'We don’t want to be the NFL.' Notre Dame president 'concerned' with state of college sports

SOUTH BEND — At the University of Notre Dame, unlike at almost any other college athletics program, sport and religion are seemingly stitched into the same cloth.

From the east stands of Notre Dame Stadium, football spectators can see the 230-foot spire of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart jutting into the horizon. The famed “Touchdown Jesus” mural on the Hesburgh Library to the north keeps an unabated eye on the action.

Some things never change.

'Learn every day': The Rev. John Jenkins reflects on legacy of 19 years leading Notre Dame

As for the broader landscape of collegiate athletics, seismic change has shaken its foundation so far this decade with “Name, Image and Likeness” compensation to student-athletes, liberalized transfer waivers, sweeping conference realignment and expansion of the College Football Playoff from four teams to 12.

“College athletics is a bit of a mess,” university President The Rev. John I. Jenkins said in an interview with the South Bend Tribune last month. “(NIL) is out of control without really much oversight. It undermines the educational purpose of what these athletic programs should be about.”

Jenkins, 70, is retiring at the end of the month after 19 years in office. He is proud of the direction Fighting Irish athletic programs have taken, but alarmed by the rapid deterioration of amateurism collegiately.

In a 2023 op-ed essay published in the New York Times, Jenkins and then Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick wrote that the NCAA’s NIL policy that forbid schools from directly paying student-athletes were too easy to manipulate.

This past February, a federal judge granted an injunction against NCAA regulations prohibiting recruits from talking about their NIL prospects before enrolling.

As NCAA power over the matter dwindles, individual state legislatures are left to pass their own laws regarding NIL standards with the lack of federal oversight, in many cases undermining standards the NCAA tries to implement, Jenkins explained.

Throw in highly lucrative media partnerships with schools and conferences — Notre Dame remains independent in football, but a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference in most other Olympic sports — and there is an ocean of money in the system.

“All those pressures have put us where we are,” Jenkins said. “I hope we can come to a place that maintains the centrality of educational context. Our athletic teams are not the NFL. We don’t want to be the NFL. We want to be college athletics. I hope we can get that. I am concerned about what we are now.”

Clarity, Jenkins says, will come from consistency and equitable division to help “all boats rise” in all men’s and women’s sports and not just football.

What Jenkins sees as the next progression is some sort of Congressional action or oversight to help create that consistency.

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“The problem now is that the courts have ruled that it is a violation of antitrust law to make these rules and enforce these rules,” Jenkins said. “So, we have no rules. What we need (is) some Congressional action where we all say, ‘OK, for competitive equity purposes, college athletics, you can make rules.’”

With Swarbrick already retired and Jenkins on his way out, that challenge will fall to incoming president The Rev. Robert A. Dowd and new Director of Athletics Pete Bevacqua, who Jenkins says will be evermore an important leader in college athletics.

“One of my regrets in leaving now is that I would just love the chance to work for a longer time with Pete,” Jenkins said. “Jack has been great, and Pete will be great too.”

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As for the future of college athletics and its ever-changing model, Jenkins stresses that regardless of what happens, Notre Dame must stay true to its own spiritual and academic mission of educating all students.

“It’s important for our team, coaches, athletic department and student-athletes to continue to reflect the values of the university,” Jenkins said. “Certainly we want to win the games; that’s part of the commitment to excellence. But we want to do it in a way that serves these young people.”

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Outgoing Notre Dame president John Jenkins concerned with state of NIL