Wednesday morning December 21st opens up the first day of the early signing period for college football. If you’re reading this and missed the ESD Primer, click HERE and get caught up on Notre Dame’s 2023 recruiting class.
This has never felt like the old first Wednesday of February National Signing Day bonanza that we used to experience, and I’ve been firm in that this is bad for college football. By the way, Notre Dame plays a bowl game in 10 days! Everyone is really trying to juggle the 2 biggest aspects to the sport right now!
In honor of the old way, we’ve decided to publish an open thread for people to discuss any drama that may unfold. Here are the top 3 stories to track as we wait for the letters of intent to be signed.
#1 Will Peyton Bowen actually sign with Notre Dame?
This long episode should be over soon, we think! Bowen is set to be an early enrollee wherever he decides to play football and if it’s at Notre Dame he’d have until Tuesday, January 17th at the very latest for classes to begin the spring semester. So, depending upon your perspective perhaps it may not be over soon. That could be a long, long, long month to wait for a Gunner Kiel situation.
Now, we don’t think Bowen is going to wait and push things back this week but it can’t be dismissed entirely either.
He does truly seem to be conflicted about his decision (despite being committed to Notre Dame which, well, yeah) and looks to be waiting to make up his mind as soon as Wednesday.
Or, maybe he’s been lying to Notre Dame (and many others) faces and he’s already silently committed to Oklahoma and will sign with the Sooners quickly? It’s anyone’s guess at this point.
This did seem like a heavy Oklahoma lean in recent weeks right up until late last weekend and into the beginning of this week where experts were starting to think about momentum swinging back to Notre Dame.
I am ready to be hurt but also curious to see if Freeman & Co. pull it off.
#2 Will there be any surprises?
Running back Jayden Limar is expected to flip to Oregon when he signs which sucks for Notre Dame but at the same time it feels like a bit of a whimper with everyone expecting it for a week or more.
Staying committed until the end only to sign somewhere else on Wednesday is lame to me.
But, if someone else not currently committed to Notre Dame wants to flip the door is open! I never said I had morals about these things.
I wouldn’t be holding your breath when the signing period opens, though. Just a couple days ago, former walk-on turned scholarship wideout Matt Salerno announced he’s returning for his 6th season and in my scholarship tracking brain I took that as a sign the Irish recruiting class isn’t getting any larger. They decided to let Salerno know he can come back then as we approached Wednesday.
#3 How dominant of a class can Alabama sign?
This has been a weird season for Alabama not being in the playoff discussion and generally out of the limelight for a while. There was a fake tweet earlier this season (that fooled our Slack chat for 10 minutes) reporting that Nick Saban was retiring after 2022, too. That’s not true and also the Alabama recruiting machine is not slowing down any time soon.
On Tuesday, the Tide flipped Des Moines offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor (0.9939) away from Iowa to push their 247 Composite score all the way up to 318.59 points which should already clinch the no. 1 class for this cycle. Here are the best scores since 2000:
333.13 – Texas A&M 2022
327.80 – Alabama 2021
324.62 – Florida 2010
323.87 – Alabama 2017
323.31 – Georgia 2018
322.25 – Alabama 2022
321.78 – Ohio State 2021
Alabama is favored to land 5-stars James Smith and Qua Russaw (both from Carver High School in Montgomery 1 hour from their campus, it must be nice) and if they do with everything else staying the same their score will shoot up to 326.06, or 3rd best this century.
I’m not gonna say I told you so, but it’s morbidly amusing to me that “the talent won’t spread out as long as the CFP is only at 4 teams” has been such a common refrain and meanwhile Alabama is flipping recruits left and right (including one from ND) to sign the 3rd best class of the century the first signing day after the CFP expansion becomes official.
Wait, what’s the contradiction between saying those two things? Not that I necessarily think the first statement is true. But I’m not quite seeing the connection (or dis-connection here).
The hypothesis is that the only – or at least the main – reason Alabama, Ohio State, etc. have been Hoovering up all the talent nationwide is that the CFP being at 4 teams was essentially killing the path to success for lesser programs.
