Notre Dame can't get the recruits anymore. Kids in HS see 5 or 6 Miami players taken in the first round every year, whereas there might be two ND players taken in the entire draft. Notre Dame used to be successful because they had a national fan base, and could recruit all over the nation. Now, other teams recruit nationally. In Texas they compete with all of the big-time Texas programs, plus Oklahoma and OSU. In Florida, they compete with the 3 big teams and now with South Florida going to the Big East, they'll step into the recruiting picture too. They can't out-recruit USC, UCLA, Cal, or even Arizona State in California, and even Utah is now getting into the picture on the west coast recruiting scene. They're getting 3rd rate recruits now. Even in the Northeast, which used to be prime ND trurf, the Big 10 teams like Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin are recruiting heavily.
Then you have tough admissions and academic standards to deal with, on top of everything else.
Weis made a huge mistake, IMO
