Notre Dame’s institutional and athletics leadership have been credited in some circles for helping save the 2020 college football season because of their combination of foresight and caution.
Although the football campaign has had many setbacks, cancellations and criticisms, it still entered December with conference championships and the College Football Playoff moving forward, including No. 2-ranked and 10-0 Notre Dame prepping for the ACC Championship Dec. 19 in Charlotte, N.C.
Fighting Irish director of athletics Jack Swarbrick referred to it as a “remarkable journey” while singling out the student-athletes and coaches for their commitment and leadership.
For now, though, Swarbrick views the 2020-21 college basketball season in a more guarded light. That's because the COVID-19 pandemic that is reaching peak levels “is going to present a whole new set of challenges for us" in the winter and spring, or in the heart of flu season.
Even last summer, Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey was hinting that March Madness — cancelled last spring when the coronavirus began hitting full force on March 11 — could become “May Madness.”
So far, Notre Dame already has had non-conference games with Western Michigan, Tennessee and Purdue-Fort Wayne cancelled. And although the Irish were able to play last night against Ohio State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge (a 90-85 defeat), it is day by day with upcoming contests.
“I think it’s going to be a mess,” Swarbrick acknowledged during a Zoom meeting with media on Wednesday afternoon. “We went into it with the knowledge. … It presents a special challenge because of contact tracing, the size of the squad, the nature of the time together.
“We’re doing a lot of things to manage that. We’re using technology that helps measure relative distances and time between players and coaches, which is pretty helpful to us (similar to what the NBA used, as is the SEC now). Despite that, you can see already the challenges. I think it’s going to continue throughout the basketball season.”
Iona head coach Rick Pitino, who won national titles at Kentucky and Louisville, had recommended on social media in the preseason, “push the start of the season back to January and only play league games. Buy some more time for a vaccine and to get things under control.”
Five-time Duke national champion Mike Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils lost 83-68 to Illinois last night in the ACC/Big Ten challenge. While acknowledging that his post-game comments will be viewed as sour grapes or disingenuous, Krzyzewski said a “reassessment” about the season might be needed rather than just “plowing through.”
There also was insinuation that the NCAA simply doesn’t want to lose the massive revenue from March Madness.
“I don’t think it feels right to anybody,” Krzyzewski said of this basketball season. “Somebody will take what I’m saying tonight and make like I’m making excuses. I don’t make excuses. We got our butts beat. For the good of the game and the mental and physical health of players and staff, we need to constantly look at this thing. I think that’s a smart thing to do.
“… I know the NCAA is worried about the end game. They’re not as worried about the game we’re playing right now.”
Swarbrick’s prime regret is he didn’t push hard enough to have the spring NCAA Tournament open to all.
“I was a strong advocate for an all-comers postseason tournament,” he said. “I still regret we didn’t head to that because you’re going to have such differences in the number of games played and the nature of games … postseason selection is going to be very, very difficult. I wish I had been more effective at selling the all-comers notion.”
He did support Brey assembling a treacherous non-conference schedule that included Michigan State, Ohio State and Purdue from the Big Ten, plus Kentucky — with Duke, Virginia and Syracuse still awaiting in the next month.
“In this environment with all the uncertainty, I was Mike’s biggest cheerleader in developing the schedule that he’s developed,” Swarbrick said. “My view was this is the year to do this, let’s take a shot at this. Our guys have [gone] so long waiting to play again, they’re excited to play.
“Would we build the same preseason schedule in a normal year? No. But this felt like the year to do it. I think we’ll learn a lot from it. My big regret with it is we have all these marquee games and no audience.”
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