Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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18 MARCH 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY ERIC HANSEN I magine a college football season not only without a spring game, but without spring football at all. Picture a recruiting calendar that culminated back in the old-school signing month of February, and also de- incentivized early enrollment. How about a one-time-per-offsea- son transfer portal that retains that frequency, but moves to spring? And a preseason/non-counting game in late summer? And elimination of conference championship games? Some, like former Alabama coach- ing icon and current ESPN savant Nick Saban, aren't just imagining those things. They're actively pontificating and pushing for a complete makeover of the college football calendar that mim- ics the NFL's, as the two worlds con- tinue to rapidly shed their differences in other areas. For our latest Irish Intel installment, Blue & Gold Illustrated spoke with trusted sources on the NFL side, the college side and those who have had a foot in each for significant stretches. Beyond the possible, and perhaps in- evitable, changes to the college calen- dar, this story explores how the college head coach role continues to evolve to- ward a pure CEO model, a position with so many responsibilities that perhaps an NFL head coaching job is easier. THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL CALENDAR MAKEOVER In January, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported that the NCAA Football Oversight Committee was examining changes in the college football calendar, some of which could be put into motion as early as this offseason. "We're trying to take a step back and look at everything in totality, so we're not doing one-offs that have an impact on other parts of the calendar," Georgia athletics director Josh Brooks told Del- lenger. "We've got to take a 30,000- foot view and see how everything could be better." Brooks and Buffalo AD Mark Alnutt are heading those efforts. The three biggest incentives toward the massive amount of rearranging: 1) Curtailing the incentives to fire coaches in season, or for coaches to leave their teams ahead of or during a College Football Playoff run. 2) Decongesting what has turned into a frenetic December and January, even for teams not involved in the CFP. 3) Adopting the time-tested roster- building and season-preparation mod- els the NFL uses. How might that look? One source suggested eliminating the December signing period for recruiting and pushing it back to early February. One benefit would be less pressure to recruit in season. Not eliminating the insanity level of it, but turning the tem- perature down on it. EVOLVING WORLD Proposed changes to spring practice, signing periods and the portal could reshape the sport — and perhaps play to Notre Dame's strengths The demands on elite college football coaches like Marcus Freeman continue to grow in the modern NIL era of the sport. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER