Notre Dame Football Is Changing, Undergraduate Transfers Biggest Sign Yet

Notre Dame is evolving. 

The university didn’t step up to the plate in 2023 and lost key recruiting battles by failing to fully embrace the NIL era, including for new Notre Dame defensive end Keon Keeley.

In a few months, Notre Dame football will open Jack and Kathy Shields Family Hall, a facility nearly 50 percent larger than the Gug.

For the first time, Notre Dame will be able to show recruits their everyday locker room on visits, while also closing the gap in recovery resources and the facilities arms race.

Those upgrades were necessary to remain competitive in modern college football. But the most significant change has surfaced over the last two weeks: undergraduate transfers.

Notre Dame has never been a program built around the Transfer Portal. Marcus Freeman has consistently viewed it as a tool to fill specific voids or enhance the roster and not as a replacement for high school recruiting.

Historically, the university limited itself almost exclusively to graduate transfers, drastically shrinking the available pool. Amir Carlisle, Riley Leonard and Elijah Hughes are among the few non-graduate transfers in recent memory.

This month, Notre Dame signed eight players from the NCAA Transfer Portal, all listed as undergraduate transfers.

“I think we had strategic, intentional conversations with admissions of understanding the landscape of college football has changed, college athletics has changed and there's going to be some student athletes that we have to get admitted into Notre Dame that maybe haven't graduated,” stated Freeman. 

This shift doesn’t signal a free-for-all, nor does it mirror the approach taken by other programs. Notre Dame hosted several portal visitors who did not receive offers during the first wave of visits. Academics weren’t always the limiting factor, as fit mattered just as much.

“They've worked perfectly with our personnel department and with our football program to make sure we can get the right kids admitted,” explained Freeman. “When you look at the guys that we signed, not all of them are graduates, as in previous years. It's a credit to our admissions and then to those specific guys that we ended up signing. We weren't looking for a whole bunch of guys. We had to be very strategic, very intentional about our process and who we were targeting.”

Notre Dame’s process is still extremely detailed when it comes to how an undergrad gets the green light. 

Micki Kidder, Vice President for Undergraduate Enrollment, is the connecting force between the university and the football program. 

As Freeman spoke on Wednesday, there was a noticeable sense of relief. Opening the door to undergraduate transfers allows Notre Dame to pursue higher-end talent that can remain in South Bend for more than a single season.

“She has been absolutely amazing,” Freeman said. “She has conversations with the deans of the schools on what credits they'll admit from other schools. Those are a lot of the conversations that she's having to talk about how many credits we're going to take, but obviously we're taking more than previously because we're now getting some undergraduates admitted.”

One could see almost a sense of relief from Freeman as he discussed Notre Dame working with the football program to admit undergrads. It’s a big step to open the program up to more high-end talent that can be in South Bend for more than a year. 

“I just couldn't be more grateful for the work that our admissions and our school, our deans have done to say, ‘OK, we understand the landscape's changing and we'll take more hours from different institutions.” 

Notre Dame isn’t going to operate like Texas Tech or publicly flaunt its spending. But the elite retention rate, paired with targeted additions at premium positions speak volumes. 

Still, Freeman remains committed to high school recruiting as the foundation of the program, even with increased portal flexibility.

“We signed a lot of high school football players and really good high school football players. We have to be committed to developing those guys. It's a double-edged sword because we want to encourage young people to develop, right? They could be enticed while they're developing to say, ‘I want to go somewhere else where I can play or make more money.’

“As a coaching staff, sometimes you want to go to the portal and get this guy where you're not giving this guy a chance to develop. We are going to major in high school recruiting. We're going to major in development and we're going to supplement out of the portal.” 

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