Notre Dame AD believes conference realignment situation of 2 Pac-12 schools is an"indictment of college athletics"
Notre Dame has a say in any Atlantic Coast Conference realignment due to being a partial member. There seems to be some disagreement of what the conference should do, but the Fighting Irish want to expand.
ESPN College Football Senior Writer Heather Dinich spoke with Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick about adding Stanford and Cal to the ACC, and he was in favor of the move.
"The notion that two of the very best academic institutions in the world who also play D1 sports could be abandoned in this latest chapter of realignment is an indictment of college athletics," Swarbick said.
Those are some strong words by an athletic director of a program that is not considered to be a full-fledged member of the ACC to put on the record. Why did Swarbrick tell this to a national media outlet? There could be more than one reason for the decision.
Why did Notre Dame go on the record about wanting Cal and Stanford in the ACC?
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are an independent football program but are in the ACC with all the other sports. There seem to be a few reasons why Jack Swarbrick could have gone public in favor of adding Cal and Stanford.
One possible scenario is that he believes in expanding outside of the geographical location of the southeastern United States.
There is a lot of competition with the Southeastern Conference in the location, and growing more nationally will take a stigma off the conference itself. Going to the West Coast makes things feel better as the Big 12 and Big Ten have both expanded more across the country in the last 18 months.
Another possible reason is that he could be trying to position Notre Dame as a conference member. More of an "I'll scratch your back, if you scratch mine" deal than anything, it's quite possible that Swarbrick is friends with the athletic directors at those schools and wants to keep them in the Power Five.
This could just be applying pressure on the rest of the conference as four or five teams seem skeptical of the expansion. Adding just two teams feels interesting as the ACC could also just absorb Oregon State and Washington State unless they do not have any desire to join.
There could be a bunch of different situations and reasons for Swarbrick to go on record, and the true reason why he did so may never be known.