Notre Dame Football Hit Hard as GM Chad Bowden Leaves for USC

Notre Dame, fresh off a national championship game appearance, has a major hole to now fill in its front office

Jan 20, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman looks on against the Ohio State Buckeyes during the first half the CFP National Championship college football game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Notre Dame football was dealt a major blow on Friday afternoon as news has broken that general manager Chad Bowden is leaving the program for a similar role at rival USC.

John Brice of Football Scoop was first on the story, detailing that USC was offering Bowden an estimated one-million dollar salary to be its general manager, up from the roughly $300,000 he was making at Notre Dame.

Brice is among the reporters to since confirm that Bowden is leaving South Bend for Los Angeles where he'll try to kickstart the USC program that has struggled in recent years.

This is done, Chad Bowden has accepted the role of @uscfb GM. Massive snag for Lincoln Riley & Bowden instantly becomes the likely top paid GM in all of college football as sources tell @FootballScoop the deal is worth more than $1m annually. Full details: https://t.co/yrBzsaLhfn

— John Brice (@JohnDBrice1) January 24, 2025

Bowden helped assemble Notre Dame's roster that played in the national championship game this past year after being one of the first people Marcus Freeman had hired when Freeman came to Notre Dame in 2021.

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Take:

There isn't a way to sugar coat this one as its a huge blow to Notre Dame football. I do have a few questions that immediately come to mind:

Did Notre Dame have a chance to match USC's offer and choose not to? That would be disappointing after the $20 million Notre Dame just earned for making the College Football Playoff national championship game.

Is Bowden going to try and get any of the rest of the Notre Dame staff to join him?

How about the transfer portal - will he use his connections and try to pursue Notre Dame players to enter it and jump ship?

The most calming thing I can say right now is that it's hard to imagine players coming to Notre Dame for the general manager over head coach Marcus Freeman, but Bowden having a strong background in that certainly didn't hurt any Notre Dame recruiting causes.

I certainly didn't expect to be typing this news out at 4 p.m. CT on the Friday after Notre Dame played for the national championship but obviously a huge move for multiple reasons, let alone on a weekend Notre Dame is hosting a slew of recruits.

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