Jack Swarbrick On Potential Financial Implications Of No College Football
Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick continued his national media tour on Wednesday with a stop on the NBC Sports program “Lunch Talk Live” hosted by Mike Tirico.
As the pages of the calendar turn, the financial implications of the novel coronavirus pandemic are becoming more and more apparent for collegiate athletics directors and conference commissioners.
On Tuesday, news broke that the University of Cincinnati has discontinued its men’s soccer program, which has existed for more than 40 years, in order to save roughly $800,000. While many college football fans couldn’t care less about the ramifications of a life without collegiate soccer in Cincinnati, the worry is this program cut is the first domino to fall with hundreds more to follow, especially if there is no college football in 2020.
“I absolutely see the potential for the financial impact to be very significant,” Swarbrick said. “Hopefully, it is not. Hopefully, we get our season started on time. But if we don’t, and in the worst case, if we can’t play college football, the financial consequences are extraordinary, and everything is going to have to be up for consideration.
“None of us are in a position to say we’re only going to limit our considerations of how we're going to address this.”
But for a college athletic director, cutting costs is easier said than done. For one, there is Title IX to consider, but the NCAA also dictates that a school sponsor a minimum number of sports in order to compete at a Division I level, as well as how much financial aid they must provide students.
Recently, all four Group of Five conference members submitted a letter to NCAA president Mark Emmert, requesting relief from some of these requirements in order to save money and weather the COVID-19 the storm.
This has led many to wonder if there could be a further divide between the Power Five conferences, plus Notre Dame, and the rest of the Football Bowl Subdivision. According to Swarbrick, the answer is a confident no.
“I don’t see that as a likely byproduct of this,” Swarbrick said. “This is really a time for college athletics, if anything, to come together more and figure out common solutions. It’s been interesting that we’re in this pandemic and all of the direct consequences of it. At the same time, we’re moving forward on a bunch of pretty fundamental issues in college athletics like the one-time transfer rule, name, image and likeness.
“It’s hard to imagine a time that’s been more complicated in the history of college athletics. In that regard, I think it’s a time for pulling together more than anything else.”
To further this point, vice president Mike Pence spoke with the College Football Playoff management committee on Wednesday morning, which consists of Swarbrick and the commissioners from all 10 major conferences (the Group of Five and Power Five).
The virtual meeting occurred prior to Swarbrick's appearance on “Lunch Talk Live.”
“The vice president was marvelous to initiate the call and have us join him to talk about college athletics,” Swarbrick said. “There were really two messages from him: One was to thank the commissioners for the really important decisions they made to suspend athletics, especially in the middle of the conference basketball tournaments and the role that played in a positive way in contributing to the containment of the virus.
“The other [message] was his interest in hearing us and our thoughts about what lies ahead for college athletics.”
Swarbrick also indicated that the meeting with Pence provided reasons for optimism that college athletics could resume in the fall, even if there is still a long way to go.
“He just reinforced the progress that’s being made and will be continued to be made,” Swarbrick said. “We all sort of agreed did we circle back in a month or so and take stock of where we are.”
Then Swarbrick, once again, pointed to May 15 as an important date for Notre Dame and its football program because that is when the university will decide if the second half of summer classes can be held in person.
If there is are still no on-campus classes by July, it is unlikely the football team will have enough time to safely prepare its players for the 2020 season, which is slated to begin against Navy in Ireland Aug. 29.
He also doubled-down on the notion that he does not want Notre Dame to host athletic competitions without fans in the stands.
“I don’t know how we reopen our campuses, put students back in dorms and in dining halls, and then say, we can’t be in a football stadium together,” Swarbrick said. “That doesn’t feel compatible to me. Beyond the fact, I think college football needs the marching band and the cheerleaders and the fans and everything. That’s essential to the experience.
“This is more about we have to be consistent in our approach. I’m not sure how you say we’re okay with the students engaging on the field but not fans in the stands. Now might therapy approaches to fans in the stands that are a little different, that helps ensure safety? Absolutely, but I can’t see playing empty stadiums.”
At times, this hard stance can be somewhat puzzling given the money at stake and the ramifications no college football will have on other athletic programs, especially after Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, came out and said that the quickest way for sports to return is with no fans in the stadiums.
Then again, Swarbrick also knows that whatever happens with the 2020 college football season will be largely determined based on what the medical community has to say. After that, it will be up to the most powerful people in college football to come to a collective decision on how to proceed.
“It’s premature to take any option off the table: the season we move, the season we shorten, the season we delay the start of,” Swarbrick said. “All of that’s got to be under consideration. The starting point for this will be The scientific data that we're given and the medical data.
“Then I think the commissioners will take the lead on trying to decide based on that with their institutions. what’s the best path forward. Again, we have to do this as all of college athletics. Individual schools will make decisions about what they do, but to play college football in the fall, all of us have to come together in how we’re going to approach that.”
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