Notre Dame AD explains why there's no 'ACC governor' in the portal
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SOUTH BEND — Notre Dame is having a public moment with the Atlantic Coast Conference, but athletic director Pete Bevacqua isn’t about to alter the school’s approach to shopping the transfer portal when it comes to its football scheduling partner.
“We don’t think about an ACC governor on what we might or might not do in the portal,” Bevacqua said Tuesday at a news conference on campus. “We have our own governor.”
In each of the previous three Decembers, one could make the case that Notre Dame’s top portal addition in football came from the ACC.
In 2023, it was record-setting Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman who headed north as a hired gun and graduate transfer.
In 2024, Duke junior quarterback Riley Leonard followed that same golden road to South Bend, where he ran out of time to graduate but still managed to lead the Irish to a 14-2 season and a runner-up finish in the College Football Playoff.
In 2025, it was Virginia wideout Malachi Fields, a graduate transfer, who fortified the Irish passing game on his way to 36 catches for 630 yards and five touchdowns.
Ironically, had Fields remained at Virginia, the Cavaliers might have prevailed in their ACC Championship Game meeting with five-loss Duke, and the Irish might have remained ahead of Miami in the CFP committee’s rankings.
Asked if ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, a former Notre Dame senior associate AD for external affairs (2000-04), or anyone else in the league had asked the Irish to lay off ACC talent in the portal, Bevacqua suggested that had not happened.
“Up until this moment, I think the relationship between Notre Dame and the ACC has been unbelievably healthy and mutually beneficial,” Bevacqua said. “That’s one of the reasons why we were so kind of flabbergasted by this.”
Notre Dame football won’t ‘overhaul its roster’ via the portal, AD says
That goes for Notre Dame men’s basketball under Micah Shrewsberry and women’s basketball under Niele Ivey as well as the remaining 24 Irish sports that participate as full ACC members.
“Whether you were talking to Marcus or Micah or Niele or any one of our coaches,” Bevacqua said, “Notre Dame, I mean, we have to be incredibly selective and incredibly precise and opportunistic when it comes to the transfer portal. Notre Dame is a high academic school, as everybody knows, and we have to be really selective.
“We have a wonderful relationship with Micki Kidder on our admissions department, and we go and we sit with Micki and we say, ‘OK, we’re interested in this young man or this young woman and this is the school they’re at and these are their grades and the courses they’ve taken and, yes, they’re in-person classes and not online classes.’”
That, Bevacqua stressed, happens even in “conversations with transfers from other great academic schools.”
Notre Dame football’s eight-player haul last offseason also included ACC standouts from Virginia Tech (safety Jalen Stroman), North Carolina (kicker Noah Burnette) and Louisville (defensive tackle Jared Dawson). The other schools raided for talent were Wisconsin (wideout Will Pauling), Alabama (DeVonta Smith), USC (Elijah Hughes) and Arkansas (tight end Ty Washington).
Ahead of the 2024 season, Notre Dame added Leonard and fellow ACC products RJ Oben (Duke defensive tackle) and Beaux Collins (Clemson wideout) along with defensive backs Jordan Clark (Arizona State) and Rod Heard II (Northwestern), kicker Mitch Jeter (South Carolina), receiver Kris Mitchell (Florida International), receiver/returner Jayden Harrison (Marshall) and special teams ace Max Hurleman (Colgate).
This offseason, the 15-day transfer portal window opens Jan. 2. There is no spring window for nongraduate transfers.
“We’re not one of these schools that are going to go out there and overhaul our roster, particularly in football,” Bevacqua said. “That’s not what Marcus (Freeman) wants to do. Yeah, he wants to get a Malachi Fields, a Will Pauling, a Riley Leonard. He wants to be really specific, really opportunistic.”
That also means, Bevacqua said, getting “people in who can succeed on the football field but can succeed here at Notre Dame and have a great Notre Dame experience. That’s important for us. I know it’s important for (Freeman).”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Why Notre Dame football won’t back off ACC transfer portal additions
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