My argument is and remains that the CFP had absolutely nothing to do with this and players are going to the places that care the most about football. The fact that Alabama’s class this year will be better than all but two of the classes signed when the CFP was supposedly choking off all but a couple of schools from the postseason flies in the face of the theory that top recruits wanted to spread out across the country but were being prevented from doing so for lack of a path to the postseason.
Ahh I see and yes I agree with you.
As a result, moving to 12 teams won’t itself change much about recruiting.
Particularly when say a #12 Tulane team sees it’s best players opt out of the playoff they have no chance of actually winning for the draft or a transfer to a more prominent team
That seems to me particularly unlikely to happen.
Or the places that fork out the most in NIL. Look at Texas A&M, were ranked #1 last year and are #14 this year.
Oregon was #13 last year, jumped up to #7 this year with some late signings and some NIL.
With our lost players we have dropped to #9, which is about on par where we were last year.
Unfortunately Freeman has to find the players that:
Academically qualify
Don’t need NIL upfront
High quality
My hope is that the teams dropping buckets of money get burned by it, similar to A&M. You have to think that a player that prioritizes money over team can’t be the best cultural fit anyway and maybe a cancer in the locker room.
I agree with the last part. I think the money thing might work itself out a little bit if the return on investment is real low (which I think it might be). A better investment would always be to pay after they shown something in college (to keep them on your own team).
And then when players see that if they go perform well for this or that team they’ll get paid, then it’ll be easier for ND I assume.
Remember folks, whatever happens in the next 24 hours…nothing matters. eat arbys
No matter what Peyton Bowen does tomorrow, the sun will eventually swallow the earth, killing all life on the planet.
That’s the spirit!
Arby’s = RB = Roast Beef. Did everybody else know that? I only learned of it recently and felt like a dope. Marketing is fascinating.
::Pushes glasses up::. Actually, it’s named after the founders of the restaurant, the Raffel Brothers – RB
Raffle Brothers = Arby’s= RBs = Roast Beef. SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!
Overall, any class that has 20+ recruits and an 80% blue chip ratio (I believe I read that somewhere, don’t quote me) feels pretty great and an upgrade especially combined with last years haul. Just need to keep stacking and winning the games they’re supposed next year and it will grow.
But, I’m personally most excited to complain in the fall about our freshman WR’s not seeing the field enough, especially with Salerno coming back and to get annoyed that Vernon isn’t getting any snaps despite our need for quality d-line depth in 2024.
Like sands thru an hourglass.
21/25 (With Limar likely gone) = 84% blue-chip.
Without Bowen it would still be 83% blue-chip.
Looks like Pratt, the Tulane QB, is staying at Tulane. Sounded like ND had put a lot of eggs in that basket and they’re now down to hoping Sam Hartman enters the portal or turning more attention to Hudson Card or… DJU? Yikes, things get kinda bleak quickly.
That’s bad. Let’s hope Buchner has a bowl game for the ages and somehow gets an extra super power not to get injured,
Leary (NC ST) is going to Kentucky. (247 #1 QB in the portal)
Good QB but has trouble staying on the field, can’t say I mind too much that apparently ND wasn’t too involved with him.
I never understood why Notre Dame wasn’t at least interested in Brennan Armstrong. Pretty crappy year in 2022 (which it was for more than just him) but the 2021 version of him has to still be in there. And that guy is the best QB in the portal, IMO.
Card would be a nice get too.
And for Armstrong, it would be totally reasonable to expect him to compete for the starting spot, given his season. Of course, that might also be why there isn’t a ton of mutual interest.
Isn’t/ wasn’t he expected to follow his old OC ?
I don’t think so, I have seen it floated, without much sourcing. That OC went to Syracuse and Armstrong didn’t follow. And now he got hired at NC State. NC State has MJ Morris, a freshman who did well and I would expect is the guy there.
Reports on internets (so YMMV as to veracity) that Leary got $2M+ to go to Kentucky. ND is going to have to pony up for Hartman.
This is why the NIL/portal is going to be our downfall. We won’t be able to keep up with teams at this rate – even if H.S. recruiting gets a consistent bump from the Kelly era.
Agreed. Unless they do something to rein it in, which is highly unlikely since “they” are the toothless NCAA
Who’s controlling all this $$$? I see all kinds of shenanigans taking place with all this money.
