Notre Dame Bowl Opt Out/NFL Decisions Likely To Take Place Soon

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman discussed the timeline for potential bowl opt outs and NFL Draft decisions

Notre Dame will find out this Sunday what it’s bowl destination will be and who they will play in that bowl. Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman and his staff hope to know by the time that announcement is made which players might opt out of that bowl game.

Freeman and the arrived back on campus at around 6 am Sunday morning after the four-plus hour flight home from the Stanford game. He gave both the players and the staff Sunday off but will begin to have conversations about future plans for players throughout the roster on Monday.

“Part of the discussions I had with the coaching staff this morning was, we do have to have those conversations with the guys in our room about bowl game, about their future here, do they plan on coming back, do they plan on transferring, do they plan on leaving,” Freeman explained early Monday afternoon. “That’s a part of college football. We have to have those conversations. We have not yet. Again, I don’t expect every single person on this team to play in the bowl game.”

Last year’s bowl opt out list was short. Tight end Michael Mayer, who was eventually selected in the second round of the NFL Draft by the Las Vegas Raiders, and defensive end Isaiah Foskey, a second-round pick of the New Orleans Saints, completed the short list.

Notre Dame’s two current bowl projections have the Irish playing either in the ReliaQuest Bowl or the Pop Tarts Bowl. Both games are in Florida. The three projected opponents are LSU, Ole Miss and Wisconsin. LSU, led by former Irish head coach Brian Kelly, is the most projected opponent for the Irish.

The storylines would abound if that matchup comes to fruition, especially with a majority of the current Irish roster having played for or recruited by Kelly and his staff. How much might that or the level of the bowl game matter?

“I would hope it doesn’t,” Freeman remarked. “The reality is that some people say ‘Well we’re not playing in the playoffs or for a national championship. Why would I play?’ But I’m pretty sure after the Louisville game there was an understanding we probably aren’t going to make the playoffs with two losses and I appreciate these guys that continued to commit to this football program and to their teammates to continuously finish out this season. That’s my message to all of our players as we’ll meet is that game 13, for us, is really no different than any game after we lost to Louisville.

“This is about finishing off this season with your football team and that’s my message to them,” Freeman continued. “It’s that, if it was only about a national championship then you had that decision you could have made earlier in the year.”

The two most obvious opt out candidates are left tackle Joe Alt and running back Audric Estime. Safety Xavier Watts and defensive linemen Rylie Mills and Howard Cross III have decisions to make as well.

While players going to the transfer portal is a different conversation. Those conversations will take place this week as well. Irish defensive end NaNa Osafo-Mensah became Notre Dame's first player to enter the portal after making a social media announcement on Monday. He was followed by wide receiver Chris Tyree.

Bowl opt outs are a phenomenon that has increased in recent years. Any of those players could declare for the NFL Draft, but still play in Notre Dame’s bowl game if they choose (what an old-fashioned notion).

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