The Notre Dame football team is lined up for the No. 2 recruiting class in the country, but even the Fighting Irish can’t win them all. Their latest loss might have been the most painful, if only because Monshun Sales is the top player in the state of Indiana. Rather than spending his college days in South Bend, the 5-star wide receiver is headed to Bloomington.
Sales announced he’d committed to Indiana on Friday, marking the highest-ranked prospect in the history of the Hoosiers. While the Fighting Irish were originally in the running for the wide receiver, Curt Cignetti managed to steer the receiver well away from Marcus Freeman. In doing so, it was the first real offensive blemish on the 2027 recruiting class.
"The Hoosiers are getting one of those rare prospects that can really run yet also has terrific size," said ESPN national recruiting director Tom Luginbill. "Indiana has had tremendous success with bigger targets on the outside in former Hoosier and current Baltimore Raven Elijah Sarratt and current Hoosier Charlie Becker." The recent success of IU sending receivers to the NFL could be one reason why the school was able to beat out Notre Dame for the talented pass catcher.
The 6-foot-5, 200-pound 5-star wide receiver from Lawrence North High School (Indianapolis, IN), Sales is the consensus No. 8 player in the 2027 class, the No. 2 player at his wide receiver position, and the No. 1 player in the state of Indiana according to both 247Sports and Rivals.
BREAKING: Five-star receiver Monshun Sales, the No. 1 receiver according to @247Sports, has committed to @IndianaFootball.
— Tom Loy (@TomLoy247) July 17, 2026
MASSIVE win for @CCignettiIU and the Hoosiers.
VIP Story: https://t.co/3jbV3sMdxZ@__1problem pic.twitter.com/UJviUpgDCY
Monshun Sales commits to Indiana over Notre Dame football
Over the course of his high school career, he’s been an impressive player on both sides of the ball. Last year, he caught 37 passes for 794 yards and 9 touchdowns during his 2025 junior season, while adding 56 tackles on defense. He caught 34 passes for 568 yards and seven touchdowns as a sophomore, giving him 71 receptions for 1,362 yards and 16 touchdowns over those two seasons.
Notre Dame was once looking like the frontrunner after a fall visit. "I just love Notre Dame, that's that," Sales said after the visit. "I just really love Notre Dame." However, the Irish fell behind relatively quickly.
When the 5-star wide receiver cut his list from 12 to four, he named Indiana, Alabama, Miami, and Ohio State and left Marcus Freeman and Co. off the finalists. It’s not clear just what caused him to turn his back on the program so close to home, especially since it’s clear he had no problem staying in his home state.
The good news here is that while it hurts to lose the top player in the state to Indiana, Notre Dame has itself a very good haul at wide receiver with Julius Jones Jr. and Jackson Coleman. Receivers’ coach Mike Brown would have loved to land Monshun Sales, but not scoring him, especially knowing he was gone months ago, isn’t the blow it would have been in years past.
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