Notre Dame athletic director calls conference realignment a 'complete disaster'
If you were to ask Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick his thoughts on the recent bevy of conference realignment in college athletics, he'd probably give you a pretty straightforward answer.
That's what longtime broadcaster Dan Patrick did recently, asking the AD – who has been in charge of Notre Dame athletics since 2018 – his thoughts on the matter. Said Swarbrick:
"It’s a complete disaster. Everybody in the industry has to take responsibility here. I'm not excluding myself from that. think the decision-making lost its way in terms of the focus on the student-athlete & what's primarily best for them but we are where we are and we have to try to make it work."
What's happened has been a free-for-all expansion-fest between the Big Ten, SEC and Big 12. It arguably started when the SEC poached two of the biggest brands in college sports – Texas and Oklahoma – from the Big 12. The Big Ten responded by adding USC and UCLA and since then, it's been off to the races.
Oregon and Washington will now join the Big Ten, with Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah joining a Big 12 that has already added BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston.
Meanwhile, there are rumors that Clemson or Florida State could jump ship from the ACC. And what used to be proud conference with over 100 years to its name, the Pac-12, is basically dead. Good luck, Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and Washington State. You're on your own.
"They're certainly based on money," Swarbrick said when asked by Patrick if greed has been driving all of these decisions. "Some of that is the demands that have risen over time to find more revenue to meet this requirement or this requirement. So, I'm not terribly comfortable with the description of it as greed, but it is all about money."
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