Look, I have no inside information here. I just know that Jack Swarbrick has gone radio silent after talking for months about two things, the NBC renewal and the digital Irish Network.
He talked about ND and NBC being close to signing last June and he mentioned it several times over the summer and into the fall.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-...w-nbc-deal
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...ision-deal
2012 proved more than ever that ND is an attractive property. This article from last December shows how ND is poised to rake in a bunch of increased revenues. NBC clearly wants to renew.
http://adage.com/article/news/bowl-nod-n...ld/238583/
But, Jack Swarbrick has not said anything in months about NBC even though the two sides were "close" to re-signing in June and ND had a monster season that made the Irish even more attractive to NBC.
Regarding the proposed digital Irish Network, Swarbrick began talking about it in 2010-2011.
http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry...8/29941344
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/...W1xV0r7AZw
http://www.ndsmcobserver.com/sports/2.16...W1vLkr7AZw
http://www.ndsmcobserver.com/sports/swar...W1ut0r7AZw
He even talked about it last fall AFTER ND joined the ACC. He thought that the Irish could still launch their own digital network despite being a partial ACC member:
"Tyler Moorehead: You also mentioned in your last Google Hangout that Notre Dame would never have its own network in the sense of the ESPN Longhorn Network, but you really wanted to continue to expand the digital media rights, and kind of expand a digital network. Now with the move to the ACC, do you have to work with them and their media rights, or how will that digital network, or those goals, be affected by the move?
Jack Swarbrick: The structure is very similar, relative to the television rights with the ACC and the BIG EAST. That is to say, there is a tiering of the rights, their network partners get first choice, the ACC digital network has a secondary choice, and then if things haven’t been picked up by those methods, the school has a choice. So we’ll still have a lot of inventory to develop and work with, and in that sense there’s no significant difference between that structure within the Big East. So we don’t think it will impact us adversely at all, and in fact, given the depth and breadth of the Olympic sports, it probably gives us some really high-quality inventory to work with in the years ahead."
This was in a Google + Chat with ND bloggers on 9/26/12, after the ND move to the ACC.
http://collegespun.com/national/notre-da...W039KKG390
Since then............?