Notre Dame football fans are split on a pre-NIL and a post-NIL world

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Notre Dame football fans are split on a pre-NIL and a post-NIL world
SOUTH BEND, IN – OCTOBER 18: Notre Dame Fighting Irish fans during a college football game between the USC Trojans and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on October 18, 2025, at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, IN. (Photo by Marcus Snowden/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Notre Dame and college football off-season used to be a lot different, but that was a long time ago. Once conference expansion mania started in 2010, the off-season has been one big clusterbomb of strangeness. It started with conference expansion, then it moved to a college football playoff, then the NIL and transfer portal revolution, college football playoff expansion, and on and on.

The common denominator in all of this is a shade of green which matches the fields they play on every Saturday. It’s the shade of money.

Because the powers that be in and around college football got greedier and greedier for dollars, it made the entire amateur model (which was already highly scrutinized) look like an oppressive tool against the athletes. Because these powers held on too long, they never developed a good set of guidelines and rules moving forward when it came to NIL and everything else. I mean — they fought until the end, and rather than show they were wrong by producing some guardrails, they let it get out of hand by washing their hands.

And now people in power and those whose think their opinions are the best opinions, want college sports to put the toothpaste back in the tube — which is an impossibility because we still have a judicial system in this country, and their rulings have been quite clear and consistent on these matters.

Still, almost half of the Notre Dame fans surveyed want CFB to go back to how it operated before NIL came along.

Seriously… good luck with that.

Speaking of money and Notre Dame; I also wanted to know what fans thought about the investment in the men’s basketball program. Clearly, fans believe the Irish have PLENTY of resources and money to spend what’s needed to be competitive.

The basketball program, obviously, was not a very competitive team this season. What’s more depressing than Duke handing Notre Dame its worst home loss in history this season, is seeing that the Michigan Wolverines are currently the favorite to win the national championship according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

Yuck.

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