A Notre Dame football recruiting fan's beginner's guide to National Signing Day
Recruiting is a year-round sport. But not everyone participates until National Signing Day begins. Do you need to get caught up on Notre Dame’s 2024 recruiting class before prospects begin signing on Wednesday? Here is our beginner’s guide to National Signing Day, which includes the nuts and bolts of what you need to know beforehand.
What is National Signing Day?
National Signing Day is the first day football recruits can sign their National Letter of Intent (NLI), a binding agreement between a prospective student-athlete and an NLI member institution. When a student-athlete signs an NLI, they agree to attend the school full-time for one academic year (two semesters).
There are two National Signing Days for FBS and FCS schools. The first one, which kicks off on Dec. 20, is the most utilized by Power Five football recruits.
The first National Signing Day —known as the early period — begins Wednesday at 7 a.m. in the recruit’s time zone and lasts until 11:59 p.m. on Friday. The second National Signing Day — the regular period — is from Feb. 7 to April 1.
Notre Dame expects to sign all 23 verbal commitments during the early signing period.
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Who are the football recruits expected to sign with Notre Dame?
Since June 2022, the Notre Dame football program has secured verbal commitments from 23 high school prospects in the 2024 recruiting class. The 2024 class is made up of recruits who are high school seniors.
For a complete list of the recruits signing with the Fighting Irish, you can visit Notre Dame’s 2024 class commits landing page.
The page includes the recruit’s height and weight, NIL value, hometown, high school, star rating and player ranking among other 2024 class recruits. It also features team statistics such as the number of in-state recruits committed to Notre Dame, the average distance from their hometown, average NIL value and blue chip ratio (the number of five- and four-star prospects in the class).
Where does Notre Dame’s 2024 class currently rank?
Notre Dame’s 2024 recruiting class currently ranks No. 11 in the 2024 Industry Ranking Football Team Recruiting Rankings.
The Industry Ranking Football Team Recruiting Rankings utilizes all four major recruiting media companies: On3, 247Sports, Rivals and ESPN.
Instead of a total points system like at Rivals, the On3 Industry Team Ranking uses a score average of the player rankings, which solves the problem of varying class sizes during the recruiting cycle. It compiles the highest-rated commits for each team up to a total based on a rolling average of current total commitments among Power Five schools.
The current average number of commits used in the rankings score is 17. This means that of Notre Dame’s 23 commitments, only the 17 highest-ranked players are used for the rankings score.
With this model, there are no bonus points for having more commitments than other teams, and only small deductions occur when a team has fewer commitments than the rolling average. Unlike distribution (bell) curves, this model doesn’t disproportionately weight a team’s top three or four highest-rated commits and is a more accurate representation of an entire class.
What is the difference between the On3 and On3 Industry Ranking on a recruit’s profile?
The On3 Industry Ranking is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. The On3 Industry Ranking is the industry’s most advanced, complete and unbiased rating and ranking measurement.
It weights the primary recruiting media services based on past performance data and overall scouting and recruiting coverage investment. The algorithm is weighted as follows: On3 (35%), 247Sports (35%), Rivals.com (20%), and ESPN (10%).
On3’s scouting department develops On3’s rankings. They began rating recruits during the 2021 recruiting cycle. This is the fourth class in which recruits have On3 ratings.
As previously noted, the On3 Industry Ranking weights On3’s rankings at 35%. The recruit’s rankings from other primary recruiting media services (247Sports, Rivals.com and ESPN) are also visible on their profile.
Which Notre Dame football commits will enroll early?
Blue & Gold recruiting insider Mike Singer reported on this on Aug. 20. Pending their signature, Notre Dame expects the following recruits to enroll during the January semester:
- QB CJ Carr
- RB Aneyas Williams
- RB Kedren Young
- WR Micah Gilbert
- WR Cam Williams
- TE Jack Larsen
- OL Peter Jones
- OL Anthonie Knapp
- OL Styles Prescod
- DL Sean Sevillano
- DL Bryce Young
- EDGE Cole Mullins
- EDGE Loghan Thomas
- LB Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa
- S Kennedy Urlacher
The remainder of the class will enroll in June:
- WR Logan Saldate
- OL Guerby Lambert
- LB Bodie Kahoun
- LB Teddy Rezac
- CB Karson Hobbs
- CB Leonard Moore
- S Taebron Bennie-Powell
- S Tae Johnson
Notre Dame’s 15 mid-year enrollees are a school record, surpassing last year’s 14. The University began allowing football recruits to enroll in January 2006.
Stay locked in with Blue & Gold for our staff’s National Signing Day coverage throughout the week!
