2025-2026 ND Basketball Thread

Irish5Saint

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Exactly. I love that we are in a position where we are in such a good place with the football program that we are criticizing how to spend other people's money in other programs lol. I love NDMBB. Those Brey years a decade ago were electric. However...

I wouldn't trade anything for where the football team is now, though. All in for football > spreading the wealth in MBB and elsewhere.

People who (probably) don't donate asking the questions "WhY cAnT wE hAvE bOtH?!" Idk man but I don't work for Pete and I also know for damn sure that I'm not capable of donating enough to make a difference, either. But I'm damn happy with how things are going with ND Football. That's most important.

I'm a firm believe NDMBB will bounce back eventually. Maybe not until the next hire. But it is what it is at this point.
The whole point of football is to help fund these other sports. I give money to other sports, even though it doesn’t drastically affect the budget.

It’s possible to feel connected to Notre Dame in ways other than football.
 

JD Irish

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Exactly. I love that we are in a position where we are in such a good place with the football program that we are criticizing how to spend other people's money in other programs lol. I love NDMBB. Those Brey years a decade ago were electric. However...

I wouldn't trade anything for where the football team is now, though. All in for football > spreading the wealth in MBB and elsewhere.

People who (probably) don't donate asking the questions "WhY cAnT wE hAvE bOtH?!" Idk man but I don't work for Pete and I also know for damn sure that I'm not capable of donating enough to make a difference, either. But I'm damn happy with how things are going with ND Football. That's most important.

I'm a firm believe NDMBB will bounce back eventually. Maybe not until the next hire. But it is what it is at this point.
Except the answer is both. There is no reason football, men's basketball, baseball, and hockey can't all be successful. There is no causation between the success of one and the failure of another, except the contrived and artificial excuse that football uses more money that could be used on the other programs. No - just spend more money.
 

Dale

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I have to think ND has enough money to get the BB team fixed without impacting FB.

Probably NIL, rev share no, no they don’t. Every dollar impacts football or a sport better than MBB if you take out from rev share.
 

Dale

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Except the answer is both. There is no reason football, men's basketball, baseball, and hockey can't all be successful. There is no causation between the success of one and the failure of another, except the contrived and artificial excuse that football uses more money that could be used on the other programs. No - just spend more money.

Easy when it’s not your money brother lol
 

Irish5Saint

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Except the answer is both. There is no reason football, men's basketball, baseball, and hockey can't all be successful. There is no causation between the success of one and the failure of another, except the contrived and artificial excuse that football uses more money that could be used on the other programs. No - just spend more money.
Vanderbilt is a baseball school and spends like one. They also recently started spending on football and hoops. Guess which one is the worst program this year?
 

Some Irish Bloke

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Except the answer is both. There is no reason football, men's basketball, baseball, and hockey can't all be successful. There is no causation between the success of one and the failure of another, except the contrived and artificial excuse that football uses more money that could be used on the other programs. No - just spend more money.
If you were a donor, are you going to give them $50M to spread everywhere? A blank check to Pete - have at it however you best see fit?

Or are you writing a check for $50M saying "we are close, bring home a natty in Football?"

I'm not 100% sure what the answer is but I'm pretty damn positive. You can ask for more money for MBB but you can't force anyone to cut those checks rn given the state of the program.
 

ab2cmiller

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If you were a donor, are you going to give them $50M to spread everywhere? A blank check to Pete - have at it however you best see fit?

Or are you writing a check for $50M saying "we are close, bring home a natty in Football?"

I'm not 100% sure what the answer is but I'm pretty damn positive. You can ask for more money for MBB but you can't force anyone to cut those checks rn given the state of the program.
Someone might be willing to give the money if they were convinced that money is the only thing holding back the program. Seems like a hard sell right now.
 

Some Irish Bloke

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The whole point of football is to help fund these other sports. I give money to other sports, even though it doesn’t drastically affect the budget.

It’s possible to feel connected to Notre Dame in ways other than football.
Completely agree. Especially as a Catholic.

I've been to bball games, hockey games, baseball games, lacrosse games. Love everything Irish. NIL is the king of MBB and Football, especially. Revenue sharing alone is NOT going to make MBB competitive in the NIL space against the basketball factories. It would take a concerted donor effort for an NIL fund just like the football program received.

Edited: If you honestly think just "doesn't care" about MBB and any other sport I think that's completely ignorant. But what can he do with the dumpster fire he inherited? He can make those calls, he can knock on doors, but he can't force open the checkbooks.

Most of us were happy with the Shrews hire at the time coming off of a nice run at PSU. We were all willing to give him a couple of years given the state of the program he inherited. three full years later, and after nailing a top 5 recruiting class and having yet another season fall apart because one player falls?

It sucks where the program is, it really does. I look forward to it every November with renewed hope "maybe they get back to the dance this year!" But I can't say I blame those with the resources to help for not ponying up just yet.
 
