“Secondly, is our access to the College Football Playoff. “One is, do we have a committed broadcast partner, who not only will carry all our home games nationally but will compensate us for our media rights in a way that allows us to be competitive? So it starts with the question of a media partner,” Swarbrick said. The current four-team College Football Playoff structure runs through 2026, although Swarbrick was part of the four-person working group that attempted to get the FBS to embrace a 12-team model early. Notre Dame’s media rights deal with NBC, which is widely believed to be well under market value, runs through 2025. Notre Dame is a member of the ACC for its Olympic sports except for hockey, which competes in the Big Ten. Swarbrick reiterated any situation in which Notre Dame football joined a conference - he didn’t suggest one league over another - would likely come from the school losing a broadcast partner, losing access to the College Football Playoff or losing a home for its Olympic sports. ![]() That said, Notre Dame is joining Tobacco Road from northern Indiana, but it’s only for this year.In a wide-ranging conversation that touched on the Big Ten’s imminent media rights deal with FOX, CBS and NBC, how Notre Dame fits into the NIL space and what would trigger the Irish to turn their back on independence, Swarbrick spoke like a veteran athletics director with leverage and an awareness of the power in holding on to it. If all of that isn’t enough to spur envy among Notre Dame haters, the Irish have Knute Rockne, the Gipper, the Golden Dome, the Four Horsemen, Frank Leahy, the Grotto, the Rocket, the Bookstore, Ara and Uncle Lou. True, and so is this: Despite a slew of future NFL stars every year and much fanfare surrounding most seasons post-Herschel Walker, Georgia hasn’t captured a national championship since 1980. OK, the Irish have 11 national championships, but that’s ancient history. Notre Dame has managed 10 or more victories in four of the past five years under Brian Kelly, and his Irish went undefeated after the 2012 season along the way to reaching the national championship game. Not only that, but contrary to what Notre Dame haters keep saying, the Irish win, and they do so consistently. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images) Getty Images Irish prepare to take the field for the game against the Bowling Green Falcons at Notre Dame Stadium on Octoin South Bend, Indiana. SOUTH BEND, INDIANA - OCTOBER 05: Head coach Brian Kelly and players of the Notre Dame Fighting. Worse, for Notre Dame haters, the Irish get $3.19 million every year as an independent from the CFP, and like everybody else, they’ll receive an additional $4 million for making one of the non-semifinal New Year’s Six games and $6 million for reaching the CFP Final Four, which they did after the 2018 season. Then you have the College Football Playoff (CFP), which has lucrative agreements with conferences. They’ll share some of that money with ACC schools, but only for this year. Thanks to various extensions involving an NBC contract that began in 1991, the Irish will get $15 million per year through 2025. Notre Dame haters also can’t stand that Irish football is the only college sports program of any kind with enough folks wishing to hug them or to choke them to justify having all of its home games televised by a national network. As Forbes’ eighth most valuable college football team entering last season, Notre Dame averaged $120 million in revenue over the previous three years. They’ve been angry forever that, unlike schools in conferences, the Irish haven’t had to share their considerable earnings with others. ![]() Which brings us back to Notre Dame haters. It’s just that, as a guy born and raised in Notre Dame’s hometown of South Bend, Ind., the whole thing still ranks with spray painting Touchdown Jesus.
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