On Thursday, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick spoke with Brian Hamilton of the Chicago Tribune regarding the conference realignment rumors and Big 12 chatter, but he reiterated that the school is not actively deciding on the issue at the moment, saying: "We are not in any active decision-making process."
That statement doesn't exactly quash the rumors, as Hamilton points out the existence of a memo from interim Chuck Neinas pointing out that television network partners think "the only new member that would enhance the Big 12 value for television was Notre Dame." The conference landscape has shifted a lot over the past few seasons, and with each move the calculus is altered for most teams, but the revenue that comes along with Notre Dame athletics will always be attractive. For that reason alone the rumors will likely persist.
Here are more quotes from Swarbrick in Hamilton's story:
"I have tried to be consistent throughout saying, look, there are three things we have to know: what our media future is, what the postseason of college football future is, and what the future of the Big East is," Swarbrick said Wednesday. "Two of those three pieces, I think we're going to have great certainty on.
"We'll have some level of certainty on the third, so it creates an opportunity. We don't have calendar-ed somewhere, 'Let's sit down and do this.' It creates an opportunity at that time to sit back and say, 'OK, what do we see coming?' There's no process in place nor do I anticipate triggering some formal one..."
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