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IrishLax

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Easy when it’s not your money brother lol
For real, there is finite funding not infinite funding. ND donors are primarily passionate about football AND are enthusiastic to donate because they believe in the product. It's emotional ROI ... giving money to a program run by Freeman that has back-to-back top 10 seasons is not a hard sell. They see the impact of their funding.

Basketball... don't really check any of those boxes right now. Even women's basketball doesn't really have the donor base you would expect given the historic success of the team.

The niche sports are comparatively doing pretty well but no one is going to confuse ND hockey for Minnesota hockey.
 

The Backer

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You also have to keep in mind that there's a lot of guys from ND who made a lot of good money in the NFL. They're interested in giving some money back to the football program as a result. There aren't very many ND guys who made a lot of money in the NBA.

For example, Harrison Smith has earned over $100m in his career. I haven't tabulated the numbers, but I bet Kelly era players alone are around the $1B mark.
 

irishrb

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For real, there is finite funding not infinite funding. ND donors are primarily passionate about football AND are enthusiastic to donate because they believe in the product. It's emotional ROI ... giving money to a program run by Freeman that has back-to-back top 10 seasons is not a hard sell. They see the impact of their funding.

Basketball... don't really check any of those boxes right now. Even women's basketball doesn't really have the donor base you would expect given the historic success of the team.

The niche sports are comparatively doing pretty well but no one is going to confuse ND hockey for Minnesota hockey.
What's the NIL look like for lax? Obviously it's not going to take as much, but they have been recruiting well.
 

Irish5Saint

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For real, there is finite funding not infinite funding. ND donors are primarily passionate about football AND are enthusiastic to donate because they believe in the product. It's emotional ROI ... giving money to a program run by Freeman that has back-to-back top 10 seasons is not a hard sell. They see the impact of their funding.

Basketball... don't really check any of those boxes right now. Even women's basketball doesn't really have the donor base you would expect given the historic success of the team.

The niche sports are comparatively doing pretty well but no one is going to confuse ND hockey for Minnesota hockey.
Notre Dame is going to be cutting scholarships for Olympic sports in future years. I heard baseball was going from 11.7 to 10.5. Hockey will lose 2 scholarships as well.

Pete can’t get donors to care about that? Because he never takes them to basketball or hockey games to woo them?
 

Dale

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Vanderbilt is a baseball school and spends like one. They also recently started spending on football and hoops. Guess which one is the worst program this year?

Vanderbilt hasn’t been to a College World Series since 2021, best finish in basketball is a Round of 32 and best finish in football is a Reliquest Bowl loss.

ND went to the National Championship in 2025, won a National Championship in Lacrosse in 2024, Men’s Soccer went to the National Championship in 2023, and WBB have made 5 straight WBB Sweet 16s.

Tell me more about the envious Vanderbilt athletic department. Bynington was a good hire for them and their hometown kid Tanner is a stud. But let’s relax on them being the envy of NIL spending.
 

arrowryan

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For real, there is finite funding not infinite funding. ND donors are primarily passionate about football AND are enthusiastic to donate because they believe in the product. It's emotional ROI ... giving money to a program run by Freeman that has back-to-back top 10 seasons is not a hard sell. They see the impact of their funding.

Basketball... don't really check any of those boxes right now. Even women's basketball doesn't really have the donor base you would expect given the historic success of the team.

The niche sports are comparatively doing pretty well but no one is going to confuse ND hockey for Minnesota hockey.

I have it on good authority that fundraising NIL money and asking for donations isn’t the easiest thing in the world. It’s quite stressful actually.

Until other teams show a sign of life on campus, there’s no reason for donors to waste their money on the men’s basketball team.
 

IrishLax

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What's the NIL look like for lax? Obviously it's not going to take as much, but they have been recruiting well.
Syracuse does the most NIL for lax and it isn't close. Hopkins also does a good amount.

Lacrosse gets very little rev share but does get good support from alums. How I would phrase it is that under old rules many years ago guys were still having to pay nearly full freight because of the way rules were for partial scholarships. Now, never been a better time to get your school paid for and there's a little bit on top where it makes sense but it's nothing like the revenue sports and it doesn't need to be.

Unrelated but what is *crazy* to me is softball NIL at some southern schools like it blows my mind the kind of money that is getting offered to some of these women and good for them. I literally think there are some softball players that make more than some NDMBB players.
 

IrishLax

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I have it on good authority that fundraising NIL money and asking for donations isn’t the easiest thing in the world. It’s quite stressful actually.

Until other teams show a sign of life on campus, there’s no reason for donors to waste their money on the men’s basketball team.
Concur. There is a very small group of people who enthusiastically want to donate money to football and are emotionally invested in winning. And then everyone else it's arguably much more awkward fundraising than historical athletic or academic fundraising.

Why tf would someone donate money to a basketball team that isn't remotely competitive unless you *love* ND basketball for some reason? Very small ven diagram of ultra wealthy people who also happen to be super passionate about ND hoops lol
 

IrishLax

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Notre Dame is going to be cutting scholarships for Olympic sports in future years. I heard baseball was going from 11.7 to 10.5. Hockey will lose 2 scholarships as well.

