I wrote a post on this very topic a few days ago (the talent disparity at ND):
https://notredame.forums.rivals.com...ay-for-nd-football.191758/page-3#post-3800919 (but wrote it without including the data because its been referenced so much in the past going back years -- its common knowledge)
All of this stuff im talking about is quantified for the most part. 247 has comprehensive data on prospect rankings, and team recruiting rankings going back decades.
The teams that are in the tier 1 in recruiting (the modern and historic powers in the sport) are monopolizing the high 4 star and 5 star talent at NDs expense. ND is lucky to get 1-2 players of this quality (or so it seems) while their peers are signing sometimes up to as much as half of their class of players of this quality (many of them of the highest quality in the top 100) and then ND fans are expecting ND to go out and win football games against these teams.
Ive been kicking around the idea of using some kind of pie chart charting just the 247 top 100 composite prospects and where they are committing just to show how small NDs sliver of this pie is over the last 15 years. One of these days i'll get around to it because it highlights a massive problem that *must* be fixed in order to realistically compete at the highest level of the sport.
Total team talent ranking (goes back to 2015):
https://247sports.com/Season/2023-Football/CollegeTeamTalentComposite/
247 composite recruiting class ranking (goes back decades):
https://247sports.com/season/2024-football/compositeteamrankings/
If you spend time clicking through 247 football recruiting databases there's all sorts of interesting information that allows you to size up the football program in relation to their peers.