Have any of you pulled up the portal page on 247? Holy hell some teams have added 15 players already.
Surely ND can get a couple to sign? Freeman has been so on point that I'm kind of stunned at how much movement has occurred in the first 4 days. Wild west out here, hope we draw our guns.
Some teams HAVE to sign 15 players because they're losing huge numbers of starters to graduation and have no depth because they don't recruit well out of high school for one reason or another. As a result, almost the entirety of their talent is a acquired via the Portal and they have copious funds to spend because their Rev Share + NIL funds are being freed up because of starters players graduating / exhausting eligibility and moving on.
Indiana is losing 16 starters because they've exhausted eligibility or they're leaving for the NFL. Meanwhile, they brought in the composite #34 ranked recruiting class during the high school signing period. That means they spent very little of their Rev Share + NIL on high school players and have ton of cash being freed up because people are leaving. It makes complete sense that their replenishment efforts are going to come via the Transfer Portal window.
Comparatively, Notre Dame has 15 starters returning and only 7 graduating / exhausting eligibility. They also signed a consensus top 4 recruiting class out of high school. That means the overwhelming majority of their Rev Share + NIL money is being used to retain the key pieces that they have and to bring in future impact players out of high school ranks. It does make sense for ND to sign 15+ players out of the portal. They don't have the roster space, nor are they attempting to bury good players on the roster.
Look at it this way. Are you seriously trying (or even likely) to upgrade or heavily support any of the following players via the Transfer Portal...
QB: CJ Carr... No
RB: Aneyas Williams... Unlikely
WR: Jordan Faison... No
WR: Micah Gilbert... Yes
Slot: Jaden Greathouse... No
TE: Cooper Flanagan... Unlikely
LT: Anthonie Knapp... No
LG: Charles Jagusah... No
C: Ashton Craig... No
RG: Guerby Lambert... No
RT: Will Black... No
DE: Boubacar Traore... No
DE: Bryce Young... No
DT: Elijah Hughes... Yes
NG: Davion Dixon... Yes
Mike: Drayk Bowen... No
Will: KVA... No
CB: Leonard Moore... No
CB: Christian Gray... Unlikely
NB: Dallas Golden... Yes
S: Tae Johnson... No
S: Adon Shuler... No
Kicker: Erik Schmidt... Yes
Punter Bo Scaife... No
So you're really looking for 2 DT upgrades, 1 BWR upgrade, 1 NB upgrade / support player, 1 kicker upgrade, 1 rotational DE upgrade to replace Burnham, 1 backup QB to replace Minchey. That's a total of 7 players. You might go as high as 9-10 players if guys that are too good to pass up and simultaneously affordable are available.
Now look at the recruiting class. Do you want to give up potentially 3-4 years of any of the following, so that their money can be spent on rental players in the Portal?
QB: Teddy Jarrard... No
RB: Javian Osborne... No
RB: Jonaz Walton... No
WR: Kaydon Finley... No
TE: Ian Premer... No
OT: Grayson Mckeogh... No
DT: Elijah Golden... No
DE: Rodney Dunham... No
DE: Ebenezer Ewetade... No
S: Joey O'Brien... No
S/CB: Ayden Pouncey... No
CB: Khary Adams... No
Those 12 players are arguably the core of ND's 2026 recruiting class and most of them will wind up being multi-year foundational pieces of ND's program. Here is the thing... None of them came cheap. ND had to spend significant money in signing bonuses to get those guys and has to put aside Rev Share + NIL money for 2026 and beyond to pay them and keep them at ND while they develop. A school like Indiana doesn't have 12 kids of that quality in their high school class to spend money on. They have MAYBE 4 or 5 that are overly valuable relative to the market.
Like it or not, ND has hitched it's hopes to the high school recruiting path, augmented by portal additions to fill inevitable holes as they arise on the roster. A school like Indiana has instead staked it's bet on the Transfer Portal, because they don't attract to high school talent, therefore, there funds are directed in that direction.
None of this means that ND doesn't have to land a few really key pieces in the Portal, but volume is not going to be what they look for. They don't want or need it. Their volume additions came via their 28 man 2026 recruiting class. All that matters is that when the Portal closes, they've met their few Portal needs, with tangible upgrades and ideally, significant impact players.
