre Dame athletic director [autotag]Jack Swarbrick[/autotag] has long repeated the same three factors that could contribute to the university’s position as an independent becoming ‘unsustainable.’

Those include: the loss of a committed broadcast partner; the loss of a fair route into the postseason; or such an adverse financial consequence that would force it to reconsider.

In spite of all of the drama swirling around Notre Dame, nothing has impacted those particular factors. Notre Dame still has a strong partnership with NBC as its broadcast partner that runs through the 2025 season. It recently announced a renewed commitment to Under Armour. It also remains a partial member of the ACC in football and has a contract with the league stating that if the Irish were to relinquish their independence, it would be for the ACC.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said recently at the league’s media days that he knows how much the Irish value their independence. Notre Dame still remains the most valuable property remaining on the Monopoly board – and it’s still not for sale.”

Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune expressed similar thoughts earlier in the day. So sleep easy, Irish fans. The program is not changing its affiliation or lack thereof anytime soon. Besides, conferences need the Irish more than the Irish need them.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame’s strength as independent ‘strengthening’ according to AD

?Do you agree with the AD?

Take the following with a grain of salt because clearly what athletic directors, college presidents, and conference commissioners have said in recent years have carried essentially no weight whatsoever in terms of realignment and expansion plans.  With that said, Notre Dame athletic director [autotag]Jack Swarbrick[/autotag] made a statement Wednesday that will likely make most Fighting Irish backers happy.

Swarbrick held an online chat for Notre Dame’s alumni association Wednesday where he addressed the Big Ten’s recent addition of UCLA and USC and the impact they have, as well as the conference’s new TV deal that will pay them nearly a billion dollars.

From the AP:

“But it’s also perfect for Notre Dame,” Swarbrick said. “We need NBC to have more college football to more effectively promote our games and to talk about our games and to have NBC be seen in that light. So that was great for us that (NBC) got a big piece of this.”

Swarbrick said the recent expansions of the Big Ten (adding Southern California and UCLA in 2024) and the Southeastern Conference (adding Texas and Oklahoma in 20225) have only helped strengthen Notre Dame’s position as a college football independent.

Like I said up top, this sounds like everything we want to hear if you’re like me and hope that Notre Dame remains independent.  However, it could just as easily work the other way with Notre Dame joining the Big Ten and getting a creative amount of money from this TV deal as well.

As much as I hope Swarbrick is right about the strength of independence only growing, I know these words just like most others from collegiate administrators mean next to nothing in regards to Notre Dame until their TV deal is actually up following the 2025 season.

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Greg McElroy: ‘What if Notre Dame joined the SEC?’

Would you like this?

The pending major realignment of college football has everyone talking about Notre Dame’s future. Will the program stay independent, or will it join the Big Ten? However, Greg McElroy has decided to throw another wrench into the conversation. Chances are you won’t like what he’s proposing, but here it is anyway:

I guess the possibility of playing Alabama and/or Georgia every year would force the Irish to up their game as far as recruiting top talent. Besides that, there is nothing to suggest their culture would fit with the rest of the SEC’s. Sure, the fans have just as much of a superiority complex and desire to win as the other top dogs in that conference, but do you really want to see Tide fans at Notre Dame Stadium regularly? On top of everything else, the recruiting processes and standards don’t mesh well, so why make yourself an outlier?

McElroy’s pipe dream is just that, so he should put this possibility to rest.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame-BYU in Vegas officially on for 2022

Best location for a Shamrock Series game to date?

A few weeks back there was a report that Notre Dame and BYU were going to meet up for the Shamrock Series game in 2022 in Las Vegas.  Today that report was made official as Notre Dame announced the game will be played on October 8, 2022 at Allegiant Stadium with the game set to be aired on NBC.

Some notes on the 2022 Shamrock Series:

  • 11th Shamrock Series game
  • First game took place in 2009
  • Eighth different venue:  Allegiant Stadium, Lucas Oil Stadium, Yankee Stadium, FedEx Field, Fenway Park, Soldier Field, AT&T Stadium, Alamodome
  • First Notre Dame football game played in Nevada
  • The Irish are a perfect 10-0 in Shamrock Series games, with the most recent contest coming this past weekend at Soldier Field, a 41-13 win over No. 18/15 Wisconsin.

The game will be the ninth all-time meeting between Notre Dame and BYU. The Irish lead 6-2 in the series, with the most recent meeting occurring in 2013, a 23-13 Notre Dame win in South Bend.

Related:

Notre Dame football future schedules and opponents