Q/A with Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua
Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua spoke to a pool of reporters at Media Day before last month's national championship game in Atlanta.
Q: What are your takes and beliefs on seeding (CFP Playoff):
Pete Bevacqua: For the first year of the 12-team playoff, I think it’s been a wonderful success - pending who you’re talking to, right? I think it’s been great. We were just talking about that. The movement from four to 12, all the different fanbases that have been involved in this, all the dialogue, discourse and intrigue, as we move toward the end of the season, I think it added more national interest because of all those additional fanbases that were in the conversation.
It did that in a way, in my opinion, that didn’t minimize the importance of the regular season. We’re a perfect example of that. We feel like we played every game like a playoff game after our loss to NIU. To be able to add teams without decreasing the importance of the value of the regular season, I think that’s been a fantastic success.
We owe it to ourselves and the sport to think about what went well, what went really well and what could get better. There’s going to be two moments in time. There’s going to be what we change, if anything, from this year to next year and will there be tweaks? We’ll start discussing that. There’s going to be the move into the next six years where I think there will be more material changes. I think you’re going to have two series of conversations. What are the tweaks we can make now? What are the long-term changes that we can discuss for those remaining six years of the extension of the ESPN deal?
Q: Do you feel like you are positioned where you can get a first-round bye?
Pete Bevacqua: We’re comfortable that if conference championship games continue as they are currently configured. Part of the deal we made is that we wouldn’t get a bye. That’s understandable. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t trade that Indiana game at Notre Dame Stadium for anything in the world.
You also have to be smart and strategic. Your odds of making a national championship are increased if you get to play one less game. I think a lot will depend on the fate of the conference championship games.
Should they go away? That’s obviously not my decision. Should they be altered in some material way where it’s not the top two teams playing for a championship and it’s something else, then I think we absolutely have to look at Notre Dame’s ability to get a bye if we end up being part of the top four teams.
Q: Are you a believer in that you might get unanimity around what seems like that issue, which is the seeding and the byes? Is there any chance that could happen this year?
Pete Bevacqua: I think there’s a chance. I think everybody wants what’s best for the overall system. It was interesting when you think about those four teams that got a bye. It was interesting they didn’t advance. I don't think that has anything to do with the fact they got a bye. I think that was mostly competition and happenstance. I think there will be a good, honest conversation about whether there are any changes we ought to make from this year to next year to make something that’s worked really well work even better.
Will there be changes? I’m just one person, so I’m not sure.
Q: What do you think about there’s this debate about Notre Dame will get all its money and doesn’t have to share it even though you don’t get that conference TV deals. Are you on even footing?
Pete Bevacqua: It’s interesting because this is an interesting year to bring that up. If we hadn’t made the CFP, we don’t get a dollar. There’s no safety net for us. We were able to do it this year because we were able to advance. We won the game at home. We beat an unbelievably great team in Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. We beat a great Penn State team in the Orange Bowl and now we play Ohio State in the national championship game.
If this year had been last year and we didn’t make the CFP, we get zero dollars from the CFP under the current model. That changes in the future. We very much, more than anybody financially, control our own destiny.
People don’t realize that element of this. In terms of where we are economically and where you need to be economically right now, we’ll see. When you think about our new NBC deal, our future CFP model after next year, and when you think about our ability to participate in the ACC with 24 of our 26 programs, with the other exception being hockey, financially, we are where we need to be in a very competitive position.
Q: Did you have any reaction when James Franklin said everyone should be in a conference?
Pete Bevacqua: That was his opinion. We laughed about it when we heard about it. I don’t think he meant anything. He and Marcus have a great relationship. I think James Franklin certainly knows Notre Dame is an important piece of the college football landscape.
The most important thing is how we feel and we love being independent in football. We are very bullish in continuing to be independent in football.
Q: Do you have any initial reaction to this idea that schools won’t be able to share more revenue with football players than you were initially planning because of Title IX?
Pete Bevacqua: I wouldn’t say it’s definitive. We’re digesting what came out over the course of the last couple of days. You’re starting to see reactions from that in Congress. There was a tweet by Senator Ted Cruz. In conversations that we’ve had with Congress, and we’ve been very actively involved, we’ve talked to Senator Cruz, Senator (Cory) Booker, and our own Senator (Todd) Young in Indiana. I think there’s still many more discussions that will occur.
As you can imagine, for the last couple of days, we have been focused on this, but digesting all of that movement and preparing for the House Settlement should it get approved on April 7th at 10am. We have our plans in place.
