But consider how much has changed since Muffet retired. Women's basketball went from "No NIL, and you can't make that much in the pros" to "You can make six and maybe touch seven figures in college if you're good, and now max players are getting seven-figure deals in the pros." That makes the value of the Notre Dame degree and network less of a big deal on its own.

Now if you can get paid a great amount AND get the ND degree and the ND network, that's awesome, but we need continued evidence the university is willing to pony up for it and not just try to coast off brand. Obviously they're spending some — you don't keep Hannah with big-time SEC overtures or bring in this recruiting class or some solid transfers if you're not — but look at what teams like Louisville, Duke, South Carolina, etc. are doing in the portal, keeping their talented cores and adding. If you want ND to be back at the 2010s level, ND has to match that. UConn is still flying high but a lot of the teams in the Final Fours during that time (Stanford, Mississippi State, Baylor, Maryland, etc.) aren't anything special, and Tennessee is an absolute mess. On the other side, Texas, UCLA and TCU decided to spend and now look at them. And God bless Muffet but she didn't exactly hand a perennial Final Four roster over to Ivey so that momentum was stunted even before you get into portal/NIL era realities.

If they keep most of this 2026 class for their sophomore year and beyond and continue to add talent, that will be a wonderful sign. If they don't, that would not make me feel good about the theory of "Notre Dame is really only spending on football and otherwise they'll coast on brand and a few bucks for the rest of the sports." I guess you could say all departures are an Ivey problem but I don't think you can hear Iyana Moore's comments or see how absolute lunatic competitors (compliment) like Hannah or Skylar feel about her and think there's something drastic missing.

And you shouldn't have to be the apologist for a really good coach! =) Highly recommend the Irish Alert newsletter, the writer is an alum who knows 10000x more about women's hoops than me. This was his last edition which I am leaning on:

Just to repeat: I think if the lesson learned this season in the Notre Dame athletics department and larger administration is, “Wow look, the team made the Elite Eight with a low budget! We don’t need to spend more!”, that is actively harmful to the operation here. The standard of this program is more than just barely squeaking its way past the Sweet 16 once every five or six years. The real lesson ought to be, “If Niele Ivey has proven she can coach an underfunded roster to the Elite Eight, imagine what she could do with a few years at competitive rates.” Notre Dame athletics has the sixth-highest valuation of any college athletics department in the country. You do not need to take money from other sports to give it to the women’s basketball team, just increase your operating expenses across the board and fund the program so it can be where it belongs, in the nation’s upper echelon.

Because I was seeing reports of her NIL value (demands?) north of $500k.

And maybe she is just a current known name in the spotlight but there appear to be many Notre Dame mentions and associations with her. What I don't know is if it's coming from connected sources or just wishful thinking because of her popularity.

But I also think Hannah coming back is at least anecdotal of some commitment level.

I still find it amazing that she ever returned at all, especially with all of the hindsight.