My theory is that it’s the pre-existing bagmen system + new fish that didn’t want to do something illegal before but are happy to cut a check now
Money comes with obligations. We’ll see if, in the future, when NIL is pulled for a following year that the player enters the Transfer Portal. Free Agency with few rules?
My thirdhand understanding is people involved in political fundraising are getting hired to fundraise for NIL collectives, at least down south. It’s becoming formalized. If ND doesn’t play that game, they’re ultimately going to lose.
On some level, it would be silly of Sam Hartman to not get $3M from Auburn if he can get it.
I keep hearing they were targeting 2 guys who weren’t yet in the portal. I assume it was Pratt and Hartman, but now Pratt is off the board. I’m hoping they have some insight already on what Hartman (Card also?) is planning to do. Otherwise….😬
Does Hartman want a 6th year? Just looking at a draft projection for him in the 23′ draft…#19 QB 6th round.
Hartman is right in the sweet spot for the rare kid who can make more money in college than by going pro.
Sure seems that way hooks.
Yea, I would think that’ll happen more and more to the really good college player that won’t be a very good pro – and esp. for QBs of course.
Absher
Hillman
Minich
Mukam
Pendleton
Shuler
Traore
Vernon
Zinter
Our first signees are done.
Houstan has signed, we’re up to 10 at 8 AM ET.
Baylor QB commit Austin Novosad has flipped to Oregon.
ChaChing $$$
Jayden Ausberry has signed.
Love, (Drayk) Bowen, and Terek all have signed.
So much for the Love rumors. Glad to have him signed.
Ya phew! on that one. All round the best of the 3 we had 2 weeks ago.
Limar waiting to decide at 4:30 eastern. He should be careful, Oregon might be out of bags by then.
Oregon currently with 24 commits (9 announced signees) and 4 transfers in. Eighteen players have entered the Transfer Portal since Dec 1. That’s a lot of churn.
Braylon James has signed, that’s a big one.
Was there a chance he wasn’t going to?????? How am I only hearing about this now???? I could have stressed even more last night.
No, just in general it was an important position for us this cycle.
Booorrrrring
Approaching 8:30 AM eastern, here are the players remaining to sign.
All eastern time zone players are Irish.
CENTRAL
P. Bowen
Jagusah
Gray
Greathouse
Bell
Minchey
Otting
Smith
PACIFIC
Flores
Flanagan
Limar
Did I miss anyone?
Is Peyton Bowen doing an announcement or some public signing type thing?
Would be great if he just quietly gets the paperwork over, but I think we all know that’s way too easy and it’s going to be some protracted waiting game.
I haven’t seen any plans for him.
Christian Gray has signed.
One of my faves in the class!
Minchey has signed.
TFR is pumped about getting that one signed https://twitter.com/T_Rees11/status/1605555405723119618?s=20&t=Z2_DoDLoyP9FTZkNjpMo8w
Jagusah and Greathouse are in.
Otting has signed.
Kaleb Smith has signed.
Micah Bell, too.
I was just typing this one… down to four, Flanagan, Flores, Limar, and Peyton.
8:45 eastern and all that remains:
CENTRAL
P. Bowen
PACIFIC
Flores
Flanagan
Limar
Will we get 3 out of 4???????
Did Bowen set a signing time or anything?
I don’t think so, nope.
On Peyton signing:
If the momentum has recently been with us, a delay maybe signals not so good things?
Some had said the delay is in favor of ND actually because Oklahoma was more flavor of the month. But the longer it goes the more Bowen is remembering why he chose ND in the first place and will let the emotions pass with Oklahoma and make the decision for ND.
Tyler is looking at this website on twitter, haha: https://und.com/roster/peyton-bowen/
It isn’t linked to anywhere, including from the 2023-24 roster, which is accessible on UND.com
Oops, they took the link to the 2023-24 roster off the website and removed the table on it if you access it directly. That’s maybe my bad >.<
(Not really unless someone is really invested in watching our comment section here at ND, I didn’t put it anywhere else.)
RIP Peyton on the roster 9:18 AM to 9:42 AM.
Texas 247 staffer Bobby Burton just said on a live show that Bowen will sign with ND.
