SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Pete Bevacqua covered a lot of ground in his first formal news conference since becoming Notre Dame’s full-fledged athletic director nine months ago. Aside from a few one-off interviews, Bevacqua has been kept out of the spotlight by the athletic department. There was work to do, after all, managing the upcoming House settlement, signing Marcus Freeman to a contract extension and preparing for the College Football Playoff.
On Tuesday afternoon, Bevacqua got to show his work. Some of it was substantial, detailing what’s not in Freeman’s contract extension and going big on Notre Dame’s commitment if the House settlement passes. Other parts were Bevacqua playing the role of hype man, showing off the rally towels to be handed out on Friday night when Notre Dame kicks off the 12-team CFP against Indiana.
Here’s what we learned from Bevacqua’s nearly 45 minutes in front of the microphone.
Bevacqua didn’t want to wait to commit to Freeman
Bevacqua likes to watch Notre Dame games from the sidelines. It gives him better insight into coaches and players, specifically how Freeman manages his players. As much as he’d seen enough of this season in the final box scores, Bevacqua liked what he saw from an operations standpoint in how Freeman runs his shop from field level.
“The two most visible representatives of Notre Dame are our president and our head football coach,” Bevacqua said. “There’s no better representative of Notre Dame. He’s so authentic, so sincere. Everything that makes Notre Dame different and special and some would say harder, he embraces and uses that as an advantage and as a differentiator.”
Notre Dame signed Freeman to a six-year contract that runs through the 2030 season, with compensation believed to be near the top of the sport, at least among coaches without a national title. Bevacqua said negotiations were straight-forward and Freeman wanted assurances Notre Dame would continue to invest in his staff. Unlike some contract extensions that include guarantees for the salary pool of assistants, Notre Dame is already near the top of the market with four-year deals for both coordinators estimated at $2 million annually.
“It wasn’t a question of catching up because we’re there,” Bevacqua said. “It’s more a question of, ‘Hey, do I have your commitment to stay there? And to respond to changes in the marketplace?’ Yes. One hundred percent.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that we’re keeping our foot on the gas. Winning national championships is a priority. I said this to Marcus and we both were laughing, we’re both kind of maniacally obsessed with winning a national championship and more in football.”
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Freeman’s contract doesn’t have an Ohio State out
It was refreshing to hear a Notre Dame athletic director answer a specific contract question with a specific answer. Especially when the question was about how the head coach could get out of the contract he just signed.
Simply put, Bevacqua was asked if there’s any language in Freeman’s deal that would allow him to depart more easily for the NFL or Ohio State, his alma mater, should either of those opportunities arise.
“There are no carve-outs specific to either of those that you mentioned, the NFL or any other colleges,” Bevacqua said.
It’s not clear what the buyout in Freeman’s extension is, which would allow for him to depart if the terms of the contract are met by an NFL franchise or another college. But Bevacqua at least shut down the notion Freeman could have an escape route built into his new deal.
Industry sources told The Athletic that while the Chicago Bears had shown interest in the coach, Freeman was not interested in jumping to the NFL at this time. Ohio State already has a head coach, even though Ryan Day has lost to Michigan four years in a row. Freeman has made no secret of the fact he’s still a fan of his alma mater and considers former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel a mentor.
Marcus Freeman is 30-9 in three years as Notre Dame’s coach. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
Notre Dame has money to spend. And it’s going to spend it
Bevacqua not only knew the date of the hearing that could render a decision in the House settlement that paves the way for revenue sharing with players (April 7, 2025), but he also knew the time of the hearing (10 a.m.). It’s potentially the next seismic change in college athletics and one Bevacqua thinks could lead to some stability in the space pertaining to NIL, as much as anything is stable in the industry.
And if the House settlement passes, Notre Dame has a plan in place to maximize it.
“We will obviously participate in the House settlement, we will hit the cap,” he said. “We want to continue to be very aggressive in what we do in Notre Dame athletics.”
Bevacqua said Notre Dame would share approximately $20.5 million in revenue with its athletes, with a large portion going to football. He wasn’t sure of the exact percentages, only that if there’s revenue to be shared that Notre Dame will share every dollar it can.
Bevacqua said college sports still needs federal help to fully stabilize itself. He’s made recent trips to Washington, D.C., to meet with senators on the topic, something Jack Swarbrick did before him. Bevacqua credited the NBC contract extension as being critical to Notre Dame’s fiscal health in revenue sharing. He also ruled out the idea of private equity buying a stake in the athletic department, although he expects that to happen at other programs.
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Bevacqua is fine with the No. 7 seed. He would have hated No. 9
There’s an argument Notre Dame should have been seeded better than the No. 7 seed in the Playoff, considering its 10-game winning streak and Texas and Penn State losing on conference championship weekend. Bevacqua won’t stop you from making it. He’s just not that interested in listening.
“I wanted to host a Playoff game. After that, I didn’t care,” he said. “I watched the show, but I really didn’t care. I think the fact that we were able to host the CFP game here at Notre Dame Stadium, we’ve earned that for sure.”
Bevacqua has already half-joked he wants to make this weekend a regular thing at Notre Dame Stadium, with the Irish limited to a ceiling of the No. 5 seed by CFP rules as written. Swarbrick helped author those, which stop Notre Dame from getting a first-round bye because the Irish can’t win a conference title. Bevacqua is fine with that, although he wasn’t asked what changes the CFP could make in seeding conference champions in the future. Future rule changes could guarantee Notre Dame a bid if it finishes in the top 12 of a 12-team field or the top 14 in a 14-team field.
Boise State and Arizona State both got first-round byes, with the Sun Devils one of the last teams into the field by virtue of winning the Big 12. Boise State won the Mountain West with its only Top 25 wins coming against UNLV.
“And then whether you have a playoff of two teams or a thousand teams, somebody is going to be disappointed, Right? It’s never going to be perfect,” Bevacqua said. “But I think in this system, with conference changes, with all of the moving pieces, I think it’s been a wonderful success. And people say, did you expect to be the fifth, the sixth, the seventh seed? Honestly, I really didn’t care. I just wanted to host a Playoff game.”
(Top photo: Michael Clubb / South Bend Tribune / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
