Pete Bevacqua Holds Notre Dame's Football Future In His Hands

Irish AD must navigate constant change as an outsider. It's his job to take the Irish to an even higher level.

During a Dec. 17 press conference, Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua holds up one of the towels that will be handed out during Notre Dame football's game against Indiana in the first round of the College Football Playoff at Notre Dame Stadium on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. | MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Notre Dame is outnumbered

New Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua holds an important position. He is tasked with keeping Notre Dame Football competitive in a rapidly changing environment in which the Irish are an outlier.

Sure, Bevacqua has a seat at the table of the CFP committee governance board, but he is severely outnumbered as he represents independent Notre Dame while everyone else at the table has conference interests top of mind.

This puts Notre Dame in an interesting position. Included in the group but with minimal overall leverage.

This means that Bevacqua must "thread the needle" and be able to find ways to maintain Notre Dame's independence while at the same time remaining competitive in a landscape that is built to cater to conference preferences over all else.

This is not an easy task, but one Bevacqua can excel at given his extensive background with high-level negotiations as a head of NBC sports before taking on the AD role in South Bend.

The SEC and Big 10 are meeting this week to hammer out a plan that would expand the CFP and add a 9th conference game to the SEC schedule, as soon as next year. @RossDellenger reports: pic.twitter.com/yM5ROmgMeW

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) February 17, 2025

College Football Playoff expansion and the Irish

It's clear that the two powers that be - the Big Ten and the SEC - are pushing for more playoff expansion and a handful of playoff spots allotted to each conference yearly.

Would this change help or hurt Notre Dame's playoff chances yearly? How would this expansion change teams' willingness to schedule Notre Dame out of conference? These are questions Bevacqua must try to navigate and answer in a world where he stands alone, with the future of Irish football on the line.

Notre Dame proved in 2024 that the current playoff format is one that Notre Dame can succeed in. I trust Pete Bevacqua to have Notre Dame's very best interest and a vision for the future of the modern Irish program top of mind during all negotiations.

In some ways being the lone independent outlier hurts the Irish by simple virtue of being outnumbered. But in some other ways, independence can help Notre Dame in these changing times because the Irish can be more nimble when it comes to decisions and act autonomously.

Change seems to be the new constant in college football and the Irish have a modern-thinking AD that is more than capable of ensuring Notre Dame stays competitive moving forward without sacrificing the Irish's value system in the process.

For more Irish news & notes follow John on Twitter @alwaysirishINC, Always Irish on Youtube and or your preferred audio podcast provider.