Notre Dame football GM Mike Martin: Staying nimble is key for NIL position value

Posted by author March 6, 2025 Football

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Mike Martin, formerly of the Detroit Lions, is Notre Dame’s new general manager.
Martin will help navigate the use of NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals in college football.
Martin believes in a flexible approach to valuing player positions based on team needs and the evolving landscape of college football.

SOUTH BEND — Newly hired Notre Dame football general manager Mike Martin is part of a growing trend of NFL front-office types making the move to the increasingly professionalized college game.

Formerly director of scouting advancement for the Detroit Lions, Martin shed light Thursday on his early-stage process for a variety of fronts, including how to assign positional value in the NIL world.

“I think we’ll be fluid there,” Martin said. “Every team, it’s a different situation. The team that we were last year won’t be where we are this year. And some of the ways we value positions, even that will change, and it changed year to year with Detroit.”

Working for a third-year head coach in Marcus Freeman, who comes from a defensive background and has sought to build the Irish program from the line of scrimmage out, Martin knows how important it is to stay nimble.

“I do think we have ‘how we like to play football,’ and that influences a lot of what we’ll look for,” Martin said. “Whether it’s offensive line or running backs, regardless of whatever position it is, I think we’re more principled in the type of player. Looking at it more, and I have obviously more research to do, I do think there will be areas that we’ll focus in on and there will be specific players that we’re looking for at those positions.”

The trick nowadays, of course, is stretching the de facto NIL salary cap that will emerge from the $20.5 million House Settlement ruling, expected April 7. The vast majority of that all-sports sum annually figures to go toward football at the Power Four level.

“I have some idea of that,” Martin said, “and I want to just continue to work through it.”

Martin spent the past four seasons in the Lions’ scouting and personnel department, helping GM Brad Holmes build an NFC North powerhouse that went a combined 27-7 the past two regular seasons.

That included a heavy dose of time with the Lions’ analytics and sports science departments.

“I got to work closely with analytics back in Detroit,” he said. “We called it our football information department. We did a lot just in terms of trying to use numbers to identify statistical standouts to try to help us narrow down lists and using them as identifiers of talent.”

Martin, whose hiring was formally approved Feb. 27, has been meeting daily Notre Dame football’s director of analytics, Anthony Treash, who joined the program last summer.

“He’s awesome,” Martin said. “We’ve already put our heads together on some things and I look forward to continuing to work with him.”

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.