(eyes emoji)
👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀
Tyler doing the dirty work from our Slack chat:
I just went to his live stream and rewinded a bit to when he said it. I don’t think he knows anything. Someone chatted that Bowen was signing with ND and he brought that comment up on the screen and talked about it for a few sentences, that was it.
It seems like no one has any idea which way he’ll go. He’s kept this pretty tight-lipped.
5-star corner Cormani McClain NOT signing with Miami.
https://twitter.com/247Sports/status/1605577167705735169?s=20&t=y6kgHCS-9d1yJ4hUoy973Q
I can’t open this right now, but any word on who he is signing with?
Nope, his mom just said it won’t be with Miami. LOL.
I think Florida was the favorite before he chose Miami, so maybe them?
Loy just said Colorado hahahaaha.
lol o that makes sense too. Some last minute craziness would include Deion.
Prime TIme. Edwards has signed.
Travis Hunter, last year’s No 1 recruit, is expected to transfer from Jackson State. Should Cormani McClain – No 3 this year, top CB recruit – choose Colorado, that’s a great tandem going into a Pac 12 schedule.
If Miami doesn’t pick up anyone else today they could slide right behind us in the rankings.
Flores and Flanagan have signed.
By all accounts, ND has considered Limar gone and not signing.
Yea, I guess they didn’t even visit him in the last couple of weeks when they visited everyone.
It’s more than just close to home for Limar, our RB is in good shape for next season and with Williams for 24′ after that too.
Yea I don’t think this is that big of a deal.
And Edwards had a personal connection with Deion. So these losses are understandable.
Kind of ironic that we let Cedric Irvin go since we had Love Limar and Edwards, and now we’ve just got Love.
Positive vibes.
They needed Billy Preston to hold that fifth sign.
We have Love and Payne, the yin and the yang.
Limar officially to Oregon. Moving on.
Is Oregon targeting ND players because they know we aren’t fronting NIL money?
Limar was close to home.
But maybe with Bowen.
Oregon also flipped the Baylor QB, a LSU CB and are rumored to be getting a A&M DL. Seems like a pretty equal opportunity pillager.
Good point.
Bowen to oregon.
How much longer is Phil Knight going to be a billionaire?
If he was going anywhere else, I’m happy it’s there. No doubt, 100% about NIL. Now ND has to understand they can either say they are seriously interested in playing championship-level football and do it the way it has to be done – up to and including QR codes for fans to scan at the game to donate to collectives for the players, including it on ND’s donations pages, shrinking the athletic department understanding more money needs to be going elsewhere, etc. – or, you know, not.
Agreed.
I can’t decide if I want to become somewhat of an Oregon State fan to root against the NIL school, or if I want to be happy that Oregon appears capable of making USC’s life harder.
Unfortunately, I think this is exactly where ND’s leadership wants to be. In the discussion, but not leading the discussion.
Yeah, there is no way Notre Dame are going to be first movers or early adapters on this topic. Maybe once Congress weighs in and the landscape is better defined it will be time.
Not giving the NIL bag and ending up with Minchey instead of Moore is one thing, but on the flip side of the coin – other programs who have been aggressively buying players aren’t seeing success commiserate with the expenses either (A&M being the poster children for this).
I don’t see this signing day being any more of a reality check for Notre Dame fully embracing that type of model, perhaps wisely so. I totally get the frustration and outrage with watching 5-stars flee for more $, but at the same time I’m not sure the instant reaction is to drastically swing to play that game better than the Oregon’s or Tennessee’s or A&M’s.
It does occur to me, that the players that are taking NIL upfront and don’t have things work in their favor the first year are the same players that are transferring after year 1. I don’t think that is the program ND wants to be. Sure if your junior linebacker is #3 on the depth chart and is good enough to be in the two deep at another power 5, I can see them leaving. But because these teenagers don’t perform to X standard as a freshman, are bitter because they didn’t get $$$ they thought they were promised and in reality was performance based and now they are looking over the fence for greener pastures… I think the whole thing is a detriment to the player.
I don’t see ND entering this game until things are much more settled and there is a clear and logical way to go about it.
