Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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12 JUNE/JULY 2021 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED CHARTING THE IRISH AMERICA'S NICEST COLLEGE CAMPUSES Come June, college football recruits will be able to take official visits once again. This will allow prospects from the high school graduating class of 2022 and their families to travel to and spend a weekend on Notre Dame's picturesque campus. This visit is organized and paid for by the football program. Of course, it's a major selling point for recruits to get on campus and be inspired by the majestic architecture, blue lakes and, most notably, the Golden Dome. Notre Dame, in fact, recently appeared at No. 1 in the Nicest College Campus Rankings — Power Five Schools Only. The ranking was produced by the Twitter account @ATL_Boomer1990, which recently released a series of college football rankings that went viral and were shared by popular names in the industry, such as Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and Yahoo! columnist Dan Wetzel. The Irish also play a number of teams this season that appear near the top of these rank- ings, including No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 Virginia, No. 5 USC and No. 9 North Carolina. Just outside the top 10 are Fighting Irish foes No. 14 Wis- consin and No. 15 Virginia Tech. ✦ GIMME FIVE After 2020, there was a tie between rivals Notre Dame and USC for the most all-time NFL Draft picks, at 511. Although the Trojans had a respectable showing in the 2021 draft, with five for- mer players hearing their names called, they can no longer match the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame's nine alums that were selected April 29-May 1 now have the Irish alone in first place. The two programs are also tied for the most-ever No. 1 overall picks — along with Oklahoma — at five each, but no- body else comes close for the number of total pros produced. There is a near 50-player drop-off from No. 2 USC to No. 3 Ohio State. Here are the top five NCAA programs for NFL Draft selections, according to DraftHistory.com: Rk. School All-Time NFL Draft Picks 1. Notre Dame 520 2. USC 516 3. Ohio State 473 4. Oklahoma 402 5. Michigan 387 UNDER THE DOME Tight end Tommy Tremble, who was a third-round pick by Carolina, was one of nine Irish players to be drafted in 2021. PHOTO COURTESY CAROLINA PANTHERS NCAA Formally Passes One-Time Transfer Exemption An historic NCAA decision is official. The NCAA Division I Council formally passed a rule in April that allows one-time immediate eligibility for all transfers. "Allowing student-athletes a one-time op- portunity to transfer and compete imme- diately provides a uniform, equitable and understandable approach that benefits all student-athletes," said Council vice chair Jon Steinbrecher, chairman of the transfer work- ing group and the Mid-American Conference commissioner. " The decision is consistent with Division I's goal of modernizing its rules to prioritize student-athlete opportunity and choice." The adoption of the new legislation is a long-expected outcome of an initiative to adapt transfer rules. It started more than two years ago with the 2018 creation of the transfer portal and elimination of a require- ment for transferring players to get permis- sion from their schools to leave. Football, men's and women's basketball, baseball and hockey were the only Division I sports that required undergraduate trans- fers to sit out a year before competing for their new school unless they were granted a special waiver. For this year, all athletes will need to sub- mit a notification of transfer to their schools by July 1. Starting in 2022, the notification date moves to May 1 for fall and winter sport athletes and July 1 for spring athletes. " The dates were selected based on a desire to balance providing flexibility for student-athletes to make informed trans- fer decisions with protecting the interests of students who don't transfer but will be impacted by those who do," the announce- ment noted. The rule also says the head coach of a transferring player 's new school and the player must prove no tampering took place between them before the player entered the portal. An old school cannot object to a player's transfer destination. Players who transfer more than once or "do not meet the criteria" of the one-time transfer exemption can apply for a waiver. — Patrick Engel Rk. School 1. Notre Dame 2. Stanford* 3. Virginia* 4. Northwestern 5. USC* 6. Duke 7. Indiana 8. Ole Miss 9. North Carolina* 10. Syracuse 14. Wisconsin* 15. Virginia Tech* 50. Florida State* 55. Purdue* 60. Georgia Tech* THE NICEST COLLEGE CAMPUSES IN AMERICA * Notre Dame opponent in 2021