SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame has the No. 1 scouting elegance for 2025, its training is set and expectations for this fall are already high. For a program that didn’t play a single game in January, Notre Dame’s year is off to a good start.
So what better time to look at Marcus Freeman’s future, Notre Dame’s calendar, and even a former Irish assistant?You have questions about all of this in this week’s post, and much more.
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Note: Submitted questions have been edited for clarity and length.
It is January 31, 2030. Rank the following in order of probability:
That’s a very special look into the future, Jimmy.
For the record, if I could bet on “None of the above” on a five-way bet, I’d put my money into it. But that’s why you asked the question, right? Then nothing happens, maximum maximum probably at least.
1. Marcus Freeman is the coach of Notre Dame.
A bird in your hand, right? Freeman would be completing his eighth season. He just turned 44 years old. Presumably, he would continue to maintain speed under the direction of athletic director Pete Bevacqua, who had just finished his sixth season as Notre Dame’s athletic director. Assuming Notre Dame makes the high school football playoffs this season and wins a game, Freeman will most likely have to get an extension that could even take him until that date, Jan. 30, 2030.
For the record, out of FBS’s 133 football programs, only 21 have coaches who have accumulated at least 8 seasons in their current job. And one of them is Jim Harbaugh. This organization includes Dabo Swinney, James Franklin, and Kirby Smart. Stability is a smart thing. Our Lady is grateful. And the concept of Freeman being a long-term head coach at Notre Dame turns out to fit. It only takes a few CFP seasons to get there.
2. Notre Dame joins (or will join) the Big Ten.
I’m not saying that Notre Dame will be at a convention until the end of this decade, but the idea that the Irish have come to an agreement to join the Big Ten is possible. The CEC is in a precarious situation with the state. of Florida. La SEC makes little cultural sense to Notre Dame on many levels. The Big Ten make geographic and economic sense, even if the culture of the convention doesn’t fit with that of the ACC.
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Whether Notre Dame joins a convention or remains independent is a financial matter and depends on NBC’s next contract. Multiple university resources insisted that Notre Dame’s recent expansion with NBC is a success for the school, meaning its independence remains viable through 2029. As long as Notre Dame can remain at NBC as the spouse of the committed media, as a member media outlet of the ACC. It’s the ideal result. Sorry, Big Ten.
3. Student-athletes are like employees.
Notre Dame doesn’t need that. Much of school football doesn’t. The federal government’s intervention, requested this week by new NCAA President Charlie Baker, remains riddled with errors and unintelligible speeches. The Justice Department needs fewer regulations for school athletes, building on hearings this week that questioned existing (and permissive) movement regulations. While recruiting school athletes could solve many current school sports systems, it would create a new group. But given the way the NCAA operates with the federal government, things may get even worse before they get better.
There’s this guy.
We’re out of the way.
– Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) January 18, 2024
4. Notre Dame wins its national championship.
Making the playoffs is about to get a lot less difficult for Freeman. Winning a national championship is about to get harder. But that’s true for everyone in those new playoffs, where Notre Dame will want to win 4 playoff games to earn a national name. . Gone is the imaginable clash with Kansas State for the 2012 BCS National Championship Game. TCU probably disappeared for a name last season. According to Stewart Mandel’s too-early Top 25, Notre Dame is ranked No. 9, but that translates to No. 11 due to automatic ranking. The Irish would open the playoffs at Ohio State and then face Clemson in the quarterfinals. He will then be the winner of Oregon against Texas/Ole Miss in the semifinals. Georgia (or Alabama) for the national championship.
Notre Dame hasn’t won an elementary school bowling game in 30 years. The Irish will now want to add 3 wins in a row, after winning this first circular match.
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5. Notre Dame wins its eighth Heisman Trophy.
Yes, the Notre Dame logo is still going strong. But as high school football becomes governed by the SEC (and ESPN) as well as the Big Ten (and Fox), that logo will be challenged through two mega meetings that will suck all the oxygen out of the sport. That award is the kind of statistically substantiated Honor that Notre Dame could not aspire to under Freeman. Then there’s the fact that 3 of the last five winners were college students, another hurdle for Notre Dame.
Earning a national name is hard. But Notre Dame has won four names in the past 60 years and has won only two Heisman trophies.
Do you think he would do the same if he knew he would have a year with Nick Saban?
Rees signed a three-year, $6 million contract with Alabama a year ago and was given a season with Saban, which may be more of a career price than any salary. Multiple industry resources indicated that Rees and Saban had reached out over the past year, and the idea of Saban seeking Rees to update him was being considered. There’s an explanation for why Rees intended to interview for the job the day after hiring Kalen DeBoer.
I don’t think Rees expected this season to be Saban’s last, but Saban didn’t either when he hired Rees. From all indications, Rees loved the singular year at Alabama, seeing how a different kind of college football program operated while working under the greatest head coach of all time. My hunch is he would regret not going to Alabama for one year, even if he knew in advance Saban would retire and he’d be looking for work.
As for what’s next, that’s hard to say. Rees can afford to be picky. He is connected with Nick Sirianni in Philadelphia. Ohio State felt like an option, but Bill O’Brien just filled that role. Rees is a big professional development coach, meaning he wants to work for a coach or organization that can make him better at his job. But after working for Saban, who’s that?
