How Would Notre Dame Fans React if Marcus Freeman Won the National Title and Left for the NFL?

As Jim Harbaugh celebrated Michigan's first outright national championship since 1948, at some point, reality sank in.

Wolverine fans didn't need a crystal ball to see the obvious — Harbaugh was about to ride off into the NFL sunset.

It had to be a bittersweet feeling for a championship-starved fanbase. While the looming Connor Stalions fallout/show-cause penalty made that reality a bit easier to accept, the facts remained.

Watching a championship-winning coach willingly leave is an awkward feeling.

Would Notre Dame Fans Trade Long-Term Stability for a National Championship?

As in, win a national championship and lose the main man for the NFL.

For the sake of this argument, let's leave the Harbaugh comp there and not add in all the other 2023 Michigan mess to the potential 2026 Notre Dame season.

It is, however, worthy to dig into that question for a couple of different reasons.

One is that Freeman is clearly coveted by the NFL.

How much he covets the NFL is in the eye of the beholder. In the eyes of plenty of beholders, a college coach who tweeted in late December "run it back" felt more like a guy who debated leaving college for the NFL Draft than a coach who had zero next-level interest.

2026…run it back

Go Irish ☘️
— Marcus Freeman (@Marcus_Freeman1) December 29, 2025

Sure, you could argue that Freeman is just playing all the angles and doing what many high-level coaches do.

Surveying your own market and then firing off a rallying cry is hardly an admission that his move to the NFL is inevitable. He's 40. There's plenty of time for him to pursue that path if it speaks to him. Maybe he is in South Bend for the long haul.

Having said that, Notre Dame fans do need to mentally prepare for this possibility becoming a reality, perhaps as soon as next year.

Don't believe that?

Picture a world in which Dan Quinn struggles with the Washington Commanders again, and Freeman could be targeted to bring Jayden Daniels' college play-caller, Mike Denbrock, with him to DC.

Or think about how much buzz that Freeman would generate to pull a reverse Dan Devine if the Green Bay Packers job became available.

Consider that another reason why there should be an extreme sense of urgency with the 2026 squad

Notre Dame is poised to have perhaps its best preseason ranking in the AP Poll in 20 years. And while strength of schedule shouldn't impact a preseason ranking, a Notre Dame team that's guaranteed a Playoff spot with a top-12 ranking in the final Playoff Poll has an extremely favorable path to 10 wins.

We're talking about the team that's ranked No. 1 in FBS in percentage of returning production. Not only does that suggest that this should be an improved team in 2026, but that in all likelihood, the 2027 squad will be viewed as more of a transition squad (notice that I didn't say a "rebuilding" squad).

Though we can't project rosters a year in advance in this era of the transfer portal, it's a bit easier to do that at a place like Notre Dame that's obviously less portal-reliant than most contenders.

That's all worthy context heading into this season. It could factor into Freeman's thought process.

If he were to win a national title in 2026, he would be a couple of weeks removed from turning 41 years old. That'd be the youngest national championship-winning coach since a 40-year-old Bob Stoops led Oklahoma to a national title in 2000.

In a sport that hasn't seen a 30-something coach win a national title since Danny Ford led Clemson to a championship in 1981, Freeman would be in a unique spot by checking that box at age 41.

Any fanbase in America who could push a button that says "have our 41-year-old head coach win a national title" would sign up for that in a heartbeat.

But until further notice, those NFL conversations aren't going anywhere with Freeman.

And just in case it needs to be said, one shouldn't assume that a potential post-2026 exit to the NFL would mean that the Notre Dame door would always be open to Freeman if he wanted to come back to college.

Don't believe that? Go ask Steve Spurrier and Florida about that potentially awkward dynamic.

Timing is everything in life. Timing is everything with this 2026 Notre Dame team.

Perhaps the time is right for the Irish to win it all for the first time in 1988. Would Notre Dame fans take that if it also gave Freeman the push to leave for the NFL?

That's in the eye of the beholder.

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