Jack the AD

Notre Dame is set to announce its new Athletic Director later this week, when its expected that 1976 ND Alum John "Jack" Swarbrick will be the man. You can read a nice piece in the Chicago Tribune about Jack, and another piece here on Irish Eyes, both of which gets into a bit of his background. Essentially Jack is a lawyer with a major law firm in Indianapolis, IN, born in Bloomington, Indiana, who has been working in sports in some capacity for 25 years. He graduated from Stanford Law School in 1980, and he's largely responsible for bringing the Super Bowl and other sport events to Indiana.

The Pope will break it down for you with a quick list of his pro's and con's for this hiring:

Pros

• He graduated from ND - this cannot be understated. Weis was an ND grad, as many of us just feel safer with the program or department in the hands of an alum. Instantly most alumni will have a connection with Jack that we did not have with Kevin White.


• He's a smart guy - Stanford Law, on top of the ND degree. Not bad


• Been around sports - Successfully brought the Super Bowl to Indianapolis, has been chairman of the Indiana Sports Corporation, and also represented various parts of US Olympic teams like Gymnastics and US Rowing.


• He's been a finalist for a few Athletic positions - he was a finalist to be chairman of the NCAA back in 2002, losing to Miles Brand, who sucks. His familiarity with the NCAA will certainly be a huge benefit that most other candidates wouldn't have. He was also runner up to be Commissioner of the Big 12. Obviously this guy wants to get into sports administration/leadership.

Cons

• He has never been an Atheltic director - huge hole on his resume. Most ADs at Notre Dame had been ADs at a few stops before ND, just like Kevin White. No substitute for direct experience.


• No direct football experience - He has advised sports programs legally, and organized Indiana to be the host for Olympic qualifying events, the Super Bowl, etc. But at Notre Dame, managing the Football program is the real job of the AD, and he has little direct football experience dealing with the huge issues facing Notre Dame football: scheduling, BCS/Conference affiliation, and coaching.


• He's been a finalist for a few Athletic positions . . . but has never been hired.

My gut is that this is a good hire. Jack has been successful in the business world, not in the world of college athletic administration. Being an AD is just like promoting a product, protecting a client, or being a CEO. And too often the Academic type don't get the "big picture" when making decisions, which a CEO or a high ranking executive has been trained to do. I think based on the limited amount of information I've read about Jack, that he's our guy.

Will be interesting to see the press conference, likely later this week.