Marcus Freeman on Notre Dame’s independence: ‘As long as we can continue to do that, we will’
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman is leaving the join a conference or stay independent calculus to his superiors. And leaving any strong opinions on it unsaid.
Freeman’s voice on the matter had been quiet since the Big Ten added USC and UCLA June 30, lighting the fuse on another round of speculation and prognostications on Notre Dame’s future. He would only avoid questions on it for so long, though. His appearances on The Rich Eisen Show on Wednesday and Get Up on Thursday asked him to weigh in.
“I depend on our president and athletic director, Fr. [John] Jenkins and Jack Swarbrick to make those big decisions,” Freeman said on Get Up. “The one thing I know that they really enjoy and I really enjoy every time is programs are talking about what Notre Dame is going to do. We love that.”
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Freeman’s conversations with Swarbrick and Jenkins have been “very brief,” he said on The Rich Eisen Show. But they were enough for him to understand their stance: Swarbrick and Jenkins would like Notre Dame to remain independent.
They understand, though, that the landscape requires constant evaluation. They have to be open to a reality where conference membership is best for the program. Freeman senses no stubbornness on that front.
“We love being independent,” Freeman said. “Our program was really built on being independent. As long as we can continue to do that, we will. But I know they will never put our program in a position to fail. If we have to join a conference, I’m sure we will.”
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The Big Ten has been widely speculated and predicted as the Irish’s conference home if they decide to make the move. It now offers a coast-to-coast reach with the California schools on board, allowing Notre Dame to still play something resembling the national schedule it cherishes and be in the same league as several of its historical rivals.
Furthermore, the league’s new media rights contract is expected to be worth more than $1 billion and potentially distribute $100 million annually to member schools before it ends. Notre Dame has been OK with making less money as an independent than a conference member, but never has a conference offered that much financial upside.
Nor has Notre Dame faced a gap between its TV revenue and a conference’s as wide as it might when that deal starts in 2024. That exact figure will depend on what Notre Dame could get in its own new deal. The current agreement with NBC runs through 2025.
Notre Dame is a partial ACC member and has a clause in that partnership that says it must join the ACC if it makes a conference move before 2036. The Irish would have to buy out of that clause to join the Big Ten. Estimates for that price are around $100 million if they were to do so with 10 years remaining on the ACC’s media rights deal. That’s about a third of the cost for a full ACC member to depart in that same time frame.
Maybe that cost of independence will eventually grow too large for Swarbrick and Jenkins to ignore. Maybe they’ll want to err on the side of caution and take the conference route to make sure they keep up with college football’s powers. Freeman will let them make that call. In the meantime, he feels well-equipped to keep Notre Dame competitive in the short term and in the current structure.
“Absolutely. We won’t make excuses for what we don’t have,” Freeman said. “We have everything we need to truly maximize our potential to compete against the best teams in the country.”