We, like the rest of the country, with major college football programs and major college athletics, will respond and position ourselves accordingly. We’re still in the process of digesting all of that information.
Q: Was it like a five-alarm fire and now we have to change our plan?
Pete Bevacqua: No. You think about what was said this week and how that could change the new administration. What might change between now and April 7th should the House Settlement get approved as it goes into effect in July - I think there's going to be so much material change in terms of identifying and dictating the rules between now and then. We’re kind of sitting back and absorbing that information and making sure that we’re up to speed on everything, so when the rules of engagement are really finalized, we’re ready to move as smartly and strategically as possible.
Q: With all the money, how do you divide it? Is that between the men and women?
Pete Bevacqua: If you look at the House Settlement, should it be approved, the working cap number in year one will be $20.5 million. With the removal of scholarship limitations, you’re obviously able, if you so choose, to add scholarships. The first $2.5 million of scholarships you add has to come off of that cap amount.
We intend to add scholarships that will equal or surpass that $2.5 million number. Then you’re really left with a cap amount of money. Universities will decide how they distribute that money. Will you compensate football players differently? Men’s and women’s basketball? What sports generate revenue? It’s no secret there that you have certain sports that generate more revenue than others.
Quite frankly, how do you factor in Title IX? What are the Title IX regulations and rules you have to follow to make sure you do everything properly?
I think everybody, certainly not just Notre Dame, is in the process right now of reading every bit of information available, keeping track of where the settlement is going and keeping track of what Congress might or might not do with DOJ and responding appropriately. It’s still very much a work in progress.
Q: Did the seeding this year inform you about your future schedules? Are they good, or do you need to tweak them in terms of how the seeding played out?
Pete Bevacqua: So much of our schedule is made for the next few years. We always want as great of a schedule as we can possibly put together. We have those great rivalries. Think about the rivalry with USC. We have every intention and desire to keep that USC rivalry going. We were thrilled to add a home-and-home with Texas. We’re having some really interesting conversations at the ACC in terms of the ACC component of our deal.
We have an unbelievably great schedule next year. We open up with Miami at Miami. Our home opener is Texas A&M. A few weeks later, we have Boise State coming to Notre Dame. We have USC coming to Notre Dame.
It’s always been Notre Dame’s style to play the best teams available. You can’t play murder’s row every year, but you never know what you’re going to get. It’s not shocking news, but if we were sitting here in August of last year looking at the schedule, and you and I were having a conversation about what team you’re going to play that’s going to trip you up this year, you probably wouldn’t have circled NIU.
These are all young kids who want to play and compete day in and day out. Whether you’re playing Ohio State or a different team, you always know you’re going to get their best when those teams are playing Notre Dame. We’ll continue to schedule as aggressively as we can.
Q: What do those conversations with the ACC entail? What are you discussing?
Pete Bevacqua: I think our ACC obligation and our relationship with the ACC is incredibly importance to us. When you think about that when we play like Clemson, I think that has become such a great rivalry in such a short amount of time. I would tell you that’s the type of game I’d love to play every year.
We’re starting some of those conversations with the ACC. Jimmy Phillips, I think the world of Jimmy and he’s going to do what’s best for the conference. We love being independent, as you all know. But also the ACC relationship for Notre Dame is very important. It’s the home 24 of our 26 programs, and we want to do everything we can to help them in those sports, but also, what can the power of Notre Dame football do when you think about some of those ACC programs coming together? That’s great for us and that’s great for the ACC.
Q: A few years later, has there been anything about Coach Freeman that surprised you?
Pete Bevacqua: No. To have your first head coach job be at Notre Dame is like rolling out of bed one day, waking up and being mayor of New York City. I don’t think anybody is prepared for that job until you do that job. To see how he has embraced it, to see how he has succeeded - what I think is one of the many things that is impressive Coach Freeman is he’s the perfect coach on the field. We’re here in the national championship game, but everything he does off the field. How he embraces, as he says when you come to Notre Dame as a student-athlete, you choose hard because you’re going to have every resource imaginable athletically, but you’re also going to have those resources and the expectations academically.
He doesn’t shy away from that. He embraces that. It’s been so wonderful to see the confidence he has in himself, the confidence he has in the team, the program and the university - the university alignment to make sure we can provide him with all the resources he needs to be as successful as possible because a successful Notre Dame football program is great for Notre Dame football, Notre Dame athletics and it’s great for Notre Dame.
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