Unclear what financial obligations Notre Dame would have under the ACC’s GOR (+ exit fees) for its non-football sports. The GOR agreement is through 2036 so could be a significant amount of $$. Again, not sure if ND has a special arrangement on that.
Adding USC/UCLA was driven by Fox. Not the first time a network has driven expansion and destroyed a conference in the process. ESPN destroyed the Big East to bolster the ACC
- I'm not sure of the financial obligations ND would be under per the ACC's GOR, either, but I can't see Swarbrick anchoring the non-football/hockey sports for that long a period. I'll continue to look for more on that.
- Agree with you that Fox was the driver. I read somewhere that one AD joked that at some point you'd have the Fox and ESPN conferences/leagues, for all intensive purposes.
- Pete Sampson of the Athletic, has covered ND football for a long time and he wrote one article on how things have changed, using ND as an example. When Charley Weis got the Irish to the Fiesta Bowl, the Irish -- because they were independent -- pocked their entire share of the Fiesta payout. While a lot of that was plowed back into the football program, generous sums also applied to financial aid (for non athletes) and non-football sports.
Now, ND just started it's big doner push and the number one subject in need: sports (that's a first, according to Sampson -- and my memory, too). Keeping sports at the top of the game to simply stay in the game.
With that in mind, here's Sampson's Friday take on where he thinks the Irish stand, giving the ACC as an example:
"Notre Dame doesn’t need to have its final answer on conference realignment today and entered the weekend as a rank-and-file (partial) member of the ACC. When the league had a call for its athletics directors on Friday, Notre Dame’s Jack Swarbrick was a regular participant. So, while Swabrick has publicly predicted a new world order at the top of college athletics, that doesn’t mean Notre Dame will drive the train to make it happen, even following the departures of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten.
"If there’s a precedent for how Notre Dame behaved in the world of conference realignment before, it’s how Swarbrick found a match for Notre Dame in the ACC originally. Almost exactly one year after Syracuse and Pittsburgh bolted the Big East for the ACC, Notre Dame did too. The Irish weren’t the first to jump, but they weren’t the last, either. Swarbrick understood Notre Dame’s leverage and played it, grasping that the ACC needed Notre Dame to stabilize the conference and launch the ACC Network. The Irish still had a television partner with NBC, still had a home for Olympic sports in the Big East and now had better access to the postseason with guaranteed Power 5 games.
"Those three things are still true today. For now.
"If the ACC loses a football-first member like Clemson, Miami or Florida State, what’s left behind could be so reduced Notre Dame may view the ACC the same way it viewed the Big East back then. And even if the ACC holds firm, the financial implications of not joining the Big Ten are severe. Swarbrick has said Notre Dame makes less money as an independent than it would as a full-time ACC member. That means membership in the Big Ten would be a windfall, with school payouts potentially approaching $100 million. Even for a school with an endowment of $13 billion, that’s real money.
"Sources around the Big Ten indicate the league will be patient with Notre Dame. Yet, if the league delayed its next media rights deal to maximize the financial impact of USC and UCLA, wouldn’t the league want to do the same with Notre Dame? If there’s a factor that might lead to a decision sooner than later, that might be it." — Pete Sampson
