Notre Dame Sports Director Jack Swarbrick said the program’s association with the ACC for the 2020 soccer season was the result of “unusual circumstances unrelated to Notre Dame’s long-term independence assessment.”
The ACC board of directors approved a plan Wednesday that all conference schools and Notre Dame will play 10 league games plus one non-conference game of their choice, only if the public health guide allows, and the Fighting Irish They will be eligible for the ACC Championship Game. There will be no ACC divisions for this season only.
Although the Irish have clung to their independence, Swarbrick said this decision was not difficult because it made more sense. As part of its contractual agreement with the ACC, Notre Dame had already scheduled six games with the conference, including Clemson. The Irish added Florida State, Boston College, Pittsburgh and North Carolina.
“This is just an extraordinary and unprecedented year, and you recognize that it will come,” Swarbrick told ESPN on Thursday morning. “Could we have built a timeline without this? Yes, but given the uncertainties that everyone faces, I couldn’t be exactly sure what they have. There was a higher level of control and certainty if we could do this with ACC that if we had just built the schedule ourselves. “
Notre Dame currently has a conference-free game schedule against Arkansas, Navy and Western Michigan. Only the Navy game is on the way, tentatively scheduled for September 5 after being moved from Ireland.
Notre Dame is still evaluating its non-ACC opponents and is expected to announce a full schedule in the near future. While conferences across the country have continuously tried to uncover his next move amid the coronavirus pandemic, Swarbrick said that he and ACC Commissioner John Swofford had been discussing possible scenarios “for a series of weeks” and described it as “an evolving conversation”.
“In the historical context, it is a big problem,” he said. “It also reflects the great opportunity that our working relationship with ACC presented in these circumstances. I very much appreciate Commissioner Swofford and my colleagues for giving us this opportunity in the historical context. It is very significant.”
Swarbrick said he still acknowledges that the fate of the season depends on the pandemic and how it is affected by the addition of general students to the campus.
“I look closely at the national data every morning, and while there are still very significant critical points, the trend lines have definitely improved,” he said. “The problem is, we’re trying to navigate something other sports teams aren’t, and that’s back to campus and life on campus. That’s fundamentally different. Another 10,000 students will be joining us next week. Conscious students They’re going to do everything they can to keep the university safe and secure, but it’s a different dynamic when you’re in a residential setting like that. “
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