Blue & Gold Illustrated: Notre Dame Football And Recruiting · Blue & Gold Illustrated

Notre Dame football show: Fighting Irish transfer portal news & thoughts with Hansen & Singer

January 8, 2026·1 hr 18 min·7 clips

Eric Hansen explains why Notre Dame needs 17 players to leave the portal to hit their 95-scholarship target.

Transfer Portal Palooza opens with housekeeping and live-show chaos. Mike tells Eric there is about a 50% chance he may have to jump off for a phone call, and that gives the episode its loose live-chat mood right away. Then the portal takes over. The push and pull is simple: fans are reacting fast, while the reporters keep asking for a little more patience around Notre Dame's first five days of exits. Singer keeps going back to the count. He starts around 15 to 17 departures, including walk-ons, then checks that against prior years and tightens the comparison. That little correction does real work. The old numbers sound close enough that this wave feels more normal than shocking. NIL sits in the background. A visible brand deal can make things look healthy, but the hosts separate that from straight pay-for-play buying. They want some rules, and both Eric and Mike talk like the current process could use a little sanity. Fan reaction gets a nudge too. Singer says it makes him cringe when every portal exit gets boiled down to money, weakness, or a player disliking Notre Dame. The truth can be messier. A player may be encouraged to leave, unhappy, or staring at a much richer chance elsewhere. The episode keeps coming back to that: context first, panic later. The close sends listeners back to Blue and Gold, with more reporting coming, including Eric's look at the portal's inner workings and Notre Dame's place in it.

As heard by us

A steady Notre Dame portal check in that favors context over panic.

Blue and Gold’s transfer portal show starts with Notre Dame’s first five days in the portal, then widens out to the bigger question of what roster churn actually means.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a calmer read on Notre Dame's portal chaos.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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