ND AD Swarbrick stepping down at end of the year. Being replaced by NBC executive
I'd be more excited if 1984 Padre legend Kurt Bevacqua took over.
Either way, the Bevacqua taking over is an alum of the school. He might be on the independent train.
Former Met, Giant, Mariner and Pirate, Mackey Sasser agrees!
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I mean, you can highlight it and go to the webpage too. Safer than a link too.
Hiring a guy whose career experience is almost exclusively in network TV sports seems like it could go awfully wrong… Sure, ND has to negotiate their own TV deal so the ND AD job requires some expertise/skills in that realm that no other AD job in America does. But hiring & firing coaches is the most important thing an AD has to do. So hiring a guy who’s never worked for or near a college or professional team… we all remember Bill Martin & Dave Brandon both screwing up back to back football hires in laughably incompetent ways.
I'd argue ND HAS to hire this type of AD.
A school like U-M (OSU, PSU, etc .....) is fully safe and ensconced in a elite-tier Power conference, with a big $$$ stream.
Whatever happens with TV and realignment, our future is secure.
Notre Dame is --- rather uniquely relative to the size of their name --- not like this. Their AD can screw up a football or basketball hire. Their AD can piss off some donors. Their AD can't screw up finding their place in the TV and realignment world.
Might be a good time to bring him in though. Bill Martin was super successful AD in almost all ways, with the exception of how he handled the Head Football Coaching hire (I think he had possibly the right guy, but screwed up everything with how he hired him and how he handled a lot of stuff. Well documented in Bacon's book).
If ND is not in need of a new football coach for a few years, you need someone to handle the move to a conference or to a new TV contract first and foremost. He just needs to be gone before the next football hire.
If we learned anything from the Weis years it's that they can even afford a dud hire as long as they have the TV contract money coming in. The Independence in football is always gonna be the utmost important thing and require the most attention.
He's also an ND grad and former football player under Lou Holtz. I think it's more likely the opposite. ND will work out some arrangement to renew their independent arrangement at NBC given his connections there. I don't think ND joins a conference until there is some major changes in the ACC when their Grant of Rights expires or broken.
Depends on what kind of deal they can work out. Yes, the ACC thing works out very well due to the GOR, but if ND can't get somewhere between the ACC and B1G/SEC payouts in their deal it's going to be painful.
Usually this sort of thing in companies I've worked with implies something is already done, or can't be done. No idea what though.
Interesting move. John Wildhack (current Syracuse Athletic Director) also had a nearly exclusively TV network career when he landed at Syracuse in 2016. So we'll how this works out for ND.
TO HELL WITH NOTRE DAME!
It's obvious this is relevant board news..but gag. Fuck Notre Dame.
Had to be said!
Pishaw! The BIG10 is done with expanding.
But seriously, the first thing i thought when i read the title was Notre Dame to the BIG10.
Interesting hire. Savvy Jack should have been canned after a day with “unremarkable” wind led to the death of a student.
In all fairness Swarbrick was providing an accurate description of Declan Sullivan's murderer. 
Swarbrick was actually a clever old buzzard. Although I hated it at the time, I chuckle now at how he stole Brandon's lunch money in the way he ended the rivalry series.
Clever? My Aunt Mabel could have stolen Dave Brandon’s lunch money.
I think it signals the opposite tbh. It says that they're gonna keep the NBC deal at all costs which is the only thing keeping them viable as an independent.
Interesting hire though. It'll be fascinating to see how it works out.
Yeah but the B1G deal has an escalator clause as soon as ND joins. Look for the ACC to fold next summer and the Irish to be back on the schedule in 2025.
I will never forget when Swarbrick handed Dave Brandon an envelope stating that ND was backing out of playing us in football. Coward is what I will always think of him.
Sure but I think it was swipe at Brandon. I’m sure Brandon’s arrogance even made their leprechaun blush
Irish are as good as in.
We will give some to the Huskers
We will give some to the Nittany Lion
It should be stipulated that they have to play the first two games against us on the road.
Also, Swarbrick must dress up in a chicken costume and do the chicken dance at midfield to music from our band.
^^^^^
Ding Ding Ding!
Clearly ND desperately wants someone who is a bad ass negotiator for their next broadcast deals. Just not sure if they get what they want.
to hell with the fig things
This feels like a pre-cursor to ND joining the B10...Writing on the wall and all that stuff
I would assume ND shares in ACC media for “non football” sports. Is it an equal share?
And, since I don’t think ND was there at the start of the expanded ACC, is there any impact the GoR has on them?
I would have preferred if the Irish hired Kevin Warren so that he could screw up their NBC media deal with skillful way that he handled the Big Ten‘s. 🦚
To Hell With Swarbrick and the horse he rode in on. The guy's abused his relationship with Michigan at every turn and failed to hold criminally negligent coaches and players responsible. Tell them to go fuck right off when they want to join the B1G.
Fuck ND