UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

I’m not sure how ND is handling but I assume they are being more above board than others.

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Boosters and authentic advertising endorsements with private companies are excluded. The problem is that ND does not allow or arrange for rich alumni to directly pay recruits - especially high school recruits. If someone like Sam Hartman is offered an endorsement deal by a shaving blade company, nothing is stopping him from taking it.

But let’s say you are a big fan and you are a multi-millionaire. You hear that ND wants a star QB, DT, or WR, but the amount they are offering from their NIL collective is $250,000. Let’s say Michigan is offering $1 million to the same recruit. You cannot go to ND and say, “Let me make up the difference. I will have my attorney draft a contract to pay the recruit $750,000 pro-rated per every game he plays in his freshman year.” You would be told, “no, you can give to the official ND collective, but you shall not directly contact our recruits, and if you do, you will lose ticket privileges.” In contrast, Texas Tech, USC, Indiana, etc. would welcome the independent offer.

Most rich boosters want to have a say in exactly how their money is spent. They don’t like being told, “just give us the money and ND will decide what to do with it. As usual, ND plays with one arm tied behind its back, just like they always have.

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“Rally” replaced the collective that Brady Quinn had formed. Not sure why. But if you go to NDRally.com you first designate whether you are an athlete, a business, or a fan. If you select “fan”, you have to enter your name and an email address. Then you can select the sport or sports you are interested in, and finally, you can enter the name of the ND athlete you have interest in supporting.

But it all keeps control in the hands of the collective. I guess its like one of those charities where you can designate your favorite cause or project, but the final say so on how the funds are eventually spent remains under the control of the collective directors, which I’m sure is under the athletic department.

It kind of replaces the old “$50 handshake” an alum could give a star player.

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ND views athletic booster direct involvement in recruiting and player welfare as un-ethical and an infringement on their domain. It is a deeply held attitude that has existed among the CSCs all the way back to Rockne. I’m not saying they are right or wrong, but that is the way it is and has always been.

It is the same attitude that resulted in putting ND on a self-imposed probation in 1953 by limiting football scholarships to 18 per year and forbidding coaches from any off-campus recruiting. It was not because there was any cheating or academic fraud - there was not. They were embarrassed about being accused of being a football factory instead of an elite academic institution. That is why they were horrible from 1956 to 1963. When the CSCs realized that failing football fortunes was resulting in a decrease in donations and other revenue, then and only then did they restore the scholarship limit to 30 and ease up on recruiting restrictions. Same reason it took so long to improve athletic facilities and expand the stadium. The Holy Cross priests feel uncomfortable with too much success in football, so there is this cycle of easing and increasing restrictions that is inversely proportional to winning.

Of what college sports have become. It's as simple as saying hey donor, we'll take that money and use it on the player you want us to. Or refuse it. No control lost.

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