Notre Dame's Swarbrick: Navy 'still on calendar, we recognize risks'
Already this week, the National Football League has announced the cancellation of its five international games – four of which were slated for London – in advance of the league’s full 2020 season release, due to society’s ongoing battles to confront and contain the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Neither the Naval Academy nor Notre Dame is yet ready to formally halt their two football programs’ scheduled meeting in Dublin, Ireland, on August 29, that is scheduled to kick off the upcoming major college football season.
During a Zoom session Tuesday with reporters from around the country, Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick said it’s business as usual – for the moment. The contest is considered Navy’s “home” game, after the Irish hosted the Midshipmen last November in Notre Dame Stadium.
“At this point, it’s still on the schedule, and as Chet (Gladchuk, Naval Academy athletics director) mentioned, our focus, in part because there’s no reason to have a different focus, is moving forward to it,” Swarbrick said of what would be the Fighting Irish’s third game in Ireland after previous appearances in 1996 and 2012. “We get more information every day, we get more information from Ireland and we get a better sense of the state of college football generally and whether it can begin on time. Until so many of the blanks are filled in, we are not at a point yet where we’re prepared to do anything other than plan for it.
“Having said that, we recognize the risks, we recognize all the things that could happen in the next weeks and months to decide we can’t do that. At present, it’s still on the calendar and we’re still preparing as if we’re going to play it.”
In recent weeks, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly has emphasized that the two schools are, however, looking at a number of contingency plans.
“We’re having discussions with that,” Kelly said last month on a Zoom video session. “Clearly we can’t just wait until May 15 to have the first discussion about going overseas. Those discussions are taking place. Jack, again, has a number of things on his plate right now. That is one of them. Navy is aware of it. We’re looking at all options at this time.
“We’d like to play the game in Ireland. Whether we can or not, that is obviously a topic that is being discussed. But we’ll have some alternatives, whether there’s a particular date, I can’t give you one right now. I can tell you this: Those discussions are underway and they’re certainly being deliberated as we speak, relative to where that game is played.”
Notre Dame officials have established May 15 as a critical date when they have indicated the school will determine if it can host any second-session summer courses on campus and also possibly determine when it can begin welcoming students, both general population and athletes, back onto campus.
According to people involved with talks specific to the Navy-Notre Dame contest, one potential available date if the contest is moved from Ireland, since the Irish and Midshipmen do not share a natural in-season open Saturday, is December 5 in Baltimore near the Academy’s Annapolis home.
Navy is scheduled to conclude its regular season December 12 against rival Army in Philadelphia, as is the two service academies’ long-standing tradition.
Swarbrick also was asked about conference discussions of a possible league-only football season in the fall. Multiple people have indicated to Irish Sports Daily that league-only schedules have been discussed in both the Big Ten and SEC, among other conferences.
Swarbrick said he believes conference leaders around the country are looking at those options --- and others --- but also expects Notre Dame, college football’s last blue-blood independent, to be fine from a scheduling standpoint.
The Irish, in addition to their now-customary five Atlantic Coast Conference games stemming from the agreement that began in 2014, also have a scheduled game against Big Ten foe Wisconsin October 3 at Lambeau Field, are set to host the Southeastern Conference’s Arkansas September 12 and have two games against Pac-12 foes, at home against Stanford October 10 and closing out the regular season at rival USC November 28.
“I don’t want to speak for the conference commissioners, but I think they’re considering every option. And I would be surprised if there’s any conference that hasn’t looked at a conference-only alternative. We are very comfortable that if it goes that way, that we’ll be fine. That we’ll be able to play a high-quality, full schedule the same number of games that other teams would play. My hope and one of the things I’ve sort of encouraged a little bit in my conversations is, whether a possible model is this conference schedule plus-one; there’s so many great sort of plus-one games, traditional rivalries that occur among schools. Great rivalries in the state of Florida, for example; Clemson-South Carolina.
“Can you build it? Protect those and other than that one game, you build your schedule around conferences. We would love Wisconsin to still be able to play Notre Dame in Lambeau this year, or Arkansas to still visit. So we just have to see how that evolves. I am not concerned about our ability to have a challenging, robust schedule, even if the conferences go to a conference-only model.”
One interesting note about the Razorbacks and Irish? Both teams share an open date: October 24.