Why Notre Dame’s Transfer Portal Strategy Signals a New Era

It's a new day for Notre Dame when it comes to the transfer portal, and not just because the Fighting Irish landed four commitments in it Monday.

It's a new day because of what Notre Dame is doing, specifically what kind of student Notre Dame is letting transfer into the school to play football.

And that means very good things for Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish going forward.

Notre Dame Brings in Multiple Undergrad Transfer on Monday

Notre Dame landed four commitments in the transfer portal Monday, with a pair of them being players with three or more years of eligibility remaining - those being former Ohio State wide receiver Quincy Porter (four years) and former Michigan cornerback Jayden Sanders (three years).

One more, former Notre Dame commitment but ultimately an Alabama signee, Keon Keeley, also has two years of eligibility remaining in blue and gold.

If you've followed Notre Dame's roster construction for any length of time, you're aware that getting undergraduates is a rarity. Instead its the Riley Leonard, Sam Hartman, and Isaiah Pryor types who you usually see for one fall, and then are off to the real world.

But as Bob Dylan once said, "Oh the times, they are a changin'."

Notre Dame's Top-Heavy Transfer Portal Class

Have you ever heard the saying "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog"?

That's basically what Notre Dame's 2026 portal class looks like after it went from zero to four commitments on Monday. It's not the deepest class as it ranks just 34th according to 247Sports, but it certainly appears to be the most top-heavy.

247Sports gives each incoming Notre Dame player an average rating of 91.5 in the transfer portal, the highest of any team.

It's not the deepest group, heck, it's not even deep at all but it is a quality group that should play a whole lot of downs over its combined time to come in South Bend.

Although no official word has been given yet, it would appear Notre Dame is about to add help on the defensive line as well after new defensive line coach Charlie Partridge posted the following to social media on Monday afternoon:

#GoIrish ☘️ pic.twitter.com/9TS5KexOwL
— Charlie Partridge (@CoachPartridge) January 12, 2026

Not long after, Notre Dame running backs coach Ju'Juan Seider added the following:

☘️☘️ pic.twitter.com/mO28jtzN3V
— Ja’Juan Seider (@coachseider) January 13, 2026

I won't go message board stealing like some, but obviously be on the lookout for some news before long.

Overall it won't end up being a deep portal class for Notre Dame, but because of the Irish opening up transfers to undergrads, it should end up being a more impactful group for a longer amount of time, then any class of transfers we've seen to date.