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WELCOME IRISH FOOTBALL FANS!
We have established this Blog to share any and all thoughts and discuss issues relating to Notre Dame Football.
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Thursday, August 11, 2011

By The Numbers - Notre Dame Football Roster - 2011


Well the Notre Dame Athletic Department finally got around to publishing the Football Team Roster.  You can view and download it Here.    The problem is we would rather have a roster in numerical order instead of alphabetical order to quickly identify players.  No problem really, check out the ND media guide on page 6 Here.  Yvonne our graphic artist and reproduction machine specialist simply downloaded the media guide roster, printed copies, placed them back-to-back and laminated it for us.  Cool.

Doing a little research, we came up with some rules and non-rules for jersey number assignments.  College football generally follows the NFL numbering system but because it has almost twice as many rostered players, it uses more flexibility.

Below is the numbering system established by the NFL, and in place since 1973:

1 to 19 are worn by quarterbacks, kickers, and punters.
Wide receivers are also allowed to wear numbers between 10 and 19 if they so choose, even if there's an 80-89 number available.
20 to 49 are worn by running backs, tight ends (when an 80-89 number is unavailable), cornerbacks and safeties.
50 to 59 are worn by linebackers and offensive linemen.
60 to 79 are worn by members of both the offensive line (the tackles, guards and centers) and defensive line (the defensive ends, defensive tackles and nose guard).
80 to 89 are worn by wide receivers and tight ends.
90 to 99 are worn by linebackers and defensive linemen.
Numbers 0 and 00 are no longer used.  It should be noted that this NFL numbering system is based on a player's primary position. Any player wearing any number may play at any position on the field at any time (though players wearing numbers 50-79 must let the referee know that they are playing out of position by reporting as an "ineligible number in an eligible position"). It is not uncommon for running backs to line up at wide receiver on certain plays, or to have a large lineman play at fullback or tight end in short yardage situations.

As stated above, in college football, a less rigid numbering system is employed. The only rule is that members of the offensive line (centers, guards, and tackles) that play in ineligible positions must wear numbers between 50-79. Informally, certain conventions still hold, and players often wear numbers in the ranges similar to their NFL counterparts; though the lowest numbers are often the highest prestige, and thus are often worn by players at any position. Kickers and punters are frequently numbered in the 40's or 90's, which are the least in-demand numbers on a college roster. The increased flexibility in numbering of NCAA rosters is needed since NCAA rules allow 105-player rosters (85 on scholarship); thus teams would frequently exhaust the availible numbers for a position under the NFL rules.


Notre Dame has 32 players sharing 16 numbers.  It is not uncommon to have duplicate numbers, with an offensive player having the same number as a defensive one—this is allowed as long as both players are not on the field at the same time. Usually, one of the players will be a reserve who rarely plays, but this is not always the case.  It is definately not the case with Notre Dame.

The one number we want see consistently in the opponent's end zone flipping the football to the referee is number 3 for Notre Dame.



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