Notre Dame Football 2016 Pre-Signing Day Scholarship Outlook

Before college football's National Signing Day kicks off in less than 48 hours we're here to give you a quick synopsis on Notre Dame's scholarship situation.

We won't look at the roster depth today (we've done that enough this cycle!) so you can take a look at our living scholarship chart for reference:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHOLARSHIP CHART ON OUR DRIVE

Keep in mind that we'll update some of the positions and injury situations once spring ball opens up and we get word on those details. Also, we've kept former walk-on quarterback Montgomery VanGorder on our chart for reference purposes but will not count him in our math here today.

2016-17 Academic Classes:

22 Verbal Commits [includes 5 EE's already in school]

22 Sophomores

19 Juniors

17 Seniors

80 Scholarships

As per usual, Notre Dame heads into NSD with a little breathing room. The early departures of Jaylon Smith and Will Fuller, plus the recent transfer of Tyler Luatua should allow the Irish coaching staff the room to close on most of their top targets with ample room.

List of Eligible 2016 Grad Students:

DT Jarron Jones

S Avery Sebastian

LS Scott Daly

OT Mark Harrell

S Nicky Baratti

S John Turner

We haven't heard any details lately but it's also possible that Chase Hounshell could return for a 6th-year in 2016. With the loss of Luatua we imagine this is something that Notre Dame will try to make happen but who knows how the NCAA will rule on his case.

So, it's pretty easy to do the math right now. If you're taking Jones, Sebastian, and Daly as the only graduate players there is room, without taking into consideration any other attrition, for 2 more recruits in the 2016 class.

The Irish would likely add as many as 4 more recruits for a total of 26 in the class of 2016 and go over the 85-man limit until summer (which they did last year) but it's looking like this is not a realistic possibility given the status of the remaining prospects on the board.