Irish Football Scholarship Management Issues?

Lisa Our Stat Person

NCAA says 85 total scholarships on the books that’s all.  It must be a recruiting and management nightmare for coaches.  Conventional wisdom would dictate 21 recruits per year, based upon needs of the Offense, Defense, and Special Teams with graduations, transfers, injuries, disciplinary issues and academic failures thrown in to complicate the mix.

Case in point, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

Recruiting class of 2010 down to 21scholarship players from 23.

Recruiting class of 2011 down to 15 scholarship players from either 17 or depending on how you fit the pegs in the holes.

Recruiting class of 2012 at 17.  Tons of official visits and many invites to stellar games, look for a gaggle of high school varsity jackets on the sidelines at the Michigan game.

Defections of Tee Shepard, Aaron Lynch Jordan Prestwood and career ending injuries to Cam Roberson and Brad Carrico have whittled down the roster.

Throw in the mix 6, 5^th year seniors on scholarship who will be long gone come January.

Some unknowns are the number of seniors eligible for a 5^th year next year and needs of the Team.  Plus the number of juniors who will obviously become seniors next year.  You always like to have one or two extra scholarships in your back pocket for a walk-on or two, plus a possible transfer (like Lynch originally was).

So the math is incomplete however it would appear that Kelly could and should recruit up to the NCAA limit of 25.  This of course throws off the balance of 21 per year down the road.

BTW the NCAA allows 105 rostered players; the Irish as of today have 102.