Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.

3 News Stories

#1 After years of unsuccessful court cases, the NCAA finally turned the page to a new era. Late last Friday in a 76-page(!) opinion federal judge Claudia Wilkens approved the so-called “House settlement” which officially opens the door to revenue sharing in college sports, among other things. The highlights of the new deal:

  • $2.8 billion in backpay to athletes from 2016-24 for past NIL.
  • 10-year revenue sharing model set to begin July 1, 2025.
  • New enforcement agency, the College Sports Commission LLC, run by Deloitte, and led by MLB’s vice president of investigations Bryan Seeley.
  • The CSC via their “NIL Go” clearinghouse will evaluate all NIL deals.
  • Contracts signed and paid out prior to July 1st are not subject to the new clearinghouse or cap.
  • Year 1 (2025-26) cap for revenue sharing is projected to be $20.5 million.
  • Escalators for the revenue sharing cap to rise are built into the settlement as new media contracts are signed.
  • Violators, according to the contract language, will be subject to coaching suspensions, school fines, reductions in revenue sharing pool, and a reduction in allowed transfers.

How long will this system last? Certainly not nearly as long as the 10 year contract puts into action! The NCAA and power conferences working together on this continue to look to the United States government to make all of this as legal as possible but any intervention from the federal legislation side of things seems unlikely and/or many years away.

Athletes have already filed an appeal of the new rules, mostly on Title IX violations. The NCAA has already said the appeal won’t stop current payments to athletes but will temporarily pause backpay to former athletes.

#2 The ABC/ESPN/SEC family of networks released start times for games after week 3 this week. A caveat to that is that some SEC games will be on a flex schedule with kickoff possibly to be determined at a later date. The designated flex games will be either during the afternoon or night time kickoffs. With this news, we now know the Irish will face Arkansas on the road with a Noon eastern start.

In Fayetteville that’ll be an 11 AM kickoff, plan your tailgate’s accordingly. This Saturday, September 27th is looking like a big day for college football. Arkansas-Notre Dame will start things on ABC at Noon, LSU at Ole Miss is the flex game and very likely falls into the afternoon window, while a titanic matchup between Alabama visiting Georgia caps things off at night.

#3 Injury news out of Eugene as wide receiver Evan Stewart reportedly tore his patellar tendon and there’s concern he may miss the entirety of the 2025 season. The former Texas A&M wideout transferred to Oregon last year and was part of a successful rotation that led to the no. 1 seed in the College Football Playoffs. With the Ducks’ top 2 options moving on to the NFL, Stewart was moving up to the no. 1 receiver role within the program. Through 3 seasons in college football, he’s totaled 139 receptions for 1,776 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Recruiting

Notre Dame has offered several more recruits in recent days:

2027 TE Korz Loken (0.9455)
2027 DE Chaz Gray (0.8750)
2028 DE Darieon Prescott (N/A)
2028 DE Jackson Vaughn (N/A)
2028 DL Asher Ghioto (N/A)
2028 LB Allen Kennett (N/A)
2028 LB Tahj Gray (N/A)
2027 LB Mikahi Allen (0.9167)
2028 CB Phoenix Evans (N/A)
2027 ATH Matthew Gregory (0.9505)

Back on May 7th, the Irish offered Lone Star State receiver Kohen Brown (0.8865) and 2 days later he decommitted from USC’s class. He recently verbally committed to in-state Texas.

UCLA reached all the way over to Vero Beach to get a verbal from offensive lineman Micah Smith (0.9302).

Offensive tackle Sam Utu (0.9284) gave a verbal to Alabama.

Defensive lineman Corey Wells (0.9076) committed to Texas.

Wide receiver Mason James (0.9160) committed to Washington.

Edge rusher Khary Wilder (0.9141) is headed to Ohio State.

Michigan added edge rusher McHale Blade (0.9298) out of Chicago.

Uniform of the Week

I don’t think we’ve seen any new uniforms drop yet in college football for the 2025 season. Soon, though. However, with Rich Rodriguez coming back to West Virginia as a blast from the past, the program also unveiled some super sleek 1965 throwbacks. There’s nothing too fancy with the jersey and pants. The flatter gold and darker blue is a change from the modern WVU uniforms, though. These were worn during the Mountaineers’ undefeated 4-0 season in the Southern Conference, and as their official press release notes in the beginning, they defeated Pittsburgh 63-48 in what remains the highest scoring Backyard Brawl in history.

The helmet is really the place where the throwbacks shine. The blocky letters and baby blue state outline made this one of the cooler helmets from back in the day, and “technicolor” per the press release for folks back in the 1960’s. Interestingly, they discovered many of the old helmets had a baby blue helmet stripe on them but it wasn’t uniform for all players. It’s suspected the equipment manager at the time may have ran out of tape and/or decided to only give starters the stripe. In any case, the school decided to use a navy blue stripe for these modern throwbacks.

TV & Movies

Over the past year, then after our visit to Disney World this past spring break, my kids showed a greater interest in the Cars movies. Especially my little son, he loves cars and is very much a Hot Wheels kind of dude at his age. When they saw Cars stuff in Florida it was exciting. Also, WDW is currently beginning plans to renovate Magic Kingdom where a very large Cars ride will be built. I think Cars 4 is supposed to be coming out next year or maybe in 2027. But there’s a problem.

We’ve tried several times and none of the movies hold my kids’ attention. They watch for 5 to 10 minutes and then it’s over. What is about the Cars movies? Even I find them really bland. I want to like them, and there’s some really funny jokes sprinkled throughout, too. What are they missing? What am I missing? I’ve spent way too much time thinking about this and I can’t come up with anything.

Tunes

Funk rock pioneer Sly Stone passed away at the age of 83 this past Monday, leaving behind a massive legacy in the music world. I had to check and make sure Sly and the Family Stone group were in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame already. Rest easy, they were inducted all the way back in 1993. I have vivid memories of so many 1960’s and 1970’s bands and listening to them for the first time in car trips with my parents. We usually had a classic rock or oldies station on the dial. Sly and the Family Stone always stood out among the rest for their style and sound.

Reflecting back, it’s wild to me that “Dance to the Music” came out in 1968. The singing does sound of the 1960’s to me but the sound could’ve been born much later in the 1970’s. As someone naturally drawn to the drums I remember being a kid and getting excited when this song came on because the beat is the introduced first after the opening chorus. By the way, great arrangement opening with the joyful and chaotic chorus before slowing things down and introducing the drums, guitar, bass, etc. We will miss Sly Stone.

Another music section is needed this week as legendary Beach Boys front man Brian Wilson passed away on Wednesday at the age of 82. Another monumental loss for world music. I’ve always thought a fair assessment of the Beach Boys is that their work could sometimes be spotty and you don’t really need to dive into their catalog post-1968 or so. But, their greatest hits as they pumped out songs left and right for their first decade of existence is otherworldly. And if they had broken up after 1965 they still would’ve been regarded as a blazing comet of a group–even if they didn’t continue touring in various formations for a million years like they did.

The 1966 album Pet Sounds will always push them up another level in the music stratosphere. That’s largely due to Brian Wilson’s influence and songwriting which dominated the album from start to finish. Although Wilson was “troubled” by the release of Revolver by the Beatles later in 1966 it’s not fair to say Pet Sounds was overshadowed. This is a special, special album. An all-timer. The latest Rolling Stones top 500 albums countdown placed it at a mighty no. 2 overall. Maybe a touch high, but still deserving of all its praise.