This isn’t categorically true, even as it applies to A&M. Even despite the relatively large numbers of folks in the transfer portal, they haven’t lost their biggest recruits from the monster class. As long as they keep them, there’s still big hope for them for 1-2 years down the line.
It’s the mid-tier/4-star guys who valued the money who are leaving. And, yes, they might have some attitude problems. But those aren’t the guys ND will have trouble recruiting under Freeman, with or without NIL; it’s the top-tier guys who are getting offered high-6/7-figure deals that we’ll never get unless we start playing the game.
Have we thought of just breaking off from the nascent mega conference and just going with the schools that don’t want to go the NFL Lite route?
Notre Dame. Northwestern. Duke. The service academies. Catch the excitement.
I’d rather watch that than the mutant Big 10
I don’t understand preferring penniless ND playing Dartmouth but Swarbrick being a baddie for the ACC deal.
How do you square those 2 things!?
Do they have to go to school?
Mom did not look happy
He broke her heart.
Reenactment of Mrs. Bowen:
Why do we even bother?
WELP.
Super classy to do the old switcheroo with the hats. Hopefully that was not how Freeman found out, and he at least gave the courtesy of a private phone call.
PB was on a Zoom call with the whole ND class last night and told them all he was signing with ND today. He also clearly didn’t tell his mom. Given both of those I’m thinking HCMF likely didn’t get a courtesy call.
Here’s something kind of fun after the other thing: we landed two PWOs from tiny schools who had power five scholarship offers, so maybe some diamonds in the rough or maybe just two kids who are excited to go to ND, but fun either way.
Jordan Faison – QB/DB and 3 sport athlete
Luke Talich – QB/FS and 2 sport athlete
Both in the secondary. Interesting.
I wonder if we’ll end up giving them scholarships because we will have extra to go around with not enough freshmen/transfers to offset those leaving.
Talich is from Cody, which was Mike Leach’s first coaching gig – h.s. baseball.
Wyoming childhood friends remember legendary college football coach Mike Leach
Couple notes on these two from their IB interview about 3:25:00 into this stream.
Maybe less interesting because he only turned down G5 and Ivy league scholarship offers we also have ND legacy TE Henry Garrity as a committed PWO. He was a WR/basketball forward before he put on some weight heading into his senior year. He has great hands in his highlights (haha).
Just noticed 247 has a little stick figure emoji thing to denote walk-ons, haha cute.
Actually, quite excited about the Talich PWO. I see him landing a scholarship in a year or two.
Oregon on fire with another 5 star pick up at DE.
https://twitter.com/18stripes/status/1605622539488722957
Confusingly we’re doubling up on Kaleb Smiths today. Signed the 2023 WR recruit from Frisco, and also got a commit from Virginia Tech transfer WR with the same name.
The gets us to 10 scholarship receivers counting Salerno, who is officially back for his sixth season.
That WR room looking deep all of a sudden.
This class somehow feels like the best AND most disappointing we’ve landed in years.
3.46 class GPA. l I don’t know what else you want?
That’s because it is. It is objectively the best class we’ve landed in years, and also it kind of undercuts the case for Freeman as guy who might take ND to national championships. If we recruit at this level for four straight classes, I would put the o/u for national *semi*finals at .5 with that talent and would have trouble picking the over or the under in the 12-team playoff system we’re about to join. In any case, it’s not at the level to seriously compete for national championships.
Also if I’m reading a presser quote right, Freeman said ND will not get into the acquisition fee business with NIL. If that’s the case categorically and he wasn’t just saying that to be a rule-follower, we can kiss the dream of seriously competing with the top programs goodbye.
I get what Freeman is trying to sell there. If ND gets into the talent acquisition business there won’t really be all that much differentiating them from the Oregons or A&Ms anyway except that the classes are harder, so kids probably would end up shivving us in the end anyway. I’m not saying I like it, but I understand what he’s saying.
What’s he gonna say today, “uhh sorry I couldn’t pay to get better players but I guess I gotta talk about the blue chip prospects that did choose sign here. Oh, by the way we’ll go ahead and try to outbid everyone in the country next time”?
