Notre Dame AD, president get roasted for essay on NIL, paying college players

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick and university president John I. Jenkins certainly have some thoughts on NIL and college athlete compensation.

After they co-authored an op-ed for The New York Times, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick and university president John I. Jenkins are catching heat for their antiquated thoughts on NIL and overall player compensation.

Rather than taking ownership for being part of the reason why the NCAA has been so unbelievably feckless, Swarbrick and Jenkins want more congressional involvement up in here because that is absolutely going to solve all of our problems.

Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger did a great job of explaining what exactly these two Notre Dame officials had to about about name, image, likeness.

Swarbrick and Jenkins are afraid the NCAA is going to collapse over NIL; well, maybe it should?

"“If we can’t start to get ourselves to where we can make rational decisions like those and enforce them, the future will be more than one athletic association. I can tell you that. We’ve got to get our act together as college athletics and do the things we can do. We keep sort of implying we can’t address name, image and likeness. Of course, we can. We can do it in ways requiring reporting on transactions, requiring that there be transactions. We have to take that on as opposed to looking to others to fix it for us.”"

When the United States Supreme Court has already said that players should be paid for their name, image, likeness, good luck putting the toothpaste back in the tube. To say that a century’s old pay model is sufficient in a modern 21st century world is beyond laughable. So instead of getting someone else to do the heavy lifting for them, why not take some responsibility here?

Keep in mind that Notre Dame has more sidewalk alumni than anyone and classifies as Power 5.

Notre Dame athletic director, president crucified over out-of-touch NIL op-ed

Look. I am in favor of there being some level of guardrails and regulations when it comes to NIL, but I know where college athletics are going and you need to either get on board with it or get left in the dust.

Former NCAA president Mark Emmert was about as useful as a wet paper bag. It is up to former Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker to save us all! I am not exactly counting on that…

Although Swarbrick is not totally in favor of the NCAA in this op-ed, he suggested we get rid of the NBA‘s one-and-done rule and that the NFL should create a minor league system to develop its players. Okay, sure, but you have to understand that major college athletics is an absolute cash cow. Why has Notre Dame been able to stay independent for as long as it has? Its NBC TV deal!

I’m not going to go as far as to say you’ve presented problems and offered no solutions, but my goodness gracious… Football drives everything in college athletics. The College Football Playoff has done its own thing separate from the NCAA to crown a champion for the last nine years. It has not been perfect, but it is better than what it was. More importantly, they are looking to improve it.

Where Notre Dame loses me in all this is they are not paupers. They are closer to the haves than the have nots in major college athletics. I understand that it is a Catholic institution with rigorous academic standards, but I cannot accept one of the most well-known private schools in the world crying poor. If you don’t want to play the NIL game, then don’t, but don’t criticize others that do.

Notre Dame may recruit different kinds of athletes, but you did promote Marcus Freeman from within to give you the cool factor you have not had for decades on the gridiron. To play holier than thou is a bit much because former head coaches like Brian Kelly, Charlie Weis and even Lou Holtz weren’t exactly saints. Notre Dame can say all this because it’s Notre Dame, but this helps no one.

Overall, this feels like the real-life episode of South Park featuring Captain Hindsight. We are watching college sports as we know it go up in flames, but I don’t think Notre Dame giving a vote of confidence to the NCAA is going to help one bit. We need to accept that what college athletics once were are no more and just move forward into this new day and age. There will be obstacles…

Ultimately, college athletics are too big to fail. The demand for them has never been higher. It’s not amateurism and it’s not professional sports, but rather somewhere in between. It’s kind of always been that way, whether we have wanted to admit it or not. The pathway forward is through being honest, having candid conversations and seeking positive collaboration, not elitist grandstanding.

Swarbrick is well-respected in the industry, but this op-ed certainly does ding his overall likability.

For more College Football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.