Pete can’t get donors to care about that? Because he never takes them to basketball or hockey games to woo them?
I don't keep up on a lot of that stuff, that's good info I didn't know about Olympic sports. I do know they made some public comments about having to tighten the belt on sports that are in the red + don't have donor support but I'm surprised hockey is in that category considering the funds they raised for Compton.
 

notredomer23

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You also have to keep in mind that there's a lot of guys from ND who made a lot of good money in the NFL. They're interested in giving some money back to the football program as a result. There aren't very many ND guys who made a lot of money in the NBA.

For example, Harrison Smith has earned over $100m in his career. I haven't tabulated the numbers, but I bet Kelly era players alone are around the $1B mark.

It's just one guy, but ND basketball desperately needs to get Pat Connaughton invested in the program. His real estate portfolio is IMPRESSIVE: Our Projects - Three Leaf Partners
 

RDU Irish

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I would love to know what kind of NIL budgets are out there for basketball teams. I don't buy that ND doesn't have enough $$ committed to compete.

Don't forget, Marquette/Gonzaga type schools - this is their crown jewel sport. They aren't playing second fiddle to a football team. There are 350 D1 basketball schools with 1750 starting spots and maybe double that meaningful roster spots versus 130 football schools with 2860 starters and 11,000 roster spots. A lot fewer mouths to feed where one or two sugar daddies can make a difference and one or two super stars can change the program overnight.

Answer for NIL has to include multi year contracts. Free agent every year is terrible for everyone involved IMO.
 

sfk324

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Probably NIL, rev share no, no they don’t. Every dollar impacts football or a sport better than MBB if you take out from rev share.
This part. Bevacqua has indicated they are playing within the bounds of the $20M cap for direct pay. As for NIL, sure, there is money out there for NIL, but what exactly is the pitch to boosters to spend it on MBB in its current state?
 

sfk324

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It's just one guy, but ND basketball desperately needs to get Pat Connaughton invested in the program. His real estate portfolio is IMPRESSIVE: Our Projects - Three Leaf Partners
I'm not sure Pat has been back for basketball at all. I realize he's been in the NBA, but he used to go back during the summer when Brey was there. He's a Brey guy through and through, and I'm not sure he's that happy with how he was treated the last few years. Beyond that, he seems to put his money towards his charity, which is frankly a better use of it.
 

stpeteirish

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This part. Bevacqua has indicated they are playing within the bounds of the $20M cap for direct pay. As for NIL, sure, there is money out there for NIL, but what exactly is the pitch to boosters to spend it on MBB in its current state?
If we can't raise NIL $ for MBB we could allocate more of the 20M direct money to MBB and raise more NIL for FB since that's where the market seems to be.
 

Ndaccountant

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I have it on good authority that fundraising NIL money and asking for donations isn’t the easiest thing in the world. It’s quite stressful actually.

Until other teams show a sign of life on campus, there’s no reason for donors to waste their money on the men’s basketball team.
I anticipated that NIL funding was going go through three phases.....1) rapid increase as people that couldn't directly fund before now could 2) Step 1 would peak and there would be a plateau and even slight decline as people grew tired of the ask for moar! and or realized the by product of their investment was not something they wanted to continue to finance 3) After step 2, reach a stable saturated state.

I think we are firmly getting to step 2 across the landscape for all schools. Sure, they are pockets of excitement for some programs, but by and large, funding all sports is becoming problematic. The players expect more given the environment and the willingness to fund more is drying up. Recipe for disaster where schools will need to resource allocate where it makes sense.
 

irishjim

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ND football is over $40 million this year between all sources. Money is finite. We can all probably agree that the past 3 years have been a legitimate opportunity to win a Natty. Last year's screw job only reinforced the need to pile in on football and try to accomplish that goal. The Freeman to NFL rumors has fueled that as well.
Maybe if we win this year, the pressure is off and some money goes towards other sports.
 

Dale

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If we can't raise NIL $ for MBB we could allocate more of the 20M direct money to MBB and raise more NIL for FB since that's where the market seems to be.

Thats not completely how it works. A lot of transfers or recruits want their deals to be rev share because then it doesn’t have to deal with the NILGo hassle. Unless you’re like Arch Manning, Love or even JOB where you can get very clear big time sponsorship deals courted for you, rev share is wanted by agents. It’s the difference between a nice promise and a slam dunk contract.

Imagine Mike Martin can’t close a deal instantly on a busy January day like we had and an agent wants to hassle over rev share vs NIL split because Joe Nothing on the basketball team got more.
 
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Irish5Saint

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ND football is over $40 million this year between all sources. Money is finite. We can all probably agree that the past 3 years have been a legitimate opportunity to win a Natty. Last year's screw job only reinforced the need to pile in on football and try to accomplish that goal. The Freeman to NFL rumors has fueled that as well.
Maybe if we win this year, the pressure is off and some money goes towards other sports.
That’s not what will happen. The message will be “we won a title, but now we need another title”. It won’t ever end; there will always be some excuse made for not giving to other sports.
 
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