NBC Sports Group Chairman Pete Bevacqua Exits To Become Athletic Director At His Alma Mater, Notre Dame

NBC Sports Group Chairman Pete Bevacqua is departing the company after a five-year run to become athletic director at his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame.

Bevacqua will succeed Jack Swarbrick when he steps down in 2024. Bevacqua will join the university on July 1 in the role of Special Assistant to the President for Athletics before assuming responsibility for the school’s athletics programs in the first quarter of 2024, according to a press release.

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Rev. John Jenkins, who is president of the university, praised Swarbrick for leading the school to “unprecedented success” during his 15-year tenure. Bevacqua, a 1993 graduate of Notre Dame, will be a welcome presence “at this time of great chaos and disruption in college athletics,” Jenkins added.

“This is an unbelievable honor for me and a dream come true. With the exception of my family, nothing means more to me than the University of Notre Dame,” Bevacqua said. “As a Notre Dame alum, I have a keen understanding and deep appreciation of the lifetime, transformational benefit our student-athletes receive in a Notre Dame education, one that is unique and unlike any other institution in the world.”

NBC Sports and Notre Dame have long had close ties, with NBC holding exclusive rights to Fighting Irish football games for the past 33 years. Bevacqua, who was CEO of the PGA of America before becoming the third exec ever to hold the chairman title at NBC Sports, managed the relationship with Notre Dame (and Swarbrick) and also negotiated several landmark rights deals, including a Big Ten football agreement and an 11-year NFL renewal. He also oversaw coverage of major events like the Olympics and a wide range of sports, among them tennis, golf, Major League Baseball and the English Premier League.

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