In the NIL arms race, hesitating is basically surrendering. Notre Dame learned that lesson the hard way. When Ohio State’s reported $20 million NIL war chest not only beat them but buried them in the championship conversation, the Irish didn’t just lose a game; they lost a bidding war. But Marcus Freeman seems ready to fight back. With revenue sharing on the horizon, he’s gearing up to play the game where it matters most: with cold, hard cash.
Now that every team is playing the NIL card, even Marcus Freeman has to enter the rat race. While teams like Ohio State or Texas are spending so much on their roster, Notre Dame isn’t that big of a player in that money business. But it looks like Freeman is finally making some amends.
Locked On Irish host Tyler Wojciak shared his thoughts on the team’s NIL approach: “I’m really interested to see how this revenue sharing ends up playing out because I think that’s going to be so critical for Notre Dame and how they approach NIL going forward because even though they’re a lot more competitive in the NIL space, the number that’s been reported recently is that this team that they just took to the national championship accounted for about seven to eight million. It’s a pretty good number, but it’s nothing compared to Ohio State famously $20 million.” Let’s be real; it’s nowhere near Ohio State’s $20 million roster, and Notre Dame still needs to fill up like a $15 million gap.
Well, Notre Dame made efforts to navigate the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) landscape with a nonprofit approach by establishing FUND, a collective that compensated players in exchange for their charitable work. This allowed them to remain competitive, although they were never able to match the financial resources of teams like Ohio State, which invested $20 million into their roster. However, the situation took a turn when the IRS began enforcing stricter regulations, and the House v. NCAA settlement posed a potential overhaul of NIL regulations. Rather than risking legal complications, Notre Dame made the decision to discontinue FUND and embrace a new approach with Rally, a for-profit collective tailored to the evolving NIL environment.
In a way, this move signifies Notre Dame’s acknowledgment of the financial realities of college football. Rally’s approach is all about setting up legit NIL deals, from sponsorships to partnerships, without leaning on tax-exempt donations. Publicly available tax filings show that the collective raked in $7.7 million in revenue and paid out $1.7 million to players one year. The next year? Those numbers exploded: over $20 million in revenue, with $5.1 million going to the players. While FUND’s $5 million payouts were a decent start, Notre Dame knows that kind of money just won’t cut it anymore.
Even so, Marcus Freeman’s cautious, step-by-step approach seems smarter, especially when you consider Ohio State’s reported $20 million NIL investment and their own athletic budget, which is reportedly running a $38 million deficit. Well, at least that’s not the case with Notre Dame. And let’s not forget their NIL was successful in keeping almost all their players intact with just some leaks.
Marcus Freeman is really cooking something BIG
When three Notre Dame offensive linemen entered the transfer portal, it raised eyebrows among Irish fans. Pat Coogan, Rocco Spindler, and Sam Pendleton were not just benchwarmers; they had all started games during Notre Dame’s pursuit of a championship. Although two of them didn’t start in Week 1 against Texas A&M, their role was still significant.
Despite numerous injuries to their front line, Notre Dame avoided a complete offensive line collapse thanks to several players. Losing them is not just about losing talent; it’s about losing the kind of depth that championship teams rely on. This is precisely what made Saban’s Alabama machine so dominant. Their backups could go toe-to-toe with the starters, and that’s what Notre Dame was slowly building toward.
However, in the era of the transfer portal, why would these players sit and wait when they could start elsewhere? That’s why all three chose to leave and become “the guy” at other Power Four schools. Coogan went to Indiana, Spindler to Nebraska, and Pendleton to Tennessee—all of them day-one starters. This is just the reality of modern college football.
But despite all that, Marcus Freeman’s culture remains strong. Only SIX Notre Dame players entered the transfer portal after the season, compared to the mass exodus at other top programs. If you look at the numbers, Alabama lost 24 players, Texas A&M lost 23, LSU lost 19, and both Georgia and Ohio State lost 14 each. Even Oregon (11) and Penn State (9) were heavily affected. The transfer portal era is chaotic, and effective roster management is more crucial than ever, and that’s what Freeman is focusing on.
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