Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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8 OCT. 17, 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Chasity Rice Is Ready To Make Her Point At Notre Dame, Commits To Irish Whether Notre Dame's three-time All-American, Hannah Hidalgo, eventually opts to take the fifth — as in season — Chasity Rice has decided that she'd like to be in the mix to be the Irish point guard of the future. The 5-foot-6 senior from Etiwanda High School in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., verbally committed to the Irish and head coach Niele Ivey Oct. 4, becoming the third member of the 2027 Notre Dame women's basketball recruiting class. She joins forwards Eve Long and Loren Macy in a class the Irish hope to swell to at least five players before the recruiting cycle ends. The early signing period for women's basket- ball is Nov. 11-18. Long, 6-3 and the nation's No. 8 overall player per the Rivals Indus- try Ranking, verbally committed to the Irish May 20. The Olathe, Kan., product chose Notre Dame over the likes of Connecticut, UCLA, Duke and Kansas. Macy, a 6-foot forward from Eliz- abethtown, Ky., is the younger sis- ter of Irish sophomore forward Leah Macy. She averaged a double-double last season at Bethlehem High in Bardstown, Ky. (18.2 points and 10.2 rebounds per game) and committed Sept. 21. Rice is not ranked in the Rivals Industry Ranking, but she's in the ESPN rankings as a four-star pros- pect and No. 36 overall player. Dan Olson, publisher of Collegiate Girls Basketball Report, is even more bullish on a player he compares favorably to Hidalgo, ranking her as the No. 4 point guard and No. 22 overall player in the class. "Look, there's only one Hannah Hidalgo, but this kid's as close as you're going to get," Olson told Blue & Gold Illustrated. "She's a little dynamo, a point guard with a scorer's mentality. She has a fearless attitude, where she's not going to be denied. And when she's got that ball in her hands, she makes things happen." Rice, who took her official visit to Notre Dame the weekend of Sept. 12, helped Etiwanda High to a 30-4 record last season and was a key player on the Sports Academy Swish EYBL team that won the 17U Nike Nationals in Chicago in July. "They had a lot of great players on that team," Olson said. "But in the championship game, if it weren't for Rice, they would not have won that game. That kid's a little killer. She can shoot the three. She can break you down, get into the lane, make things happen, cause confusion. And she's consistent in what she does. "The ideal scenario is for Hannah to come back for a fifth year and Rice be the under- study for a year. But if you ask Chasity Rice, she's ready. Mentally she is." The NCAA's new 5-for-5 rule gives Hidalgo the potential to return after this, her senior season. Notre Dame, coming off an Elite Eight appearance last March in the NCAA Tour- nament, opens the 2026-27 season Nov. 1 in Rome, Italy, against Villanova. Per a source, the Irish were expecting two top-20 prospects in the 2028 class for unof- ficial visits the weekend of Oct. 9-11 — Reece Gilpatrick and Jhaliana Guy. Gilpatrick is a 6-4 forward from Broomfield, Colo., and is rated No. 13 in the Rivals Industry Ranking in the 2028 class. Guy is a 5-9 point guard from Clinton, Iowa, and is ranked No. 16. — Eric Hansen NOTRE DAME-BYU EARNS PRIMETIME TV SLOT N o . 3 N o t re D a m e 's m a rq u e e matchup at No. 8 BYU will kick off un- der the lights Oct. 17 in Provo, Utah. On Oct. 5, it was announced the Irish will have a 7:30 p.m. ET (5:30 p.m. MT) start time for their game against the Cou- gars, which will be televised on ABC. While the network had not an- nounced a broadcasting crew yet, one would think ABC/ESPN would deploy its "A" team of Chris Fowler (play-by-play), Kirk Herbstreit (analyst) and Holly Rowe (sideline reporter). Both Notre Dame and BYU were un- defeated through Week 5, with the for- mer sitting at 5-0 and the latter at 4-0. Both teams are heavy favorites in their Week 6 games against Stanford and Iowa State, respectively, which could set up a top-10 matchup. BYU is coming off a tighter-than-ideal win over TCU, pulling out a 17-10 vic- tory. But the Cougars have looked the part of a top-10 team in the first month of the season under head coach Kalani Sitake. Sophomore quarterback Bear Bach- meier — a former Notre Dame re- cruiting target — has completed 64.0 percent of his pass attempts for 8.2 yards per attempt with 6 touchdowns and just 1 interception. The strength of BYU's offense is the run game, though, led by senior running back LJ Martin. He has rushed 44 times for 344 yards (7.8 yards per carry) and 3 touchdowns, but he won't play against the Irish. Martin suffered a lower-body injury against TCU and is expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks. Defensively, the Cougars feature a strong secondary with cornerbacks Evan Johnson and Therrian Alexander III allowing next to nothing in coverage. Faletau Satuala, a 6-foot-4 safety, is a stud, too. Notre Dame versus BYU currently projects as the biggest game of the sea- son between two teams that are not in the Big Ten or the SEC, though that will likely change when the Irish take on Miami Nov. 7. Week 7 features several strong matchups among the "Power Two" conferences, headlined by No. 5 Ohio State at No. 7 Indiana. But with FOX taking that game for Big Noon Kickoff, the primetime slot was open for the Irish and Cougars. ABC took it, and the two top-10 teams are set for a nighttime battle in the mountains. — Jack Soble Rice is ranked as the No. 4 point guard and No. 22 overall player in the 2027 class by Collegiate Girls Basketball Report. PHOTO COURTESY CHASITY RICE