We are almost a week into college football’s transfer portal season, and it probably goes without saying… Notre Dame fans are more than a little bit anxious. All we have seen over the last (almost) week are transfer portal departures from Notre Dame. There hasn’t been a single commitment/signing, and a number of early targets didn’t even bother to step foot in South Bend.
I mean… y’all don’t want a fresh pie from Rocco’s?
While it seems very doom and gloom, you might feel a little bit better if you knew
that the Irish are in the same boat as a few other programs.
I know, I know — you don’t care. I get it, and if you’re feeling a little moody about it all, you are also in THAT boat with other Irish fans. It’s not just the numbers, it’s the needs.
Notre Dame absolutely needs some defensive lineman — defensive tackles in particular. They also need a kicker and probably a wide receiver. They aren’t luxury items, and they aren’t depth pieces — the needs are actual needs.
And we all know that.
But let’s get to the math for second because that’s why we’re here. People are getting upset that Notre Dame’s roster is withering away. Multiple transfer portal departures a day and no commitments makes the anger some very low-hanging fruit. So let’s talk about it real quick… who said Notre Dame needs 105 scholarship players on the roster anyways?
For years and years, the NCAA rules had the 85 man limit. That’s 20 players less than what it is now, and somehow Notre Dame (and every school in the country) fielded a team each year.
When the new NCAA rule went through, Notre Dame was looking to have a roster that consisted of roughly 95 “scholarship” players and 10 “walk-ons” each year. It makes sense from a financial standpoint, and it’s just a nice part of the college football culture as well.
So… here’s what it looks like for 2026 as of very early Thursday morning:
Compare that chart to the one in 2018. Remember, in 2018, Notre Dame went undefeated in the regular season under the 85 man rule.
So while it’s certainly within reason to yearn for the players of need, the Irish are still currently sitting on a very strong roster. Don’t worry so much about the math. Math is dumb.
And if you made it this far…
There has been good news reported about DE Keon Keeley and WR Mylan Graham. No, they didn’t commit, but there are some positive things out there. Notre Dame has been remarkably quiet as far as leaking any info out, so I take the positive news as some major positives — but we shall see.
