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Notre Dame Football: The Top 8 States For Recruiting

By Joshua Vowles

November 28, 2015; Stanford, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish wide receiver C.J. Sanders (9) returns the ball for a touchdown against Stanford Cardinal during the first half at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
November 28, 2015; Stanford, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish wide receiver C.J. Sanders (9) returns the ball for a touchdown against Stanford Cardinal during the first half at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /
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Notre Dame football has many scholarship players, where do they come from and what state produces the most fight for the Fighting Irish?

Notre Dame football has a recruiting problem that has been a blessing for a very long time. Because of a special set of circumstances that have evolved for more than a century, Notre Dame has been, and continues to be, a national power on the recruiting scene.

This all really goes back to Notre Dame’s roots as a catholic school, and as a haven for immigrants (or sons of recent immigrants).  That in itself isn’t the most unique thing about Notre Dame, but after Knute Rockne started taking his “Ramblers” all over the country and especially when he started the rivalry with Southern Cal in 1926- Notre Dame was well on its way to becoming a national power and a national name.

Winning a whole bunch of games didn’t hurt.

For decades, Notre Dame used the catholic schools around the country as a feeder system for the football program. If you were the best player on a catholic high school team, the chances of you attending Notre Dame (without the 85 man scholarship limit) were pretty good. Now, however, that system has changed quite dramatically over the course of just a couple of decades.

Of the 92 players signed over the past 4 years, only 32 of them went to a catholic high school. Granted, 33% is still a fairly high number- but nowhere near the numbers of yesteryear, when that percentage was more in the 80’s.

This isn’t Notre Dame’s fault, as much as it is the changing demographics in America as well the increase in the amount of students that attend Catholic high schools that aren’t Catholic. So, for example, a guy that is baptist and attends a Catholic school in Louisiana, doesn’t have many “ties that bind” to Notre Dame and requires a different approach than a guy at a Catholic school in Florida that is Catholic.

This is all more mystery than science, but a fact that can be attained from this is that just because a kid went to a catholic school- it DOES NOT make him more likely to attend Notre Dame. So, that complaint (which still comes around every signing day) isn’t valid anymore and hasn’t been for some time.

So where are Notre Dame’s recruits coming from? What parts of the country are represented on the Notre Dame football roster? Let’s take a look at the map, and then rank the top 8 states on the Irish roster.

Looking At The Map

I’ve been doing this article annually since 2007, and the one thing that has remained constant is the “look” of the map. Generally, there is this “Y: looking thing on the east coast, and the west coast has a few splashes down the coast. Texas, was a pin here or there, and then a huge splash.

Now, how these plotted shapes really pan out is another story altogether. The sands shift gradually in one direction or the other. Pennsylvania, for example, is a state that has a seen significant decline in scholarship players for Notre Dame. The way this used to look, say 10-15 years ago, was that “Y” was more of a “P” coming right across Pennsylvania.

Quick stats:

  • There are 24 states represented as well as Washington D.C.
  • WE HAVE A FOREIGNER Y’ALL. British Columbia Canada turned out a prospect.
  • Notre Dame has 6 Players from its home state.
  • Notre Dame has 24 Players from states that border Indiana.
  • Notre Dame has 8 players from states that border its border states.
  • Those 38 players make up the “homebase” of Irish recruiting, and account for roughly 45% of their scholarship totals.
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