Jack Swarbrick Reflects On An Odd But Successful Year In A Conference
If Jack Swarbrick is plotting some grand staging of the ACC football championship trophy at the Gug, should Notre Dame capture it, his restraint to avoid spilling it or not even allowing it in his mind is worthy of the utmost commendation.
“I haven’t given it any thought,” Swarbrick said with a chuckle Wednesday on a Zoom call with reporters.
He has, after all, been engulfed in the strangest of his 12-plus years as Notre Dame’s director of athletics. Among other things, 2020 landed the football program a one-year stopover in the ACC.
Regardless of Notre Dame’s ability to filch the league’s trophy Dec. 19, Swarbrick has seen enough to deem the conference experience a successful one in this context. It gave the Irish a sturdy schedule and clear postseason path when other leagues shrunk to conference-only seasons. It preserved a game against a No. 1-ranked team. It provided a chance to play for another kind of championship.
“It has been an extension of the ongoing great experience we’ve had with the ACC,” Swarbrick said. “I hope we’ve been a great member of the conference, and we’ve enjoyed being a member of the conference and having the opportunities it has presented.”
None of it has made Notre Dame reconsider its stance on independence, Swarbrick swiftly confirmed. One wondered what new perspectives would arise once Notre Dame actually walked the conference walk as an additional research segment. Now with the regular season over, though, it seems everything gleaned from the actual experience was not quite powerful enough for a shakeup in thought.
“The things that drive us to independence don’t relate to that,” Swarbrick said. “The reasons we value independence and it continues to be a priority for us aren’t impacted by the full experience of being in the ACC this year. It serves other interests for Notre Dame as a university.”
When the ACC made room for Notre Dame in July, it felt like a marriage of convenience that would be mutually annulled at the end of the year, a spontaneous Las Vegas wedding with easily severable ties that actually made sense for both parties beyond the initial agreement.
The breakup may be on the horizon, but the best possible benefit seems like it is too.
With the ACC’s helping hand, Notre Dame is on the cusp of a College Football Playoff spot, if not unofficially locked into one regardless of the championship game outcome. The ACC, thanks to adding Notre Dame, has a real chance at two playoff teams if Clemson defeats the Irish in Charlotte to win the conference title.
Even beyond playoff stakes, it’s hard to argue against the conference’s relative success in withstanding the repeated body blows COVID-19 dealt to college football. The two ACC teams in the conference championship game will have played as many games as the SEC and Big 12 winner and runner-up. All but three ACC teams either have played 11 games or are scheduled to play 11 games.
Swarbrick, when asked if this season has been successful for college football as a whole, said “it’s hard to answer.” He can only speak for his adopted conference, which handled the adjustment to a 10-plus-one schedule and other preseason planning without major infighting.
“It has been more successful than some for others,” Swarbrick said. “I recognize the process and decision-making, in the nature of college athletics and football in particular, it’s so diffused. We learned a lot.
“I’m very proud of what we were able to accomplish in the ACC. I think the smartest decision we made was to start when we did so we had room on the schedule to allow all of us to wind up at the 10- or 11-game mark. Had we not given ourselves the flexibility, we wouldn’t have been able to get there.”
The conference’s one dust-up, a spat between Clemson and Florida State regarding the postponement and rescheduling of a Nov. 21 game, was resolved quickly and quietly. It ended with Notre Dame being handed a spot in the ACC Championship Game on an anonymous Tuesday afternoon while the Irish were practicing.
The ACC said Dec. 1 the Clemson-Florida State game would not be made up and the Tigers would play nine league contests. So would Notre Dame and Miami, the only other two teams still alive for a spot in the league championship game. Notre Dame’s rescheduled trip to Wake Forest set for Dec. 12 was no longer needed. They were in the championship game by virtue of holding all tiebreakers.
“At the core of the discussion was the reality you had three teams with the possibility of playing in the conference championship,” Swarbrick said. “The way the calendar is set up at the point the discussion was being made, we were in a good position relative to knowing we’d be in it. If Clemson beat Virginia Tech [the Tigers did Dec. 5], it was going to be in.
“We were focused on how we would ensure a fair selection if Clemson were upset by Virginia Tech. The notion was we need all teams that are eligible to have played the same number of games. The only way to accomplish that was to have Miami play this week while Clemson and Notre Dame didn’t.”
The ripple effect was Notre Dame and Clemson — the ACC’s two teams ranked in the CFP committee’s top four — made it to Charlotte with CFP hopes still alive. Swarbrick passed on lobbying for both teams to be included if the Irish lose. In many ways, he’s happy to just have come this far.
“Wherever this season leads,” Swarbrick said, “this is going to be among the most memorable in my career just because of all everyone had to sacrifice.”
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