Swarbrick said that the current assumption is that there will be a full college football seasonGETTY IMAGES
Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick is "teeming with optimism" at the prospect of an "undelayed, unabridged college football season," according to a Q&A with Eric Hansen of the SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE. Swarbrick has continued to push through his days, "making decisions, with no frame of reference, no clear context, no vision when the cloud of the COVID-19 global pandemic will end." Below are excerpts from the Q&A, some of which have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: As it pertains to the '20 college football season, are you working on different models yet, such as an unaffected season? Shortened season? Delayed season? Season with no/few fans? No season?
Swarbrick: We’re discussing a lot of those. I don’t want to create the impression that we’re engaged in sophisticated modeling. We’re not. There are just too many unknowns. We’re more in discussion about: What are the critical dates on the calendar? What might the decision-making look like?
Q: What are your thoughts about the possibility of having a '20 college football season?
Swarbrick: I remain optimistic. I don’t know that you have any other choice. ... Our operating assumption is that there will be a full college football season. You don’t want to take your eye off that ball and get too consumed with the alternative.
Q: What is the status of Notre Dame’s season opener against Navy, Aug. 29, in Dublin, Ireland?
Swarbrick: We have been in touch with Navy, and the operating assumption -- both theirs and ours -- is that we’re moving forward. That’s largely going to be a byproduct of what’s decided about the college football season. We think it is as likely to be driven by that as any unique factor about Ireland or travel.
Q: There are a lot of speculative stories out there about what would happen to other sports programs that depend on college football revenues if there were to be no or a limited '20 college football season. How is Notre Dame equipped to absorb that kind of financial gut punch?
Swarbrick: I don’t know of any athletic department that’s really in the position to absorb the loss of the college football season entirely. I think those will wind up being, ‘How do you bridge that period of time. What is the discussion between the university and the athletics department? What are the other mechanisms available to you to bridge it, because that’s what you’d have to do'" (SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE, 4/1).
