AD Pete Bevacqua on Notre Dame football: 'We have to win a national championship'
SOUTH BEND — Exactly two months into his tenure as Notre Dame athletic director, Pete Bevacqua celebrated his first national championship with the men’s lacrosse team in Philadelphia.
His predecessor and mentor had to know what was coming next.
“I got back and I saw Jack Swarbrick, who’s been so amazing to me this year,” Bevacqua said on a university-produced video podcast. “I said, ‘Jack, this is easy.’ Two months, national championship. I said, ‘At this pace, right? This is going to be wonderful.’ “
In a 45-minute discussion with Lou Nanni, vice president for university relations, Bevacqua touched on a wide variety of topics, including the path to ending a national title drought for the football program that dates to 1988.
With the expansion of the College Football Playoff from four teams to 12, starting this fall, concerns over access seem to have been quelled for now.
“To win national championships, and we have to win a national championship in football, you have to keep knocking on the door,” Bevacqua said. “We’ll be able to knock on the door far more frequently than we have before.”
The former NBC Sports chairman noted that, even as a proud independent, Notre Dame has a bit more wiggle room when it comes to its regular-season record.
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“If you were Marcus Freeman, I couldn’t even have that conversation,” Bevacqua said of the third-year football coach. “For him it’s undefeated every year, never lose another game, and that’s what makes Marcus, Marcus. But I have to play the percentages.
“As an independent in a four-team playoff, we had to go undefeated, most likely. Maybe we could go 11-1, but that gets dicey. When it goes to 12 teams, maybe 14 teams in a couple of years, 12-0, 11-1, 10-2 are really looking good.”
Despite a long-running friendship with Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, formerly chief operating officer at Major League Baseball and a frequent golf partner, Bevacqua made it clear that independence still suits Notre Dame just fine.
“I feel better about our independence sitting here right now than I felt even when I first came into the role,” said Bevacqua, who spent eight months shadowing Swarbrick before the official handoff. “Independence is part of the DNA of Notre Dame football. I believe that vehemently.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua on the path to a football national title