Perception-wise, today would probably feel a lot different had Drayk Bowen (who literally has a ND tattoo already) kept his 5-star status and I’m guessing would have stuck in the class. Or Vernon’s ranking didn’t plummet, he was a top-20 guy once. If those two were ranked a little higher, the outlook would be different – and the
good news is they’re still the same players to be encouraged about (per juice’s pertinent point that this is a good but unfulfilling feeling signing day).
If a kid is more interested in money, he’s going to find a better spot no matter what ND does. To your point, earning that Mike Mayer/Kyle Hamilton spot to cash in is a differentiator, just as living on campus was or online classes at football factories was or any number of items like that. NIL is the next in the never ending line of waves where some other path is probably going to be more attractive in some ways to some kids than Notre Dame.
(Which, to nd09’s point, might be proof in the last 15-20 years why they can only get so close to being championship level).
The differentiation is, as always, our school is better than their school. “You can get paid up front because we have more rich donors than our competitors, and then maybe they’ll give you a job afterwards too” strikes me as a good and distinguishing pitch from the other programs throwing around bags, and is definitely more compelling than just the second-half of the pitch standing alone, which is what they’re selling right now.
Well put. It’s a “what could have been” and reality check that Freeman has big challenges in 5-star hunting, but overall worth celebrating too.
ND still needs what they’ve always needed – getting a future first round QB to take the program to the next gear. NIL has taken a lot of oxygen and for good enough reason, but if this program wants to be a championship level they are headed in a somewhat positive direction but still awaiting the center piece of it all.
Unfortunately, we aren’t playing against former ND teams. We are playing against the 7 to 9 teams who will end up with better classes than we have. All of which are also likely improving their talent more with transfers than we are.
So, I would argue we have no significantly improved our recruiting. Through absolutely no fault of Freeman’s.
Yea, taking into account transfers I’m not sure we are making up ground either.
Who did Oklahoma lose this afternoon? Their score dropped a bit.
And who else did Oregon pick up? They keep rising in the team rankings.
The big names for Oregon today:
Baylor commit Austin Novosad (0.9465) flipped to Oregon on Wednesday. The Ducks also got LSU commit and corner Daylen Austin (0.9495) to flip, as well. Defensive lineman Mateyo Uiagalelei (0.9851) signed with the Ducks.
I’m not sure about Oklahoma at the moment.
Ok it was Austin that I had not yet seen. They are on a roll and have to be among the biggest risers today.
Well, at least USC (and tOSU too lol) lost out on Uiagalelei the younger, so that’s something good to come out of the Phil Knight spending spree.
I think now Oregon lost Presley so they dropped just a bit.
Sooo, reported that Bowen hasn’t sent in his paperwork to Oregon yet.
lol, maybe Mom’s having a nice talk with him.
That’s what I said in our writers’ room lmao
You guys have a room ?
Probably easier than going into 18S HQ everyday. Commuting into Manhattan is draining.
It’s not at HQ ? What the hell is at HQ then ?
HQ pretty much just stores the Nespresso machine and all the 18SAD accessories.
Seems like a colossal waste of our 18S dues….not that I dare complain.
Folks, we moved HQ to Los Angeles.
How did that get through the committee?
It was quietly dropped amidst the infighting re: TFR
Well, maybe we dodged a bullet? Dramatics don’t usually translate to long successful ND careers.
Sounds like Bowen is still talking to all 3 staffs (as recently as last night) and still sending some conflicting signals.
At this point I doubt he ends up at Notre Dame, almost just wish the train wreck would be over so the staff can close the book and stop having to chase/work for this one.
Definitely drama, but kinda feel bad for the kid getting pulled in different directions with people in his life wanting opposite things for him. Watch Oklahoma end up being the compromise and he ends up there
I’d put my money on Oklahoma. If not the team who gets his LOI, at least as the team where he plays most of his college ball.
DaVonte Neal
I was searching the internet yesterday to see if he had signed because it kept being reported that he “committed,” which seemed odd.
12-22 10:40 AM….247 still has him as a commit not signed.
End may be nigh, though.
If the crystal balls are saying Oklahoma then it’s probably back to ND, lol.
I just mean that several national experts but in predictions for Oklahoma in the last week or so, but none did so for Oregon (at least none that I’m aware of) and then he choose Oregon. So, now Oklahoma is being predicted so of course Bowen will throw the curve ball and end of signing with ND.
