Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick expects that the school will "make a decision on a potential new media deal with NBC ... relatively soon," according to Brian Hamilton of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Swarbrick yesterday said that Notre Dame "will conclude in the next month or so whether now is the right time to strike a new deal, or if it is more beneficial to wait until the current deal crawls nearer to expiration" in '15. He said, "That's sort of where the industry has gone, so you have to be mindful of it. I prefer shorter deals. But the ACC, the SEC, the Big 12, everybody is in that range. There's a reason the cable networks are pushing that way. We would be prepared to do it." Swarbrick stressed that the decision "was not about NBC vs. other options as much as when it made the most sense to strike a deal." He said, "At a fundemental level, it's a decision about is this the right time to do it, or do we wait until the end of the contract? It's soley based on a market analysis." Swarbrick added, "The world of college sports broadcasting rights has been so hard to predict and has moved so quickly, it's just one of the things you ask yourself when you're entering into a more than a decade-long deal. Do we think we're catching this at the right time? We have the luxury of not having to do it right now, so would we wait?" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 6/28).
MARK MY WORDS: In Oklahoma, Ryan Sharp notes in a January memo to the Big 12 expansion committee, interim Commissioner Chuck Neinas said that Notre Dame is the "only school the Big 12 could add that would 'enhance the Big 12 value for television.'" Also in the memo, Neinas goes on to say that he "discussed expansion" with ESPN President John Skipper, Fox Sports co-President & COO Randy Freer and ESPN Senior VP/College Programming Burke Magnus (OKLAHOMAN, 6/28).
