Jack Swarbrick confirms Notre Dame pushing for Cal, Stanford to join ACC, states Pac-12 is dying

The Pac-12 is a shell of itself and on the verge of collapsing completely with Stanford and California flirting with the ACC. And that’s a real possibility, according to Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick.

He joined the Dan Patrick Show this week to discuss various topics, including the recent wave of conference realignment and where the Fighting Irish sit as a partial member of the ACC while maintaining its independence in football and men’s ice hockey.

“We are where we are, and we have to try and make it work,” Swarbrick said of the recent conference realignment. “I mean, we’ve been pretty vocal in the past month about, we need to find a home for Stanford and Cal. You can’t have two of the great academic institutions in the world, not have a place to play.”

Patrick then asked: “What kind of solution you got?” To which Swarbrick responded: “We’re working on it.”

But Patrick didn’t relent: “Meaning?”

“Well, there’s still consideration of the ACC as a home for those schools,” admitted Swarbrick, to which Patrick then clarified, asking if Notre Dame is supportive of the two schools potentially joining the ACC.

Swarbrick’s answer: “Very much so.”

The Notre Dame athletic director is in full support of conference expansion … especially as it relates to the ACC adding a pair of historic academic and athletic programs from the West Coast.

If that were to happen, Dan Patrick suggested: “And the Pac 12 dies?”

The answer, again, from Jack Swarbrick: “It’s looking that way more and more every day, yes.”

That would obviously make things difficult for the two remaining Pac-12 programs, Oregon State and Washington State, who would seemingly be left to fend for themselves in that scenario.

With these four Pac-12 schools drifting in the wind as far as their futures are concerned, the current wave of conference realignment doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon. There are still moves left to be made, and according to the Notre Dame AD, the ACC should be heavily involved. In fact, he’s doing what he can to make it happen.