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Notre Dame Football

Brian Kelly, Notre Dame Wait For Clarity On Roster Management Ruling

September 1, 2020
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When the NCAA ruled last month that the 2020 season wouldn’t count against any fall athlete’s total years of eligibility, it solved one problem, but it created another, perhaps years’ worth of others actually.

It immediately gave clarity to players who have decided or may decide to opt out while also making it the same across the board for teams whether they play full seasons, partial seasons or none at all this fall.

The ruling doesn’t mean schools are responsible for bringing back a senior who may have been set to exhaust his eligibility this season, but it does give that player an additional year to play somewhere. The NCAA ruling also stated that any current seniors who do decide to return will not count against that school’s annual 85-scholarship limit.

That’s about where the clarity stops.

“Once the institution decides whether they’re honored, how are you going to pare back?” Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly asked during a Zoom call with the media on Tuesday afternoon.

“Let’s say for the sake of the argument that five seniors come back and we’re at 90 scholarships. How do you work back from your 90 the next year? That will determine how you recruit moving forward because now you have two freshman classes.”

Indeed, with nobody losing a year of eligibility in 2020, Notre Dame’s current crop of freshmen will essentially be freshmen again next season along with whatever recruits the Irish sign during the current 2021 recruiting cycle.

“The real trick to this is the next recruiting class and how the NCAA is going to allow you to manage your roster,” Kelly continued. “Are they going to force you to go back to 85?

“Or will they allow you to pare back from whatever that overage number is?”

With an additional class within the program for the next few years, Notre Dame and other schools could be left trying to juggle numbers for years to come.

“It’ll be interesting to see. We’re looking at all of the options and finding out where we may have to pare back and where we have to be careful looking at 21s to 22s.”

 
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