The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have poured millions of dollars into their football program, trying to keep pace with other major schools of the NFL era. Unfortunately, in a growing trend, this is going to come at the expense of other Fighting Irish athletic programs.
In a recent episode of Irish Illustrated Insider, 17 Notre Dame sports’ budgets will be cut in future years and that includes reducing the number of scholarships.
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Among the reported cuts, the Fighting Irish baseball team’s scholarships will be reduced to 10.2 in future years. Barring a few select programs, the cuts will be felt largely across the board.
There are reportedly only nine Notre Dame sports teams, including football, men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and men’s and women’s lacrosse. Additionally, every sport’s budget has either been frozen or reduced, with scholarship cuts also being a part of that equation.
Notre Dame’s baseball program recently reached the College World Series in Omaha in 2022. The program has now lost more than 20 games in four consecutive seasons and will finish 2026 with a losing record in the conference for the third consecutive year.
Unfortunately, Notre Dame is simply following the same path that other major schools have taken. Arkansas announced in April that it was closing its men’s and women’s tennis programs due to financial reasons. In future years, this will mean fewer scholarships available and no sports to play for hundreds of student-athletes across the country.
Meanwhile, the Fighting Irish are projected to spend over $30 million on their football roster this season, and that is believed to be significantly less than what some other schools are spending on their football teams.
This reflects the direction collegiate sports are going, with universities pouring money into sports that generate revenue and cutting budgets for sports programs or eliminating them altogether that do not make money.
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