On3 had a pretty good article about Travis Hunter and Coach Prime regarding NIL. Hunter said he wouldn’t announce his transfer decision until he got 100k youtube followers. Turns out youtube is one of the most profitable social media apps (which is probably only a surprise to me) and they say about it: “you get paid while you sleep.”
Coach Prime is possibly the single greatest personal brand manager in the history of the planet and does a lot of work with his players on this stuff. This is incredibly smart for the players, as it’s a much more sustainable revenue stream than a bag dropped at the back door in the middle of the night (or at this point handed to you in directly in front of Mark Emmert).
I’m sure CU isn’t ponying up the same up front NIL $ as other schools (since they admitted they can’t even pay their coach’s salary yet), but it makes sense that Coach Prime could fill in the gaps with these skills that he is truly elite in, especially compared to other coaches.
This is what ND should be doing, irregahdless of any other NIL decisions. ND needs to hire an entire team dedicated to student athlete brand management. We have such a strong national brand this could be incredibly profitable for kids.
They could also create internships or tie-ins with certain majors, similar to the AIM investment class ND offers. I would think that would also be a draw for students to work with ND marketing and brand management.
Basically ND needs to truly embrace the fact that students making money on their own name, image, and likeness is a good thing. These kids work their butts off, and in some cases help generate millions for the school, they should be getting paid.
This does seem to be what BQ and FUND is doing, but I think the school needs to get actively involved in passive income streams. That is somewhere they really could become a leader and do it in a sustainable, forthright, and morally superior way (since ND does nothing that isn’t morally superior).
FUND is more of an identical guaranteed income for all scholarship players. That’s nice as a baseline/floor for everyone, but ND needs to realize that some players (and recruits) are more equal than others and deserve to get paid more, including by folks affiliated with the university. Obviously, brand management will take care of that to some degree, but that’s after you’ve shown up on campus. ND needs to realize and act on the reality that just getting certain people – not everybody, but top-tier recruits – to show up is inherently valuable and should be compensated as such.
I have a friend (well former friend as you will see why once I finish this sentence) who works for an SEC collective. They do the guaranteed income for all athletes, but they obviously realize that a QB is worth more than a shot putter. Even then, they were not particularly successful this round. Some investments have a much lower ROI.
The brand management stuff is more that Prime is clearly using that as a huuuuge draw and to make up for other shortcomings. No school will ever match his personal skills in that area, but ND could seriously invest in that to make them stand out relative to others. I mean, we won’t, but we could and it could be a win-win.
You are completely right, it is insane how badly ND is failing here. I absolutely do NOT want ND taking kids who can’t actually get an ND education. I absolutely do NOT want ND taking kids who are terrible human beings. I absolutely do NOT want ND breaking rules to bring in recruits (even if many other schools are doing so).
But what the hell is the point of having your own TV network broadcasting your games if you aren’t going to milk the hell out of it for your athletes? I see Joe Montana 10 times per game telling me how good Guinness is. Why am I not seeing Tyler Buchner asking me to buy a Kia? Why am I not seeing the offensive line telling me about Norton’s new malware-blocking software? Why am I not allowed to buy a Pay Per View boxing match between any ND LB and Jason Garrett?
The NBC TV deal is objectively paying the school less than they could get if they went elsewhere. Use that leverage to get NBC to work with your players to get ad time ASAP. This is the lowest hanging possible fruit, and ND hasn’t yet taken advantage of it.
Good points, I like where that kind of thinking could lead.
I was struck that even Lincoln Riley admitted that he lost players to NIL decisions yesterday, by that without saying the name I assume he meant Mateyo Uiagalelei choosing Oregon over USC. (Which of course is rich since using NIL was how Riley poached the reigning Biletnikoff winner from last year).
Point being, everyone is going to feel like an NIL victim at some point, you’re not going to pass the collection plate around a third time during Mass to build up Notre Dame’s war chest to the point where they will win every $ battle. Even Oregon had to settle for a lesser QB than they hoped.
Creating a full strategy is smart. Freeman said, and it sounds very credible, that elite players can make a ton of money at ND through NIL. I don’t how how you communicate or guarantee that to a HS recruit, probably some work to be done, but I do think establishing or figuring out better revenue streams is the way. The marketing stuff like YouTube is genius.
