ND class falls to 8th after Bowen spurn (edit/update: '23 class finishes #12)
- Thread starter chaseball
- Start date
Going to be a tough market for a couple years projecting the worth of a HS player that hasn’t earned one thing on the college level. Right now it’s the Wild West. When settles down the rich will get richer
In every sport without a mandatory college stint, organizations that make way less money than ND, pay millions in guaranteed cash for talent that never played a rep/snap/taken a pitch/etc.
Baseball hands out millions in signing bonuses to 17 year old HS players every year in their draft.
The NBA pays their future stars millions right out of HS before they required a mandatory year in college. Soccer organizations pay millions for teenagers right out of HS too.
This is typical risk/operation cost/investment of any business.
I'm so disappointed in ND today, that If I could, I would, and my pick would probably be Oregon since they are the local team.
But you can't choose your favorite team anymore than you can choose your favorite color. I'm stuck with ND for better or worse.
Oh god please, jump ship so we don’t have to read the rinse and repeat posts that have been haunting this board for 15 years.
"I think Brian Kelly saw the writing on the wall and was tired of bashing his head in dealing with the ND admins who wouldn't budge and are being left behind by modern college football."
Kelly has never said this DIRECTLY, but in a number of his comments, he's certainly IMPLIED IT.
Here might be the BEST CASE SCENARIO as respects Freeman as an "ADDITIVE" to UPGRADING ND ROSTERS: Freeman's recruiting vs. other teams' use of NIL/PORTAL = NO CHANGE IN THE QUALITY OF ND'S PERSONNEL vs. that of other teams.
And by not playing the NIL/PORTAL game as aggressively as other schools (and, seriously, how can it?) ND's ability to attract difference making recruits could take a serious hit as well.
Good players attract other good players and if ND doesn't maintain A CRITICAL MASS of them, they will NOT be competitive at the level they seek to compete at.
Portal rankings will now exist along side of recruiting rankings. And that's a FACT, not a prediction.
ND will adjust and it will get better. I'm mostly frustrated that we have to wait around however many years for that to slowly happen instead of being one of those institutions out in the forefront making moves.
This is the reason ND has been behind the tier 1 for the last several decades now. They simply can't get out of their own way. And they are just waaaay tooooo slooooooow to adjust.
How long did it take for us to say the word "redshirt" ?
How long did it take for us to get a training table?
How long did it take for us to allow early enrollees?
How long did it take for us to take in transfers?
We're barely coming around to the "new" policies of the 00s and we are in the year 2022.
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In the Holtz era, critical players WERE NOT LOST, and contributed in major ways to one NC that could have been three.
The four and five stars who decommitted from this year's pool may well have been the difference between a playoff slot or not.
Again, Holtz didn't lose players like that. Instead, he flipped them to ND: Tony and Reggie Brooks from OU; Ricky Watters and Rocket from PSU: Mirer and Bettis from UM.
But the river flowed in ND's direction in those days. It has since REVERSED COURSE.
I'm not sure ND will adjust. It's been a BARE MINIMUM ADJUSTMENT REGIME for a long time.
I just don't see HOW IT CAN ADJUST without BREAKING FAITH with ITSELF.
ND lets pro abortion (even at 40 weeks) people speak at the university and forces kids to get vaxed with a shot they don’t need. They broke their faith in themselves a long time ago. Paying kids they make money off of doesn’t sound like the worst thing they have done to me.
There's too much money to be made not to. Which is why ND always comes around, they are just way too slow and way too risk averse and don't have the competence to be out in front on anything. And their huge network of fans -- that they earned, based on accomplishments from half-a-century-ago -- is always there to bail them out.
ND is the new chicago cubs. It won't be long before fans are talking about that national title they won 80+ years ago but they will still fill up the seats and support the mediocrity in perpetuity with ever-rising prices to boot.
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I once saw a Kelly interview where he stated IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that top 5 classes at ND were not out of just HIS REACH but ANYONE'S.
He basically said that for STRUCTURAL REASONS -- ND being ND -- it's JUST NOT A THING. As for doing it consistently? Pure pipe dream.
You are spreading a reckless and inaccurate narrative, as usual.
Those minor leagues don’t offer scholarships under the proviso of the NCAA. Those minor leagues and businesses have detailed procedures and requirements that eliminate some liberties of those players. Show the board where the NIL movement was incorporated and regulated for the 2023 recruiting year. Etc etc
As I said before, you lack integrity and substance
True, but I would argue that the REPUTATIONAL/PR RISK of disavowing the whole STUDENT-ATHLETE MYSTIQUE would leave a lot more EGG ON ND's FACE.
After all, how much does ND like showing that it's A SMARTER OUTFIT and then going in and beating a bunch of supposedly dumb, but ATHLETCIALLY GENIUS-LEVEL JOCKS at their own game.
I'd say, A LOT.
There's a lot of HUBRIS in this.
Agree. Maybe, maybe, Urban Meyer could do it if Freeman was his DC. Maybe.
But how EXACTLY does ND come around? Start admitting transfers at a higher rate? Which would then undermine the whole admissions selectivity ethic, right? Push the throwing around of more NIL money which, technically, it's not even allowed to do?
I just don't see it. Not THIS time. ND has never been in this tight a corner.
As for ND being the new Cubs, it may WIND UP that way or WORSE, but right now, I'd compare ND more to the Yankees who in their current BRAND MAINTENANCE PHASE, are built every year to win at least 95 games and make the playoffs -- and not to win a WS which was always old man Steinbrenner's goal UNTO OBSESSION.
ND is simply not going ALL OUT, the claim being that if it ever does, IT WON'T BE ND. And that's exactly what BRAND MAINTENANCE IS -- IDENTITY OVER DOMINANCE. Plus, it works JUST AS WELL keeping fannies in seats as WHO KNOWS? -- maybe NEXT YEAR will finally be THE YEAR. Keeps that HUNGER BUILDING.
KA-CHING!
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The gap is not closing unless you’re the type to measure your property line by a few blades of grass
Gee Irish Beer, are you telling us Notre Dame does not recruit as well as Alabama.
Gee. Thanks.
Some here spent the last year telling us we’d have a top 3 class bc freeman is black Jesus. Wondering where they are now
But we were number 1…. We crashed … to go from one to most likely outside top 10 is not good
Winning with 270 - 280 classes vs. 300 classes is uphill - especially when you take a green HC. Jack thought Freeman could win a natty simply by landing a handful more 4 stars. Ok.
Freeman has been over-hyped since day 1. Many apparently NEEDED to think he would be TRANSFORMATIVE by dint of his SHEER BEING.
Nothing short of the MASTER RECRUITER, barring none. Which of his PROMOTERS would have predicted 7 key preliminary commits DECOMMITING -- and the most since 2010? Not to mention two 5-stars and five 4-stars.
But then, he's ONLY MORTAL.
Many continue to underestimate the ROLE OF ND in many of these better players not coming. They're just not buying what ND is selling. Plain and simple. Even if Marcus Freeman is SELLING IT.
It's still a very good class but not the amazing QUANTUM LEAP beyond what Kelly routinely accomplished. And since recruiting is apparently THE BEST THING FREEMAN DOES, it certainly brings expectations down to earth.
I think Freeman will be doing well if he can merely HOLD SERVE. His challenges are just BEGINNING.
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NDs class in 2023 is what you would expect from an ND class the last 10-15 years or so (at the higher range). The problem with that is, is that ND hasn't won anything of note with this level of class over the last 10-15 years.
It's basically status quo/more of the same and the rest of college football is passing ND by as we get deeper into NIL and transfer portal going forward.
