Athletic Departments spend money

It might seem like common sense to you and me, but the NCAA recently completed a study which concluded that athletic department budgets are rising substantially across the nation.  Luckily, Notre Dame's program is self-sufficient; the income from football and men's basketball--typically revenue-generating sports--is able to cover the costs of our entire athletics program and saves tuition money for academics.

You can find the article by following this link.

Football overview

If you're anything like me, this Saturday has been circled in red on the calendar for a long time (if you're not like me and are really confused, this Saturday is the first Notre Dame football game of the season). The New York Times, of all papers, has taken an interest in Notre Dame football and its recent futility in this article. I hope that, by January, they'll really have something to talk about!

Irish win gold in Beijing

In case you were not watching the Olympics Saturday morning, Notre Dame student Mariel Zagunis won the gold medal in women's saber fencing. At the time, it was America's first medal.

This is Mariel's second gold; she won in Athens in 2004, right before she enrolled here at Notre Dame.

Intramural sports

Everyone knows about Notre Dame's varsity athletics, but what about the intramural and clubs sports? The Princeton Review ranked (and we know they love their rankings!) Notre Dame #1 for intramural sports.

In our survey of enrolled students, we routinely find that anywhere between 60-80% of first year students played a varsity sport in high school. With this in mind, it is not surprising that so many of our students play intramural sports.

Domers in the Olympics

www.nd.edu has a nice montage of former and current Notre Dame students who are participating in the Beijing Olympics. You can watch the video off of the "wheel" on the main page.

Admissions and athletics

So maybe the last post, about how much ND spends to recruit student-athletes, bothered you a little. If so, this one will definitely reassure you about our athletic programs.

I think we all pride ourselves on the fact that our alma mater holds itself, and its student athletes, to higher standards than most institutions out there.

Recruiting

According to this article, Notre Dame spends the second most amount of money to recruit its student-athletes out of any university (University of Tennessee was number one). If this fact bothers you, you should be reassured by the next post!

Zorich back on campus

Former football player Chris Zorich will be returning to campus, but this time as an employee of the University.

Zorich will be working in the Athletic Department as the manager of student welfare and development. A tad bit more information can be found in this article.

Not only was Zorich a great football player, but he's also an outstanding person, and it will be wonderful to have him back on campus.

Goodbye, Kevin White

I was a little surprised when, at about 1:00 this morning (hey, I haven't been out of college that long, and 1:00 AM isn't that late on a Friday!), a friend and fellow Notre Dame graduate called to exclaim, "Kevin White's going to Duke!"

It's not that my friends and I track every move of athletic directors, but it is a big news story when the head of an athletic department, especially Notre Dame's athletic department, leaves for another program.

The official response from Fr. Jenkins is found here, and if you have any other news or information about this story, I would appreciate it if you do not call me at 1:00 tonight!