In the example of YouTube, man that’s even more work!
Hunter could make some decent money building that page but doing so takes a lot of effort and charisma that 99.9% of college football players won’t have.
I think it’s a better idea for Tiny Mic Nation type content from lesser ND players, though.
Yeah, I don’t know anything about YouTube or any social media. I am sure it is wayyyy more complicated and not as easy as it sounds.
It’s more just the general idea being that these schools have huge platforms that can pretty naturally draw a large crowd that can create a long lasting income stream, with no cost to the school or possible rule infraction. And you could even turn that into a positive for the school as well.
And with that the WoPu Nation Media Network rises into America’s new leader in modern day sports coverage.
Hehe, true!
What is tiny mic nation?
The silly/fun interviews Litchfield Ajavon did on the ND official social media pages.
Ah, gotcha.
Realize that ND was among the first to get behind the idea that athletes should get an income stream from their NIL. The ranking system of high school athletes is done by third parties with the implication for recruitnicks unaffiliated with the University that the more higher star players that sign with you, the better your team will be.
Notre Dame’s draw is its independence and its potential for its student-athletes to succeed in life. Perhaps that’s an outdated category for those chasing a dream that satisfies the need for an immediate gratification. Or for high schoolers or players utilizing the Portal to maximize their financial rewards for success in college. Just call them professionals who may not have any interest in getting a degree.
Already Notre Dame does provide what no other university does for its football players, which is televised games – all home games and away games available through streaming services. That’s invaluable in access to higher draft picks and opportunities to be drafted into the NFL for those hoping to be in the 1.6% of college players drafted. If ND did not have so many televised games, would our talented players get that exposure and worth a higher draft pick? NFL Practice Squad players get salaries of about $100k. Fourth to seventh rounders get slightly decreasing amounts from $3 million.
Notre Dame has and never will have any interest in high schoolers demanding high salaries to come to a university or will play one against another before signing or transferring. They will remain independent, sign a lucrative, long-term media contract, offer the opportunity of success in life and ignore high schoolers wishing to be professionals in college. Twenty-four talented recruits just signed on to that.
Just to add…pay for play or signing $$ is different than NIL.
The distinction is getting blurry but I understand your point.
Here’s current pay for play for ND athletes in the NFL.
NFL College Tracker – Notre Dame
Hunter signed after reaching 100k subscribers on FB. His NIL value is $678,000. Shadeur Sanders and Tyler Brown, IOL from Jax St announced their transfer to Boulder as well as Western Michigan’s Marshawn Kneeland, DL. Six scholarships remain to give out before reaching 85, barring further transfers.
Some positive notes from recruiting when looking at the past 2 classes.
We are 4th in BCR and in total number of BCs over 22-23.
We are actually ahead of UGA in ratio despite them signing many more 4/5 stars, but that balances with aTm who is ahead of us, but in the middle of an implosion. Otherwise you get the usual suspects of tOSU and Bama.
Fun note on that insane aTm class last year. It had 30 BCs, more than Oregon has signed over 2 years.
Here are the raw numbers, with anyone currently uncommitted excluded.
Team – Total 4/5* – BC% – Avg Class Score
Bama – 50 – 96% – 326.60
UGA – 45 – 80% – 313.86
aTm – 40 – 83% – 300.01
tOSU – 39 – 95% – 296.0
ND – 38 – 83% – 279.64
Texas – 36 – 72% – 299.46
OU – 33 – 72% – 280.02
PSU – 32 – 67% – 274.23
Oregon – 29 – 64% – 271.38
Clemson – 29 – 62% – 268.60
Bad news, is that we have the 10th highest average rating over those 2 years (although 7-10 are barely distinguishable).
Clemson is lucky to be in the ACC.
Bowen signed with the Sooners.
https://twitter.com/PeytonBowen10/status/1606027431936110592
Peyton has flipped (again) to Oklahoma.
Please respect his decision he said. But he didn’t say which one
Desmond Ricks picks Alabama over LSU.
Bama now with the 2nd best composite score since 2000.
lol, Saban extra motivated after not making the playoffs for once?
Will he just effing retire already.