Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick makes case for Cal, Stanford to join ACC amid significant roadblocks
The ACC presidents met Wednesday night to discuss adding Stanford and Cal. However, those talks broke down despite support from Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick.
During an appearance on Get Up, Heather Dinich confirmed that Notre Dame was pushing for Cal and Stanford, reading a message sent to her by Swarbrick.
“I was texting back and forth this morning with Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick,” Heather Dinich said. “Because it was reported and sources confirmed that Notre Dame was pushing for Cal and Stanford, and I want to read to you the text message that he sent that I can use on the record. He said, ‘The notion that two of the very best academic institutions in the world who also play D-I sports could be abandoned in this latest chapter of realignment is an indictment on college athletics.’ He’s absolutely right and that’s absolutely fair, but it is not the ACC’s job to clean up this mess.”
Notre Dame has a longstanding rivalry with Stanford and cultural similarities with both Stanford and Cal. So, it makes sense why the Irish would want to lend a hand to those schools. However, as Pete Thamel first reported, there are significant roadblocks to adding these schools to the ACC.
Dinich agreed that there are roadblocks because Stanford and Cal don’t make sense geographically and they don’t add anything financially. That lack of financial value added is the biggest problem for the conference.
“No kidding there’s roadblocks in the ACC right now because just days ago Florida State‘s president came out and said, ‘Give us more money or we’re going to leave,'” Dinich said. “And now they’re talking about the possibility of adding two schools on the West Coast, knowing that it doesn’t provide financial value to them. So, I can’t make sense of this for you because it doesn’t make sense geographically or financially.”
Because of these challenges, Dinich doesn’t think the ACC schools are going to be able to come to an agreement on Stanford and Cal, even with the support from Swarbrick and Notre Dame.
“So, 12 of the 15 schools, and that includes Notre Dame, which is a member in all sports but football, have to agree on this and it doesn’t surprise me in the least that they can’t agree on it, which I would be shocked if this actually happens.”
TV source says adding Stanford and Cal doesn’t make sense for the ACC
On3’s Eric Prisbell spoke to a TV source within the industry who questioned if Stanford and Cal would make sense for the ACC. In particular, because ESPN controls the ACC.
“Does not make sense to me,” the source said. “ESPN controls ACC. Why does ESPN want to ante up more money to make that happen? If they were to ante up more money, existing schools like Florida State would want more first. It makes sense for Stanford and Cal to have – or give the appearance of having – the conversation [with the ACC] because the alternatives don’t look great.”