he has shaped the face of ND well into the future, getting us in the ACC and keeping football independent and getting us the money etc. he helped pull off the Crossroads project. He hits big time on the big issues. He is a leader among other ADs and has the respect in the sports industry e.g his deal with Under Armour, our NBC contract, our ACC contract for basketball, etc. These things far outweigh whether he makes all the correct coaching hires or fires in the minor sports (minor sports defined as those that cost the university much more than they bring in).

After the legendary Moose, the modern-day ADs of Corrigan, Rosenthal, Wadsworth and White all were better.

The limited success Notre Dame has had under Swarbrick -- men's and women's basketball, fencing -- has come in spite of him.

Morale in the athletic department is in the shitter. Most sports have regressed or stagnated.

He has stayed too long and can't leave soon enough.

A shitty Athletic Director, for the most part, retains and hires shitty coaches and make shitty decisions regarding the athletic department operations.

How Swarbrick, Wadsworth & White directed the ND football program tells you all you need to know about their ability to lead the ND athletic department.

replacing him with Willingham, the need for Jenkins to tell him to fire TW over Malloy and White's objection, and the CW contract extension after 5 games. I'll give him Brey and Jeff Jackson, but that doesn't make up for the multiple botch jobs on FB coach hirings. Hell, we had guys like Steve Mariucci and Mark Mangino turning us down in public, even though they weren't offered.

Under neither Wadsworth nor White did the athletic department overall decline so markedly. And White really modernized the athletic department and fully fund the Olympic sports.

Notre Dame football.

Nothing else they might have done can overcome their dreadful oversight of Notre Dame football. They greased the skids for the decline of Notre Dame football which is the face of Notre Dame athletics. They will always be remembered as complete failures because of their mismanagement and squandering the tradition and heritage of Notre Dame football.

Wadsworth essentially fired Lou and hired Davie. Nothing more need be said.

White's modernization and fully funding olympic sports is a pimple on a gnat's ass compared to the apologetic Willingham firing, the O'Leary hiring and firing fiasco and the Weis hiring and imprudent 10 year contract.

That is my point. At least Wadsworth and White succeeded elsewhere. Swarbrick has succeeded nowhere.

In my opinion, anything else that was done under their watch is of no consequence or is outweighed by their failure of managing ND football in ranking their performance. As a result I rank them as equals at the bottom. We will just need to agree to disagree on the ranking criteria and results.

Those both look like albatrosses right now. And the NBC deal is a partnership that far preceded anything he had to do with. In fact, under his watch, ND has watered down the deal to allow for NBC Sports coverage.

The ACC deal was about what anyone could've gotten us. The market dictated the ACC's move. A big hitter wouldn't have let them dictate five games to us.

And it would've been easier to make all these deals and for greater benefit to ND if he could hire an elite coach. It's really the only issue that really matters.

He epitomizes being a small hitter on big issues. People confuse the size of the issue with the quality of the hit.

at least as far as football is concerned. The baseball program is in even worse shape, but we're basically never on TV anyway and that certainly won't change under the current regime.

The only "elite" coaches he hired either were assistants here (e.g. the fencing coach) or wanted to come here (e.g. volleyball). The coaches he personally found have not proven much.

It would have been preferable to hire somebody with AD experience. Maybe we can get Gene Smith to come here in a couple years?

He fired a Final Four coach who built the women's lacrosse program from scratch and replaced her with a super average coach who has taken the program a step back every year.

It isn't just that he doesn't have the ability to hire elite coaches. It's that he's shown no recognition of the need to. If he shitcans Aoki (or Kelly) and then strikes out on their replacements that sucks but at least he knew enough to know that a change was necessary. As is, he doesn't even see a need to make a change in the first place.

What's so special about continuing to renew the NBC contract that has been in place since the 1990 season? Has he negotiated significantly higher broadcast rights fees from our "partner?" Have the production values improved? Has he held NBC's feet to the fire about starting times? Has he kept all of our home games off a cable network that many ND alumni and fans don't receive?

Aside from whether the ACC contract was good or even necessary to preserve football independence, could he have negotiated fewer than five annual ACC football games?

And while I obviously made my post on the baseball site, Jack's stewardship of the football program warrants immediate termination. His disregard of the baseball program is just icing on the cake.

I've had the pleasure of meeting DBC. Fine fellow he is.