Comparing Notre Dame Football recruiting to Michigan

Notre Dame football fans love to hate Michigan and vice versa. The two rivals don’t play on the field regularly, so the battles come down to recruiting. So who does it better? 

If you are a college football fan, it’s hard not to take notice of the job that Notre Dame football has done on the recruiting trail over the last two cycles.

The Irish landed a top-10 class in the 2022 cycle and that’s even with the departure of head coach Brian Kelly to LSU after the season. Notre Dame football acted quickly and hired Marcus Freeman, who has been a home-run hire so far.

I say that because outside of a Fiesta Bowl loss last season, Freeman has never been a head coach and he’s got a lot to prove in that department, although his defenses are elite and so is his ability to attract top talent as the Irish have the No. 1 ranked recruiting class right now in 2023 according to the 247 sports composite rankings, as well as the On3 consensus rankings.

The recent commitment of four-star running back Jayden Limar to the Irish, a player Michigan and Notre Dame both offered and pushed for, was just another example of Freeman and company winning a head-to-head battle of sorts with U-M.

What the data says about Michigan and Notre Dame recruiting

In the 2023 class, Notre Dame has 13 verbal commitments right now and Michigan has offered 11 of those 13 commitments.

Michigan football has just six right now in 2023 and one ranked in the top 100, linebacker Raylen Wilson, and he’s the only Wolverine pledge with an offer from the Irish.

The battle for Dante Moore has been well-documented and while Texas A&M is making a push for the No. 8 overall prospect in 2023, it still feels like a Michigan-Notre Dame battle.

The Wolverines are also aiming to flip Peyton Bowen, a top-100 safety who is taking an official visit to Michigan in June.

So there are still some things to be decided in 2023, but is this a trend or just something related to the 2023 class because Jim Harbaugh flirted with the NFL and lost both his offensive and defensive coordinators?

Mike Singer, a Notre Dame football reporter for On3.com, compiled some data for this comparison, and last year, Michigan’s No. 9 class (On3 consensus) was a few spots behind Notre Dame but as Singer points out, the Irish offered six Michigan commitments, while the Wolverines have offers out to 12 of Notre Dame’s.

However, if you look back at the tenure of Jim Harbaugh, the Wolverines have out-recruited Notre Dame four times since 2016 and you can’t really count the 2015 class because that’s when Harbaugh was first hired and the class ranked 39th.

This will be the eighth complete recruiting cycle for Harbaugh at Michigan and if Freeman and the Irish are able to finish ahead of U-M, it will be the fourth time in eight years, but also the third year in a row.

Yet, we have to remember that Notre Dame football made the College Football Playoff back in 2020 and had been a consistent winner under Brian Kelly, whereas Michigan struggled to a 2-4 record in 2020.

Harbaugh and Michigan football responded with a Big Ten championship and a playoff berth and the Wolverines should be in a better position to have a strong class in 2024, although the 2023 cycle is far from over too.

Right now though, the trend is going in Notre Dame’s direction and that’s hard to dispute. That will be especially true if the Irish are able to land Dante Moore.

Then, it will be easy to say that Notre Dame is out-recruiting Michigan without a doubt.