Will the departures (and returns) of Drew Pyne and Tyler Buchner be used through coaches to keep players here at Notre Dame?-Colin K.
This has happened before. You can put Logan Diggs on that list of players who enjoyed Notre Dame more after his departure than when they were still there.
That’s not to say that any of the 3 made a mistake when leaving, two for playing time issues and the other to be closer to home. But the three of them discovered just how unique Notre Dame is in school football, in terms of how football players are treated (and not treated), how the locker room culture works, and how bad short-lived play can be.
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Is all of this going to stop all of Rico Flores from ending up at UCLA?Of course not. But Buchner’s and Pyne’s reports are a difficult argument for recruitment. Notre Dame is already thinking about using it. We’re still looking.
Let’s say you have a blank agenda with maximum strength for programming in the country. What’s your list of 12 games? Consider engaging matchups, ability to pass the CFP, and laugh games/road trips to cover.
It would look a lot like last year’s calendar.
You want there to be an Ohio or Georgia state in each and every program, not just each and every one of the few years. Start with the biggest game and paint your way back, whether it’s Alabama, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State. , or Michigan. Offer enthusiasts a game they’ve been looking for six years in advance. The Alabama series will take place in 2029, but the gap between the elite warring parties is too long. Don’t be offended, Texas A
I’ll stick with the USC, Navy, and Stanford games. Two are historic. One is convenient as “rivalry” even though Stanford has fallen on hard times. It’s vital to be on the West Coast every year. The USC and Stanford series allow for this.
One “buy game” in the mold of Miami of Ohio, Vanderbilt, Troy, ideally someplace coached by a former Notre Dame assistant if possible.
That leaves seven spots.
For six of them, create an edition of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge for Notre Dame, where instead of five ACC games, it’s a combination of six split between the two conferences. This is in addition to the annual USC and Stanford games. How much better would a Notre Dame program be if Georgia Tech was replaced by Michigan State or Louisville replaced by Iowa?Notre Dame can still take on ACC teams, but they can also take on more historic Big Ten rivals.
Turn the latest game into a neutral and exclusive site. This may also simply be a way to introduce more SEC blood into the schedule (think Aflac’s opener in Atlanta) or a random game like Colorado or Utah in Denver or TCU/Oklahoma State in Dallas. These Shamrock Series games with Wisconsin fall into that. catepassry. Maybe that’s how Boston College works in Rome. Occasionally, this position would possibly go to the Army or Air Force.
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With the CFP about to dominate college football’s consciousness (even more), scheduling must put Notre Dame in a position to make the 12-team field. That means some difficult tests. Seven home games would be a must, plus four road games and one neutral site. There has to be a game that juices the home slate. The ACC/Big Ten rotation would create interesting trips for the fans. The California rotation remains. The flexibility to get SEC games as singular home-and-home is critical.
Here’s what I’ve got. There’s a manageable path to the CFP here, but it’s also a timeline that would appeal to enthusiasts in a way that the 2024 calendar doesn’t.
Week 1: Auburn (Aflac kicks off in Atlanta)
Week 2: Purdue
Week 3: Miami to Ohio
Week 4: Texas
Week 5: At Boston College
Week 6: Stanford
Week 7: In Iowa
Week 8: Virginia
Week 9: In EMS
Week 10: Pittsburgh
Week 11: Marina
Week 12: At USC
In fact, Notre Dame is still one or two steps away from a national championship, but do you think winning it all is more feasible than it was three years ago, after its last appearance in the CFP?Alabama is replacing their coach, Michigan probably will, too. Clemson and Ohio State have taken a step back and are now right in the “really good” category. -Tim C.
Yes and no. For much of the past decade, the sport has felt very closed off at the top: Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson. Now we’re recovering from a Michigan-Washington national title game, Saban just retired, Harbaugh appears ready to go, and Notre Dame has proved its proximity to Ohio State and Clemson.
Instead of four bullies, the sport just has one: Georgia.
The challenge is that Notre Dame still has to beat 3 other very smart groups before reaching the final boss. So while the game turns out to be more extensive than it was seven years ago, the number of historic victories to win the national championship trophy makes it harder.
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Do we still have an idea of how the inclusion of Stanford, Cal, and SMU in the ACC will affect the ACC’s annual rotation of games?Signed, an Irish fan who can’t wait to make that first vacation in Dallas. -J. M.
It’s my understanding the Stanford series won’t always count as an ACC game against Notre Dame’s five-game average. In years when Stanford naturally pops up in the ACC rotation, it’s an ACC game. If Notre Dame intends to play Stanford every year, that essentially will be a “nonconference” game those seasons. As for Cal and SMU, I believe they’ll be part of the regular ACC rotation for Notre Dame, although that hasn’t been announced. Notre Dame is already in Northern California with the Stanford series, but playing at SMU would be a welcome addition to Texas.
As a Notre Dame fan, I’m not used to that feeling of winning the January offseason cycle. What unforeseen news are we preparing for before spring education resumes?—Jared S.
Sir. Please send me your email address so readers can contact you directly whenever the inevitable “bad news” hits this spring.
(Photo via Marcus Freeman: David Madison/Getty Images)